Studer Reflects On Stars and Stripes Experience Training With USA Volleyball
Hi! My name is Adriana Studer and I play for Milwaukee Sting 16 Gold. Over my winter break, I was invited to the USAV Holiday Training at the Olympic Training Center (OTC) in Colorado Springs. I was asked to share about a typical day at the camp and I thought it would be most interesting to see my experience through some photos to highlight this amazing experience.
The day after Christmas, I woke up early to drive to Chicago for our flight to Colorado Springs. My mom goes to CO twice a year for work so she joined me on this trip, and it was a fun surprise to see Coach Alyssa and some other girls on our flight. Once we landed, we drove to the OTC right away and it was amazing! This was my third experience with USAV but it was my first time at the OTC. (The last two summers I played with USAV in Florida and Oklahoma.) When we arrived at the OTC it was incredible to see! This first photo was when I arrived at check-in where I met Meredith who had sent many emails and it was nice to meet her. I was curious to see who my roommates would be and what the dorms looked like.
As soon as I walked in, I saw so many familiar faces and it was so fun to see everyone again! We had texted before we came and it was so great to be at this camp together with so many old and new friends. Then I walked into my dorm and I met my roommate, Maui, and her mom from Hawaii. This was her first time at USAV and so my mom and the four of us talked for awhile about how much she’s going to like it, trying to help them both feel more comfortable. Then Alexa Markley came into the room and it was nice to see her again. We were on the same USA team last year and we attended some of the same college camps too. I really liked my roommates and we bonded over the five days we were together. Some of us took this quick pic in the dorms and then it was time to unpack and go to lunch. The cafeteria was amazing! There were so many great options for healthy food and everything that I had tasted so good. Every meal (except breakfast) ended with a trip to the frozen yogurt machine, and we all loved that!
Now we were ready for our first training session and I was really looking forward to it. We got to meet our coaches: Keegan Cook (University of Washington), Alyssa D’Errico (University of Dayton), Trent Kersten (Texas Christian University), Alex Dunphy (USC), and Eric Barber (Cal Poly). I was so excited when I saw the list of our coaches and that was a big part of the reason I wanted to come. I knew that I would learn so much and this was a great way to start my club season. The last two summers I have gotten to know Alyssa and she is so fun! She has taught me a lot about being a better defensive player and I was excited to learn more from her and the other coaches. I also follow college volleyball so I saw Coach Keegan Cook and his team have such a successful season and I was looking forward to learning from him too. I got to know Trent a bit at USAV in the summer and hoped to learn more from him. When Alex and Eric introduced themselves I was so excited to work with them all and realized how lucky we were to have such a great group of coaches working with us. It’s one of those moments where I felt that I was there for a reason and I wanted to get all that I could out of this! When we got to the gym we warmed up and then we split into positionals. Alyssa was the coach helping liberos and I was so excited about that because I respect her as a player and coach and want to learn more. There were five liberos at the camp and we started working on things right away. We ended the session by playing as a group and there were 36 girls at the camp. We took this selfie at the end of our first training and it was a great start to the week!
I was asked to describe a typical day at the camp and so I’ll share about our first full-day at the OTC. The alarms in our room went off around 7 AM so that we could walk over to breakfast around 8 AM. It’s only about a five-minute walk to the cafeteria and gym and it was actually warmer than normal in CO. We didn’t even wear coats and we were amazed by the views that we saw. The afternoon we arrived was so busy getting settled that I did not realize the perfect view of Pike’s Peak from the OTC! It’s amazing and we all took pics since it was a clear and sunny day.
Our first film session was from 9-9:30am and I was excited that it was about passing! A USA coach was talking about serve receive and passing and I learned so much. She reminded us how important the first contact is so that we can run a strong offense at USA speed. A few more points that she made included having a simple and quiet platform, and holding early angles. She also talked in-depth about communication and how important that is to communicate early and often for serve receive and passing. This is something that I have really worked on and it was great to hear even more tips and ideas of how to do that. Film sessions were so helpful and some other days we heard from Karch Kiraly and Jordan Larson by phone- and a LIVE facetime with Megan Courtney (Team USA’s libero)! That was amazing!!!
Our next training session was from 9:30-11am and we all met in the gym. We started by warming up with therabands and then splitting into positions. I wish you could hear and see the energy of these girls in the gym. It’s why I love USA volleyball because everyone brings their best effort and so much love for the game. We learned to always have three voices on every serve receive ball. And even if you can’t get your body there you can still set the right angle with enough spacing for you to get the ball to target. After we broke down our passing skills we went into more competitive drills where we could apply what we learned in gameplay. Positionals really helped me slow things down and focus only on my platform and footwork. Then the coaches called us together and it was time to break for recovery and lunch. I decided to go to the recovery room with Kennedy and Katie because it helps prevent us from getting sore. They had NormaTec leg sleeves that help flush the lactic acid out and this really helped my legs feel good after long sessions.
When we were in the cafeteria, my friends and I were looking for a place to sit and we saw Katie Ledecky! She was having lunch with the Stanford swim and dive team and I realized again how cool it is that we get to train here, where Olympians are made. All of us noticed her and it was a cool moment that kept happening when we saw her every day. I had a healthy lunch of fresh turkey on a bagel and we all enjoyed the food that was offered here. We wish it was this easy to eat healthy at home with so many options prepared and ready for you. After lunch, we had some time in the dorms, and it was fun to get together with many of the girls and just laugh and rest. Sometimes we made TikToks and watched Netflix, and other times we just rested for a bit.
From 2:45-3:30pm we had our next video session, so we walked over as a big group. At this session we learned about serving and Coach Keegan showed us video clips of Jordan Larson serving and how she had the same routine every time. He also spoke about having a relentless serve, attacking seams and assertive serves to space. This is the only skill in the game that you have full control over. My goal is to be consistent and to keep working on my serve, and it was cool to see the actual Olympic team’s film. I am a libero so I do not get to serve when I am competing at USAV because they play with international rules. But at my club and high school, I want to be an aggressive and competitive server, and I got to work on this at the camp.
Our third training session was at 3:30pm and went until 6pm. In this session, we played together as a group rather than the positional training from the morning. This was so fun to see all of the pieces start to come together. The hitters were working on their routes, which allowed us to start getting into more real games and more competitive play. When we left the gym we were all so hungry and we enjoyed an amazing dinner. I had a huge plate of pasta (carbs) so I’d be ready for the next day. We all went back to our dorms to shower and everyone was sprinting because we all share 8 showers. Evenings in the dorms were always a fun time to chill and get to know each other more. We had a TV in our room that was already logged in to Netflix so that was fun until we fell asleep.
I wanted to make sure that I could explore the campus before the week was over so on the second to last day a group of us walked around and saw all of the different sports/areas and I took the panoramic below. It is such an incredible place and we also got a chance to stop by the gift shop and buy a few things. As I walked the halls it was cool to think that many Olympians walked these same halls and what an honor it is to compete for our country.
The week flew by and I couldn’t believe that it was almost over. On our final day we were able to scrimmage for two hours and parents came to watch. The energy in the gym was amazing and I remember thinking to myself how special this experience is and how thankful I am. I didn’t want it to be over but I am so thankful for all that I learned and for how I grew as a player and person. I look forward to seeing these girls at tournaments this season and I know that we’ll always keep in touch. I am a better player from the things that I learned and I can’t wait to bring that into my club season. I want to be a great teammate and to keep pushing myself and learning. I can’t thank these coaches enough for pushing, teaching and believing in me. I’m grateful for another chance to represent USA with these amazing players and coaches and I’m so thankful for all they poured into me.