With less than a year to go until London 2012, British Volleyball coach Audrey Cooper is confident her team can make an impact on the biggest stage of all… (Ed. 48)

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"The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful will win."

Sir Roger Bannister

EDITION 48 - AUTUMN 2011

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Audrey Cooper

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Scotland star Lynne Beattie

With less than a year to go until London 2012, British Volleyball coach Audrey Cooper is confident her team can make an impact on the biggest stage of all…

Audrey Cooper has grown accustomed to trying to achieve her goals with one hand tied behind her back.

The Great Britain women's volleyball coach knew she was taking on a tough job when she took over the role from Canadian Lorne Sawula two years ago.

She did not realise how hard it would be. Barely a year into her tenure, the rug was effectively swiped from under her feet as it was announced that the funding of the GB women's team was cut off.

Guaranteed a place at the Olympics as host nation and already playing catch-up with the rest of the world, the task of making a decent fist of their Olympic debut became even greater.

Forced to take matters into their own hands, Cooper and her squad embarked on a long-distance cycle ride last autumn to raise money towards setting up a competitive programme for this year.

Most of her squad - including Scottish captain Lynne Beattie - managed to pick up professional contracts in Europe which ensured the players were still involved at a high level in the winter months.

If anything, adversity appears to have made the squad a tighter-knit group and a punishing South American tour at the start of the year brought up some unexpected but welcome results with wins over Argentina and Peru.

Indeed, Cooper's squad put together and unbeaten run of six matches after beating a highly-rated Swiss side twice in Crawley at the end of June, confirming the progress they have made.

"The girls have been brought closer together by their situation," said 46 year-old Cooper, who is now working only on a part-time basis due to the funding cuts.

"But the girls have always given me a hundred per cent and that was never in any doubt before. They have always given their all and so the situation is no different.

"We have been helped by a few sponsors and local authorities who have contributed to our effort but it's still a difficult situation as we have no full-time physio and that takes its toll.

"Other countries can't understand how we can be in this situation when we are hosting an Olympics in a year's time but we just have to get on with it as best we can."

Cooper has seen her players progress beyond recognition in the last couple of years where they can now go toe-to-toe with top international sides.

At the Olympic Test event at Earls Court this summer, they had close matches with the Netherlands and Japan.

No less a coach than Arie Selinger, who guided Israel into the third round of the European Championship for the first time in 40 years last year and has taken USA women and Holland men to Olympic silver medals, has spoken highly of the team.

Volodymyr Buzalev, the head coach of Ukraine, was also impressed after last year’s meeting in Sheffield.

“Great Britain are a very good team,” he stressed, “All they are missing is one player - a go-to player - who can take them to the next level. They should search Europe for such a player.”

But Cooper insists it is a team effort: “We have been a one-trick pony in the past,” she states, “We are now a team unit and I will find what I need within that team.

“Anyone can see we are making progress and there is now a winning mentality about the team and it's all starting to fall into place.

“We need to be able to play point-for-point in pressure situations at the end of sets and that’s what it’s going to be about over the next year in terms of our progress.

“We need to stay cool at those big points and the more experience we get, the more we have the opportunity to finish it off.”

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