How to save my Netherland?

  • I think the only mentality problem there is is with some people here (with all respect). Just have patience. Perhaps the Dutch girl will not make it to the world grand prix; have patience, perhaps they won't make it to London; have patience. When has panicing EVER helped a team?


    When human's see somethnig they attach to very dearly being put in danger, they tend to panic and attempt to controle the account by some kind of measure (i.e. "FIRE the coach!" (which I've actually heard people suggest here :P)). Accept that you do not have controle of the outcome. Perhaps the team will go to the olympics, perhaps they won't. Paradoxically, this is the mindset that teams have that evenetually DO end up going to the olympics.


    Do not worry about this team, they ARE really good and no single match can change this.


    Maybe you are toooooo confidence.
    Netherland is a good team.But they don't have a good coach!
    He don't know who to use!!!!!!
    Huurman is soooooo weak.Also Van Teien.
    And when Laura plays bad,he don't give Blansjar enough chance!!!

  • I could repeat almost everything I wrote after the game against Germany....What a HORRIBLE performance again....NO WORDS for such a SHAME!!!! Is THIS the way to fight for your LAST chance ??????? They play like a bunch of KINDERGARTENGIRLS


    I think they have a chronical mentallity-problem ---> very weak and inconsitent!


    You should be ASHAMED (Staelens, Flier, Huurman, Visser, van Tienen), except Wensink and the youngsters Grothues and Dijkema( because they do their utmost) And Selinger should be ASHAMED too because of BIG TACTICAL failures in PREPARATION, LINE-UP and SUBSTITUTIONS!!!!


    GAME OVER for WGP 2011!!!! Dutch NT simply DOESN'T deserve it !!!!


    Huurman, Staelens, van Tienen and even Visser: if you play like this, please RETIRE !!!!


    If Selinger don't want to talk after this SHAME, with Meijners, Buijs, Wijnhoven, Jans and other, he is a stubborn donkey!!!

  • I could repeat almost everything I wrote after the game against Germany.......the older players and Flier failed one by one....and Selinger failed as well....


    I think they have a chronical mentallity-problem ---> very weak and inconsitent!


    I think girls really need a new coach!
    Flier need Meijners or Lonneke!
    Huurman need to retire.
    Van should go back home.



    Or,there is another way:do not like Netherland anymore!
    Thus we won't be soooo sad and worried!!!!

  • You are fan of Dutch National Team and you don't know the right name?? Who is "Van" ???
    It's time to change a lot of things in NT


    Sorry, 'Van' is van Tienen.
    I think Selinger should train Schoot at the beginning of the year.But he didn't.

  • I think we're doing fine. Good work girls! I want to hug Huurman, van Tienen too, if she was prettier :P

  • The very first time, when I've heard something about Dutch NT, was in far 2003. There was going the European Championship, TV set was enabled. I was busy, haven't even watched the match, but a few times heard the weird name "Staelens". Don't know why, maybe because is sounded similar to " stal' ", which in Russian means "steel", or for some other reasons, but I memorized this name. Then the four years have passed, and in 2007, I've heard a story about the team from a country of cheese and tulips, which wanted to get to Olympic Games so badly, that had decided to fully devote themselves to achieving this high goal. I was looking through the list of the players and suddenly noticed the familiar name. Moreover, there were even two of them! Okay, I've thought, do I still remember the name just for no purpose? Maybe it worth to learn a little more about these orange dames? I've dug the Internet and found everything I could. About years of training together, about Martinus, about Avital Selinger. Also there were stories saying, that not too many people believed in the team and that money, got by players weren't high enough to pay for living. Then the victory in WGP happened. For me, all the story looked like the self-sacrifice in the name of the great goal. Something really close to the russian mentality. I was charmed. Watching and cheering for the Dutch team has obtained the new, much deeper meaning...


    Then Nightmare had come. Missing the World Cup 2007. Halle 2008 (this one I'll never forget). Missing the Pekin 2008. The last game of Martinus Amstelveen. The worst thing was not even missing the OG, but the decision to stop the club-NT project. Don't they understand, that this project was the only reason how Netherlands got so high in the world rankings, I asked myself. My god, I even wrote on the Martinus website the idea to ask the Russian Volleyball Federation to include the Dutch team into the country championship! Anything, but not stopping the project!


    Of course, at the same time I understood, it wasn't gonna happen just because players wanted to go to other clubs in the countries, where volleyball was more popular and where they could get the payment appropriate to their talents. Now the third year of living without the club-NT project starts. Good time to see what we have and what we have lost.


    First of all, I would like to express the hope, that all girls from the team are happy with their choices of clubs and countries. Especially I hope, that Debby was satisfied with her decision to go to Belgorod :) Also I congratulate Kim STAELENS(!) with becoming a mom! The timing wasn't very good, but it would surely never be good anyway with such kind of profession :)


    What Dutch volleyball had lost without possibility to get it back soon is a club, capable of playing in the Champions League. Now the players of the inner country competition do not have the access to the top class club tournament. Any of them, who will like to play at the highest level, have to leave the country.


    The National Team also suffers the significant drop of level. It happens even despite the fact, that coach and players are almost remained the same. There are two assumptions, why this could happened:
    First, the conditions have changed - girls don't play in the one team during the whole year anymore. But coach hasn't changed the system of training properly to adopt it to the new situation. Thus, from the well-tuned precise playing mechanism we've got the bunch of players, which can't compose anything working the right way.
    Second, the level of motivation is not self-sustaining anymore. While the club-NT project was on the go, the questions like "why am I doing this" couldn't appear even theoretically, because everybody were aware of the top goal the team leaps into. Now, when the "Road to Beijing" is closed with big disappointment, and the new one is not started, the motivation of the players should be carried out on the every-game basis.


    Objectively, what we see happening today with National Team, is turning back to its real condition. Small country with not numerous population and weak inner championship haven't got too much chances for the strong NT without using some kind of a cheat. Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, even having the great players, aren't really the first-class teams.


    So, "how to save ned's Nederland"? :)
    The actual answer is simple. Give the coach to do his job. Anyway we can do nothing with this. All decisions are made in NeVoBo. And, I'm sure, Avital Selinger fully understands the level of responsibility.


    But also there are non-actual fan's answers ;) Which can change nothing but help to make a conversations on the forum. Sometimes it can be funny to imagine yourself on the place of coach or NeVoBo's manager. Personally, I think, that physically, technically and tactically the team is in satisfactory conditions now. This is proved by the games against Japan on WGP 2010 and against Russia on QT WGP 2011. The only significant difference between these games and the other ones less successful, was the worse tuning of the team, or the bad psychological condition of the players, if you more like to put it that way. Those, who says, that only fans have a mentality problems are hmm... wrong. To understand why, it's enough to read a couple of articles about professional sport psychology. There volleyball is considered as the most psychologically strained team sport in the world. They operate with such values as, how much time the team needs to recover after the lost set, lost game. Or how long the team can maintain the high concentration level during the unsuccessful period of the set. Things get even more complicated, when it comes about tuning of the every single player. Etc., etc.,... the whole true science. So, if I was a coach, or head of federation, I would care to hire the full-time sport psychologist for the team.


    If talking about roster, I would surely add a substitution for Manon Flier. I think, the load, put on her, requires to have a little rest from time to time. Today's load, she carries, is just unfair.


    Generally, the way to save the team (except returning to club-NT) is to shake it up to achieve the "re-load of the program". How it can be done - hard question with more than one answer, some of which are not really pleasant.

  • Yeah very cool story :)


    However I don't see why everyone is making it so complicated? The reason Holland can't reach their 'normal level' (their best (which would be ECH I suppose)) is simply because Stealens isn't in the team. And also because Visser joined the team late. Don't make it more complicated than it is, accep this fact. It sucks, but hey.. a cool (or let's hope so) new human being has joined us on this planet and that's almost as cool as playing well at World Grand Prix qualifier.

  • Nice talking Lightmaster!


    Yeah very cool story :)


    Thanks :)



    Have I understood it right, there are still chances, Kim will play on WCH?



    However I don't see why everyone is making it so complicated?


    Simple explanations are obvious and easy but not interesting ;)
    Also, that one of yours isn't surely correct. Remember, the most important tournament (Halle 2008 ) was lost with Kim playing.

  • Have I understood it right, there are still chances, Kim will play on WCH?


    Yes. Kim wants to play on WCH. She will talk on monday with the federation-doctor and she would like to resume training on tuesday. It's all dependant of her physical situation ofcourse...we have to wait till the doctor and finally Selinger will decide.