It was a very rainy day in Myslowice, Poland at the World Tour Futures event (the third tier of international competition) in early August. This was my first time at an event with Issa and Fred for over 18 months as BVF had funded me to be there. The weather was miserable, but hid under an umbrella at the back of the court it was clear to see how far we had come in the year but also how far we had to go.
We lost to a very good Lithuanian side for 5th and for us, that was another result that hit the performance target for the season but a loss against the team that went on to cruise that tournament.
The day after was free and we decided to try to make a plan for the next 12 weeks, the boys having made 2 futures medals and a bunch of 5ths had hit their goals for the season. It was still raining and we didn’t fancy getting wet watching volleyball for the 30th time that week, so we decided to bring forward the meeting.
Looking at the calendar we knew there would be a group of Challenger events at the end of the season and potentially an Elite 16 in South Africa, although at that time it was doubtful that we would get into the qualification for that, due to entry points. The aim for 2022-23 is to be a Main Draw Challenger team, we also knew a 9th would be a significant result for us in that calibre of event and we all agreed that if we identified what we needed to change to become a main draw team, were open to the changes, were patient with processes then we would have half a chance. We also stated that we wanted to start to take some scalps from the top 40 teams in the world.
The list of things we were willing to change was fairly long, and some of these things are still not consistent but the boys had to be willing to change something in every phase of their game. Serving, blocking, defence, sideout, how we dealt with free balls, how we play in transition and most of all how we were functioning as a team in lots of different situations.
We had created what I called a big shell for us to grow into, now we had to try and fill it. The issue is when you try and make so many adjustments, it can go backwards before it goes forwards and we were quite quick to address that elephant in the room. We recognised that we would need to be patient, even though time was limited. The other thing we were very aware of is burnout, the boys season started in January and here I was in August asking them if they could go all in for 10-12 weeks at the back end of the season.
We were really lucky to have 2/3 weeks at home to train and then a real nice competitive trio of events. The Swiss tour is one of the best national tours in Europe, straight after we would have a futures in Poland and then King Of The Court European Championships in Utrecht, a fast paced intense and exciting modified form of the sport, where we were in the qualifiers. The time at home gave chance for Nick Morris to come in and help with psychology and we could grow the team around us with more assistants coaches / training partners.
The hope was that after those events, we would start to see the changes we wanted and everything in-between would see us play well in the style we wanted for phases of play, then hopefully we would get some results as well. We also still continue to know that the only way we grow is to get our playing shorts in the wash as often as we can.
The Swiss tour was great for us, first game was up against two players who had medalled at Challenger Level and the perfect chance to measure our game - the boys started well but they beat us, we didn’t have the consistency. We made it to the quarter finals and we learnt some valuable lessons on the way about our mentality. In the quarter finals we played a brilliant team from the Ukraine who have since gone on to win medals at Challenger level and are now an E16 MD team. We started slow, we finished slow. The in-between was some of our best volleyball to date.
The next chance to compete would be in Warsaw the following the week at the futures event. For the first time we a took one of the top seeding spots due to previously good results. We all fancied our chances but we failed to perform in the opening match against Oman. Maybe we had tried to change too much? We improved in performances but ended up taking 9th after losing in three to a great young team from Norway, who went on to win the event. This was probably the most testing time of this period. Results had gone from 3rds - 9th and if you looked purely the outcome, it would cause obvious frustration. but they stuck at it.
The next week saw us play King Of The Court, an event that I would also be at as a commentator. The format of this game excited me mostly due to the fact that it would force us to move out of our comfort zone but also force to walk to towards pressure and play with more intensity and aggression, two of the million things we had highlighted when we had planned for the 3 months ,and those who have ever coached, you will know it is nice when the situation does the talking for you.
It’s hard to explain this story, but its probably worth a mention. You don’t want to peak too early at King Of Court, there are 5 teams playing 3 x 15 minute rounds and in the first round of qualification you just didn’t want to finish last in the first round as you’d be eliminated, last in the second round would be head to a second qualifying round.
We had trained well and spoken at depth about how to play the clock and had agreed that if we had scored enough points early in the rounds, we could take it easy, conserve energy that we could use in Rounds 2 and 3. We started really well, playing the systems we wanted too, we made 6 or 7 points at the Kings end, we ended up making 16 points in a row and then gassing out the second round, having to go through the second round of qualification route. Much to our frustration but also amusement.
We had another qualification group of 5 teams, only one team would qualify and we literally took that spot on the buzzer of the final round at the expense of our Czech friends, for me anyway that would be a pivotal point of their season. We managed to make the 1/4 finals, playing on a big stage against some of the best teams in the world, testing a lot of their concepts on the way.
That performance grew the motivation and commitment to their goals and systems. The next few weeks would be a tough period at home training. The ‘All In’ mentality was there not only from us but also Dave Panah and Matt Bobowski who helped us train. I think it was the toughest phase of training and we managed to fix some things quickly, as well as to identify some interventions needed at key times of games, I don’t feel we nailed everything, but we tried to have an answer for most things that would come our way. A lot of the things we had spoken about at the start of this block were getting better though.
The boys went to train with Czech before having Challenger events in Maldives, two in Dubai and then we were confident that we would get into the Qualifier in South Africa.
Before, the boys decided that a 9th in a Challenger was their main goal and they wanted to qualify for two main draws out of the three. Not easy as there are so many good teams, but achievable. We knew that South Africa would be a free hit.
Maldives was a perfect start to that, it had a quiet qualifier but a strong main draw, it meant we had to play Japan to get in, they did that and went on to beat a strong Italian team in the first game of the main draw, sticking to a lot of our principles and systems. I actually felt that we took a step back in our performance after that win. Kirk Pitman, the new Performance Director at VE said that this could happen after a big victory. we did address it before and after the other games in the Maldives, but now we were competing at that level, it showed us how competitive we could be. The good news was that a 9th was our goal, and the best result for an England Men’s team ever. We had secured that by working as a team better than ever before.
Dubai was interesting, Instantly the boys were open to change and they were quick to identify what they needed to work on. One of the thing that I like about them is that they are quick to learn and are not scared to put it into action. Training throughout Dubai was the best level we had consistently brought, and credit to them, their level had increased since August.
A full world class qualifier in Dubai was perfect for the team to learn and grow, qualifier volleyball hits differently and there are no easy games. We still want to play as many games as possible under pressure, not really worrying too much about the results or world ranking points. As great as the preparation was, the performance in that opening game against Germany wasn’t there, we lost after taking the first set to 10 or 11, but we had another shot and were straight back into training the following day.
The next week we also trained as well as I had seen. The principles, changes and attitude were completely different to when the boys were in Poland 3 months earlier, we were all excited to go again. We drew the same German team putting in a great performance and beating them 2-0. Unfortunately we couldn’t put in the same performance against Spain in the second round and fell 2-0. This loss was different though, we had performed with the mindset we had wanted too, just not quite been patient enough or worked together well enough. It was big progress but there still lots of room to improve.
Leaving Dubai, we knew that we were building great performances and our parting words were that the best performance of the season was still to come, If they could transfer the processes, performances and the quality from the training court and even though we hadn’t got the results in Dubai everything was very very positive, there just needed to be a little more tweaking.
South Africa in the Elite 16 meant two tough games to qualify but the good news was that we had the last two weeks to lean on and learn from. The first game against Switzerland was the best performance of the season in my eyes. The second against the AVP Champions was even better to qualify for the main draw. A win against Austria, another top 20 team in the world was another big step in the right direction and although we didn’t win, the chance to learn lessons against Australia was vital for our development.
In our final game against the Netherlands I felt that we managed to show the brand of Beach Volleyball we wanted to against the World Champions and Olympic Bronze Medalists and one of the best teams ever. Showing that we can compete at that level.
12 weeks ago in Poland seems like a long time ago but also like yesterday, their commitment to the bigger picture, long term goals and developing patience in multiple way’s has been rewarded, now their job is to make that level consistent, they know they have it in them. They have accomplished more than they set out for12 weeks ago.
As we always say though, it does take a village. The last 12 weeks especially. Thanks from my end to Nick Morris, Emma Kavangh, Kirk Pitman, Dave Panah, Matt Bobowski, Dan Boer and Soph Busfield and of course the team at BVF and Volleyball England who make everything possible.
Photo credit Daisy Mumby