FAYETTEVILLE — Emily Helm, a senior libero on the Arkansas volleyball team, spent two weeks in China representing Team USA on a 12-player team in the 2013 China-USA Challenge Invitational. I sat down with her and she discussed the trip, which included playing against professional teams in Shanghai and Beijing. The full question-and-answer session is below.
Logan Wilson: Last week, you got back from China after playing in the China-USA Challenge Invitational. Overall, what was your experience like?
Emily Helm: Honestly, it was life changing. I had never been out of the country, so this was the first time I ever had been. And the volleyball was a lot more advanced than here. The girls train six hours a day and they aren't allowed to have boyfriends and crazy stuff like that. So I had never experienced that. And I got to play with 12 girls that were part of Division I teams that I had played against around the country like Kansas, New Mexico and our rivals Kentucky and Florida. It was just a great experience and I grew a lot as a player.
LW: Even though you got to go out of the country and experience the world a little bit, it was volleyball focused obviously. So how did working with some of those new teammates and new coaches specifically help you improve?
EH: It was an adjustment, because I didn't know what their tendencies were or their playcalls, so I had to change a lot and assert myself as a libero and be more aggressive. Overall, the girls meshed well together and everyone worked hard, so it was easy to get along well. Regardless of the outcome, I think we grew a lot as a team toward the end of that trip.
LW: How hard is it to get close to teammates like that in less than three weeks and then separating yourself from them again?
EH: Honestly, it was an instant click. Our first practices, which we practiced at LMU for two days, it was like we had been playing with each other for a year or so. Which was weird. I wasn't expecting that. I was going in a little nervous thinking we may not play well together and people were nervous that first day. But from then on, it was like instant chemistry that we had, which is surprising with all girls, but I think we got along well and we played well together.
LW: In addition to playing volleyball, what kind of sightseeing did you get to do?
EH: The biggest thing we got to see that I was most excited about was The Great Wall. We climbed up The Great Wall actually, up all the stairs and there were like 1,000 stairs or something. We took a gondola ride back, but some girls got to take a luge back, which is like a ride down. I was kind of mad we couldn't find it, but we about died because it was the last day we were there. We also did some other sightseeing at the Forbidden City, where all of their emperors used to live and all that stuff. It was unreal how they built that and the same with The Great Wall. It was mind blowing to me, how they built all of that back then. It's crazy.
LW: What were some of the biggest differences you noticed between China and the US?
EH: It's just a completely different culture. Like, they were shocked about, since they are all very similar looking, when we came in, they weren't used to seeing tall girls that were 6-foot-2, so they were taking pictures with us and stuff. Probably, the way that we eat was a big difference than here. Our Chinese food is not the same as theirs. We weren't really sure what some of it was. I tried a lot of it, just to experience it, but I kind of stayed toward the rice most of the trip because I wasn't eating stuff if I didn't know what it was. I did have duck, and that was good. I had never had that. So the food, and how they travel, too. They use a lot of scooters and they wear masks on their face because of the pollution. But overall, they were very welcoming and we had a bunch of banquets and ceremonies and they gave us flowers, so it was just a really cool experience.
LW: As you head into your senior season at Arkansas, what are your goals both individually and as a team?
EH: Individually, I just want to be the best I can be. And I want to, hopefully, win libero of the year and I have been working really hard for that. Then as a team, we want to win a SEC championship and we want to go further than we did last year. Just making the NCAA Tournament isn't enough this year. We want to make it to the Sweet 16 and hopefully make it even further than that. I think we have what it takes. We have a lot of young freshman, but they are all very well skilled and they're aggressive. And they're already fitting into our system, so I'm excited about that.