Aneta Havlickova

Let’s start this new English version of Pallavoliamo with a brand new acquisition from the Czech Republic: Aneta Havlickova, opposite hitter of Chateau D’ax Urbino. The young Czech player – born 1987- in fact, tells us that she can’t speak Italian: “Italian is such a difficult language for me. When somebody speaks I can understand, but it is too difficult to speak. I started speaking English only this year: it is complicated to learn another language so soon. I would need more time to learn a bit of Italian. At the moment, I can only say a few words… you know, the usual things: “buongiorno, come stai?” but I am not able to make a conversation. Actually, I am afraid of speaking Italian as I never know whether I am using the right word or if I say something completely wrong. So I communicate in English”.

Thus, what a better opportunity to start this new section by telling the story of this player who in her first year in the Italian First League has been one of the top scorer of this regular season? With 380 points, 52 blocks and 15 aces, Aneta is in fact third in this special ranking, only after Tay Aguero and Carolina Costagrande. “Reaching the third position in the top scorer ranking is a great result. This is my first year in Italy and it is important to have such great scores to get known in the league. However, I don’t care about statistics so much. It is more important that the team can play well and win, and if my high percentages in attacks can help….well then it is perfect. But I am not a slave of the statistics”. The secret of her success? Hard training sessions and a great group around her: “This year I had the chance to work and practice harder than when I was in Czech. Thus, I think that this better preparation helped me to reach these standards. In particular, here in Urbino I focused also on fitness: last year I didn’t do so. Moreover, I feel very at ease with my team mates and when I feel well both physically and mentally, I can play my best volley. But I need always my mates around me: volley is a team sport and as I said before, we have to play as a group. Without the other players, for sure, I wouldn’t have attacked so many balls and made so many points”.

Among all her team mates, the Czech hitter is bound by a close friendship to the second libero of Chateau D’Ax: “My best friend in the team is Giulia Rastelli. We met before the start of the season and so we became very good friends. Moreover, she speaks English! At the beginning, living in Urbino was difficult as I come form Prague, a city that can offer a lot to a young person. Urbino, on the other hand, is a small town, and Giulia helped me a lot during my first days here: she made me feel at home and little by little I started loving Urbino too”. Now, Aneta loves being in the small center of Marche region: “I am very happy here because for me it is a good society and a good place to start my adventure in the Italian League. It is my first year abroad and I needed a place like this to settle and to find my equilibrium. Moreover, Urbino is a very small town, and I feel very well. I like the people and I have everything I have ever dreamt of in my volleyball career”. Actually, when she signed for Urbino, the Czech hitter signed to play in the second Italian League: “when my manager told me that Urbino wanted me it was to play the A2, and not the A1: they didn’t know yet that they would have bought the rights to play in the first league. So, when I was told that I would play in A1, it came to me as a big surprise”.

When she was contacted from the little society of Urbino, Aneta didn’t think twice to accept the offer: coming to Italy was one of those opportunities that can’t be missed. In fact, Czech is not often associated with girls’ volley, and Aneta was quite eager to live her home town to challenge herself and to become a professional player. “Personally, I think that Italy is one of the best countries in the volley panorama together with Brazil. In my country there is nothing as good as here in Italy: a lower level, less money, fewer teams, worse structures and worse grounds where to practice and play. As in my case, playing in Czech may be, a good start, but if you want to improve your game you have to go to other countries like Italy. Our best team at the moment is the Modranská Prostejov that played Pesaro in Champion League: they have money and they could enroll good players’.

No need to say that nobody expected Chateau D’ax Urbino to be classed fifth at the end of this regular season. After the promotion from the A2, in fact, the goal for this season was fighting to avoid relegation; but this group managed to create a sort of perfect alchemy and match after match everybody understood that the team was ready for bigger enterprises. “We really have a great season this year. I wouldn’t speak about a “secret” but rather about our strong sense of team. In fact, we can play better when we play as a whole instead than as six different individualities: we lose our concentration and we don’t play well. This season we have been a great surprise in the league and the main reason of this great result is that we have been able to play our best volley in the right moments”. Between all the players of Chateau D’ax, anyway, Aneta was the one who stood out the most. In fact, before arriving at the court of Salvagni, her name was completely unknown to the Italian public: in less than 6 months, she has become a top player.

Coach Salvagni and all the society strongly believed in her and the expectations were well repaid. “I don’t know if I should tell you the strongest points of my games, otherwise all the other teams are going to discover my secret” – she jokes – “My favorite shot is the long line spike from area two. It is my favorite kind of attack and the one I am better at. However, I have to improve on several things such as my defense and my service. I am very young and I think I have a lot to do about all my fundamentals, attack included. In fact, my spikes are very powerful but I don’t know many tricks yet. Sometimes I hit at full power but I don’t give much direction to the ball. If I want to play on theses levels I have to learn how to differentiate my strokes and my service”.

But how did Aneta start playing volley? “I started playing volleyball when I was ten years old. At that time I practiced both volley and swimming. Then, when I had to choose between the two, I finally decided to dedicate my life to volley. In fact, both my parents - Alena and Jan – were volleyball players and I wanted to follow their steps. They weren’t professional players though: my mum started playing volleyball when she was eighteen years old but she couldn’t become a professional. They were both good players and I learned a lot from them: I would say they are my models. I usually followed them in their matches at home but I didn’t play much with them”. Aneta briefly moved from her birth place, Mladá Bolestav, to Prague and she was enrolled by important teams: “ I started my volleyball career in some small volley clubs in Prague. When I was thirteen I then moved to the PV K Olymp Praha, that is the best team in the Czech. I entered the national team for the first time in 2006 and I also played for the junior team of my nation. Then, I spent two years in the Netherlands at the Vc Weert and during the summer of 2009, while I was playing the qualifications for the World Cup with the national team, Urbino called me”. Among all these experiences, playing for the Czech national team has a special place in the athlete’s heart: “I was in the national team when I was 15. It was something very important as representing the colors of my nation was a great emotion and honor: I wanted to play well and give something to my national team, but unluckily in Czech we don’t have such big resources as in other nations such as Italy, for instance. When I was younger I was very stressed at every single match, but now it is different. Maybe before the match I am still worried, but when I enter the court my only goal is playing well for my national team”.

On the other hand, the number four of Chateau D’ax doesn’t think to go back to Czech soon; she had definitely other plans in her mind: “At this point of my career I don’t want to go back to Czech to play volley. I think I will go back to my country and play in a Czech team only to finish my career or when I have my own family. Then, it won’t happen soon. But I don’t want to stay in Italy forever neither. I want to improve, and I think I will stay here another two or three years. But then, my dream is going to play in Brazil or in Japan. I think that the volley level in these countries is very high and I would also like to get in touch with the culture of such distant countries. But these are only dreams. If there are some clubs that next year want me, I will keep playing here in Italy. For the moment, I simply wait”. It looks like that volley is going to be a constant in Aneta’s present and future. The athlete says that this sport occupies such a large portion of her daily life that she has barely the time to dedicate herself to other thing, although she loves many different sports: “When I am not on the volley courts I rest a lot. We have two training sessions per day and so when I am off I like staying in my house and rest. Sometimes I spend the day with my boyfriend and we visit the surroundings. When I have more days off, I like swimming or going around by bike. Sometimes I hang out with my team mates but not very often. Actually, when I am off the courts I prefer spending my time with a few people rather than going out with many. When I finish with practice I prefer going home and chilling out a bit. I don’t like staying with too many people around”.

Aneta, in fact, defines herself as a “quite” person, both outside and inside the volley courts: “I am a very shy person: I don’t like having too many people around me and usually, I don’t speak so much. I think that is a sort of problem as I don’t speak very much during the practice or during the match and some of my mates don’t like this. But I am very quite as I need concentration during the game. I am not different outside and inside the court, maybe when I am on court and the match is getting harder I become more talkative as I want to give support to my team. I am more or less the same as I am in my normal life: quite”.

Let’s then imagine what Aneta thought about such a personal interview: did she panic? Not at all! “I don’t like so much being in front of a camera as I have difficulties in speaking in English and I don’t speak Italian; but I like being interviewed for the newspaper as if I make a mistake it is not a problem and, it is better when the interview is in English”.

But she’d better start getting used to being interviewed: if she keeps playing on the same standards as this season, no doubt, she is going to be on the national and international press many and many time again. And who knows? Next time she could also tell her story in Italian.

Articolo (anche in italiano) pubblicato sul numero di maggio 2010 di Pallavoliamo @ http://www.pallavoliamo.it/publishedpage.aspx?issueid=9cfd8242-9a5f-459b-8fde-9df860fe5bb3&pageid=69bd94ab-88f3-48ee-b3af-fc15b8e03bbb