Photo by: USA Volleyball
Men's Volleyball Q&A: JT Martin
9/16/2019 10:11:00 AM | Men's Volleyball, Competing With Purpose Blog
JT Martin, a redshirt freshman blocker on the Pepperdine men's volleyball team, talks about his experience playing for the USA Junior National team at the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, and what he is looking forward to for the upcoming season:
Q: You had the unique opportunity to play in the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru this summer. Can you talk about that experience and some of your takeaways?
A: Playing with USA Volleyball is always a very cool experience. Any chance you get to play at that level is a great opportunity. Getting to play under the best coaches in the game and representing our country on an international scale is really an honor. I cherish those moments and all the bonds I made with my teammates. It was really cool.
Q: Do you have any favorite moments from that experience?
A: I'm not sure if this is my favorite moment but I will definitely never forget the trip down to Lima. We were supposed to be down there for two weeks and the day that we were supposed to go we were flying from LAX to Dallas and Dallas to Lima. We had a little delay on our way down to Dallas and we thought we were going to make the flight but it ended up getting cancelled. We ended up sleeping in the airport, so imagine 17 guys that are all 6-4 and up cuddling up with blankets and backpacks as our pillows sleeping in this Dallas terminal. Eventually we got down to Lima and only got one day of practice before competition started. We faced a lot of adversity down there and we ended up taking fifth. As a group of guys who hadn't played with each other that many times before, we did a lot of learning on the fly. If we had the opportunity to train together a bit longer I'm sure we would have done better.
Q: Last year the men's volleyball team had a senior-heavy roster, how did you adjust from playing all four years in high school to not playing at all your freshman year in college?
A: It was a really tough transition for me, but I feel it is something that most collegiate men's volleyball players have to go through. It's a very prestigious program here, a lot of the freshmen that come here expect to shock the world and have an immediate impact, but you quickly realize that everyone is like that. It is not so much of an ego check but you have to step back and analyze yourself and everything you need to improve on.
The mindset of collegiate athletics is a huge change; to come in and get told I am redshirting this year and we have four seniors in front of me, the competitor in you wants to go into denial but at the same time I have to learn as much as I can from these guys and still compete. It's really easy to sit back and say these guys are better than me, they should be killing me in practice and they should be doing all these things, versus saying I can still compete and learn from them through this process. Another thing is the speed of the game in college is so much faster, everyone is a high intelligence player and especially here where we have the opportunity to play against the best competition in the country.
Q: What are some of the things you look forward to in the upcoming season?
A: I'm just excited about everything if I'm being honest. It's going to be very interesting, especially after losing all of those seniors. We have two seniors this year, so now there are a lot of opportunities for my class to step into those leadership roles and try to keep that team culture and team chemistry going. I'm just really excited to see teammates grow and step into those roles and reflect what this program is all about. We're going to go out and compete. I feel like a lot of people doubt us this year because we were the most senior-heavy team last year and we won our conference. Some people say that we're young and we're dumb but we're going to come out and compete with a big fire and play high-level volleyball.
Q: Why did you choose Pepperdine instead of staying home and attending a Florida or Southeast school?
A: There actually are no real Division I programs in the Southeast. Florida has a good amount of volleyball but it is still growing and it is a little dispersed right now and honestly the volleyball community is not as strong as it is out here in California. I started getting recruited my junior year and I initially thought I would not want to come out here because it was too far from home and my family. But throughout the whole recruiting process Pepperdine really wanted to get to know me as a person and who I am as a player and what motivated me. They did care about me and being on campus I can really feel that. The coaches are great, the team is great, the school is great, the view is even better. As much as distance was a deterrent, I couldn't find anything wrong with the school besides it being a five-hour flight instead of a three-hour flight.
Q: What has your preparation and the team's preparation looked like for the upcoming season?
B: We've been up to a lot, a lot of competing. Right now we're just getting into it. We have practices and everyone is working really hard because of the open leadership roles. Obviously, we had six seniors starting for us last year and they're not here anymore, so there are spots that are open for the taking, which really fires everyone up. In the gym and weight room, the guys understand the situation and know how hard we have to work to get back to that top level.
Q: What are your personal goals and what are some of the team goals?
A: Usually we don't say we want to hit a certain amount of wins or anything like that. We want to compete the best that we can as a team and play high-level volleyball consistently. I have no doubt that we're going to come in and compete at the highest level and there's no question a national championship is the standard for our program.
Q: Outside of volleyball what are some of your passions and interests?
A: I love music, even just while I'm studying or relaxing I could listen to music all the time. I listen to all different types of genres and I have my family to thank for that. My favorite artist is Billy Joel, which a lot of people may not expect, but I grew up listening to him and haven't stopped. Besides that, going to the beach and playing spikeball, and watching movies. I love Game of Thrones too, my favorite character is Robb Stark.
Q: You had the unique opportunity to play in the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru this summer. Can you talk about that experience and some of your takeaways?
A: Playing with USA Volleyball is always a very cool experience. Any chance you get to play at that level is a great opportunity. Getting to play under the best coaches in the game and representing our country on an international scale is really an honor. I cherish those moments and all the bonds I made with my teammates. It was really cool.
Q: Do you have any favorite moments from that experience?
A: I'm not sure if this is my favorite moment but I will definitely never forget the trip down to Lima. We were supposed to be down there for two weeks and the day that we were supposed to go we were flying from LAX to Dallas and Dallas to Lima. We had a little delay on our way down to Dallas and we thought we were going to make the flight but it ended up getting cancelled. We ended up sleeping in the airport, so imagine 17 guys that are all 6-4 and up cuddling up with blankets and backpacks as our pillows sleeping in this Dallas terminal. Eventually we got down to Lima and only got one day of practice before competition started. We faced a lot of adversity down there and we ended up taking fifth. As a group of guys who hadn't played with each other that many times before, we did a lot of learning on the fly. If we had the opportunity to train together a bit longer I'm sure we would have done better.
Q: Last year the men's volleyball team had a senior-heavy roster, how did you adjust from playing all four years in high school to not playing at all your freshman year in college?
A: It was a really tough transition for me, but I feel it is something that most collegiate men's volleyball players have to go through. It's a very prestigious program here, a lot of the freshmen that come here expect to shock the world and have an immediate impact, but you quickly realize that everyone is like that. It is not so much of an ego check but you have to step back and analyze yourself and everything you need to improve on.
The mindset of collegiate athletics is a huge change; to come in and get told I am redshirting this year and we have four seniors in front of me, the competitor in you wants to go into denial but at the same time I have to learn as much as I can from these guys and still compete. It's really easy to sit back and say these guys are better than me, they should be killing me in practice and they should be doing all these things, versus saying I can still compete and learn from them through this process. Another thing is the speed of the game in college is so much faster, everyone is a high intelligence player and especially here where we have the opportunity to play against the best competition in the country.
Q: What are some of the things you look forward to in the upcoming season?
A: I'm just excited about everything if I'm being honest. It's going to be very interesting, especially after losing all of those seniors. We have two seniors this year, so now there are a lot of opportunities for my class to step into those leadership roles and try to keep that team culture and team chemistry going. I'm just really excited to see teammates grow and step into those roles and reflect what this program is all about. We're going to go out and compete. I feel like a lot of people doubt us this year because we were the most senior-heavy team last year and we won our conference. Some people say that we're young and we're dumb but we're going to come out and compete with a big fire and play high-level volleyball.
Q: Why did you choose Pepperdine instead of staying home and attending a Florida or Southeast school?
A: There actually are no real Division I programs in the Southeast. Florida has a good amount of volleyball but it is still growing and it is a little dispersed right now and honestly the volleyball community is not as strong as it is out here in California. I started getting recruited my junior year and I initially thought I would not want to come out here because it was too far from home and my family. But throughout the whole recruiting process Pepperdine really wanted to get to know me as a person and who I am as a player and what motivated me. They did care about me and being on campus I can really feel that. The coaches are great, the team is great, the school is great, the view is even better. As much as distance was a deterrent, I couldn't find anything wrong with the school besides it being a five-hour flight instead of a three-hour flight.
Q: What has your preparation and the team's preparation looked like for the upcoming season?
B: We've been up to a lot, a lot of competing. Right now we're just getting into it. We have practices and everyone is working really hard because of the open leadership roles. Obviously, we had six seniors starting for us last year and they're not here anymore, so there are spots that are open for the taking, which really fires everyone up. In the gym and weight room, the guys understand the situation and know how hard we have to work to get back to that top level.
Q: What are your personal goals and what are some of the team goals?
A: Usually we don't say we want to hit a certain amount of wins or anything like that. We want to compete the best that we can as a team and play high-level volleyball consistently. I have no doubt that we're going to come in and compete at the highest level and there's no question a national championship is the standard for our program.
Q: Outside of volleyball what are some of your passions and interests?
A: I love music, even just while I'm studying or relaxing I could listen to music all the time. I listen to all different types of genres and I have my family to thank for that. My favorite artist is Billy Joel, which a lot of people may not expect, but I grew up listening to him and haven't stopped. Besides that, going to the beach and playing spikeball, and watching movies. I love Game of Thrones too, my favorite character is Robb Stark.
