Gratitude

Today was eventful and full of most of the stuff that I love. It started off with going to school, finding out that I ended the 1st Semester with a 4.4 GPA! After school, I went straight to my varsity softball practice. It was our first practice of the year and it went surprisingly well! We started off with a long throwing warm-up and then we continued into infield. I love hearing the crack of the bat, my team yelling where to throw the ball, and that nice, crisp smack of the ball hitting the baseman's glove. Softball is such a great sport that I hope to continue with for the rest of my highschool career and maybe longer. I then sped over to volleyball conditioning which started at 6:15 and went until 7:30! I really use my volleyball conditioning to take my chance and lead the whole volleyball club that consists of around 100 girls, even though only half of them usually show up. After the conditioning part ended, it was the night for the 16's, 17's (my team), and 18's teams to stay and have one big skills practice. Since it is was skills practice, we start by really getting our arms very warm and then sticking to one focus of the night. Tonight happened to be serve recieve practice. I love passing serve recieve because I am a setter, and setters never get to pass serve recieve! It feels like a natural motion to me and I love feeling the ball hit my platform, passing the ball perfectly to the setter. We ended the night with a great, intense game of fast ball that went on and on. There were so many great rally's and I am so pround of everyone working so hard tonight. I love having these practices because it has everyone playing with all different ages and variations. This is why I fit gratitude into my daily life and sports!

Gratitude is the quality or feeling of being grateful or thankful. It is an emotion that occurs after people recieve help, depending on how they interpret the situation. Giving thanks is not just made to do on Thanksgiving. It should be used daily! What I've noticed is that when I put gratitude into my daily practice, it has made me a happier and healthier person! I researched facts about gratitude and I came across an interesting thought. The American Psychological Association discovered that grateful teens are happier individuals. And is result, teenagers that express gratitude are better behaved in school, are more helpful, show more respect to adults and peers, and also have more energy toward taking on life's everyday challenges. For the past year, I have really stepped up and taking on more challenges. Whether it's school, extracuricular activities, or sports, I take the challenge of making myself and other people the best we can all be. Gratitude can be such an easy thing in every situation like... Write a letter or a note to your parents, teacher, siblings, best friend, mentor, etc. If you teammate does something good, give them some affection and show them that you are there and that you guys are family. No one should go a practice without getting praised with something they did right. Comes to think of it... I don't think I have ever gone through a practice without someone not getting praised by either another teammate or a coach. Show compassion for others. "Gratitude unlocks the fullness in life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend."

One thing I like to do after I workout is reflect upon my workout with constructive evaluation. It is always a good thing to reflect upon what you did well. I always remember after my practices the things I do well, the things I do wrong, and what I learned from it. It helps you reflect upon what you can refine or improve. Take out the important lessons from each experience and target your areas of improvement. My favorite thing that comes out of my constructive evaluation is me assessing the role of my commitment, attitude, metal readiness, and my focus. I feel as if this is the biggest part of reflecting my performance because I can put so much thought into it. It really reminds me of how I have the mindset of a champion and nothing less.

Even though this picture is from our first tournament of 2012, I still love it so much! This is one of my best friends who happens to be one of my teammates on Shoreline. Her name is Breeanna Calhoun and she is a senior from Harbor High School. She loves Tim Tebow so I promised her next time I set you and you get an amazing kill, I'll Tebow with you! She did it on the next play we made. Always praise a teammate when they do something good! I love you, Bree!

Accomplishment

Today was a great one. I had personal training at 1:30 with the amazing Jocelyn Forest at Santa Cruz Strength where I have officially started to weightlift. She taught me how to do overhead snatches and I have fallen in love with them! It was such a great feeling because I accomplished learning a whole new lift in one day that sometimes takes people to learn in weeks. After I got them down, I went and did block jumps with 193 pounds. I love block jumps because I can just feel my legs pushing for those jumps, exploding through the weight, and increasing my vertical jump by the second. I then got into hurdle work and did some one leg hops through them, finishing with abs and back.

I also had volleyball practice tonight. It was a great practice because everyone is so determined to do well in our upcoming tournament on February 9th and 10th at the Sacramento Convention Center. My team makes me so proud. I just joined Club Shoreline last year and they asked me to play up, so I took the spot. I met my amazing team that I am continuing to play with for one more year, then hopefully playing with Vision Volleyball Club, a college recruiting volleyball team, next year.

I felt so accomplished today. It made me feel so confident and made me want to pursue in so much more. Being confident is such a big key point in being an athlete, it really determines where you could go. It's all about determination. You have to believe in your own potential. If you have the determination and confidence towards a big goal, you will be taken there by the way you guide yourself. I've really learned that you need to be confident in the people that you work and play with. That is such a main factor because if you do not believe in one of your teammates, then you are not being a team player. You have to send praise to your teammates and not crave their love and affection. Having that factor will make you feel more loved, more valuable, and make you all feel like you are really a team/family, working together as a whole.

I don't think of my team as a team. They are family. You spend so much time with them and you work together as one. Everyone on a team should all have one goal in mind: SUCCESS. "Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success." Find success in your career, no matter what it is! Everyone has the potential to pursure in their dreams/goals!

This is a picture of my team last year! We have lost number 2 (to the left of me) and number 13 (to the right of me) and have added two amazing players! Go Shoreline!

Inspiration

Today was a great and interesting day at the gym. I started off with my normal warm-up: Straight legs skips, A-Skips, AC-Skips, walking lunge, lateral walks, and one leg hops with tap, etc. It was funny because in the class there was me and about 7 Soquel High Football players, and I could out do them in almost everything! In the strength part of my workout, I did hanging power snatchs (MY FAVORITE), front squats, and jerks! Such a great workout! I am that kind of person to yell across the room, "Go (name here)! Push!" and I have no problem if they know me or not. I want to let that person know that they have the strength, metally and physically, to over come whatever they are doing. Whether it's a PR (personal record) or just a regular workout, I will be right there for that person cheering them on.  I have been a leader ever since I started soccer in Pre-School.  I would be that one girl on the team next to the player getting down on themselves, giving them words of encouragement and motivating them. Even today, I am leading my team, inspiring people, and doing the extra work to go far. Anyway, after the strength unit, I went into box jumps. I'm not quite sure what my maximum box jump is, but I would say the range is about 36-40 inches. It has gotten to the point where my name is not only "Lexi", but it has evolved into the nickname, "The Gazelle". At first I took it like it was a bad thing until it was explained by two of my favorite weightlifters, Alex Ayres and Tyler Miller.



                                         
This was from a couple weeks ago, but it describes who I am! Smiles all around, doing what I love!




To get into the whole "Leadership and Inspiration" thing, I would like to tell you about a youtube video I was introduced to at softball when I was about 10-years-old. It's called "212 Degrees". The whole video is about taking that extra step, turning the notch up to the next degree,  and giving it all you've got. "At 211 degrees, the water is hot. But at 212 degrees, the water is boiling." Steam comes from boiling water, and steam can power a locomotive. In this case, you are that locomotive. Taking that extra step can make such an impact on your life and goals. That one extra degree seperates the good from the great. Excel and become the best you can be, develop the mental, physical, and technical links to excellence, set clear goals and pursue them, put yourself in the face of obstacles, and give it all you got, you have nothing to loose. The only thing that stands between a person and what they want in life is the will to try it and the faith to believe it possible.


Here's the video I was talking about! Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHSeIiuvKt8

Paving My Way

My name is Lexi Stevens. I was born and raised up in Felton, California, a small town near Santa Cruz. I am a 15 year old girl, trying to build her way to the highest level possible. My current goal is to play volleyball for a Divison 1 college straight out of high school. I am starting this blog to layout my journey day by day, to get me to wherever life takes me. I am an athlete, playing volleyball, softball, and weightlifting on almost every day of the week. I workout at a gym called Santa Cruz Strength with a phenomenal women named Jocelyn Forest, an alumni of Cal Berkeley, who is now in their Hall of Fame for softball. I honestly do not know what I would do without her. She has already made my vertical past my goal, made me such a powerful volleyball and softball player, and has gotten me into power lifting. Now that you know some basics, I'll tell you how I've gotten here:

The past couple years of my life have been hard but overcoming those years was definitely something that has changed me. I've lost friends, I've lost family, and I changed completely, but now it feels good to be back to the girl I was years ago. It has shown me that I have the confidence and attitude to fight through everything, even if it means going past my limits. I used to have people bring me down and I used to let that get to me! I have a funny story actually: In 7th grade, I switched to a public school. At that point, I had played softball for 4 years, basketball for 6, and soccer for about 8. I thought that since I was a quality athlete, I would easily make the volleyball team. I went through the tryouts, thinking that I did very well, and I didn't make the team! I was so upset and started thinking, "Maybe it's not for me!" My mom convinced me to go try out for a new club team in our area and I made it! So long story short, I became a volleyball addict. Trying to play it everyday, going to the beach with my friends... I made varsity before any of those girls who made that 7th grade volleyball team.

This made me realize that no one should ever give up on anything. "The greatest pleasure in life is doing what others say you cannot do." I take everything that inspires me to stay motivated and put it in a little pocket that will always be there reminding me of what I need to to reach my goal. I have already learned so much and I still have so much to learn, that is why I have created this blog, to lay out everything I learn. This is my start, my journey to the next level up.