{"id":1680,"date":"2019-06-27T09:17:16","date_gmt":"2019-06-27T17:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/billyketchallen.com\/?p=1680"},"modified":"2024-08-28T23:08:02","modified_gmt":"2024-08-28T23:08:02","slug":"fivb-world-championships-part-1-arrival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billyketchallen.com\/?p=1680","title":{"rendered":"FIVB World Championships Part 1 (Arrival)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s 5:00 pm and I\u2019m doing my best not to fall asleep. My partner, Stafford Slick, is on the hotel room floor rolling out his hips after the long plane ride to Hamburg, Germany. A trip made even longer because of an emergency medical landing in Toronto which caused us to miss our connection in Warsaw, bumping up our total travel time to an even 25 hours. Our coach John Mayer is on the bed, watching video of our first-round opponents. We can\u2019t sleep yet. We have to make it to at least 9:00 pm to adjust to the time change. Okay, maybe 8:30 will do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re here for the FIVB World Championships, the biggest tournament of the year. The ten-day event hosts 48 men\u2019s teams from across the globe. Tight hips and the desire to nap are not our biggest challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is my second time in Hamburg. My first was in 2016 as a 35-year-old rookie on the FIVB. Not only was that my first international tournament, but it was also my first time in Europe. We American players get started late. I\u2019ve played in 19 FIVB events since that first one in Hamburg, but I wouldn\u2019t say I feel like any less of a newcomer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leading up to World Championships, we\u2019ve been playing as many tournaments as possible, flying back and forth between FIVBs in Europe and AVP tournaments in the United States with the occasional stop to see our families. Last weekend at the Seattle AVP tournament, I was asked if I was using that event as prep for the World Championships. The truth is, one week out, I wasn\u2019t even thinking about World Championships. I was focusing on the AVP tournament and how I was going to play well and win our next match. World Championships may be the biggest tournament of the year, but it wasn\u2019t the one in front of me at that moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had a discussion with our team a few weeks before about how to approach World Championships. Because of the Olympic qualifying points and the tight race among U.S. teams, it\u2019s easy to throw added weight on a good finish here. To put even more pressure on ourselves than what comes each time we step on the court to compete. As a team, we play better when we\u2019re loose and enjoying ourselves, so that\u2019s what we\u2019re striving for here. World Championships is a great opportunity for us, and we want to relish that opportunity. It\u2019s easy to get ahead of myself and worry about Olympic points or our first round match against Brazil\u2019s Alison and Alvaro, but it\u2019s better to take it one step at a time, focusing on whatever my current job is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right now that job is to stretch and stay awake until 8:30. Okay, maybe 8:00.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s 5:00 pm and I\u2019m doing my best not to fall asleep. My partner, Stafford Slick, is on the hotel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[10,11,33,40,113],"class_list":["post-1680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-volleyball","tag-beach-volleyball","tag-billy-allen","tag-fivb","tag-hamburg-2019","tag-world-championships"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billyketchallen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/billyketchallen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/billyketchallen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billyketchallen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billyketchallen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1680"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/billyketchallen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4687,"href":"https:\/\/billyketchallen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680\/revisions\/4687"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billyketchallen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billyketchallen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billyketchallen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billyketchallen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}