PHOTO: DON LIEBIG
NOTEBOOK
The conversation Nicole Davis After a bazillion digs, many of them spectacular, two-time Olympic libero calls it a career L
ive or on YouTube, it was always a treat to watch U.S. Women’s National Team libero Nicole Davis redirect a volleyball, either by dig or by pass. Sometimes, it was a pancake that made you rub your eyes. Other times, it was her standing in, all 5-4 ½ of her, against a blast by a top international attacker and popping up a settable ball. And then there were those full-on, blazing sprints, where she would catch up to a ball way, way off the court and whack it with one-arm back to her teammates, or even over the net.
It was all great stuff, and it will surely be missed. Following three concussions over the past 2 ½ years, the 33-year-old from Stockton, California, has decided to retire and move on to a still-to-be-determined career in the business world. VolleyballUSA caught up with her recent- ly to get her thoughts on an 11-year international career that included two Olympic silver medals (2008, 2012), a historic gold medal at last year’s FIVB World Championship and a whole lot of fabulous plays.
olleyballUSA: Was retirement something you had been thinking about for awhile?
V
N.D.: Yeah. I had a third concussion in Janu- ary (while playing in France with Le Cannet). My head hit the back of a teammate as we were diving for a ball. It wasn’t a hard impact, but I ended up having a pretty bad concussion and was out for a couple of weeks. And I had two con- cussions in 2013 that put me out for the whole summer. It was just alarming to me how easily I could be concussed again.
What were the after effects of your fi rst two concussions?
The fi rst was in March of 2013. I was playing in Dresden (Germany) at the time, and we had a man that would come as a practice player, and he got a tight set and crushed it and got me in the face. I don’t often get hit in the face playing de- fense. I had a delayed reaction. It didn’t set in for two hours, but I had a mind-numbing headache, shortness of breath and sensitivity to light and sound. I was in bed for fi ve days. And one of the problems that we all face when we play overseas is that we just don’t have the sports medicine staff that we do on the national team. So I came back from that concussion way too early. I was still symptomatic. That defi nitely didn’t help.
And then you had another concussion shortly afterward? When I got back to the National Team in
May, I collided with a player; she was behind me and I was diving for a ball and her knee hit my head. It wasn’t necessarily a really hard impact, but from that fi rst concussion my brain was really sensitive. And after those back-to-
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back concussions, I didn’t feel like myself. I was emotional and moody. I went through some depression – not in a clinical sense – but I wasn’t waking up motivated, and I’m a self-motivated type of person. I’ve always been excited to go into the gym and be with the team and work out. Emotionally, it was like I was on a rollercoaster and I couldn’t fi gure out how to get out of it. By the end of the summer, I was starting to feel kind of normal again, but it was a diffi cult summer.
It sounds like your decision to retire was mostly about your long-term health.
That’s one of the primary reasons. And I would say equally as much [of a factor] is, it’s been 11 years of being away from my family. We’re overseas 200 to 250 days a year. My grandmother’s turning 80 this year and my mom turned 60, and I cherish my relationships with both of them. When I would get ready to leave, they used to say, ‘Go get em, Tiger. Can’t wait to see you when you get home.’ And lately it’s been, ‘Do you have to go?’ That’s been tough.
Anybody who wants to see what
a great defensive player you are can go to YouTube and watch “The Best of Nicole Davis.” Lots of amazing digs in that video. Do you smile when you watch it?
A fan of mine in Brazil actually made that video. It’s cool. Brazil has been our rival since the begin- ning of time, and at times they’ve been a monkey on our back, so it’s special for me that a fan in Brazil thinks so much of me to spend that much time (making the video). He went through hours and hours of video. When people ask me about my greatest memories, it’s not so much about volleyball plays, it’s about the girls who I battled with and have deep friendships with. So it’s nice to go back and see some of the volleyball plays that were memorable.
Digging heat is another specialty of yours. What’s important when you’re trying to play a ball that a player has absolutely ripped?
On the national team, our philosophy for digging hard-
driven balls is just to get it up in the air and off the net. We’re not by any means trying to be perfect with that ball. It’s pretty hard to control. Also, being balanced and in a good position and being able to take a step in the right direction of the attack is important. Digging a hard-driven ball is a lot about just being courageous and putting your body in position to touch it. We call it ‘manning up.’ And we just like to be in a good position to touch it, with our palms facing up so the ball defl ects in the area that you present with your hands and arms.
You’ve talked about how important mental
strength is for people who play libero. What’s your advice to up-and-coming players on how to develop that mental focus?
Focus is a habit; the ability to refocus is a skill. So you can train it. On the national team, we work with a sports psychologist. Not every- one has the luxury of doing that, but I think you want to spend time trying to catch your thoughts and directing them back to where they need to be. Awareness is the fi rst key, and it’s diffi cult to become aware of your own thoughts. But once you do, then you can start directing your thoughts the right way. We only get one thought at a time, so if we can direct thoughts in the right
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