What It’s Like to Play Professional Volleyball in Sweden!
Hej hej! This week I want to talk to you about what it was like to play pro in Sweden! My first year as a pro athlete was in Lindesberg, Sweden in 2017-2018. Going into it I knew literally nothing except that I had a contract, a place to live, and someone in an orange jacket was going to be picking me up from the airport (thanks Arnold!). When I got off the plane and found my way to the Espresso House in the airport, I found out that there was another American on my team and we were waiting for a 3rd teammate from Brazil (who ended up being my roommate). He drove us all back to Lindesberg, got us set up in our apartments, we had a team meeting later that night and the season was on its way!
Training Schedule
Our training schedule in Sweden was pretty light compared to my other years of playing pro, so it took some discipline to go to the gym in the mornings on my own. We had practice in the evenings on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, with games most Wednesdays and Saturdays. It would vary depending on the week, but this is what it typically looked like. We lifted as a team most Mondays right before our practice and on Wednesday if we didn’t have a game. I would try to go most mornings to the gym to get some cardio, light lifting, or a recovery session in before going to lunch with my teammates. Our practices were typically 2-3 hours long in the evenings and we’d usually start off practice with a fun warmup game, then go into skills training, and then 6 on 6. We did the best we could with 6 on 6 but usually it ended up being 6 on 5 or 4 because we were so unlucky that year with injuries. I also helped coach the Division 1 team, which was the level right below us, 2 times a week.
Living Situation
I lived in an apartment with my Brazilian teammate and a Swedish teammate. They were so fun to live with and we always ended up talking in the kitchen for hours, sometimes with the help of our friend Google Translate! Our town was small, and the president of our club kindly gave us some bikes to ride around, so we would either bike or walk to practice depending on how snowy or icy it was! There were a lot of paths in the woods so I would go for bike rides around town or walks around the lake on off days. We were about 30 minutes away from the next city over called Örebro, which we went to pretty frequently, especially to get sushi. Surprisingly the best sushi I have ever had was in Örebro, Sweden! Lastly, part of our contract was to get 5 meal coupons a week, so my American and Brazilian teammate and I would typically have lunch together at the different restaurants we had coupons to. We made pretty good friends with some of the restaurant workers. Denise and my favorite day was Thursday at one of the restaurants because they always had Swedish pancakes!
Game Schedule
Like I said earlier, we typically had 2 games per week. We took a minibus to all away games and left the day of games. This part was my least favorite in Sweden- leaving the morning of matches at 5am, traveling up to 7 hours to the other team’s gym, playing our game, and driving 7 hours home right after. But I ended up figuring out the best way to travel so my body wasn’t too tight and tired and I could still play my best (hint, making sure you get out of the car every time you stop and walk round and stretch). I think there were about 10 teams in Sweden at the time and we played everyone what felt like 20 times each! Just kidding, it was probably around 3 or 4, but sometimes more if you played them in the playoffs. We also played in a tournament called the Grand Prix, where the top 4 teams played each other in January. I hurt my knee during this tourney unfortunately, and the other American was also out with a knee injury, so we didn’t do very well in the Bronze medal match. It was still a fun experience, though. In the playoffs at the end of the season, we played one team each round, best 3 out of 5 matches. (I think they have since changed the format). We made it to the Bronze medal round again, but unfortunately lost. It was still a great season for us despite all of the injuries and weird things that happened to us (like our van breaking down twice and getting into a car accident).
Living in Sweden
I really enjoyed my time in Sweden overall! My main complaint would be the weather- it was SO COLD in the winter from November to March. I’m talking below freezing every single day for 3+ months. Plus it was challenging to walk through a foot of snow each day to practice. And in December, it was only “light” out from 10am-3pm, which was the strangest thing ever. But, the weather was consistent and I got used to it, and I ended up enjoying my time there. My town was super cute, the people were very nice, and it was so fun learning about Swedish traditions and getting to eat their food! (I’ll say this about every country I have lived in- yummmm). But Sweden around Christmas time was especially cozy, and I loved spending time with my teammates and getting to know the people there. I didn’t know what to expect my first season abroad, but it ended up being wonderful and a great start to my professional career!