TO watch the progress of Mark McGivern is to document how much the Great Britain men's volleyball team has progressed under their Dutch coach, Harry Brokking.
It was not so long ago that McGivern was playing for Team Fife in the Scottish League and now he is a key member of the Avignon team who sit top of the French Pro "B" League.
After missing out on promotion to the Pro "A" League last season by two points, Avignon have relied a lot on McGivern to make sure they get there this time. As the season reaches its climax, the Scot has consistently been one of the best blockers in the highly-competitive league.
It has been a steady progression by the middle player, who has had to consistently improve his game to reach the standards set by Brokking as the Great Britain team prepare for London 2012. He is one of only two Scots named in Brokking's initial 16-strong squad for the Olympics, the other being fellow middle player Chris Lamont. The squad will be cut to 14 next month and to the final 12 for the Games at the end of June.
The signs are McGivern will make it as he is highly valued by Brokking, not only for his blocking and spiking at the net but also for his deceptive serving. Brokking travelled to France last month to watch McGivern and clubmate Nathan French in Avignon's match at St Brieuc, which included Great Britain team-mates Matt Howe and Mark Plotyczer. All four have made the final 16, a testament to the quality of the French League.
"Personally, I'm having a good season. The league is very competitive and there are a lot of good teams and players here," said McGivern. "With the Olympics just a few months away, I have the extra motivation to push myself everyday."
To get to this level, McGivern has had to endure a tough regime. In the embryonic days of the team, in September 2007, the team played in the Dutch Pro "A" League.
It took a landmark ruling by the Dutch federation to allow a national team to take up a club's fixtures – the Amstelveen-based Martinus who had lost their major sponsors – and much of that was down to the influence of Brokking, a former Dutch national team coach. Many of the established Dutch clubs delighted in beating the GB team in the initial months as McGivern and his new full-time team-mates slumped to the foot of the league, taking them weeks to record their first win.
But the move paid off as the GB team emerged from that difficult first season to take some notable scalps in the international arena, most notably Greece and Portugal.
At last year's Olympic Test event at Earls Court, McGivern did not look out of place against the top nations, such as the USA and Brazil.
"Competing in an Olympics is at the top of most athletes' ambitions, but competing at a home Games will be out of this world," McGivern said. "Having a home crowd behind us is always a massive boost and I'm hoping this will be no different.
"It hasn't always been easy being a British volleyballer; in the beginning we would lose a lot of games. Gradually, each year we would see ourselves competing and eventually defeating some of the top teams.
"Last year we defeated teams such as China, Egypt and Mexico who are 10th, 11th and 23rd in the world respectively. I am hoping our progression this year will continue and peak just in time for the Games."
It has been a long journey since he first started playing but after rising steadily through the Scottish League, the world is now at McGivern's feet.
"I never thought when I first started out playing the game that I would be a professional volleyball player. I knew from an early age how much I loved the game and I wanted to be as good at it as I could. I was training once a week at Team Fife, moved to City of Edinburgh where I was training three times a week and then on to City of Glasgow Ragazzi, where I was training four times a week. The Great Britain team came along at the right time for me."
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