Rutgers-Camden's Ogin tabbed for U.S. National Fistball Team
CAMDEN (Sept. 17, 2010) –Mat Ogin has been leading the volleyball program at Rutgers University-Camden up the ladder of the New Jersey Athletic Conference standings since becoming the head coach in 2008.
This summer, Ogin shot up the ladder in a similar sport, fistball, for which he was recently named as a member of the United States National Fistball Team. He is one of only eight men on the active U.S. roster, which also includes a pair of reserves.
“I came close to tears,” said Ogin, on receiving the call that he had been selected for the U.S. team. “I bounced off walls. I punched the air in childish celebration, and I shouted as loud as I could. I’m still occasionally seized by fits of giggling, and at other times I feel smothered by the weight of the selection and the work that’s been laid out ahead of me. To receive this honor is beyond any expectation I could have ever created for myself as an athlete, and I aim pretty high.”
Ogin will be representing his country when the United States competes at the 2011 Fistball World Championship in Austria, August 7-14, 2011. Until then, Ogin will have a busy itinerary between his life in New Jersey, playing professional beach volleyball domestically, coaching a Raptors team that is halfway to the program record for victories in one season, and traveling to Wisconsin to train with the U.S. National Fistball Team.
The third-year Rutgers-Camden head volleyball coach is still trying to get a handle on how his next year will shape up.
“I can’t say for sure what the U.S. manager, Nate Erdman, has planned, but he’s expressed an interest in meeting with me to compare coaches’ notes and adapt volley drills to our purpose,” Ogin said. “We’ll be playing at least one international tune-up tournament in Switzerland, and we’ll spend the summer competing against our best domestic clubs. We’re going to hire the Brazilian national coach to train us for two weeks in the spring. The Milwaukee area is the current hotbed for U.S. fistball -- what Manhattan Beach is for sand volley – so I’ll split my training between there and the East Coast clubs.”
Fistball, which originated in Europe centuries ago, has just recently started gaining traction in the United States. The U.S. Fistball Association wasn’t established until 2007, when the U.S. finished 11th out of 12 teams at the Fistball World Championships that year in Germany.
The sport is similar to volleyball, but played on a court 50x20 meters with five-member teams. A bounce is permitted between each of the three hits used to send the leather ball over the net into the opponents’ court. Matches are played to a best-of-five set format, with a team needing 11 points to win a set.
“Fistball is sometimes referred to as ‘volleyball with a bounce,’” Ogin said. “The erroneous implication here is that volleyball came first, but fistball has a rich history. It’s a complex, beautiful game, but fistball can be a bit less forgiving on the body than volleyball, and it may seem chaotic in comparison to the mechanism of the indoor game.
“I was hesitant to even mention fistball around college and club players; now, I’m its number one proponent. The grass, the weather, the sheer size of the pitch, and so on – these factors make it easy to discern between one sport and the other. The philosophies are the same, but you know when you’re playing fistball.”
Ogin, who has played on the AVP Pro Beach Tour since 2006, has been competing in fistball for less than a year. It’s a sport he discovered by accident, chuckling, “I don’t recall the exact choices, actions, and missteps that led me to finding the sport, but I feel quite certain that a long, aimless night with friends, a roommate’s laptop, and YouTube played significant roles. We found the USFA site, tracked down some videos, and I was immediately captivated by what we were watching.
“The next day, eight of us were destroying my yard trying to punch a water-logged soccer ball over a clothesline to one another. Cars slowed to watch. Of the original eight, I’m the only one who pursued the sport beyond the front lawn. It must sound crazy, but make no mistake: my goal from the very first night was to create an opportunity to be noticed by the national team. I wrote emails, I registered a team for the U.S. Championships, and I fronted the cost to enter – before I ever even saw the game played firsthand.”
Once he jumped into the sport, Ogin jumped in with both feet, immersing himself in training and competition. He spent the holiday weekend in July at a tournament in Wisconsin that would also serve as his tryout for the national team. While there, his local club, Phoenix SC, knitted a dramatic tie against the 2007 national team in a timed match.
Despite their obvious differences, Ogin chooses to focus on the similarities between sand / indoor volleyball and the sport of fistball. Those parallels have helped in everything from his training and strategy to his coaching philosophies.
“The most basic, elemental rule applies to all three: position your body to give yourself the best possible opportunity for success,” Ogin said. “Whether it’s attacking, setting, or “picking” – what fistballers call digging – put your body in a position to best execute the skill. Read your opponent’s body language, gather clues in anticipation, and take, or take away, the high percentage shot.
“Fistball has forced me to take a fresh look at my core training. I’ve learned to recruit far more power from the legs, back, and trunk in order to move a ball farther, faster. My volley swing has gotten noticeably quicker, and I’m putting a lot less strain on my shoulder. Fistball also reinforces the volley concept of driving hits deep.”
For the next year, Ogin will be driving himself as he prepares for the Fistball World Championship, in addition to his play on the pro beach circuit and his coaching duties at Rutgers-Camden. During his first two seasons as the Raptors’ head coach, the team has set program marks for victories each year. This fall, Rutgers-Camden has opened the season at 5-2 as it strives to post the first winning season in the program’s 11-year history.
“I met a lot of great fistballers during the training and tryout process, many of whom possess greater skill and almost all of whom have played longer than I have,” Ogin said. “But competing at the professional level, even in a different sport, has sharpened me and hardened my resolve. I’m not a born competitor, per se, but a competitive spirit has been forged within me nevertheless, through exhilarating victories and – unavoidably – heart-breaking defeats. I excel under pressure, under scrutiny, and I thrive before a large crowd.”
The World Championships are expected to draw thousands of people to each of the five hosting venues, and the action will be broadcast on big screens at the tournament sites and live online. In that setting, Ogin and his teammates will be playing on center stage next August, representing the United States at the World Fistball Championship.
Links:
International Fistball Association
2011 Fistball World Championship
United States Fistball Association
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