Episode #15 - Q&A #3

In this question episode we discuss the power of the birth order and the psychology of getting yourself out of a rut. We talk about the gap between Team Canada and Team France during the Olympics and how big a role a single error can play in a team’s success. Lastly, we emphasize the importance of learning from those bad games - or even the games you were on the bench - and how that perspective can greatly change the trajectory of your career.

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Transcript

Mathias 0:00

Here's a strange thought that I'm going to try to explain, but I don't know if I'll be able to do it

Jesse 0:05

That's my favorite quote of all time. I almost got a rose tattoo because of it

0:09

Hello and welcome to the Pit the Pro podcast. Jesse, Matthias, and Aaron Elson. This podcast is meant to guide young athletes on their journey to high performance. Join us as we share our first hand experiences in an effort to help you reach your own valuable goals.

Mathias 0:25

And we're live. Welcome back everyone to the Pit to Pro podcast. This is episode number 15. Today we are doing another question episode. So we're going through some of the questions we've got from you guys. Thank you for those. And, uh, yeah, let's get it started. What do we got first here, Jess?

Jesse 0:46

Well, first question, Oog has to leave us. Unfortunately, he's got to harvest, right? Harvest my fields. Oh yeah. He's got to tend his fields. Um, so he's gonna leave us halfway through, but this is a good one, Oog. I think you can start us off here. Uh, it's from A. D. Gamache, Jeff Gamache and his daughter, Emma, Um, he was our athletic director at Trinity. Anyways, their question is what? If anything, do you think birth order has to play in an athlete's development?

Oog 1:16

Oh, I really like this one. Um, I definitely think there's like a, there's something to it because as a younger, a younger sibling, I'm always trying to catch up to you guys. And I think that there's like an innate push to like get to where you guys are at. Like, even when we were younger, you guys would be doing something like riding bikes downstairs. And I would be, I don't know, have training wheels on and I'd be like, all right, well, mom, we're going down the stairs with my training wheels on. and I think that there is some, some push behind you. That's like, keep up. I also think it's, this is a biased experience, but I think it's easier as say a middle child, because you're at that level, you're in that older group. But you also don't have to break trail.

Jesse 2:20

Yeah, I mean, I think, I think I can think of multiple siblings where the middle child always becomes the best, So I think there's for sure a huge role that birth order plays in development because you're learning from yourself and from your older siblings. And I think watching is one of. Like the greatest teachers. And if you're younger and you can't stay at home by yourself, your parents are going to drag you to your older siblings, sport events, and you're watching. And even if you're not watching, watching, you're probably on the sideline playing with a ball or a soccer field, kicking a ball. Or you're always playing. There's always opportunity to play and learn and watch. So I think birth order is super important. What do you think

Mathias 3:02

T? I would agree. I think growing up, it was amazing to have Jesse ahead of me in his journey It was inspirational to see someone performing at that level. And same as Oogai, I really wanted to get there. This wasn't a conscious decision I made, but I didn't ever compare myself to Jesse necessarily, but it was just like a cool symbol of where I wanted to get to. And I wanted to be a part of those teams that Jesse was on, like Junior National Team or Team Alberta. And a big one, is when we all went to the NEP. And I think that was a big one. Birth order played a huge role in because Jesse was the first high school student ever to go train there. And things were not set up well for him. He was doing a lot of work on his own to just try to keep up with all these guys who were graduated or who had played pro. And he was doing school in the morning, then going to practice, then lifting after practice. And it just wasn't set up well for him. And once Bubble Canada saw That there was potential there. Then by the time I got to that position, everything was set up way better. Even my parents knew how to handle it better. They set me up with online school. They made sure I had a car out there, made sure I had a good apartment. So I think going first is difficult. So maybe just you, you learn by getting tossed into the fire. Whereas I learned by being able to emulate you and follow you.

Jesse 4:49

For sure. And I think too, well, actually two things. I think it's interesting. You never compared. Yourself to me because I always, or not always, but I often compare myself to you. So I think that's another interesting dichotomy, I guess, of the birth order. And I don't know if other older siblings can relate to that. Um, but then I was just going to say, I think too, with the birth order, Having a healthy relationship with your other siblings, because if TS, if you and I weren't close, I honestly think you and I got the closest when I moved away. I think my grade 12 years when you and I actually became the closest.

Oog 5:25

I think that's also when me and TS became close.

Jesse 5:28

Yeah, exactly. So like, we had a good communication and TS, you learned a lot because I shared a lot and I was, Telling you about my experiences and stuff like that. So if you don't have that relationship with your older siblings or your siblings, I mean, you'll still learn a lot, but I think that's a huge, benefit to having good relationships with your siblings Well, great question great question.

Mathias 5:54

Yeah, I do like that. I think I think it is it is probably difficult to Stay present in your own journey When you have people you're so close to, who people are always comparing you to, who are ahead of you, just naturally. I'm speaking kind of to Oog's situation there. Like, four years is a massive, massive difference when you're growing up. Especially in sport. U14 to U18, it's a completely different game. So I think that, for younger siblings out there, that's just an unrealistic, Unrealistic. Yeah. I think too, though,

Jesse 6:38

I learned a lot from Oog because he had two people to look up to and then his own experiences as well. And I remember we had a conversation in your first year at Trinity and you were super honest and super open about how growing up behind us made you feel and how hard it was for you at some points. And so I think for older siblings out there, like get to know your younger siblings on a deeper level and get to know how your actions affected them negatively or positively. And I think it helps all of our developments that way.

Oog 7:15

It's that's not to say that growing up behind two very accomplished, whatever, is a bad thing, but it could be in your own head where there's pressure that you put on yourself, but I think, and I think that's maturing is realizing that you're your own person and no one has expectations that you're going to be like someone else because that's unrealistic.

Jesse 7:39

Have you, have you heard, have you heard my Rose quote?

Mathias 7:43

Oh yeah, that's a good one.

Jesse 7:45

This is, this is, you have that on hand. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I have it. Yeah, this is perfect. This is exactly what it's saying. And it says, read this simple analogy and see if it, well, this is, this is more relating to the, the, the self judgment process. But it's the same thing. Read this simple analogy and see if an alternative to the judging process doesn't begin to emerge. When we plant a rose seed in the earth, we notice that it is small, but we do not criticize it as rootless or stemless. We treat it as a seed, giving it the water and nourishment required of a seed. When it first shoots up out of the earth, we don't condemn it as immature and underdeveloped, but Nor do we criticize the buds for not being open when they appear. We stand in wonder at the process taking place and give the plant the care it needs at each stage of its development. The rose is a rose from the time it is a seed to the time it dies. Within it, at all times, it contains its whole potential. It seems to be constantly in the process of change. Yet at each state, at each moment, it is perfectly all right, as it is.

Mathias 8:59

Nice.

Jesse 9:00

That's my favorite quote of all time. I almost got a rose tattoo because of it. Because it's just like, the best reminder ever. That like, it is okay where you are. Same thing with the birth order. That's perfect. Yeah. Ready? Yeah. Great, great questions. Great questions. Gamashes. Question, I should say.

Oog 9:18

Oh, yeah, boys. Okay, I'm gonna go out. Yeah. Good luck. Get some, get some peas off the field. Love it. Bye bye podcast.

Jesse 9:28

Alright, uh, for our next question, I think this is from our, our leadership episode. It says, please talk more about Henry's diet. Okay.

Mathias 9:44

Yeah, um, Henry's one of the most dialed people I know in terms of how he treats his body. And in my last year there, fourth year, as we said, we all lived in that house and his diet was essentially meat and fruit and honey and honey. and eggs in the morning and potatoes. He ate a lot of potatoes, but only for dinner. Yeah. Yeah. Just super, super clean. so usually, a bunch of eggs and maybe a bit of cheese, I think, for breakfast. And then for every other meal, it was just a giant piece of steak, and some fruit. And that was it. And he would do the same thing. This is, this is his true mark of discipline. Is that when we were out for team meals, we were at a restaurant. That's an easy situation to just order something off the menu because that's what's available. But we'd be at Earl's or something and he would just order four burger patties And yam fries usually. Yeah. So a plate would come with just four burger patties on it and none of the other extra stuff. So I think that was, that was cool. Cause at home. You make all the decisions. It's easy to eat what you want to eat. But when you're out, that's, that's when it's easy to fall off, but he was disciplined and, kept that going. I think it was most, yeah, basically like a carnivore diet, but with a bunch of fruit, I would say. Yeah, I remember one day

Jesse 11:21

asking, I was like, well, like, where do you get your carbs from? Like, how do you get energy and he said he eats a ton of bananas and we searched up that carbs or bananas have the same amount of carbs as a potato so he would eat like nine bananas a day. It was crazy.

Mathias 11:41

Yeah, he'd come back from Costco an insane amount of fruit, like 50 pounds of fruit. It looks like he came from the jungle or something. Yeah.

Jesse 11:50

All right. What are your pregame and postgame rituals? I don't know if I have rituals, but I have routines and like, I guess, besides the obvious, like stretching, warming up that stuff, I often listen to the same playlist. It's kind of a calming playlist. I like to, I don't know, it calms me down. I don't really like exciting, fast paced music before games. And then, uh, well, someone actually asked me this on Instagram the other day, and I just said, like they said, how do you deal with pressure or stress before games? And I just said, I try to connect with my teammates, crack a joke, or like do a handshake or whatever, sit with them and share, show them a funny video or something. And just like connecting with your teammates. And then you kind of, the, the stress of the, of the game disappears.

Mathias 12:48

I like that. I think what's important to me is the consistency. I told that story a couple episodes ago about Brett and Danny, and how calm they were before that big game in Mexico, where I was all stressed out and doing all this extra stuff that I had never done before. And I think that was maybe confusing to some people. Maybe they took it as, don't warm up or something. But I think the idea is, again, consistency. So, in practice, consistency If you show up to the gym and you're calm, you do your dynamic, and then you get into training, that's what you should do in the games. I think your body is heavily routine and habit based, and so if you do the same thing every day, then it will know that when I do this, it's time to play. And if your body's expecting that, and then you add a bunch of random things in before a game, then you're stressing your body out. It's like, this is new. This is different. This is something bigger. This is not what we do every day, and I don't think that sets you up great to perform as you do in practice.

Jesse 14:07

Yeah, for sure. And what about post game? Do you have any post game things?

Mathias 14:14

Post game is Difficult because things just start happening. People come up to you, there's team talks, there's interviews, presentations, whatever's going on, but I always try to make just a tiny bit of time to stretch right after even, even just five minutes to stretch the quads out or the hip flexors, reset the back a little bit. I think that can make a huge difference, even just a tiny amount of time to loosen up the body, get it, get it moving in the right direction towards recovery.

Jesse 14:52

Yeah.

Mathias 14:53

Well, I think

Jesse 14:53

even post game extends all the way to when you go to bed, you know, like whether you're playing a one o'clock game or a 9pm game, the post game is the rest of the day. And so I think my post game is usually like when I go to bed. Like I'll, I usually try and have a, cause it's hard to fall asleep after games, at least for me and a bunch of other people I know. So I try and have a very consistent sleep routine, especially after games, especially if you're playing the next day. That's, it's really hard to do that, to reset.

Mathias 15:21

Something I used to do that, I don't know if it's beneficial or not, but I used to watch the game back when I got home from the game, like the first night. And I think that helped put my mind at ease a little bit. Before falling asleep. Maybe it's not the best idea because you're on a screen for like an hour but I think my memory of the game often was not symbolic of how I actually played and it's pretty easy to dwell on the one or two plays that you could have made. Or the ones you messed up, and I think watching the game back and seeing all the actions for what they actually were helped me more analyze how I, how I actually did kind of put closure on the day, and then I was able to fall asleep a little better and, and prepare for the next one.

Oog 16:17

Adam always said, like, it's never as good as you think, and it's never as bad as you think.

Jesse 16:23

Yeah, I was gonna say the same thing and Oogs joining us from the cab of a tractor. okay. This is a long question. This is after the Dick episodes. It's been a while since we've done one of these. It says, Speaking to some of the things about arm swing and technical changes in general, as athletes, we mostly accept that sometimes we'll have to get worse before we get better. But sometimes this is forgotten or ignored during a tough season or practice. My question is, how can athletes cultivate an environment of acceptance and a growth mindset around these changes on their team? In particular, if a coach or coaches are demanding results, and perfection in what should be an otherwise safe environment for learning, like a Monday or Tuesday practice in a youth sports program. Could you please speak to how this looks at Trinity or on your respective pro teams?

Oog 17:19

The fantastic question.

Jesse 17:25

Yeah, that's a, that's a really hard hit question. I think first thing that comes to mind is if you listen to our, our last episode, Tease was talking about, about Brett Walsh and his ability to just move on and move on and move on and not have this emotional, like waxing and waning, I guess. Um, and, that's an individual way to do it. And it's hard to do, especially in a competitive phase, but I think as coaches, there should always be like a learning phase of the practice and a competitive phase of the practice. And they should really hammer home the idea that this is when you're encouraged to fail, and this is when you're encouraged to try new things and to experiment, and it's a little bit more cognitive focused. And then when you get to the competitive phase of practice, you're not thinking, you're playing and you're learning how to, uh, compete with your teammates and you're learning how to problem solve together. You're not thinking about any of your individual skills. I don't, yeah, it doesn't really answer the question, but what do you think?

Mathias 18:41

I a hundred percent agree with what you just said, Jess. I think the difficult part in this question is when the team's intention or the coach's intention don't line up with. your own when you're expected to be in that performance execution phase, but you want to be in that experimenting learning phase. I think a lot of the time open, honest conversation can clear a lot of those things up. And if that isn't in the cards or unreasonable at the moment, I think it can be a personal decision and you have to live with the consequences of, of what you choose to do. But I think. The big thing is the intention. So if you're, if you're in a rep situation at the beginning of a practice and the coach is demanding that it's execution focused, that you're performing or executing well every time, but you don't feel that that's what you need at the moment, I think making that decision to focus on getting better and improving and experimenting, trying new things, maybe you'll cause some tension between you and the coach, but as long as. You're not unfocused. I think that's okay.

Jesse 20:13

Yeah, I would agree, but I think it's unfair of a coach to demand perfection. Like that's perfection is unattainable in a team sport in a sport as dynamic as ours. You, you, you can't be perfect, but you can be perfectly focused. So I a hundred percent agree to, but like the, the question's asking how can players cultivate that environment if the coaches are doing that? Like, I don't, I don't know. that's a really hard question.

Mathias 20:47

Yeah, I think in general practice should be about pushing the limits of your current capabilities because that's the only way to get better. The point of practice is to get better, not to just do what you're good at. And I think that's a really easy trap to fall into is When you perform well at a practice, let's say you did everything perfectly, people would label that as a good practice. But I think the complete opposite. I think that's a waste of time. If you stayed within your circle of competence for two and a half hours, you didn't get any better because you already know how to do all that stuff.

Jesse 21:40

Yeah, that's a great point. And I guess, so the end of the question says, how does that look on your respective pro teams? And I guess where, what you're saying, where this gets hard is when you join a new team. So for instance, we just had our first week of training here in France. And like, you wanna, you don't want to make mistakes. You want to prove that you're. You belong here and you want to prove that you want to start and you want to prove that you're a good player. So you want to stay within your wheelhouse, you know, and it's a really odd or it's really hard line to walk because you want to get better, but you also don't want to mess up all the time because you don't want them to think you suck, you know, it's a hard thing to, it's a hard pill to swallow. But it's for sure just your ego getting in the way and you're not looking at the bigger picture anymore.

Mathias 22:30

100%. I think that's, yeah, that's a great question. It's difficult. The difficult part about this question is when there's tension between the individuals on the team. I think in a perfect world, everyone understands that practices for, for learning, experimenting, failing, getting better, pushing the limits of what you can do. But that's not always, that's not always the case. It doesn't always line up like that. But I would, just personally, I would try to trend in that direction as much as you can.

Jesse 23:02

Yeah, for coaches and athletes. Awesome. Um, okay. Yeah, really good question. Next question is, what do you guys think about this year's VNL? And then I guess we could add on to it and talk about the Olympics as well.

Mathias 23:20

Well, I'll be honest. I wasn't paying too much attention to what was going on in VNL I was following the the leaderboard, but I didn't watch too many games really proud of our country Or our performance, especially in VNL I think that over the last year year and a half We're starting to perform at a level where we can compete with any team in the world And I think the margins at that level are so small. I think they say that the last 5 percent is the hardest in any pursuit. And I think that's where we're at right now. It's those tiny details. It's that one or two touches in an entire match that lead to a win or a loss. Which is Pretty crazy.

Jesse 24:17

Yeah. Well, yeah. And it's, it's like, obviously they did fantastic in VNL and it's easy to celebrate and say that's the most wins we've ever had. You know, we made it to final eight, but that's that, that never ending chase of, of greatness. I, yeah, I think, I know TC didn't watch much, but we, we relied very heavily on Eric and Mar and they did an unbelievable job for us. But I think teams started to pick up on that near the end and, and, and we didn't have the answers and they were probably tired. They were getting a million sets of match, rightfully so, because they were incredible. Um, but we didn't have any answers after that, but it's a good time to be a volleyball player in Canada. Really good time. What about the Olympics? You watched the Olympics?

Mathias 25:18

No, not a ton. You watched the final? No,

Jesse 25:24

I did not. Well, it was incredible. France played, I can remember two errors that France made. And one was really stupid. Ingebrecht was trying to bump a ball over the net, like a free ball, but he tried to zip it over his head and bumped into the tape, but if you're the, if you're the Olympic MVP, I guess you can get away with it, but like, yeah, if you watch that game, they didn't make errors, they were so smart, they were so steady, they better every, every time they touched the ball, they bettered the ball every single time. And they played, they, I think the biggest difference too, is they played as a team. Their serving sub was incredible. He did this job at the end of that third set. All the, all the players that came in did an incredible job. All the players on the court played together. They played as a team. They knew where to go. They knew where their teammates were going. And it was just like, it was literally poetry in motion. It was the, I think it was the best volleyball team volleyball game I've ever seen. It was amazing.

Mathias 26:23

That's cool. I like the, the error comment is important too. I remember when I started hitting, I was making too many errors. And I was in like this, maybe three, four errors in match range, which doesn't sound like much. But then I went on to volleymetrics which allows you to watch all the individual attacks of one player in an entire match. And I was looking at all the best attackers in the world. I looked through probably 15 or 20 games of different players searching for their errors and. Most of the time they would have either zero or one error in a match. That doesn't mean they score every time, but they just don't cost their team points.

Jesse 27:15

Yeah. You're giving your team a chance and that's all you can ask for. Another, another good question. All right. This next question says, I'm a pretty decent player, but I struggle badly with reception. My question has two parts. One, what's one tip on reception you have each learned that helped the most in university? And two, how do you deal with ruts, where it feels like you haven't improved in a long time and nothing is going right? Well for me, I kind of talked, touched on it last episode too, it's just the extension with reception. Like you have to be extended, You have to hold the platform. I used to kind of be like a, I still am, but like a, like a feely passer, you kind of swing your arms at the ball and kind of goes where you want it to. But if you can sweet spot that ball and just hold it that extra second, especially when you're going left and right, um, it's super helpful because the ball knows angles. And if you can understand those angles, if you can hold that angle. Until the ball is off your platform, as opposed to while it's on your platform, I think you'll have a lot of success. And another thing is just getting that platform out early. So a lot of people start with their hands kind of down by their knees or like swinging between their legs, kind of, but if you can get it out in front of you, then the only move you have to make is behind the ball, as opposed to Getting your hands up and then left and right. It's just left or right or straight. And I think those two have helped me a lot.

Mathias 28:43

For me, definitely the platform stuff. Also reading the line of the ball, I think is the biggest part for me because we, we've said this before, but you're in control of your arms. You can put them wherever you want them to be. The hard part is deciding where that should be. So having an, a really solid. Base starting position and setting my eyes up so that I can catch the entire line of the ball from contact all the way over the net to my arms. That's important for me. And what helps with that a lot is keeping my head level as I'm moving to the ball, especially on float serve, it, it moves around. So if I keep my vantage point the same by keeping my head nice and stable, then I can get a cleaner read on the ball. That's cool. Oh, yeah.

Jesse 29:41

This is related, in a way, I was watching the Olympic hurdles yesterday, and when they're running, and when they jump over the hurdle, their head level doesn't change. How crazy is that? Yeah, that's cool. You're elevating like 3 or, I don't know how high hurdles are, 3 or 4 feet in the air, and your head doesn't change. It was the most pretty thing to watch, ever. I think that's the same idea. It's like an owl or whatever. Have you seen those videos where they roll the owl around, but their head stays exactly in the same point.

Mathias 30:12

Yeah, that's exactly the idea. Cool. And then the second part was about being in a rut.

Jesse 30:19

Yeah.

Mathias 30:22

That's a, that's a tough one. It's a tough place to be.

Jesse 30:27

Yeah. I think we've talked about it before. Um, but for me, just when I'm in a rut, I. Well, I've gotten to a habit of always journaling good in good times and in bad times. So when I am in a rut, I can go look at back at those good times and see what I wrote and what I was thinking in the words I was using to try and implement those into my, my self talk and my vocabulary and, and I'll often write down what I was feeling and the thoughts I had so that I can try and replicate that, that good feeling.

Mathias 31:00

Okay. Here's a kind of a strange thought that I'm going to try to explain, but I don't know if I'll be able to do it well. There's been, there's been times where I'm in a rut, and I almost don't want to get out. I tell myself I do. And I really don't want to be playing poorly, but there's this weird pressure that if I start to play well, then people will notice how bad I was playing.

Jesse 31:44

Interesting. I can relate. I'm not, I'm not saying interesting in a bad way. I, I, I can relate to that, but keep going.

Mathias 31:53

And it's a super weird psychological phenomenon, so to speak. And I think, for example, if I'm serving really poorly and I'm putting Every ball into the net. Out the back, out the side. Missed hand contact. And then finally I crank a good one and everyone's like, Oh, nice serve. Nice serve. There it is. That's the one. Then I almost shy away from that for some reason, you know, because it feels like you're just, I don't know how to describe it.

Jesse 32:29

Do you understand that feeling? I understand perfectly. It's almost annoying that they're, that they're clapping because I should have done that all along. Exactly.

Mathias 32:36

Because then it feels like, I think your ego is crushed because the standard is so low for you. Yeah. That might be what it is. So one time I was, I was in a rut right before the Canada West playoffs in my last year at Trinity. this is kind of when I discovered that that feeling. And I had to really think about, do I want to get out of this rut, seriously? You know, which is like a dumb question to ask yourself, but there's that weird, there's that weird kind of factor that happens. And I think it was, it's just fabricated pressure that I was putting on myself. And I don't know if this is the right answer, but this is what I did in that situation. I wrote down everything that I was doing, like everything I was doing, everything I was thinking. And then for one practice, I did the opposite. did the complete opposite, which is kind of an interesting approach because I think when we're forcing ourselves out of a right, it's just more, more of the same, more of the same, do it better, try harder, all that stuff. But I think this do the opposite. It was like a, it was like a reboot on my brain and it completely took all the pressure out of the game. An example is I play a runner serve. But then, uh, you might remember this, Jesse, for that Canada West quarter, I was playing a high toss. Against UofC which I've never done in my entire life in the Canada West quarters. I pulled out a high toss and because I didn't know how to do that, I had no, no previous level to compare it to. I mean, it was a brand new skill. So I was like almost taking advantage of beginner's luck just by completely switching it up. My brain couldn't get in the way because there was no technical feedback happening, no standard I had to hold. I was just playing and I was free again. Dude,

Jesse 34:48

I did that actually with the way I hold my hands when I pass and I couldn't miss my sweet spot just by switching my hands. I held my hands a little differently. I was like, bang, bang. I was like, what is going on? It's, it, yeah, that's crazy. That reminds me of my, my quote. I think I talked about it a couple episodes ago about if you start believing in your greatness, it's the death of your creativity. And that's, that's really your, your ego. Is you are believing in your greatness because you felt like you should have been making all those serves. But then you, you stopped and you started to be creative and you're like, how can I

Mathias 35:25

solve this problem? Yeah. Like if I'm hitting a runner, it's like, I know how to do this, why can't I serve? Yeah. Whereas if I'm hitting a high toss, it's just like, I don't know how to, this ball of the net Yeah. I don't know how to do this. I'm just gonna go hit it. I think it is, it's just getting out of your own way a lot of the time. Easier said than done, but those are a couple things that I've ran into over my career. Really? Cool. Really, really cool.

Jesse 35:56

Okay. this question says, first off, congrats, Jesse on gold and turn MVP. Thank you. Uh, my question is about the 2020 national championship in Winnipeg. Do you feel like that tournament was yours to lose, especially after your seemingly easy win versus U of A in the Can West Championship? And does it leave a sour taste in your mouth not being able to complete a great season and being able to give your seniors, Eric Pearson Kern, a proper sendoff with the U Sports National Championship? Love the podcast guys. Keep it up. I think, I think you've talked about this too, but it's a team sport and obviously you always like, especially in our program, there's so much respect for those seniors. And obviously we wanted to win it for them. And we want to win it for Ben as well, being at the last season. Um, but they know that, that we tried as hard as we could. They know that we put in everything we could, regardless of our performance. So I don't think it leaves a sour taste that we let them down. I think it leaves a sour taste that we didn't perform when we had to perform, but I don't think us or them would say that anyone let them down. Um, and. I don't know if we easily won that Can West championship, I think, or did we? We won in four, but it was We probably should have lost the fourth set, that ball hit my shoulder. I don't know, I think, I think maybe we did a good job of not showing our stress and nerves, but I don't think we were in a fantastic place in that game and going into nationals. and also because that year we had very, very little, um, hurdles and things to work through as a team. And then when we were finally pushed for real in that final, we didn't really know how to understand or how to, sorry, how to, uh, what's the word I'm looking for respond. Thank you. We didn't know how to respond. I almost said understand again. We didn't really know how to respond to that pressure because we hadn't dealt with pressure that wasn't really fabricated. From the coaching staff, which is, which is much different than actual pressure.

Mathias 38:38

I, I a hundred percent agree. I think there's never a context where you can expect the win. And I think that's just sport. That's what you sign yourself up for when you play sports. Interesting thing is that we play for a feeling we play for a memory. When you win, sometimes there's a prize money, I guess. So. international and pro levels, but most of the time it's just, you're chasing that feeling of winning and you're chasing having that memory for the rest of your life. But on the flip side of that, you sign yourself up for the potential of devastation. Essentially, I get stings and that memory will also stick with you for the rest of your life. I know that was probably the worst game. Definitely that year, maybe of my career that I've ever played and a memory that will. Be stuck with me for the rest of my life. But I think that's the most important game in my entire career also, because I learned so much about myself and about competition and about playing under pressure and about staying in the moment. And I think had we won that one, given that my role wasn't massive. I was a role player on that team. Had we won and I had been carried through to a national championship, I don't think I would have become the player that I am today, and I don't think we would have won the next year either, because I took all those lessons and I applied them in the next big moment that I had. And I was lucky to get back there, but I think that that was the most impactful game that I've ever been a part of.

Jesse 40:44

Yeah, me too. I also did not perform well, uh, at all, really. I had, I had a similar moment. This year, last year, I guess, in Germany, when I didn't, uh, they didn't start me or they didn't play me at all in the CEV Cup final against Razovia. And I think it's easy when you don't play, whether you win or lose, to not have the same feelings as the guys on the floor. You win and you're excited, but you're not as excited or you lose and you're like, well, I didn't play, so it's not really my fault. And I just learned so much about myself sitting on the bench because I really wanted to be out there and I really felt the pain of that loss for the guys on the court and for me, and I realized how much work I had to do to ensure that that doesn't happen again. And Ben always talks about battle scars and how you need in order to win or in order to. Build a dynasty. Basically, you need to have those battle scars. You have to go through hurdles and trials and tribulations. You have to lose. And I think that's exactly what you're talking about. And I, I million percent agree. I think losing that final, although it sucks for, for Pierce, oh, it sucks for everyone, but Pearson, Kern and Eric didn't get another opportunity. Fortunately, we did get another opportunity and we could learn from that. So,

Mathias 42:24

yeah, it's one of those things where you, you kind of wish the result was different. You're grateful that. It's not at the same time. Yeah,

Jesse 42:35

eventually. Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. I wanted to touch on what you were saying about how we chase a feeling and the feeling of winning or losing. Yesterday, we watched, uh, the volleyball olympic final and the basketball olympic final and one of my favourite parts about huge competitions like the olympics is watching the winning moments and when France beat Poland In three, they were hugging and jumping and crying and laughing. And some guys were covering their eyes and like, it was just like, so fun. And the whole team ran on the court and it was just like the coolest. It just gave me goosebumps, and I just love watching that. And then, we watched the American versus France basketball final, and the Americans won, and it looked like they had won any other game. Like some of them were smiling, one of them was running around, and that was kind of it. The rest of the team kind of jogged onto the floor because they expected to win. And I just, like, it just wasn't very fun to watch, quite honestly. And like, chasing that feeling of, that you might lose, I agree is. So much fun.

Mathias 43:51

Yeah. I think it's supposed to be hard. It's supposed to be hard and it's only fun. If it's hard, we've talked about this before. The memorable matches are the ones where you almost lost or you could have lost and you found that extra gear and you pulled it out. those quick three Oh wins where it wasn't too hard. Those ones just fade into oblivion afterwards. So, and I even, I like to tell myself that in game when things are tight and there's lots of tension, the, the sets where you're up, whatever, 23, 17, and you feel comfortable, that's a much, yeah, it's a much more comfortable feeling to be in that moment. And. It's easy for myself to want to be in that moment, to want to pull away, to make it more comfortable. But I think, I think when it's tight, that's the way it's supposed to be. And that's when it's most fun. And that should be the feeling that I'm chasing.

Jesse 44:52

100%. 100%. Yeah, like even this year, uh, in the CEV semis against Arcus. We went down, we lost in three in Turkey, and we came back to Germany. We lost the first set, so we had to win the next three sets and the golden set. And there was just, that was by far the most incredible volleyball game ever. And I don't really remember much about the actual volleyball, but I remember the emotions and I remember like, oh, it was, yeah, it was incredible. It was insane. Yeah, dude. Yeah. I got goosebumps just thinking about it. Next one. Next one. What are the biggest challenges about going pro that you were surprised about?

Mathias 45:50

I think one of them is how quickly you're expected to perform. Things start really fast. And it's a boring environment with people that you have never met in your life and it just starts. I got a text from my coach saying your visa came in. We've got a flight for you at 7 p. m. And it was like 9 in the morning or something. So, packed my bags and I was on a flight to France that day. And then the next day I was training with the guys. And I'd never met any of them. And then we're playing exhibition matches right away. So it's not a, it's not a smooth transition. I don't think necessarily at the start and you got to really try to get comfortable really fast. Um, and the teams are different every single year. So I think that's what makes it challenging is finding that connection and learning to play together and perform together very quickly.

Jesse 47:05

For me. The biggest surprise I think is just how like a non volleyball related is just how stressful it is living in a new city in a new country and even just like small things like you go to the grocery store and you have no idea where the eggs are going to be. And you're just like wandering and then you got to find the peppers and you have to go back to the beginning of the store and it's just like takes so much time and then you're driving home and you're like, there's all these one ways and you don't know who's has the right away. And then you get home. And you don't know how to turn the oven on. And there's just like, there's so much stress that comes with living abroad at first. And I think that was my biggest surprise is just like, it's not the same. It is the same, but it's much, it's not

Mathias 47:53

familiar. Yeah. Yeah. That's it. That's a good point. Kind of what I was saying with the team, like everything is brand new. And yeah, that does, that does cause stress because we like comfort and consistency and things we know. But the cool part is. That by the end you have that everything becomes more normal. It starts to feel like home a little bit if you're in a good situation Yeah And your teammates that from the other side of the world that you would have never met in your life become your brothers And so I think that's one of the best parts also is that it's all brand new.

Jesse 48:31

Yeah. Yeah hundred percent. Yeah, it's very exciting But there's just like, there's all these little tiny stressors that you don't even think about. Like for instance, like I'll get up in the middle of the night, go to the washroom and the lights are off and I can't get to the washroom. And back without running into a wall because I don't know where the washroom is and it's just like it interrupts my sleep, which I'm like, wow, that was the most stressful bathroom visit I've ever had because I know I can't sleep like it's just tiny things that are so odd, but they're really exciting if you're prepared for him. Absolutely. And that was our last question, T.

Mathias 49:15

Alrighty. Fantastic. Those were some really awesome questions. Yeah, yeah, that might have been our best round of questions, I think. Yeah, got us thinking. Hopefully we shared some things that can help you guys on your, your own volleyball journeys. That was episode number 15 of the Pit to Pro podcast. Thanks everyone for listening. Signing off.

49:45

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