As Lynne Beattie, the GB Women’s Team Captain, prepares for the grandest moment of her Volleyball career, and perhaps her life, she will share her journey with us in a blog series, detailing what her life is like as a professional volleyball player and a key member of the GB Women’s Volleyball Team preparing for the London 2012 Olympic Games…
Blog Entry 1: Living The Dream…
2012 is…a Leap year. 2012 is the year of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II and it is also said to be the year that the world is supposed to end, according to the Mayan calendar and John Cusack’s 2009 blockbuster movie ’2012′. Oh yeah and another small matter of the London 2012 Olympic Games!!
Lynne Beattie - GB Captain
For me, with the London Olympic Games on the Horizon, 2012 is set up to be the biggest year of my life so far. It is the year that me and my fellow GB teammates have committed our lives to for the past 6 years and its’ the year that will see British Volleyball make history with the first ever British representation in the Indoor Volleyball event. So now, with the New Year well and truly underway, I wanted to share with you my experiences and ultimately my journey on the road to living my dream at London 2012 this summer.
As I write my opening entry, I am struggling to decide where to begin, as there is so much to tell.
With the image of facing the likes of USA’s Logan Tom, Russia’s Ekaterina Gamova and Brazil’s Sheila through the net, never too far away from my thoughts, where better to begin than the Olympic Volleyball Test Event, Earls Court, London, July 2011…
Prior to the test event, I had seen Earls Court once before, but only from the outside. I had of course wondered what it would be like inside. How big would it be? How high was the ceiling? How many people can it hold? What will the changing rooms be like? Despite all this time imagining the Olympic Venue, nothing could have prepared me for the enormity that was Earls Court.
As we arrived at Earls Court Tube station for our first match against Japan (currently ranked 3rd in the world), exactly a year to the day before our first game at the Olympics, there was an excited silence amongst us. No one uttered a word, but you could feel the excitement rise as we marched from the tube to the venue. Through the dirty and slightly obscured tube station window, the huge Earls Court sign emerged in the distance. Everyone appeared to speed up, as the anticipation of what lay behind the sign grew too much.
Earls Court Olympic Volleyball Arena
Everything was organized down to a tee. Security was there to meet us at the athlete’s entrance and as we breached the grand entrance of Earls Court for the very first time, but indeed not the last… there it was!!!
We were greeted by the event staff and shown to our exclusive changing room, which, from the outside resembled a Portakabin, but from the inside, slightly more luxurious! The changing rooms were situated beside the 2 side by side warm up courts with blindingly bright lights and pristine white walls, but it was what lay beyond the practice courts that interested me most…the Olympic Match Court. From a first glance it looked almost magical. Some may say a volleyball court is a volleyball court, but what stood before us was breathtaking. The court looked tiny in the enormous arena that was Earls Court. The ceiling appeared to stretch as high as outer space and the lights were so bright that it felt like you were under a spotlight. I immediately started imagining it full of people, with thousands of home supporters waving the Union Jack.
Earls Court - Olympic Volleyball Test Event
This was the moment my dream came to life. There was no longer 6 years to go…there was exactly one year to go, 366 days to be exact. For a moment I was in a fairytale, but only for a moment. This was game day and I had a match to prepare for…so back to the changing rooms and back to business. First up Japan. World Ranking…3!
Leading the team out onto court I could feel a huge surge of excitement. One half of my brain was telling me that I was excited, the other half of my brain was calming the other side down and telling it that its just another game of volleyball. This is fortunately the side that conquered (our sports psych’s have worked wonders); otherwise I could have been in trouble!!
Prior to this moment, the prospect of facing Takeshita through the net was slightly surreal, but there, face to face, with only a net separating us, it didn’t even register that it was her. It was just us, against them. We took to the occasion like a fish to water. Point for point we competed against a team known for their flare and precision. We traded points, making defensive pick-ups and executing offensive combinations that they would have been proud of. We were in a game and we were having the time of our lives.
Grace carter scores v Holland's Chaine Staelens
A 3-0 loss is never a result you are happy with, but we could be very proud of our performance. Against 3rd in the world we sure put up a good fight, making them think about us as a team to look out for in one years time!
Next up…Holland. Holland is a team equally as admirable, with a world ranking of 12th, but a completely different physical profile to that of Japan. In contrast to the speed and flare of Japan, stood the towering height and power of Holland.
Click the link below to enjoy a highlights video of our matches at the Olympic Test Event. It will allow you to see for yourselves exactly how every aspect of our game stood up to the challenge that both Japan and Holland presented us with…ENJOY!
http://gbwomensvolleyball.co.uk/2011/08/japan-netherlands-earls-court-2011-match-footage/
This tournament was not about getting results against these teams…although we believed we could. It was a dress rehearsal, with the opportunity to taste the venue, the protocols and the level of volleyball required to compete with the best teams in the world. It was about testing our own unique style of play against two very different opponents.
GB Women's Volleyball Team
This year is all about the results. We now know we can compete with the best, this year is all about the fine-tuning required to beat them. This fine-tuning is now taking place all over Europe as we all compete in our respective leagues, training day in day out, making every touch of the ball count in order to be the best we can be come summer 2012.
As an individual, I know I can score against a towering block, pass the best serves in the world and defend the hardest attacks in the world. It’s about doing it under pressure on the world’s largest sporting stage, time and time again from the first point of a match to the last.
Lynne Beattie with her team in Las Palmas
That is why I am here, in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, competing in the Spanish Superliga, training twice a day every day to make sure i am in the squad of 12 to compete at London 2012. I want to be the best player I can possibly be come 28th July 2012. The opportunity to compete week in week out at such a high level, exposes me to similar challenges that I will be up against this summer. The more I am exposed to these challenges, the better a player I become, and the better the team will be as a result.
At the half way point in my season, I have established myself as an important player for my team, CV Playa de Las Canteras. We are currently sitting in second place in the league standings and in contention for a top 4 play-off position.
I intend to let you know more in my next blog about my life out here as a professional volleyball player, as my road to Earls Court 2012 unwinds, but for now all I can say is good volleyball, guaranteed sunshine, and friendly people are not such a bad combination.
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