Wow! It’s been a rough week or so on the old body.

Last week while working with the Bühl guys I stepped backward onto an unseen ball on the ground. The resulting fall involved a mildly sprained ankle and some wrist damage. The ankle was mostly back to normal within 24 hours despite not going the RICE route (just worked it around a bit). The wrist was quite painful the first 24 hours. That did quickly abate, but there remain some persistent issues. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time I’ve had wrist problems. Hopefully, it clears up soon.

Getting to Svedala shifted the focus from injury to fitness. The place the club has secured for me, while more than adequate to my needs (or at least it will be once a few things get sorted out) is a bit outside of town – about a 20 minute walk to the main commercial area. Over the course of Sunday and Monday I spent about 2.5 hours in total walking for one reason or another. I walked everywhere while living in Exeter, but I was pretty centrally located then. The trips were frequent, and often involved hills, but they weren’t log. Even when I walked for exercise it was only in the 35 minute duration range.

So when I did a 1 hour round trip to go grocery shopping on Sunday, and then later had to walk to meet up with the three American players in the team for some pre-start discussions, I felt it.

The club has since provided me with a bike, which will definitely be handy for things like shopping and going to the train station (which is on opposite side of tow n from me). For the time being, though, I’m planning on sticking mainly to walking for the extra exercise. I could do with a major improvement to my overall fitness!

Pretty soon the exercise will also include trips to the fitness club the team has access to in town. I’m looking forward to that. All the computer time the last few years has me rather softer than I’d like.

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John Forman
John Forman

John is currently the Talent Strategy Manager (oversees the national teams) and Indoor Performance Director for Volleyball England, as well as Global Director for Volleyball for Nation Academy. His volleyball coaching experience includes all three NCAA divisions, plus Junior College, in the US; university and club teams in the UK; professional coaching in Sweden; and both coaching and club management at the Juniors level. He's also been a visiting coach at national team, professional club, and juniors programs in several countries. Learn more on his bio page.

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