We came home and started to prepare for Beijing, the first Grand Slam event of 2011.  Arriving early was important in order to deal with the 12 hour time change.  We had 5 days in the Chinese capital to get used to the heat, the time zone and to play a few matches against other teams that arived early.  The night before the qualifier we learned that in order to qualify for the main draw, we would need to beat one fairly regular main draw team and then another team that has been a solid main draw team for about three years including one podium finish.  We were excited!!

The next morning we showed up ready to compete and dominated our Swiss opponents.  In the afternoon under the scorching Beijing heat we battled a hungry and expectant French team and took the first set 21-19.  The second set went back and forth all the way up to 30-30 when Josh dug a line shot off my block with precision up to the net where I was able to turn and spike it down to give us a 31-30.  The next play was the winner with my line block on the right sider.  Main Draw Grand Slam!!!
Our work begins again tomorrow…
The next day we found ourselves in a pool (Grand Slams organize the main draw teams into 8 pools of 4 teams) with the same Brazilian team that we drew in Prague, Latvia who has been on the podium in the last year and the top Swiss team who finished Beijing on the podium.  We were unable to beat any of our opponents during the course of the next two days and had to settle for knock-off shopping at the Beijing market.
Like every team, we have had some ups and downs over the past month.  The important piece for us to pay attention to is the fact that we are slowly moving further into the tournaments and in the direction of better and better results.
Untill now we have played in 4 tournaments.  In succession, our results have been; 41st, 33rd, 25th, and 25th in a Grand Slam.
Next is Norway. 
Lets pack our viking attitude with us on this journey…
Take care and look for me again.

So, what’s the difference between 2009 and 2010?  Whereas in 2009 we were winning the 16-14 games in the 3rd set, in 2010 we are losing in those moments.  Is that luck?  Nope!  In 2009 we had nothing to lose.  We were excited to be in the main draw or even the qualifier to have an opportunity to play.  Our belief slowly built up during our 3rd week and we truly expected to win in those situations because we just knew that we were ready and able to score in the tight situations.  As Henry Ford said, “If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” 
2009 began with some tight losses that we fully believed we were going to win.  This may have been the catalyst.  Our belief in our side out started to slide and, naturally, so did our game.  It’s been literally up and down moments of belief and lack of belief in our game that has typified our season.  Once again, insert Mr. Ford’s quote.

So, how do we get it back?
Well, it has been “back”.  Last week we played a nearly flawless match against Brazil and won 2-0.  They went on to lose in a close match to go to the semi finals while we finished 17th. So, it was “back” and then it was gone.  We also played great beating a top German team, but failed to win our match to advance further in our 17th place Moscow result. 

Our task now is to live into the learning that we our doing with our sport psychologist, JP Pawliw-Fry.  To not only be attentive to our job in each moment on the court, but to be attentive to our thinking when we are off the court.  Off the court is the real work because this is when we spend the most time building our belief or lack of belief in our game. We know we are good enough, we’ve proven it.  Now, its believing we will do it again!

We play tomorrow in the qualifier in Aland, Finland. 
Another opportunity to do what I love!