When in Rome

June 14th, 2013 | By Mav

I’m sure the line “When in Rome” has been more than overused during trips Canadian’s trips to Rome but that won’t stop me from saying it every chance I get while I experience Rome for the first time, starting tomorrow. I leave The Hague tomorrow morning on a 7:00am direct flight via Transavia airlines, the main tournament sponsor here in Holland.

The Hague was a pleasure. The venue was really nice and the players were treated very well; free food and drink this evening for us, although I decided to call it a night early in order to get a good rest prior to flying to Rome.

In terms of our result – If I only focus on the fact this was mine and Red’s first FIVB tournament together, or competition of any sort for that matter, I’m happy with how things went. However, as I’m sure you can understand, I’m not overly satisfied with the way things ended up. As a qualification team, making your way out is a great thing, but that accomplishment is soon overshadowed once the main draw starts. And unfortunately for me The Hague marks the second main draw in a row where three consecutive main draw losses followed a strong qualification outing.

Understanding that the process takes time I am still extremely unsatisfied. I’m itching to get back to it, in slightly more normal conditions (sans 30km/h wind), and earn some success, build some momentum, and start making some money with main draw results.

Both Redmann and I feel as though we were gifted an opportunity this season, now as partners. In just one event I realize we share many similarities, the kind of similarities that will make out partner develop more smoothly than usual, which will hopefully lead to what we want to achieve together.

Till Rome, arrivederci!

-mav

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The Hague Qualification – MD

June 11th, 2013 | By Mav

We woke up this morning to see all the hotel flags hanging still – no crazy wind; I already feel like I won something. Good start to the morning. The Aussie team we had in the first round was a team neither Red nor myself have seen before; one was smaller than the other so naturally we started serving him. Awkward. We switched and started serving the bigger guy. This proved to the game plan that would work and inevitably give us the win. But not before going down 4-11 to start the second set.
Enter Mother Nature. Wind.
We managed to earn a few back with a run of four serves on the good side including three aces in the seam and an over bump. Now a bit happier down only 9-12 at the technical we finished the comeback and closed out the set 21-18.

Back at the hotel we had a small window to relax and get ready for our next match against a Russian team that I was 0-1 against going back to last year, while Redmann had experienced success against this team with both Rich and Ben. We knew what our game plan would be heading in and with a load of blocks and a very solid sideout game we pulled off the victory 2-0 (25-23, 21-17). In the first set we were up a few but let them back in it with a few unforced errors and after failing to end the set on two swings, Redmann tagged the end line with a float serve. The kind of play you look back on and thank whatever lucky forces were on your side.

As for tomorrow – the second Main Draw of our season, and first as a team – we’re in Pool B and play Allison/Emanuel at 2:20pm (5am PST), while Chaimer and Benny are in Pool E. See each of our pool’s composition below

Looking forward to playing some good ball tomorrow and enjoying The Hague GS event – it’s a great venue here, very social and casual around the courts, and I’m sure the crowed on center will be pretty large as the tournament continues.

-mav

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Departure to The Netherlands

June 10th, 2013 | By Mav

The first European stop of the season brings us to The Netherlands in what is also my first time competing in The Hague. We practiced Friday morning in Canada, and after swinging by Canucks Stuff/Overkill to pick up our team shorts I sped home to begin packing at 2pm for my 5:30pm departure to Amsterdam. **Improve time management skills; noted.

Now sitting somewhat comfortably in my Air Transat plane seat, having tested my patience sitting in rush hour traffic the entire way to the airport, I popped my headphones finally being able to relax a bit. When I arrived in Amsterdam I had two hours to kill until Redmann arrived and we would travel to The Hague, the perfect amount of time to watch a replay of the Bruins game that I missed while in flight.

The game was real tight and when the Bruins finally scored in the third period I cheered uncontrollably loud. As I looked up I saw a group of European travellers staring at me, I calmly turned my computer screen around and pointed at my Bruins hat while giving them a discreet fist pump as to say ‘my team just scored’ – they all nodded and smiled understanding I was Canadian and this behavior is normal for us.

Now on a high thanks to the victory, Redmann appeared out of nowhere and we began our journey to The Hague. A quick train and taxi ride later we arrived at our hotel and quickly laid down for a nap, we were going to hit the sand later in the day… Four hours later, awakening from a pleasant slumber, we left for the courts and were greeted by a stiff and constant wall of North Sea wind. After hacking our way through a light serve and pass we picked up a quick bite near the beach then went back to the hotel for the night.

Our second session the following afternoon was much of the same, if not windier. Just so you can understand how windy it is, if I stand at the service line and place the ball in my open hand prior to hitting it, before I can toss the ball it will have had blown out of my hand. As you can imagine this makes everything far more difficult and at times it’s tough not to laugh at how ridiculous the wind makes you look while trying to control the ball. Regardless, it’ll be the same for everyone and is actually supposed to die down for the qualifier, which begins tomorrow.

Till then I’m doing my best not to eat a plethora of delicious stroopwafles – a local, extremely treat..

-mav

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Did You Ever Want to “Adopt an Athlete”?

June 3rd, 2013 | By Mav

…here’s your chance!

Every season there comes a point when I (as many Canadian athletes do) start to see my bank account dwindle away to the point where I track each cent trying to save as much as possible for my next event. Knowing this happens each year, I supplement my National Team funding by coaching youth athletes on the beach, and cold calling businesses trying to set up some sort of sponsorship deal. Unfortunately, this point in the season has come sooner than expected for me after having traveled to China for two weeks then across the world to South America – not the cheapest flights around, that’s for sure. I saved myself a few dollars by qualifying in Shanghai earlier this season, and am planning on doing that more often as the season continues.

Since moving to Toronto it’s been the same story year after year, and if it weren’t for certain individuals playing large roles in my life/career thus far (some who have given me opportunities to earn finances while others have played more of a sponsorship/donation role) I definitely wouldn’t have been able to continue chasing this dream of mine.

Whatever the delivery, I am extremely grateful for each and every lending hand I’ve ever come across. Building relationships with companies that yield sponsorships and/or donations has always been a bit tricky, one of the reasons being the fact I, as an individual athlete, have never been able to offer a charitable tax receipt…until now! Thanks to Volleyball Canada’s “Adopt an Athlete” program

The catch is that in order to offer a charitable tax receipt Volleyball Canada requires donors specify a sport (not an athlete) to direct the funds to; the donations cannot be earmarked for any individual athlete. However, donors can add a note of who they would like to see their money go towards and Volleyball Canada will do their part in providing expense reimbursements to those athletes.

This season will be my most traveled yet. I leave in five days for the Netherlands, then straight to Rome. After Rome we may wind up back in Toronto for a week prior to leaving for Poland should we get into the World Championships. From Poland it’s straight to Switzerland before heading to VANCOUVER!! We’ll stay in Vancouver for a week then leave for Long Beach, USA or Russia (simultaneous FIVB events). My season after that point is still TBC, but FIVB events will be held in China, Russia, India, China (again), Brazil, and South Africa in December.

So, it’s no secret… ANY and all donations will help and be accepted with a huge smile and many thanks. You can download the form below, and please do not hesitate to contact me (maverick@maverickhatch.com), or our Beach Coordinator Marc Stromme (mstromme@volleyball.ca)

Click to download the form:
Adopt an Athlete Form 2013

Thank you for reading and your support!

-Mav

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A Different Start

June 1st, 2013 | By Mav

The start of this season has been an interesting one for sure, and I’m not just referring to the changes within the FIVB (mentioned in earlier posts). The first 7 months of the 2013 season (including this offseason) reminds me of my first few seasons on the beach flip-flopping from partner to partner on almost a monthly basis, which was normal then but I can’t say I’m a huge fan of it at this stage in my career.

Sorry to those of you who don’t know what’s happened on the men’s side of Canada’s beach national team as I won’t be going into details, I will however make it official that Christian Redmann (the one with the huge bicep in the picture below) and I will be teaming up for the remainder of this season, which is still fairly young considering the FIVB World Tour continues into December this year?!

Christian (or “Red” as I’ll refer to him from now on) and I are pumped to be playing together. At the end of last season we were both keen on playing with each other although I decided to take a different route and team up with Canada’s 2012 Olympian, which was the shortest partnership of my career, haha. Moving forward, both Red and I are happy to be in a partnership where we can invest some serious time and start building something that can lead to success internationally.

Our start internationally may not happen as early as we like, though.  Right now we’re one spot out of The Hague FIVB Grand Slam event, waiting on one team to drop out in order to gain our spot into the qualifier. We’re eagerly awaiting our shot to improve on our Argentina GS result where both of us lost in the first round of the qualifier with our past partners.  Whenever our first test internationally comes, you can be sure that we’ll both be fired up to get this thing going.

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In other news, my web designer, Carlos A. Simon, has been working hard to set me up with a new website. It’s almost finished and will have some cool features; an online store where you can purchase the products I use and compete in, a music player where you can listen to a playlist of my current favorite songs, more photo’s and video’s, and a completely different layout.

-mav

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