Over the years I have used a personal journal as a mental training tool, writing down my thoughts to help me find the proper perspective in order to stay on the right track. My latest entry was during the flight home from Norway yesterday and after reading it again today, I decided that what I wrote (although it was somewhat personal) would make a decent topic for a blog entry. So I edited some lines to make it more readable and have posted it here. 

If I was younger and stupider, I probably would have decided to play in Norway. The injury to my calf is quite minor, but on the day before the main draw began it wasn't feeling 100% ready. I just didn't feel safe enough to push off with the explosiveness needed to compete at full tilt. Yes, I probably could have gotten through the tournament without re-injuring it, but was it worth the risk? Experience tells me... absolutely not.

It was one of the toughest volleyball decisions that I have had to make. Consider the circumstances; we had travelled all the way from Canada for this Grand Slam event, we had missed the Paris Grand Slam the week before, we had a main draw berth for this event, our Olympic Ranking of 16 drops every time we miss a tournament (especially a Grand Slam), we were guaranteed Grand Slam prize money, and my partner Ahren is chomping at the bit to compete. You can see why most athletes would choose to play anyway. And believe me, I was quickly reminded of how easy it is to go against your better judgement, and make the risky decision to play through the injury. I remember doing just that several times during the last Olympic qualification period, and regretting it each and every time. We (either myself or my former partner John Child) always ended up re-aggravating the injury or tweaking some other area of our body from all the compensation that occurs when you are protecting an injured body part. This time I wasn't buckling under the pressure.

So, while every other team went to sleep Wednesday night preparing for their first round matches the next morning, we packed our bags and prepared for our early morning flight back home. It was a pretty crummy feeling leaving an event without accomplishing anything you had come there to do, and I'm sure it was even more frustrating for Ahren, who is healthy and ready for competition. But for me, I knew it was the right call and it felt good to have the discipline to finally make that kind of decision, despite the circumstantial pressures. For me, that was a new level of thinking and it's empowering to think bigger picture and stay committed to long-term Olympic goals. 

So where does that leave us? Well, the Olympic ranking and the results over in Norway are out of our hands, and there is no use putting much energy into worrying about that. So rather than concerning ourselves with what's happening across the Atlantic, we will put all our energy into what's right here, on our own plates. That includes maintaining a good attitude, staying patient, staying solid as a team, appreciating good health, and zoning in on what makes us play with that competitive edge and that winning mentality. Those are the things that we do have control over, and if we can do that well, results and Olympic ranking will naturally follow.