SE: K-State VB’s Carlson Gains Valuable Experience at USA Women’s Junior A1 National Team Training Program
Aug 04, 2017 | Volleyball, Sports Extra
While her teammates were working out in Manhattan, Brynn Carlson was on a yacht or enjoying a black light dance party in Florida.
Okay, that's not completely fair.
Carlson, an incoming freshman for K-State's volleyball team, did get to cruise the coast of Florida on an extravagant boat and participate in a sponsored black light party, but it was a small part of her 10 days at the USA Women's Junior A1 National Team Training Program in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The program included five days of training and five days of tournament play, an experience Carlson said was "super valuable" as she heads into her first collegiate season.
"Playing for six hours a day, there's nothing that compares to having that much time to be able to work on your game," Carlson, an outside hitter and 2015 AAU All-American, said. "I thought it was really good that I got that opportunity to just really get a lot of touches, get a lot of reps right before the season starts."
While in Florida, Carlson trained with more than 20 players from across the country. On top of the built-in benefits from getting countless reps in the summer, she said playing with these new players was also helpful.
"I got to learn to play with different setters and different passers," she said. "I think that it helps me become more versatile and allows me to become someone who can adapt more quickly in game situations, which is always a good thing."
Additionally, Carlson was given hands-on instruction from several highly regarded coaches, which she could not receive from her K-State coaches during the summer because of NCAA rules.
"Obviously, we can't have our coaches here during open gym in the summer," she said. "So to be able to go down there and have 10 days of a coach telling me, 'Hey, this is what you need to fix. Try this. Do this,' it was really nice to get some other feedback, besides me thinking about what I need to change. Having a coach there was really valuable as well."
Specifically, Carlson said she focused on improving her serve-receive, defense and back row skills. In the tournament, which included several international teams, only two subs were allowed per match, making versatility a must for outside hitters.
"I think that really helped me, especially for the fall, to be able to have more confidence in serve and pass," said Carlson, adding that she also worked quite a bit with back row attacks. "That was something I got to expand on past my experience at K-State and before that. I think that's something I can bring back."
On top of having two training sessions for the first five days, which often totaled six hours of work, Carlson also spent about an hour in a classroom. There, coaches would lead sessions to help improve players' mental approach to the game and to instill skills in them to take back to their teams for the fall.
"We did one session where we talked about mindset. I thought that was really important just to reiterate that you need to always have a growth mindset, focus on how you can get better, focus on what you can do to improve your team and not just think, 'Oh, I'm fixed. This is as good as I'm ever going to get.' You can always improve. Even if you're the best player in the entire world, you can make improvements, you can get better," Carlson said. "We talked a lot about perseverance and grit. Things aren't always going to go your way, you're to have bad games or you're going to have bad plays and you just have to be able to fight through it and get better and improve on that next ball or that next set or next match or wherever your opportunity is."
The last classroom session, Carlson said, centered on scouting. During it, they broke down film on the U.S. Olympic and national teams, as well as teams from other countries. While watching, coaches challenged those in the classroom to take an active approach to an underappreciated task.
"Being able recognize, 'What rotation are you in? Where are your hitters? Which people should we be focusing on as far as blocking, digging? Do we know their tendencies?' I think that helped me to be a lot quicker with recognizing things, especially in watching film," Carlson said. "I can bring that back and be able to look at film that Suzie (Fritz), Jeff (Grove) or Trent (Sorensen) is showing us and recognize, 'This is the rotation that they're in. Here are their big hitters, this is what we need to be doing.'
"Something that's overlooked a lot is the mental side of the game or the preparation side through scouting, through film, so I'm glad we got to do some of that to see how that works within the USA system."
Carlson's team started tournament play 5-0, sweeping most of the opponents it faced. The final day ended with a pair of losses against other U.S. teams, which she said was "super disappointing" but also something to learn and improve upon.
"That's where I think we found the most challenge and had to use that perseverance, that grit that we talked about, was in those matches against other USA teams that played the exact same system as us so we both know what the other is going to do. Those were obviously dogfights for us," she said. "It was good at the end that we got to have those more competitive matches because I think that really pushed us to grow as players and as a team."
K-State, which reports to fall camp on Monday, returns 10 letterwinners from last season's NCAA Tournament team and open its season on August 25 against Pacific in the Oregon State Invitational at Corvallis, Oregon. The home opener against Arkansas is Thursday, August 31.
Season tickets for K-State's entire 12-match home schedule are available now and start at $3 per match. To purchase, fans can visit www.kstatesports.com/tickets, call 1-800-221-CATS (2287) or stop by the K-State Ticket Office in Bramlage Coliseum.
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