July 18, 2005

This year 10 VolleyFX athletes traveled all across the US to participate in a prestigious USA Volleyball High Performance Camp. With approximately 11 sessions to a camp, and many miles of travel to get there, volleyfx.com asked one of our athletes to document her experiences during her adventures. This is Allie Nickel's story:

Day 1
          Saturday morning my dad and I caught our flight to Kalamazoo, Michigan for my High Performance Camp. We arrived at 12:30 on the campus. Alex was my roommate, and she played outside for Wisconsin Power. That night from 6:30 till 9:00 was our first session, where they reviewed basic skills. The head coach at camp was the assistant coach of the Olympic team in 1986-1987. There were 48 girls from the ages of 14-17.
 
Day 2
          We had three sessions and learned the basic skills but at an advanced level. I met Charlotte, from North Carolina. She played for Triangle, and remembered playing VFX Chant in Minneapolis. The assistant coach made a bet with us that if someone could name everyone in camp then he would buy us pizza.
 
Day 3
          It was another hot day with no air conditioning but a lot of fun playing. We had three sessions again, and the coaches split us up by position. We learned different types of arm swings and did some hitting. The Kalamazoo local news crew came and tape one of our sessions for a spot on the evening news. I also met girls that played for Sports Performance, Dunes and girls from Indiana, Seattle, Chicago, and Ohio.
 
Day 4
          This was our last full day of three 2 1\2 hour sessions. One girl was able to name everyone by their first name. We were split up into teams to scrimmage during the night session. Between the afternoon and night session, we were walking down the hall and saw all this water on the floor. When a girl opened the door to her dorm room there was about four inches of water filling her room. We found out that it was coming from the public bathroom across the hall. The toilet was overflowing and filled three rooms!
 
Day 5
           Today was our last day and we were split off onto different courts. We only had one session. Everyone’s skill level had improved due to the long hours and many sessions put into the camp. It was thundering and lightening so my dad and I decided to drive home. I'm so glad that I received the opportunity to participate in a High Performance Camp.


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