 Hi, I'm Rusty Kamori, and this is Beyond the Lines on Think Tech, Hawaii. I was the head coach of the Punahou School Boys Varsity Tennis Team for 22 years, and we were fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships. This show is based on my books Beyond the Lines and Beyond the Game, and it's about inspiration, welcoming adversity, and building a superior culture of excellence. My special guest today is the star player of our University of Hawaii women's volleyball team. She is Amber Aijidi, and today we are going Beyond Volleyball. Hey, Amber, welcome to Beyond the Lines. Hi, I'm so happy to be on this. I'm so excited just to be on this in general, so thank you for having me. Amber, you and your teammates, I mean, it's so much fun watching you girls compete and play, but before we get into all of that, can you first share a bit about your background? Yes, I can. I'll try to make it, you know, quick, but I started playing volleyball when I was in fifth grade when I was 10 years old, and my sister hates this part of my volleyball story, but basically, me and my sister were in school, and we were in the gym, like the gymnasium, whatever you call it, and our girl comes running out of the gym and she's sweating and just looks really tired, and I'm like, what is she doing? What sport did she do? And my sister's like, that's volleyball. That's so hard. Yeah, no, that's volleyball, and I was like, I'm going to try and do it, and she hates what I tell that story, but she's still a great, like, obviously she's a great supporter. So, but it's just funny to tell that story, because, yeah, that girl coming out of the gym sweaty, she played volleyball, but I started playing volleyball when I was 10 years old, and that's honestly the only sport I've ever played in my life. And, yeah, I started playing club when I was a freshman in high school, and it was all fun throughout then, you know, and then college is when it really gets serious. I feel like I started taking the level seriously when I was a junior in high school, sophomore slash junior in high school. I came across like a video of Hawaii volleyball playing, and I saw how much effort they put in into their play. I don't even know if they won the rally, but I just know like it was so much fun watching that game. And, yeah, I decided to reach out, took it upon myself to reach out to Hawaii, and, yeah, I ended up committing there. And it's been a journey ever since. Best decision I've ever could have made ever. But, yeah, it's been a journey ever since. So that's like my volleyball little story. Well, Amber, I like hearing that story, sweating a lot. Now, Amber, so, you know, you mentioned you were watching the Hawaii women's volleyball on TV. I mean, what was like the biggest factor that really drew you to commit to wanting to play at the University of Hawaii? So many things, honestly. First of all, the great coaching staff. I heard Coach Robin was like a fireball. She's been in so many different Olympics, and I know she's like just an experienced person in general, coach in general. Yeah, I heard there was a great coaching staff. And then I also heard that the fans and just the people of Hawaii have such a strong passion for the game of volleyball. And just by the pictures alone, I was like, well, this is where anyone would want to play volleyball. And, yeah, it almost seemed like a dream. It was so far from home. I'm originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. And originally so far from home, my dad at first was like, I don't know what this I really don't know. But my mom was like, just see, I feel like the coaches are going to take really good care of her. And yeah, they ended up doing exactly that. So, yeah, those were the factors that contributed to me. Now, Amber, you guys won the Big West Championship in 2021 and 2022. What were some reasons why you guys won the Big West? Lots of reasons. I feel like we had a good conference season. And during that game specifically, though, I just remember all of us gelling and flowing and everything like that. So I think our team does really well when we play really calm. So I just remember nothing frantic. I remember us being very calm and having a good time, having fun while we play. So, yeah, I do think that contributed to us winning a lot. Yeah, just, you know, you have games. I always say games are fun, right? And so you got to remember why you started volleyball in the first place and really, really trust in the preparation that you had. And then just going out there and trusting in the preparation, performing, right? Yes. I love how you said remember why you started volleyball in the first place, because I do believe, especially for young people starting off to really find your why and why you want to play this for. What's your why you're passionate about this for? Even if it's just a hobby, like I really feel you have to figure out deep down why you want to do this hobby, you know, because as you get older, it definitely gets harder. You definitely face adversity. And so you have to realize why am I actually doing this? So I think that's great advice for younger people, even people that are my age right now, older. I'm still young, but people that have been playing the game for a long time. I feel like that's great advice for that. So. So, Amber, you mentioned Coach Robin earlier. Coach Robin Amo is a Olympic silver medalist, and she's the head coach of our women's volleyball team. What are some specific things that you like and admire about Coach Robin? Wow, that's that's a great question. I love Coach Robin. The one word I would really think to describe her, everyone always asks, like, what's one word you would use to describe Coach Robin? I would use the word passion. She's just like almost like a kid in a playground, coaching and having fun while we while we play, you know? And so I would say she's she's a passionate coach. She's a passionate person in general, and I play with a lot of passion. So I just commonly relate to that. And yeah, it's great to play for a coach that really cares about you on and off the court and at the same time knows what she's talking about. So I think I'm really fortunate. I came from a club in high school where the coach was the same way, very passionate, and I'm just blessed to have had that in my life. So yeah. Amber, as I'm watching your games, I see Coach Robin. I mean, she's almost literally on the court with you girls. I mean, we can see everything that she's thinking and feeling. Do you do you girls see that as well? Yes, trust me, trust me. Everyone needs to realize we definitely see it. Sometimes we're like, OK, Coach Rob, let us focus for a minute. No, I'm just kidding. But she she that's all I can ask for. I'd rather a coach, you know, almost physically play with you than not say anything at all. You know, so I'm really grateful for that. So yeah, I love that about her. She's literally during the play, the whole crowd knows how she's feeling. The Jumbotron zooms into her face and we just know how she's feeling. Even us players ourselves. So trust me, we know, but it's all good and fun now at the end of the day. So yeah, yeah, I like when the Jumbotron focuses on her because we're I mean, all of us in the crowd, we're just thinking, oh, she's not happy. Or oh, wow, she's super excited so we can really read Coach Robin. Now, I want to ask you, Amber, right before you're going up to spike the ball, what's in your thoughts? What do you focus on? I'm honestly focusing on hitting the ball as hard as I can. No, I'm kidding. I'm not focusing on hitting the ball as hard as I can. Sometimes maybe if I see no block, I'm thinking about that, just hitting the ball. But really, it just depends on the game strategically. If you see the block blocking to your left, I want to hit to the right. If I see the block blocking to my right, I want to hit to the left. You know, so it's really just about strategy. If I'm thinking about how hard I'm hitting the ball, it's all dependent on like how good my footwork is, I'm getting a good jump, you know, I'm getting my arm back and swing, swinging fast, you know. So those are just like some things like you really just have to practice. And then when it comes into the game, little things just remind myself, OK, stay off the setter, stay off the net, you know, swing high so the blocker won't touch, you know. So just a little key words I have to tell myself in the middle, like not more so the middle when I'm in my jump, but just before before I take my approach. So, yeah. And Amber, don't you agree that it's, you know, at this high level of competition, isn't it important to really keep things simple? Yes. Wow. That's that's great that you say that because, yes, I was just with my team, I think two weeks ago we were in Brazil and we're, you know, playing the games and everything. And there comes, you know, some bumps in the road and the ebbs of flows of playing and one word we just say, we just keep it simple, keep it simple. And I think that's like the best thing. The best way, honestly, to win is to keep it simple because it keeps you, the players less focused on, you know, focusing on 20 different things that keeps us more like tunnel vision. So I think that's great. It buys us to keep it simple for us. Yeah. Now, Amber, I want to ask you about your serving. OK, so just before you serve, you have your serving routine. What what are the details of your serving routine? OK, so mine's not as complicated as a lot of players have, but I there is some run to reason to it. So I go back to the service line. I get the ball, I bounce it five times. The reason for five, I have five people in my family. I don't know why it just kind of rings a bell and I bounce the ball. And then I bounce it with my hand five times. And then I bounce it with both hands three times, my number's three. I don't know. And then I like kind of just hold the ball for like one or two seconds while I take a breath. The breath is very important. And yeah, I serve the ball. So that's pretty much it pretty, pretty quick. But I have to take that breath in between. So now I love hearing those insights because, you know, even for tennis before we serve, we have a serving routine. And it really deepens your concentration. And that allows you to kind of get into that zone, that internal climate where you have peak performance. And Amber, I love hearing your insights about the five and three and then the breath that's so key. And I want to ask you about blocking. When you go up and you get that roof and then the crowd goes nuts. How cool is that? Oh, my gosh, it's it's like the best feeling in the world. I I do have a special relationship with blocking just because when I was in high school, like like my club years, I hated blocking. And the reason why I hated it was because I never could block a ball. I struggled with blocking. I was more just hitting, hitting, hitting. And so I think when I got to college, it was really a wake up call. OK, let me focus really well on my blocking. And so now when I get a block, I'm still working on it, obviously. But when I get a block, it's just so rewarding for me and just I don't know, it just helps people out when the front row really works hard to get a block. So I love getting a block. It's it's great, especially when the crowd goes wild for it. So it's awesome. Now, Amber, do you study film to try to learn your opponent's tendencies? Yes, yes, we do. I study film on my own and also our team studies film as well collectively. And I do think that's a huge, huge, huge part of the game. I honestly don't know how I played volleyball without film. When I was in high school, obviously that was just funny games. But, you know, film, I think it's a huge part of the game. And I think a lot for people to study film, not just of yourself, but of people that you see are doing well in your position. So if that's like people internationally, players internationally, I watch a lot of middles that play the game. And so I think that really helps as well. Now, Amber, Ryan Tanaka, the owner of Giovanni Pastrami restaurant, donated both of my books to your entire women's volleyball team, the coaches and the players. What are some what's something that stood out to you in the books? Yes, something that stood out to me was I believe it was chapter one of Beyond the Lines. It was called The Choice. Choice is yours. And it talks about adversity. And I think it's great for people to read a lot for players and even non players to be honest to non people that play sports. And just I think adversity is a big thing in the sports community. And it either makes or breaks you. It's I don't know. My brother plays sports and we always talk about how like difficult and hard it is. Honestly, it's truly hard playing collegiate sports. But I think what makes people and what makes players good and then great is welcoming adversity. And you can't honestly get better at a skill if you don't quote unquote like fail at it or if you don't quote unquote make mistakes, you know. So you have to physically make mistakes in order to get better. So I've really tried to keep that in my mind because I'm trying not to be perfectionist sometimes as I grow older when I play. But I'm getting better at that. But I do think truly it helps me. And I do truly think that it can help players is welcoming mistakes, welcoming failure, welcoming adversity. And that's a truly truly help you and it helps me as well. So I'm glad you brought up the, you know, the choice is yours. You're correct. That's the title of chapter one. And I'm so happy you brought up, you know, welcoming adversity because all of us are going to experience adversities in our lives. And some of us will experience deeper levels than others. But adversity is none the less. And, you know, you know, I also talk about trying to strive for that superior culture of excellence. And that's what coach Robin is trying to establish with your team. And what, how would you describe the culture of excellence of your team? Yeah, culture of excellence, just always having the bar high. She always mentions what is your standard and a lot of a lot of players, a lot of teams say that, but truly understanding and practice. You practice how you play setting the standard a higher than what you even think you can reach is honestly the best way for you to get better. We have hard practices. We do sometimes it can get tough, you know, some days you just really don't want to push yourself that hard. But at the end of the day, when you really push yourself hard and practice, the game becomes easier. She puts us in specifically uncomfortable drills, you know, that you have to work your way out of. And sometimes we don't complete the drill because it's very difficult. By the end of the day, we have a game like two days later and the game is easy. So or it helps us more. Those drills help us during the game. So I really do think you practice how you play. And if you practice with a high standard, you play with a high standard. So, yeah. Well, you know, when I was coaching, that's I wanted to make sure that our practices were really tough so that our tennis matches would be easy. What are your thoughts about that? Yes, I think that's a great, great way to train. Just like even working out and conditioning, if you really train hard and work to exert like your energy, I do think you'll be better conditioned to play and everything like that. They talk about Steph Curry plays basketball. He like never seems tired and it's because he works so hard in the gym when he trains, works out and everything like that. And, you know, he never that's why he never seems tired. So I do think that that's a great way, a great way that you taught your team is to practice very tough because it's going to make your end result. And it's going to make yourself your confidence higher too. So you're not as nervous when you play because you can always remember back to how tough you practice. So, yeah, there you go. And and Amber, I want to ask you when the point is done in a match and you girls get together in that huddle, what specifically are you girls talking about in the huddle? Well, well, it can be a mix of anything really. After the point, I would say depending on what we need to do in order to get the ball rolling, we say quick, key things in order to give us tips on how to be effective during the game. Sometimes this is funny. I don't know. Let's say I I'll just put myself, for example, if I make a mistake, then I'll like scream in the huddle. People might not realize it, but I think that's a great way, you know, not to let other people see your frustration, have a quick scream in the huddle and keep it moving. So I think that's honestly a funny way to kind of get your frustration out, but not scream at the team, but just like let it out in the circle, you know, so that's a great way. But yeah, it's just really like key things that helps us during the helpless moving forward during the game. I like that you you do a scream to release. You do not realize it, but you know, it's just like it's so loud, but it's great to just get it out there. Well, and you know, the thing about it is you know yourself very well. I mean, what screaming helps you play better. Now, another player that might not help them play better, right? Yes, that's exactly right. We're going to use me and Riley Wagner as an example. Riley Wagner, she's such a cool, calm, collected player. You can't see when she's sweating or like she's not like too extreme. She's very calm and collected. And I love that about her. It works for her. And she she just plays her heart out the way she plays like that. And she's been like that since freshman year, since I've grown up with her. So I love that. And then a player like me, which sometimes I might need to tone it down, but I scream very loud and I try not to show my frustration on my sleeve. But sometimes it shows. But yeah, I'm a very animated player. So I wanted to embrace that. And that's just who I am as a person when I'm just talking and how I play. So yeah, well, Amber, you and Riley, I mean, it's so awesome watching both of you and and the rest of your teammates together. And like you said, I mean, showing emotions. I mean, you're you're animated, like you said. How important is it to show positive emotions to really help inspire and motivate your teammates? Yes, I think it's I think it's honestly really huge to show positive emotions. Obviously, sometimes there's times you just have to say, this is the game point, this is what we need to do when we're in like a funk or anything. But I do think when the game is rolling and even when the game is not so much rolling and you need to bring your positive emotions, I do think that's a great tool to use. Even a player like Riley is very calm and collected. She still shows her positive emotions at the same time. And it just really every player on our team has a way of showing their positive emotions, which is just great. And I think I think that definitely helps. And I've done that since I've been growing up. Sometimes, obviously, even when myself I'm not doing as well as I need to be playing, I think showing positive emotions to other people definitely helps you get out of your own dark cloud. So I think that's a great way to that's a great tool to have, I think. Well, I can't wait for your upcoming senior season so that we can see you display all of those emotions and animations. And Amber, I want to talk with you about in between points, all right? And the importance of controlling your thoughts, because I always say when you watch a football game, watching a football game takes around three hours, but the actual game is one hour. It's 60 minutes. So I like to focus with my teams about really controlling what I call the in between. What are your what are your thoughts about the importance of controlling your thoughts in between points? Yes, I'm glad you brought up this question because when I started college to playing college volleyball, this really was a struggle for me because as we know, volleyball is a very it can be a very quick game, especially in between the points. Once the ball gets into the server's hands, the referee just blows the whistle. So it's very quick and you really don't have a lot of time to dwell on the previous mistake or the previous play in general. So I used to really struggle with that. I'm getting better with it because at a point, Coach Rob just said, like, is it helping your play is getting frustrated and bleeding into the next point helping. It's not helping at the end of the day. So find what helps, find what helps. And what helps me is obviously training so I can be confident into playing. But at the same time, when I get into the game, almost having short term memory, like people say, be a goldfish when you play almost forget what just happened. If it if it starts to affect you or in club volleyball, they used to say, flush it out, literally flush it. They used to make us literally do that, like flush it out. And I would say just for me personally, just trying to be tactical with it and not making it an emotional thing like, oh, gosh, why can't I do this? Like, don't let the negative thoughts set in. I would just make it more tactical, like, OK, why did I hit it out? OK, I just need to swing faster. So make it a little bit more tactical instead of negative. So, yeah, and making your words positive instead of negative. So I do think that helps me and I think I'm getting better at it. So, yeah, I love hearing your insights about this. And and you know, Amber, I always like to keep things simple where, you know, there's three things that we need to control. One is our thoughts, like we talked about to our mouth and three are hands. So I coach people in if we can control what we think, what we say and what we do, it allows us to control our destiny. What are your thoughts about controlling your thoughts, mouth and hands? Wow, that's really good. That's really good. I love that because I do believe those three are keys into almost how your whole body operation works. Your thoughts, your mouth and the words are very powerful. And your thoughts, obviously, are just as powerful, in my opinion. And your hands, that's that's awesome. I haven't heard that before. And I do believe all three of those things almost like make your personality and make you you. That's that's that's a powerful saying. I do believe and it can create your destiny because your thoughts and the words you say do empower you at the end of the day. So good or bad. So I do believe that that's a powerful statement. I love that. I'm going to write that in my little journal. So yeah. And you see how I keep things really simple, right? Yes, keeping everything very simple. It helps with playing sports and it helps with life in general. Just yesterday I was very stressed out with putting things on my calendar. And I'm just thinking, OK, just keep everything simple and it's going to work out the way it should be. So I love that advice. And I think everyone should definitely take that and run because I will. Now, Amber, earlier on the show, you mentioned briefly about your team trip to Brazil. Tell me about what what were some of the highlights about going to Brazil with your team? Oh, my goodness, it was everything I expected and more. It I've never been out of the country, keep in mind. And I I loved it. My dream is to play professional at the end of this season. And I it made me even want to play even more. We played. I believe we played the U-19 and U-21 Brazil national team. And we played and we just had such a fun time. We played as a team and after that, we had time to tour around, sightseeing, eat the amazing food, and I just love the people of Brazil. It's like volleyball central in Brazil. So I love the culture. I love the people. It's almost similar to Hawaii, how everyone is adoring of the sport and loves the sport. And playing somewhere like that just makes you so grateful. And I love the trip. I think our team really got closer to it, which was really fun. Yeah, the team bonding and in that kind of trip. I mean, that's so great. And and Amber, you went to the USA Olympic Volleyball Training Center. How was that experience for you? Yes, I went this past spring. I went for my spring break actually. And they invited about 20 collegiate athletes there. I think about 18 to 20 collegiate athletes there, I believe. And I knew a lot of them and I love a lot of them. And it was so rewarding getting coached by the US national team coaches. They got to coach us. I got to I tried to be a sponge and listen to every single thing they said. And we played against each other. We trained, we learned a lot, we had fun. It was it was one of the best times ever and I wouldn't trade it for the world. One of my favorite things is just seeing how every person from different colleges, every player from different colleges play and probably have different styles of play. And just me playing with them, it really taught me a lot. So, yeah. So, Amber, is it one of your goals to represent the United States? At the Olympics? Yes, it is. That is my top goal since I was literally in fifth grade. I didn't think it was possible to even get into their training center and everything like that. So that is definitely my goal. One step at a time, though, life is full of goals. So I'm trying to meet that goal. So, yeah. Amber, I want to ask you one more thing before we wrap up. In addition to that being a goal, what what might be another or some other future goals for you? Wow, I have a lot of future goals, but obviously being on the national team is definitely my goal. And my goal is winning a national championship for like for Hawaii and for the state and for the school. Second is to play professional. I don't know where yet, but I would love to play professional somewhere amazing where they have amazing culture and everything like that. And third, after playing volleyball for as long as my body will let me, I will definitely use my psychology degree to follow my mother's footsteps and become a mental health counselor. So, yeah. Amber, I love it. And I know that everyone will love you as well because they got to get to know you more on the show today. And I really want to thank you for taking time to join me on the show today. Thank you so much. I had so much fun. Thank you for the amazing questions. Thank you guys. Thank you, Amber. And thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. For more information, please visit RustyKomori.com. And my books are available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I hope that Amber and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please click the like and subscribe button on YouTube. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Check out our website, ThinkTechHawaii.com. Mahalo.