We arrived in Green Bay, WI for our 5^th and 6^th matches of World League. Both matches were against Finland, a team we played previously in Finland a few weeks prior. We certainly entered the weekend looking to continue winning, and giving ourselves a chance to qualify from our pool for World League finals to be held in Rio, Brazil the end of this month.

Fortunately for us, we arrived to see no "frozen tundra". In fact, the weather in Green Bay was as nice as the people there. In a city known for having the Green Bay Packers, it should also be known for having some amazing sports fans.

About 2,000 of these great fans showed up for our first match against Finland. We took the crowd support as motivation for a match. The fans that showed up were sporting USA volleyball gear, and USA colors in droves. It was a very patriotic sight. The support in Green Bay was instrumental to us winning both our matches in similar fashion, 3-1, 3-1. We were all satisfied with how we played in Green Bay, and many of the guys stayed long after the match was finished to sign shirts and balls for the fans.

Not much time was afford to us to go out and check out town, but a few guys and their families got a tour of Lambeau Field. Some argued that walking out on to the field made them wish they had played with the pigskin, not the volleyball. But then they joked that, based on most of our body types, we just could not handle the physicality of football.

I have to say I am in awe of football players. These guys are truly knocked around all year long, often times one bad hit away from a season ending injury. Meanwhile, they stay in amazing physical condition. They also have to be mentally prepared to run all the plays, and deal with the physical demands, that the sport requires.

As most of us USA team members will attest, we have been constantly working on our own mental condition. Not just individually, but as a team. We have been fortunate to have a sports psychologist meet with us weekly this summer to help us develop the mental strength we need going into Beijing. There have been specific skills and tricks we all pick up on such as breathing properly, or focusing on the next play. Yet more than these skills, it's the general feeling and belief that we have to practice and implement mental strategies into our preparations to have the greatest chance for a gold medal.

One of the most relevant examples would be learning how to "weather the storm". Volleyball is extremely turbulent during the course of a set and a match. While one team may easily jump out to an 8-2 advantage to start a set, the next thing you know the loosing team has made a "run" (the storm) and is ahead 16-14 at the second technical time out. Also, it is possible that teams win the first two sets against us and put our backs against a wall to win in 5 (which we have before).

During the course of these swings within sets and matches, many teams and players can mentally get unhinged. They can point fingers at who is making mistakes, or referee calls, or a number of other common excuses. Or, like we've been doing, they can practice weathering the storm. Continuing to look to make good plays over time, to pick your team mates up, to understanding that you can not make the storm into a class 5 hurricane. You move on, you keep working hard and believing in yourself and your team. Ultimately, the storm passes and the better team prevails...which usually means that we win.

To say the least, we're looking towards a few storms passing, but generally sunny weather in Beijing.

Gabe Gardner is a freelance contributor for teamusa.org. This blog was not subject to the approval of the United States Olympic Committee or any National Governing Bodies.