(Sean Rosenthal), who just comes out and does it. And I’m not saying she can’t be- come better at it. But I just think she could work on getting better at other things with her right hand.”
She takes a breath, then continues. “But you know, April is always looking for something new, something fun, some- thing to challenge herself. She doesn’t want to get bored. And that makes for fun practices, for sure.”
oss, who will be 31 in June, has said repeatedly that she didn’t enjoy juniors indoor volleyball. In fact, she says she hated it. She played for Orange County Volleyball Club and the physical and men- tal stresses of four-hour practices four days a week along with the pressure to carry a big load in matches were draining. “I played high school sports, too, and I was just so tired, and I knew that each practice was going to be grueling, so I just dreaded going to practice,” she says. “But looking back, I think you have to have someone pushing you when you’re young. I hated it when I was doing it, but now I appreciate all the effort and time those coaches put in to make me the best volleyball player I could be. If they hadn’t done that, I probably wouldn’t be where I am today.”
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April Ross — Quick facts —
Along those lines, she doesn’t have much tolerance for excuses as to why a player should skip practice. “I think that’s one of the things Jen and I are really good at,” she says. “We will pretty much play no matter what. Jen has a sprained ankle, we’ll play. I have food poi- soning, we’ll play. And it’s not fun, but it’s what you gotta do.” She elaborates, saying that her message is not that you practice with an injury that could get worse — just that you don’t let minor bumps and bruises slow you down.
Another thing Ross remembers about juniors practices is that they always targeted all the skills. Every practice. And there was a clear purpose to everything that was being done. “We had goals,” she says. “We had num- bers we had to hit before we could get out of a drill – a certain number of perfect passes, a certain number of perfect hits into the corner. “It was a team thing, but I knew that we could be in practice forever if I didn’t carry my load and do the most for my team. That put a lot of pressure on me. And the same thing at tournaments. I knew I had to pass every ball perfectly. That was part of the reason I hated it. I felt so much pressure all the time. But it’s no different than now. I feel a ton of pressure now.
• Hometown: Costa Mesa, Calif. • Height: 6-1 • Birth date: June 20, 1982 • College: University of Southern California • Titles and notable finishes: NCAA cham- pionships at Southern California in 2002, 2003; 25 career beach titles (FIVB: 10 titles, Domestic: 15 titles); FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships (2009, Norway); Olym- pic silver medal (2012, London) • Awards: First-team NCAA All American (2002, 2003); AVP Rookie of the Year (2006); FIVB Top Rookie (2007); AVP Most Improved Player (2007); FIVB Best Hitter (2009, 2011); FIVB Best Offensive Player (2009); USA Volleyball Female Beach Player of the Year (2009); USAV Beach Team of the Year (2009, 2012 with Jen Kessy); FIVB Best Server (2011, 2012)
And I think now I can deal with it better, so I’m thankful for all that.”
P
art of dealing with the pressure is simply putting in the hours and making those hours count. Kessy says that Ross approaches each practice, each drill, each play the same way. “Every contact is important to her,” Kessy says. “If she shanks a ball, she’s really upset with herself.”
That intensity is evident when you read
Ross’ blog entries. They’re full of all kinds of suggestions, most of which could fall under this heading: Discipline yourself. She writes about skipping the sugar with your coffee, getting
CHEMISTRY: Jen Kessy (left) formed an Olympic silver-medal bond with April Ross in London in 2012.
your sandwich without cheese, sitting on a fitness ball at your desk, doing squats and crunches during commercial breaks, run- ning sprints on your day off, showing up at practice a half hour early.
All of this adds up when she mentions the influence of her father, Glen Ross, who she says would often tell her that “luck is when preparation meets opportunity.” And preparation for April extends beyond phys- ical workouts and skill training. Focus, for instance, is something she works to get better at.
“People today view being unfocused as a disability, but you have to practice it,” she says. “You have to practice being focused on each ball and knowing the importance of each ball.”
And the thing that Kessy mentioned,
the stuff about how Ross takes mistakes very seriously? Here’s how Ross expresses it in her blog: “Definitely, absolutely, never, ever laugh if you make a mistake.” To get a good grip on her mistakes-are-no- laughing-matter intensity, though, you need context. This isn’t something that she turns outward. Which is to say, she may sometimes be upset if a play doesn’t go right and it’s her partner’s fault, but she’s not going to have that look on her face that says to everybody, “Hey, that wasn’t my bad.”
“April never openly brings it on me, whether she thinks it or not,” Kessy says. “I’ve never seen that once, and that helps me play better. It gives me the freedom to make a
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PHOTO: FIVB
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