So You're Saying There's a Chance

As many of you know by now, Canada is going to the Olympics in Beach Volleyball. Both men and women won the NORCECA Continental Cup in Mexico not too long ago (No thanks to a certain technical supervisor who is constantly trying to screw us over), and so we have not one, but two teams that will go to represent the maple leaf in London. With less than a month before the Opening Ceremonies, there remain but 2 teams per gender vying for that honor, Christian and I being one of those teams. One match, winner takes all, who could ask for a better opportunity?

Saturday, July 7th at Ashbridges Bay
Heather Bansley and Liz Maloney vs. Annie Martin and Marie-Andree Lessard at 1pm EST
Ben Saxton and Christian Redmann vs. Josh Binstock and Martin Reader at 3pm EST

I think I've gotten more words of support and encouragement these last couple weeks than ever before in my career. If all goes well, I'll have even more over the next month. Thanks to all the social media sites these days, I get to see each and every personal message. If you have made or will make a comment for me somewhere, it will be read by me, that's a promise.

This blog is basically a mass thank you. I've already heard from cousins, teammates, coaches, old high school friends, even people I've never met, and I feel your support now, and will continue appreciating it as my careers moves along. I want to be the best, and it really helps to have the best supporters along the way.
So thank you to all past, present, and future followers.

But a special thank you to the sponsors and other parties who have given me direct support with money and product to help me in every way they can. You can find a link to all of the following on the right:
The Volleydome
Overkill and Canuckstuff
CANFund
Oakley sunglasses
Mikasa
KT Tape

I do what I do because I love to do it, and all your support make me love it that much more.

Cheers,
Ben Jammin

Back to Life

It seems we've finally found our will. Our will to fight. Our will to work harder. Our will to win. Heck, it seems I've even found my will to blog after a month of not doing so (sorry bout that). I won't bore you or upset myself by speaking of the 3 events we didn't qualify, and just skip ahead to the good stuff in Prague. We battled with good teams, and we won third sets against good teams. Two birds with one stone. We were one win away from cracking the top 10 for the first time, but considering our recent finishes, a 13th is definitely a step in the right direction. And the fact that we're getting some good wins now is a good sign of things to come.

What's coming up you might ask? Well I'll tell you. Next month yields two more Grand Slams, in Russia and Italy, and the Continental Cup, in Mexico. Seeing as our future tournaments for the year are somewhat dependent on those events, therein lies our focus for the current week of training in Toronto. 

Unfortunately, whether from the travel or the sun or food or whatever, I've come down with some sort of bug and my stomach has been flip-flopping for the past couple days, keeping me near the porcelain throne. Who gets sick while coming home from travel? Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?

Fortunately, it happened during an off-week, so I'll be good to go with plenty of time before we head out to the Motherland. But anyone offering to spoon feed me chicken soup will not be turned down.

I'll close off here with a few awesome pictures taken in Prague by Jon Schachter, father of Sam.

Cheers,

Ben Jammin

The Captain has Turned on the Seatbelt Sign

Airports and travel, we did not miss you, though we are quickly becoming reacquainted. Especially with consecutive legs of the tour in Brasil, Poland, and China. Even with the increase in mileage requirements, I think we'll still get our Aeroplan Gold Status for next year. Especially after all the connections through Toronto we have this year.

Christian catches some z's in the airport

For instance, just this last weekend between Brasilia and Poland:

Brasilia -> Sao Paolo: 1.5 Hours

Layover in Sao Paolo: 2 Hours

Sao Paolo -> Toronto: 10 Hours

Layover in Toronto: 12 Hours

Toronto -> Frankfurt: 6 Hours

Layover in Frankfurt: 4 Hours

Frankfurt ->Katowice: 1.5 Hours

Katowice - Airport -> Hotel: .5 Hours

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Grand Total: 37.5 Hours

That's a full day and a half. And for a relatively big guy like myself, (I say relatively, because on tour it's more like average) airplanes are not the most comfortable of places to be, unless i can snag an upgrade to first class, which so far this year has not been very easy. Add a little jetlag to the whole mix, and it reminds me why travel is just so gosh darn fun (I shouldn't need to, but I'm going to go ahead confirm that that was in fact sarcasm.)

If only we had an airline sponsor....(hint hint wink wink nudge nudge)

But after all that, here we are in Poland a few days later, mostly recovered from the trip, and ready to qualify for another main draw tomorrow. Another two wins will do it, and hopefully this time we can get a few more after that.

To close, here's a picture from games in Brasilia that I thought was funny. Kids at home, see if you can replicate this one.

Cheers,

Ben Jammin