Cariocas, hey!
(THE Z TEAM)
Cariocas is a volleyball team in trouble.
And here in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s world famous City,
that means big trouble, because volleyball is a big deal here.
These youngsters have all the passion and talent
that you would expect when a potential playing career
is just a few tournament wins away.
This week they’re competing in a prestigious competition
where they’re going to struggle to win a game,
let alone a trophy.
We’re always the ‘also-rans’.
I get frustrated.
A lot of times it just doesn’t happen for us.
We end up getting annoyed with one another
because something didn't work.
We can be performing well in the league, then for no good
reason we start playing badly.
When we're under pressure against a big opponent,
we lose the plot.
We get intimidated too easily by the other team.
Communication between the players - that's the hard part.
The team clearly have issues
and not all of them on the court.
Fortunately there’s someone who’s only a short drive away
and she’s never been afraid to take on a challenge.
A Rio native, Jackie Silva first played
for the national volleyball team when she was just 14 years
old and competed at the 1980 and ’84 Olympics.
A fiery split from the official body in Brazil found her moving
to beach volleyball in the USA.
She excelled there and recruited Sandra Pires as her
partner, winning gold in 1996 at the first appearance
of the discipline in the Olympics.
Hi, guys, we have this important tournament
this coming Sunday.
We're doing badly and we're only in fifth place.
To help us to achieve our goal, I’ve invited a friend of mine
who is an Olympic gold medallist to work with us.
She’s my friend, let me call her over,
Jacqueline. Jackie!
Jackie is a superstar of Brazilian volleyball
and her reputation is built on hard work,
so she wastes no time in getting down to training.
Guys, it is great, but let’s speed up a little more.
Jackie has noticed that the team are shorter than average,
a clear disadvantage in volleyball.
So she wants to make them faster
and more agile to compensate.
They're very strong and very active
and they move quickly all the time.
So the idea is that they maintain their speed in attack.
Jackie’s exercise is designed to test the setter skills.
This is the main playmaker and they must anticipate
where they need to move to receive the ball,
to best execute their set.
The exercise also tests their team-mates'
ability to accurately pass the ball.
You need a lot of setting.
A short team needs to be very fast.
The ball shouldn't fall,
you should have good hand movements.
You need to do those things really well.
Tomorrow the plan is to train on the beach.
Tarcio and I have been talking it through
and we’ve decided to try a different environment.
To build a successful team in a week,
Jackie needs strong core talent.
And she soon spots it in Cariocas’ impressive
looking attacker.
My name's César, I'm 20 years old and I play
as an attacker and a middle blocker.
I've been working for a year here at Jacaré Modas.
I was doing odd jobs and Julio saw me and said,
"He's a model".
And I was like, "OK."
I started playing volleyball in 2011 when I was about 13 or 14.
My mum forced me to play, she would say,
"You either have to play volleyball or basketball."
I started really enjoying it when I began
playing beach volleyball.
There were lots of matches
and I wanted to improve more and more.
I played beach volleyball, indoor volleyball.
Then as time passed I couldn't find a big club,
so now I'm trying secondary school again
and I'm also taking a course in business management.
The word is out and everyone wants to be part of the action.
After all, it’s not every day you have
an Olympic champion to work with.
Volleyball is a six-a-side sport.
There's a setter, who controls the flow
of play, two blockers, whose job
it is to defend shots from the opponent’s hitters,
and the three hitters themselves,
who try to smash the ball beyond
the reach of their opponents, but also keep it
within the court boundaries.
Jackie is making the team play volleyball in teams of two
rather than the normal six.
This improves their accuracy and fitness
as they must cover more ground.
Indoors it seemed that everything was too easy,
but not here, here there's the sand element.
On the beach you need more resilience,
when you go back to the court you feel faster.
Keep defending! Keep defending!
Jackie hopes that yesterday’s beach session
can now be translated indoors.
So, in this exercise Jackie tasks the teams with working
the ball around their side before creating blocking
opportunities for the opposing team.
Ooh, one, two, three, Cariocas, hey!
In volleyball the killer shot is enabled by the setter,
who spots a gap and sets the ball
for the hitter to complete the spike.
The only counter to this is the block.
One of the most important things in volleyball
is blocking.
In indoor volleyball games,
blocking is almost choreographed.
The step aside, the timing between the players
and the ball has to be synchronised.
You need a lot of training and a lot of patience
to block effectively.
It’s a ballet, a dance designed to fool the opponents.
You see the ball, won't get to you,
you don't wait for the ball,
so you have to be in position before the ball.
By the time Jackie has seen enough improvement
the sun has set and 24 hours later
they're warming up for another
training session at the beach.
Cariocas have some physically strong players,
so Jackie has decided to work on the jump serve.
I think the team's doing well.
We've applied many of the things we did in training
on Tuesday on the beach, to the court.
Defence is better, our reading of blocking has improved.
By improving the blocking reading and the defence,
we can react and counterattack.
That's really good.
Today we'll play a different game,
four players against four players.
I noticed they're a little tired.
It's been a very intense week.
We're taking it easy and we'll focus on serves.
Tarcio will start playing and I'll be joining in later.
Today is Friday and everyone's tired from everything,
not just the training.
With so little time for the team to come to grips with all
the new techniques and attitudes
Jackie has introduced,
she’s starting to worry she might have pushed them
just a little too far.
Guys, I'm joining the game, I’ll play at the back.
But they won’t stand a chance on Sunday
if they aren’t 100% fit.
So, let's make the most of the space here
and try to do the jump serve.
It's going to be great to practise that too.
The serve is not a winning shot, but it creates the
momentum of the whole passage of play.
A well-placed, well-paced serve
will give the serving team
an immediate advantage,
on either the court or the beach.
I try to absorb as much as possible
and add it to my personal repertoire to apply
and adapt to other categories I coach and to improve
this unfortunate position that we're in now.
We’re about to find out how unfortunate
their situation really is, because time is up.
Cariocas are off to the tournament.
The Under-21 All-Rio Volleyball Championship
is contested by six teams - the bottom two are eliminated
at the group stage and the remaining four progress
to the knockout competition.
The rules of volleyball are simple -
don’t let the ball hit the ground on your side
of the court and you have three hits before the ball
has to go back over the net.
If the ball hits the ground on your opponent’s side
you win the point.
The first to 18 wins the set,
best of three sets wins the match.
In the first game their arch-rivals Acores are narrowly
beaten after taking an early lead.
Jackie's training already paying off,
but there's still a long way to go.
But Cariocas are on a roll.
Buoyed by their victory they sweep aside
both Wilson Santiago Mary and, in the semifinal,
Nucleo Bene de Volei to reach their first ever final.
At last a final against, guess who...
Acores - who have brushed aside their early setback
and are looking strong again.
Acores yet again playing tough and grabbing an early lead,
but Cariocas, with some confident rallies,
soon pull ahead.
One set up, one to go.
But Acores have no intention of giving up.
Under pressure, Cariocas are looking fragile.
Are you afraid?
He is afraid, he’s moving backwards?
They're playing well, but they need to play better
on the front row.
César is playing the game of his life,
holding together a team that desperately needs to create
something spectacular.
Acores have rarely lost to Cariocas and are playing
with little or no fear of their rivals.
They draw level.
Time for Cariocas to make a stand.
The game is so finely balanced that either
team could snatch the win.
A massive effort pulls Cariocas two points clear,
but there’s no time to breathe, the team digging deep
to get within that single point that will give
them their first ever championship.
Now it's match point.
We’re 17 to 15, it’s an important moment.
We can do it.
Cariocas have won their first tournament,
Jackie’s help has truly turned this team
around and they can celebrate at last.
We’d like to thank her so much for everything.
We have been so overwhelmed by it all.
We'll definitely savour this week as some
of the best days of our lives, thank you so much!
It was very exciting, it was great seeing them winning
and it was an incredible experience,
even though it's hard to join a team that
already has its own routine.
But anyhow, it was very good that they won
and I'm even happier that I got another gold medal.
I'll tell you one more thing.
You go and believe in your dreams,
you have everything you need to be a great player.
Since winning the Under-21s All-Rio
Volleyball Championship,
Cariocas have entered two further tournaments, making
the final on both occasions.
The improvement in the team has been astonishing
and Cariocas have reached heights
they could never have dreamed of before.