Environment

The environment that athletes play in can change the way they perform. All tournaments have different environments to play in. Qualifiers are large with thousands of people at them. These tournaments consist of college coaches everywhere, up to 100 courts, family members surrounding the court. These tournaments are so official it makes it seem like us athletes are very important. These tournaments I feel like pump up the athlete/athletes to perform well and do the best they can. Where some tournaments like into tournaments or just in a gym doesn't pump up the athlete as much. In these tournaments they don't receive a bag tag or a tag to put around their neck to be able to get in the tournament. These you don't stay at hotels and hangout with your team the hole weekend. They are fun, but the competition isn't the same like it would be at a qualifying tournament. These teams at qualifiers are elite players and are going to big colleges to do big things and then at these smaller tournaments the players just aren't the same. Everything is so much slower, but it is good to work on some more complicated offense and to better your ball control.

I also think that the qualifiers environment helps make the player perform better, because colleges are there to watch and decide which player could fit their school the best. This makes a kid want to perform and do really well, because they might not ever get the same opportunity again. These athletes want to play college volleyball, so being treated so official in these tournaments make them think they are already at that level. I love how there are so many people in the convention center and college coaches are everywhere is pretty freaking cool to me. I like how loud I have to talk to have my hitters hear me. When the tournament is over and my voice is gone, is when I know I worked really hard at that tournament. The excitement of every play is better and more fun than what I have ever experienced. These tournaments make volleyball so much fun and one of the major reasons why I love the sport so much.