{"id":2009,"date":"2023-03-24T09:21:36","date_gmt":"2023-03-24T17:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/billyketchallen.com\/?p=2009"},"modified":"2024-08-25T00:48:25","modified_gmt":"2024-08-25T00:48:25","slug":"avp-miami-lessons-in-perseverance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billyketchallen.com\/?p=2009","title":{"rendered":"AVP Miami: Lessons in Perseverance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I started the 2023 AVP Season with a last-place finish. It was a rough one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I partnered with Andy Benesh for only one event. I was excited about the opportunity and prepared the best I could while living in North Idaho where snow still covered the ground. Living in California, I could train as much as my body would allow. Now, I have to get by with gym workouts, Aquabag aerobics in my living room, and dangling from my garage pullup bar. I was fortunate enough to travel to Cabo San Lucas the week before Miami for a South of the Border Volleyball Vacation<\/em>. I do a few of these trips a year, teaching clinics and playing with guests. I snuck in sand workouts and practices when I could. At least I was getting my feet in the sand and touching a volleyball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I rolled into Miami feeling good, and though Andy and I hadn’t trained as a team, I was excited about our chances. But things didn\u2019t work out. We sided out okay but so did our opponents. We lost two close three-setters and our tournament was over early.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was a tough one. Especially because I’m going into the rest of the season without a partner lined up and this was a chance to earn points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were done Saturday morning, and I spent the rest of the day watching other matches and then went to my hotel room and wrote. I tried to book an earlier flight home, but it was going to be expensive. Janelle suggested that instead of spending $350+ dollars on a flight, I should stay and practice before coming back to snowy Idaho. So I reached out to some players who\u2019d also lost early, and we trained early Sunday before the morning matches started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would have been easier to sleep in and spend the day sulking or watching movies on my iPad. But one of my values is perseverance, and this was a chance to live it. I’m glad I got up and practiced and squeezed more volleyball out of the trip. Maybe that extra two hours will make a difference in the next AVP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Losing sucks. I\u2019ve felt its sting plenty of times, and seen it drive players to quit. It’s an inevitable part of playing sports or any difficult endeavor. But I\u2019ve survived tough losses before, and I\u2019ll survive this one. Despite how bad it hurts, I can choose to persevere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perseverance means going back to work even when I don\u2019t feel like it. Lose a tournament? Get up and practice. Have a book rejected? Get up and write. We can\u2019t control our results, but we can control our effort and our character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2023 season isn’t off to a great start, but I’ll keep working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s all about the bounce back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I started the 2023 AVP Season with a last-place finish. It was a rough one. I partnered with Andy Benesh […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4456,"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":[9,10,11,57,76],"class_list":["post-2009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-volleyball","tag-avp","tag-beach-volleyball","tag-billy-allen","tag-miami","tag-perseverance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billyketchallen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2009","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=2009"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/billyketchallen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4642,"href":"https:\/\/billyketchallen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2009\/revisions\/4642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billyketchallen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billyketchallen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billyketchallen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billyketchallen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}