AAU's Is Coming!
AAU has released the fields for this summer's National Championship! Click here to download the PDF. All fields contain nationally competitive teams, teams familiar to us from the qualifier season, and teams new to us this season. As usual, it will be a fun and competitive event for all!
If you are looking for information about the tournament, visit AAU's website here. Look for more updates about the trip in future issues of the newsletter.
Front Range Banquet
Spring has sprung and it is time to start thinking about the 2008 Front Range Banquet. Remember that your team reps are a great source of information for this event. Also, be sure to visit the Banquet page (http://www.frvbc.com/club/banquet2008.html) on our website for details.
Senior Signing
Congratulations to 17 Silver's Erika Price for her recent signing. Jennifer, a senior at Dakota Ridge High School, has committed to play volleyball for Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. The Bulldogs compete in the NCAA Division I Missouri Valley Conference, which sent four teams to the NCAA tournament in 2007. Drake is an outstanding academic institution and we wish you the best of luck as you continue your volleyball career and education!
Ammerman Speaks On Boys High School Volleyball
Dalton Ammerman, a member of the Front Range boys team and son of coach Brett Ammerman, appeared recently in a feature about CHSAA's reticence to sanction boys volleyball as a recognized sport with a state championship. Read the article here.
Getting The Most Out Of Yourself
by Tim Engels, M.A., sports psychology consultant to Front Range Volleyball Club
As I sit at my computer writing this, I look out my window to watch the snow falling on the green grass, tulips, iris and lilacs in our back yard. The flowers on the fruit trees have already fallen off and green leaves are sprouting. The snow, clouds and temperature make it look like February, yet the flowers demonstrate that spring is in the full bloom of mid-May.
Just when it seems that spring and summer weather are here to stay, another winter storm comes along, soon to be followed by 80-degree weather on Saturday. Weather cycles; the one thing you can depend on is that the weather will be changing.
Just a few weeks ago, Front Range teams were vying for bids to JO's during the qualifying season. Now you're all working hard again, honing basic skills, learning new tactics, vying for starting positions on your teams as you head to AAU's and JO's in a few more weeks. The cycles of the club volleyball season; the one thing you can depend on at Front Range is that there's more work to be done to become an even better player than you now are.
At Front Range, you are encountering what we call the Breakthrough Model, and you go through the wave several times each season. It can feel pretty uncomfortable to go through it, especially if you don't understand where it's taking you. It's taking you on the journey of becoming an ever-better player. Here's how.
The Breakthrough Model takes you through a four stage process that repeats as long as you are striving to improve as a volleyball player. The stages include 1) unconscious competence, 2) conscious incompetence, 3) conscious competence, and 4) breakthrough.
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Unconscious competence - a pretty comfortable place where you trust the skill you bring to the court, and you don't have to think about executing, you just react.
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Conscious incompetence - a very uncomfortable place where you've determined that the skill as it exists isn't good enough to get you where you want to go and you become very aware of how it doesn't work. Worse, the new technique you're learning feels very awkward and you are wondering if you just made a big mistake in trying to change.
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Conscious competence - a less uncomfortable place where you begin to see some good results from the change you're making. The results are still inconsistent, and it's hard to have to think so much about doing something that used to feel very natural.
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Breakthrough - an exciting place where you're consistently getting better results than ever using a new technique that now feels comfortable and natural.
As you enter this final stage of this season, your coach is taking you from stage one (a great place to be for the Qualifiers) to stage 2, an important stage now because you need to be even better as individuals and teams to be successful in the competition you'll be facing at AAU's and JO's. If all goes well, you'll be at stage 4 when the tournaments begin. Appreciate the ride, knowing that the discomfort you're feeling now is taking you where you want to go.
And Now For Something Completely Different...
Remember that camp information is now available online here. See the camp calendar here.
May and June calendars are available online now.
