Double Digits

I arrived at the court early to watch the mini-tournament kick-off match between the "A" champions and "B" champions. I grabbed a spot on the bleachers and had to smile as both teams ran through their hitting drills. Every set was near perfect and nearly every hit was a rocket to the hardwood. Man, were we going to get killed.

The A team dispatched the B team in two pretty quick games, and then it was our turn. Our main goal, besides just having fun of course, was to get a double-digit score and get through the rotation at least once. We did make it through the rotation plus two spots, but we only got 8 points in the first game. In the second game, they eased up and gave their women lots of practice hitting, and we managed to get to fourteen or fifteen points before they dealt the deathblow. Woo hoo! Double digits!

So, tonight we face the B squad in the first game. Hopefully we'll hold them off a little better, but it's still pretty much a foregone conclusion that we'll be watching the overall championship game rather than participating.

I'm not sure why the city holds an "overall championship tournament". You don't see minor league baseball champions facing the Yankees. They don't run the best cat 4 cyclists up against Hincapie for the national championship. My team playing the city's best A team is fun for me because of the personal challenge and the experience of watching a good team run a good offense. It has to be pretty unsatisfying for them to go through the motions of beating up on us, and it's anti-climactic for us to follow up a hard-fought and exciting championship win with two arse-whoopings.

The main thing I'm getting out of playing these teams is the knowledge of what I need to do to play at their level. The biggest thing I need to do is to gain about ten to fifteen pounds of muscle above the waist and to train the fast twitchers in my legs more to get a few more inches of air. So we'll see what happens. Do I fall back into large volumes of cycling for the summer and maintain my aerobic wispiness, or do I hit the gym to pack on some muscle and go into the fall crushing the volleyball?