Results from Kampprogram Elitestævnet 2008.

Recap: The tourni was a good eye opener of the volleyball here in Denmark and in the Scandinavian countries.

Friday September 19th
Lycurgus (Holland) vs MVK - 3-2 loss
The first game against Lycurgus we were playing against Jasmin Cull, who went to Mohawk in Hamilton who I know a bunch of you know. They were very impressive in warmup and the first two sets. I did not have a very strong game and got pulled after the second set. In the third we regrouped and played what i think was the best volleyball we played all weekend. We won the next two but ended up bowing out in the 5th.

Saturday September 20th
Orkeljunga (Sweden) vs MVK - 3-1 win
This game was against Andrew Bonner, a guy from Ontario but was teammates with Matt on his team at UBC. We started off a little bit slow, but came back and won in 4. I did not start however i came in as a blocking sub.

Skovbakken vs MVK - 3-2 win
This team is in our league and is the young team that we played a few weeks ago in a training match. I started and had a reletively effective game. They started playing some intense defence which started frustrating our hittings and we got down 2-1. We pushed through as we knew if we lost the game we would not make the semis.
Sunday September 21st
Semis- Marienlyst vs MVK - 3-1 loss
Marienlyst is big rival for us as they are in our league and they are very good. They run alot of their offense through Sean Powell, who is from Scarborough but went to school in the states at George Mason. We came out firing and won the first set 25-9. The second set was a tight battle and we had them on the ropes 24-21, but couldn't close out and lost 30-28. We had missed our chance to strike when they were down. Missed opportunity! Good thing it's early in the season! Again, I came in as a blocking sub.

Bronze - Gentoftke vs MVK - 3-1 win
With 6 matches in 4 days and 25 sets under our belt, the legs were starting to get a little tired. But we needed to gear up for one last match. Gentoftke is another team in our league and another rival. I started the match and again played well offensively. After a 1-1 split we took control of the match and closed it out.

For the team, the tourni was a good way to see where we are. There were moments of brilliance that are encouraging of where we can be as a team in the future. The goal is just to have that brilliance shine through more often

Personally, I was a little frustrated with my passing on the weekend. It wasn't my offence that was keeping me off the court but my passing, which is a switch from what i'm used to. My focus is now to be the passer that i've always thought in my head that i was! More training is all i can do now!
Tourniment Champion: Lycurgus (Holland)

Some Scenic pics courtesy of Matt

I figured more pictures of Middelfart would be good!

Right downtown on the waterfront

Boat on the water! Seems to be true!

Our team room, well part of it!

The Main Street in Middelfart

The Church

The Harbour

Typical Houses in Denmark

Polko Cup Pre Quarters

Thursday, Sept 18th we left for Copenhagen to play in the Polko Cup PreQuarter finals. There are three things that you try to win in the Danish league: the cup, the regular season, and the playoffs. The regular season and playoffs are pretty self explanatory, but the cup is a single elimination tournament that with the pre quarters in september, the quarters in November, the semis in December and the finals in January. The team was pretty inexperienced and we beat them quite handly 3-0. I personally played quite well and Scott and I were in pretty good rythim. The really neat thing was the gym we played in. It was a very very old building that they transformed into a gym and completely modernized it. (i'll put up pics soon). The two teams that we were supposed to meet in the quarters withdrew from the tournament so we have a bye into the semis.
Stats:
11Kills, 1 Error, 17 Times attacking

Team Pic after win in Copenhagen

Back row (L-R): Jacob Peterson (manager), Peter [Denmark], Soren[Denmark], Bryan[Denmark], Matt [Canada], Ulrig[Denmark], Mizuno (Coach) [Japan]
Front row (L-R): Me[Canada], Scott[Canada], Brage [Norway], Bo [Denmark], George [Brazil]

details and pics to follow about game

Germany and Training match vs Arhus

I've added the schedule for the nordic championship. It's not until the end of October however it was supposed to be in Odense (about an hour away) but for some reason its switched to Norway! Pretty happy about a trip to Norway! We play the number 1 and number 2 Norwegian teams, and if we win those two matches we go on to either Sweden or Finland.

Germany!

We had the day off on Saturday so Scott, Matt and I decided it would be a good idea to drive to Germany and pick up some beer.

In Denmark, beer is a little less expensive then in Canada but reletively the same. However, a quick hour drive to Germany and you get to these special border shops that are especially for the Danish. Here you can get 3 two-fours for 20 dollars Canadian! Aside from that there is cheap candy, pop and wine. We also got 3 boxes of 1.5 ltr wine for 20 dollars! What a great place. The funny thing about Denmark and Germany is that Coca-Cola is more expensive then beer. It's soo expensive. In Denmark, at the grocery store, 2litres of Coke is about 5 dollars.


Anyways, we got the team car (we have a car just for the players to use) around 2 and drove along the highway for about an hour til we crossed the border. Everyone drives really fast! You gotta keep it around 140km/hr to stay with traffic, I really like it! We got a little lost and found a store by driving around a little bit. In total, I think we bought about 15 cases + wine+ hard liquor. Yea i'm in training for volleyball!

Arhus

On Sunday we had our final training match in Arhus. It was about an hour away and the second largest city in Denmark. The gym wasn't too bad as you can see-much better than the concrete of Marienlyst. The team was quite young, or atleast they seemed much younger than us. We won the first 3 sets pretty handly. They won the next and we won the 5th. THEN, Mizuno (our coach) asked if we could play a 6th! Thats alot of volleyball! I think they beat us 25-17, we really weren't into it very much! Oh well, the rhythim felt pretty good and I felt like I has a pretty good game offensively. We're still getting used to each other in serve receive but offensively we seem to be connecting better.

Stats 19Kills, 3 errors, 28 times attacking, 3 aces

Nordic Championship

Nordic Club Championships 2008/2009
Nordic Club Championships, in this modern version, was formed in 2007.
First year, 7 men´s teams and 9 women´s competed. Loimu (men) and Salon Viesti (women) from Finland won the two championships.

This year 23 teams are playing.

Go to MEN competition 2008/2009
Go to WOMEN competition 2008/2009

Information about the rules/regulations
Organiser pay for hotel, three meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) and local transports. Visiting team pay their own travel to competition city.

In case of 4 teams in a group, 2 matches should be played on Friday 2 matches should be played on Saturday 2 matches should be played on Sunday
The teams that travel the longest way should play the last match on Friday and the first match on Sunday to have the opportunity to travel on Friday and Sunday.

In case of 3 teams in a group, 1 match should be played on Friday 1 match should be played on Saturday 1 match should be played on Sunday
The teams that travel the longest way should play on Saturday and Sunday if no other information is exchanged.
MeetingsPreliminary inquiry and technical meeting will be held on the same day as the first matches.

Organisers
Teams who wish to organise the Final have to apply latest 1 week after the First Round.

Aims and purposes
- To promote the development of volleyball in Nordic countries- To promote the cooperation between the Volleyball Federations of NEVZA and other countries and clubs.
- To organize professional top volleyball tournament in Nordic Europe.
- To prepare club teams for participating in European Cup Competitions.


Committee:In the committe there are 4 members from SWE, FIN, DEN and NOR.SWE: Torbjörn Johansson, torbjorn.johansson@volleyboll.se FIN: Jouni Oksanen, oksanenjouni@hotmail.com DEN: Sven Brix, svb@volleyball.dk NOR: Geir Opseth, Geir@fvbk.no
Publicerad: 2008-09-10
Kontaktperson: Torbjörn Johansson
Skriv ut


Men 2008-2009
The group stage will be played on 31st of October - 2nd of November.
Group 1
Förde* organiser NOR
Middelfart, DEN
Nyborg, NOR

Group 2
Marienlyst* organiser DEN
Vingåker, SWE
Throttur, ICE
Aalborg, DEN

Group 3
Gentofte* organiser DEN
Kristiansund
Stjarnan
Falkenberg

Winner of groups together with the best runner-up advance to the final.
The final will be played 30th of January - 1st of February.The organiser will be selected one week after completing the group stage.
Publicerad: 2008-09-10
Kontaktperson: Torbjörn Johansson
Skriv ut

Some new pics

The New Bridge (6 lanes)

Beach Court on the waterfront (Don't hit a ball too long or it's in the water!)
Walking Street in Middelfart
The Only Disco in town!

Our playing gym- Hal A

Hal B- a training hall

Hal C- Another training gym (bouncy floor!)

Workout Gym

Cardio Area

First Training Match at Marinlyst

I've been getting pretty excited for our first match. Today wasn't really a match, but it was good practice. A lot of the time, we are short guys and it's tough to have competitive 6 on 6 at practice right now. Marinlyst is in Odensa which is about a 45 mins drive away down the highway. Odensa has about 130,000 people so it's quite a bit larger than Middelfart's 16,000!
So after the drive, we pull up to what looks to me like a barn! It is red, and it appears as though a flee market is going on; people are buying things and selling old things. Just to the right is the gym, we walk in and the first thing i notice is the concrete floor that apparently we're going to be playing on. As I walked in the gym, I could feel the pain in my knees start just in anticipation of how much I'm going to hurt. As you may know, concrete has very little give so landing on it really hurts your joints.
Anyways, I got over it and we did our warm up and started the game. Rhythm was there right away and we got out to a quick lead. I didn't actually know we were keeping score until halfway through the second game! Anyways we won, the first 3 sets, they were tight, especially the 3rd set i think it was 29-27. They ended up winning the next two sets so i'm sure it will be a battle all season. They have some good pieces and it's really a high level of volleyball that we're playing. Both teams missed more than their share of serves, and serve receive was a little shakey by both, but you can see how both sides can be pretty effective.
Memorable moments were my first career point as a professional athlete, first career set win and first career match win. Although it was only exhibition, it was a great display of where we are and where we can be. Mizuno said that he was pleased with how we performed. I should be able to post some more pictures soon

STATS:
12Kills 2 Errors 23Times Attacking

My New House

I'm living with Frank and Maria, who are very nice and welcoming. They both speak english fluently so it makes it easy to communicate. When I first

walked into the place I was pretty astounded by how nice it is. It is small and cozy, but decorated very modernly. I live in the basement with Bo, the libero on the team. My room is a good size and i've got pictures plastered all over the wall and my projector for tv on the wall.

The house is about a 10 mins walk or 3 mins bike ride from the gym. And its about the same from downtown, but the other way.

I've started coaching a U15 girls team here. They're going to be very good. It's funny as they are alot better than 15 year old Canadian girls at some skills, but some of the skills that are ingrained at a young age in Canada are missing in many of them. Either way they seem to be excited to learn. I've been showing them a lot of new drills and they're helping me learn Danish! Each practice they teach me a new word or phrase, such as how to count to two(en, toer) and see you later (vi ses). I can't wait for next practice! Last night after practice, the president of the club came up to me and commended me on how well i'm doing coaching them, and that they are responding well to me! Pretty good compliment from the Pres!

Finally, we had an American trying out for our team. He was on the Bring it USA tour, which means they fly over and travel around trying to get a team to sign them. He was a left side and pretty good. He trained with us Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, and after the Tuesday night practice our coach just said that he was leaving. It seemed like nothing to them, but in an essence it ended his pro career with our team. What a difference from university, really if you don't have the exact skills that they are looking for then they are not going to sign you and pay you. Its really expensive for the clubs to get foreign players and they know exactly what they're looking for. Too bad, it would have been nice to have the American on our team, but such is the way.

Game Schedule for 2008

September
Sunday 7 - Training match at Marinlyst - 1430
Sunday 14 - Training match at Arhue - 1200
Thursday 18 - Cup Pokal in Copenhagen, Frederiksberg - 1830
Friday 19-----\
Saturday 20 Elitestaevne 2008- Middelfart Tourni (Schedule to follow)
Sunday 21----/
Saturday 27 - 1. at Marienlyst- 1515

October
Saturday 4 - 2. vs Skovbakken - 1400
Saturday 11 - 3. at Alborg - 1600
Sunday 26 - 4. vs Gentofte
Friday 31----\

November
Saturday 1 - Nordic Championship, Odense (Schedule to follow)
Sunday 2 -----/
Saturday 8 - 5. at Ikast SKF - 1430
Sunday 16 - 6. at Holte - 1600
Friday 21 - 7. vs Marienlyst - 1930
Friday 28 - 8. at Skovbakken Arhus - 2000

December
Thursday 4 - 9. vs Alborg - 1945
Wednesday 10- Cup Pokal week begins.

more to follow for 2009