lioubov sokolova kilic

    hi everyone


    wel since i started practicing volleyball i've only been atracted by men's volleyball, but since i had the chance to watch some of matches of world cupp and worldgranprix99 i discovered her ; liouba kilic ( name in italy).
    it's just amaizing to see how a women player could dojust everything well, i mean she spikes verry well from all positions( left and right sides: midlle , backrow attacks and she also has one of the most ebautifull slides attacks).
    she is i think of the best recievers in the world and she 's a strong server and a good blocker wel she just know how to do everything.
    since 2002 i watched alot of her games aroudn european ligues and she really did great , since she arraived in italy she did a great job on bergamo team, i remember teh final of ligua 2004 against novara gara , bergamo was loosing the match 24/19 in the third set and liouba called the setter zhukova and said : give me all the balls and bergamo won the set and the match and i'd never forget that match,.
    but during the periode that carpol was the coach of russia he didn't use here well, and since caprara arrived russia is building a new game and in my oppinion liouba was the mvp of the worldchampionships in japan and she is also the exmple of players that actual players should try to become i mean being a universal one.
    so what do you think?

    In my opinion Sokolova (she's not known as Kilic here), is the best player in the world, and I think that not only because she's a global player, but also because she is a awesome global player, she's good in all the attack positions.
    I've never seen her play in person, but I hope doing so, because she's amazing!

    wel i've also never met her i only wtach here playing on tv but it would sucha great dream to see here playing.
    but i had the pleasure to chat some with here last year and she is really a nice and friendlly person.

    Quote from "bluseter"

    wel i've also never met her i only wtach here playing on tv but it would sucha great dream to see here playing.
    but i had the pleasure to chat some with here last year and she is really a nice and friendlly person.


    you will miss her like no other; she surpassed her comtemporaries in her ability to play wing spiker, opposite and MD and she excelled in these positions

    She's definitely great! Her only deffect is that she's not Brazilian!

    Short interview with Ljuba, Katja and Natalia. (After Russian Cup final). Ljuba is funny and spontaneous as usual. :)


    http://video.sportbox.ru//Vide…1230_gamova_safronov_i_so


    The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself. (Oscar Wilde).

    Quote from Nick

    Short interview with Ljuba, Katja and Natalia. (After Russian Cup final). Ljuba is funny and spontaneous as usual. :)


    http://video.sportbox.ru//Vide…1230_gamova_safronov_i_so


    Thanks for the interview! :)


    In my opinion Ljuba is the best player of the World. When she is physically ok, she is stronger than Aguero, Gamova, Ruiz, Mireya Luis, Artamonova... or any other player of the World. No doubt about that.

    Quote from elisa

    Lyuba...I just love this SuPer pLaYeR like crazy.
    For me, she is the world most perfect player...she shines in anywhere of the court.


    Yes,the reason why I love the volleyball is her.After 2004 final match,I cried because Lyuba lost her best chance to win the gold medal!

    Quote from samba player

    In my opinion Ljuba is the best player of the World. When she is physically ok, she is stronger than Aguero, Gamova, Ruiz, Mireya Luis, Artamonova... or any other player of the World. No doubt about that.

    I haven't seen her strenght in 2007, but on the other years, certainly, her technique was impressive and she's the most valuable... If she plays with that passion on the OG, Russia has a BIG chance to be on the final at least :roll:

    Quote from samba player

    In my opinion Ljuba is the best player of the World. When she is physically ok, she is stronger than Aguero, Gamova, Ruiz, Mireya Luis, Artamonova... or any other player of the World. No doubt about that.

    You bet it! Lyuba is marvellous. Even her personality, friendly, kind and down to earth.

    Yes she is a very attractive player, in her looks as well as her style of play. She's seems to have some kind of calm over her at all times and she seems like the one that's having the most fun on the Russian squad. I believe that the reason why the Russians tend to lose finals even though they often have the best players, is their lack of emotion. Some how the Russians seem to try and control their emotions or deny them, which the succeed at, till the tension mounts. Your emotional state dictates the way you play (check out the Brazzilians for instance). It should be given the space to roam free and not be surpressed.


    I don't think the Russians would've won the world cup without someone like Sokolova. I don't think they would've won yesterday's final either without her. She's unique, but especially unique if you regard the other Russians. The men also need to have a charismatic person like her that will not panick in the 5th set, but will play his best volleyball exactly in those moments.


    Oh and with regards of emotions, please don't mention Roger Federer and his calm. He's an anomoly, he's not human, he's an exception. Especially in team sports you should feed off of each other's emotions. These emotions should come from within and should not be a reaction on the environment (e.g. Oh no we're losing).

    She proved just yesterday how important she is for the russian team.
    Lyuba is not like a real russian (concerning the vball team) maybe because she played so much abroad and has now a different mentality. I like her, definitely my favourite russian player



    (ah and some Offtop about roger federer, he is not as calm as he seems. i remember times when he crushed his racquets and went mad. And that prevented him from bigger success, now that he learned to control himself, he grew as a player.)

    Where did you get the idea, HeeelMooi, that Russian players are not calm and can't control emotions? Maybe our men's team can not, but that isn't true about our women's team. Russian female NT has the strongest fighting spirit. Did you forget 24x19? In the same match in the tie we were also losing and won. In the last WCH 06 we got crushed in the first set, were losing 23x21 in the second - and ended up winning - and turned from a 13x11 disadvantage to win the gold. There are more examples...


    I hate this kind of generalisation. Where did you get the idea "we tend end to lose finals"? Did you forget how many gold medals we have? People have this tendency to think that if you lose - and even more if you were winning before - that you chickened out, but that is not always true. In 2000 Cuba was just an amazing team and had an incredible fighting spirit, and they were also physically very strong and conditioned, which helped them in a 5 sets battle. Our team wasn't better than their's, and we lost because we had an adversary which was on our league, and it could had gone both ways. Just because we were leading 2x0 that doesn't necessarily mean we lost because of our emotions. That's taking away the merit of our adversary, which was AS GOOD as Russia was.


    In 2004 our team had some OBVIOUS FLAWS. Our setter was a much worse Sheshenina than she is today - and even today she isn't espetacular, by any means - we didn't have Godina, Artamonova was not in good shape, and was not even playing, Karpol style of playing was not doing us good anymore, etc and etc. It is not like we were the best team and lost only because of our "weak mind". China is a very dangerous and annoying team - with their speed and digs - and they managed to explore our weakness. Again, the 2x0 lead was just a CIRCUNSTANCE of the match. When you have in mind the poor condition of our team in 2004 - the semi final was a miracle - it is a great feat the fact we managed to grab the silver medal.


    Actually, 2004 - the semi final more than anything - just proves our girls heart and strong mind. You are confusing things, we didn't lose the gold medal, we won the silver in 2004 - even though that was one of my strongest frustrations ever.


    If you want to talk about today, we have the best spikers in the world, by far, but our team isn't the best, like you say. We improved a lot since 2004, but some of the flaws I mentioned before are still there, and they hinder us. You can't compare us to Brazil, they do have a VERY weak mind, but our women do not.


    One last thing, just because we don't celebrate like morons when we score a point - like some teams do - that doesn't mean we are not interested in the game or that we are "trying to deny our emotions". That's just like how Eastern Slavs are, each people has his own mindset and way of thinking, and it works best to them. You can't expect Russian team to behave like Brazilians do. The two people have NOTHING in common. Plus, "showing off your emotions" does not always help you. Brazilian men's team is like that, and it works very well for them, but it doesn't work well for the women's team of Brazil, so this is not a winning formula.


    Botton line is, just because you lose, that doesn't mean you have a weak mind. Sometimes it is true, sometimes it is not.


    Nastja,


    Actually, Gamova is our most decisive player, by far. Obviously it is Sokolova who is the leader of the team, but Gamova is more decisive. WCH final and yesterday's match prove this. I agree with you about her importance - leadership, coolness, etc - but in terms of scoring when it is required, I would rather pick Gamova over her.


    And by the way, Federer is almost non-human. He is very calm yes, at least today. I don't know 5 years ago, but today he is very cold.

    actually i think HeeelMooi said something totally different...
    In my opinion he wrote about the russian players that they control their emotions, try not to show how they feel etc. And Sokolova (or however u wanna call her) is different. Since the topic is mainly about sokolova and not about the russian team.


    "celebrate like morons"....
    Russkii, i dont like your tone at all and not since this post....

    Well, he said Russian players lose because of they lack emotion, so I think I understood him right.


    I meant teams who celebrate each point like if they had won OG gold medal, jumping, screaming, running around the court, too much hysterical. And what you mean "not since this post"? From before?

    Russkii,


    I must admit that I didn't look over all the Russian's results and you do have some intersting examples there. I was mainly talking about the men's Russian team though, who I believe to have the best players, but do not seem to win as many finals as they could. Sure they face some strong teams, but they do not play their best volleyball in those moments. I know it is a quite serious generalization to say that Russians control their emotions, but if we didn't, we simply would have nothign to talk about here. And like Nastja said, you misunderstood me, humans are incapable of 'having no emotions'. Emotion comes before ration and reason as far as I'm concerned. My observation was that Russians seem to controle their emotions (their are exceptions and it seems to be getting less). I think it is very hard to play against a superior emotionless team, but when facing an equal or better opponent this controling of emotions seems to fail, because negative emotions seem hard to deny. But this is interesting, perhaps the players should either learn to express their feeling positively at all time, or completely control them at all time, even when things aren't looking too good.


    Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Russian volleyball and this is why I believe they should look into this. I'm not suggestig to be a carbon copy of Brazil, but to just show the emotion that they feel. Actually I like Gamova, she seems to not give a shit about what anyone thinks of her and does everything her own way. She is completely different then Lyuba, but she doesn't seem to be surpressing anything.


    And yeah last thing off topic, Federer did used to be out of control, but for him this calm seems to work a lot better. I don't think he's controling his emotions though, I think he stabalised them and hence does not feel them (the negative angry ones).


    Finally, you said: 'Botton line is, just because you lose, that doesn't mean you have a weak mind.' I agree and I hope you understood that this was not the point I was trying to make, otherwise reread my first post. I don't really know what a weak mind is btw, but I do believe that mental state has a lot to do whether you win or lose. That is: the meaning you ascribe to events that happen on court.

    I see your point, and I definetely agree about the CURRENT men's team.


    Anyway, don't think I was offended or something. Forums are good just for that: discussing. I was merely giving my perspective on the psychological power of our women's team. As for not showing emotions - which is different from not being able to handle pressure in the important moments - it is true, but that's how Russians are, you can't change that.