Page 13 - On the Road to the Canada Winter Games

ISSUE : Issue 44

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1987/1/1

the game. It's my strength, and my hands and my legs. So I'm not really worried a- bout my face. (I'm interested in how physical a sport volleyball turns out to be.) It's really physical • You have to be in good shape. Be? cause some matches go on for maybe hours, I remember one match against Saskatchewan that went 2% hours. There's no time limit. So you really have to be fit, and be ready to play at any time. (Or for any time.) Or for any time, yeah. The first team to reach 15 points, And you have to win by 2. (And it can go on indefinitely, theoreti? cally.) Yes. (Has there ever been anyone said to you, "This really isn't a sport for a young lady"?) A lot of people have said that to me. But I just don't really pay any atten? tion to them, because I like the sport, and I like playing against other people. They ask me why I got involved in a sport that really no one knows about. Or why I decided volleyball, because it seems to be a violent sport. Especially when the other team is bigger than you are and can hit harder. But I don't really bother with them, I just tell them that I like the game. Just going to stick with my own thoughts. People say, "Well, you should be involved in another sport, because it's just not you." Like, people look at young girls and say they shouldn't be involved in basket? ball or floor hockey because it's physical sport. But the way I look at it, I like the sport, so I'm going to play it. When I'm in the gym, I really don't think about what other people are doing. Just the main girls that are on the team, and how I can help them and how they can help me. And after practice, if it's a good practice, then I feel good, and I walk out and go in and get changed, and I feel good about myself. But if it's a bad practice, I just--usually other people help me and try to calm me down a bit, because I get really upset, (All in all it's pretty important to you.) Yeah, it is. It's real important to me. (And you're looking forward to the Winter Games?) Oh, I can't wait. It's going to be so much fun. We're up against some pretty hard competition. But I think, if we work at it hard, and the whole team pulls to? gether, I think we can get first. If we try hard enough. Weightlifting Jim Dan Corbett, Scotchtown, will be competing in the weightlifting challenge that will determine who will represent Nova Scotia at the Canada Winter Games. His grandfather and trainer, Harry Corbett, was coach of the 1983 Winter Games Weightlifting Team, and Jim Dan's uncle, Paul Corbett, was a bronze medal winner in weightlifting that year. We visited the family gjnii in New Waterford, Jim Dan's grandmother, Lorna Corbett, told us: "Jim Dan was 5 years old, and he took to it like a duck takes to water. He just went to it: no prodding, no encouragement. And that throws out the myth about children not being able to lift, that they get injured. You can see he's in A-1 condition... because of the proper coach." it overhead, they get the feel of having their arms overhead. Harry Corbett: (At 5 years old, what was the plan?) My plan--what I did with them, I didn't read out of a book, I just did it on instinct. The way I do it, I teach"them how--the proper way. The first thing they lift--and they might have that maybe for months--a broomstick. And they lift the broomstick, which weighs nothing. But when they lift the broomstick, they get the bar coming up in a groove, and then I get them to press it over their heads. And they get used to- that broomstick coming up in a slot or a groove, whatever. Then to press Then I have 1%-pound plates. I put 3 pounds on the broomstick, take them with that. And then I take 3-pound plates. And then they have 6 pounds, Once they get just the pull from the floor to the chest-- it' s to leam the proper technique. And then just to press the bar over the head. Lorna Corbett: And he did this with our cfaughters, our granddaughter. They love it. CONTINUED NEXT PAGE (13)

Cape Breton's Magazine