Bryton Codd Back From Finland for Off Season Volleyball Training
Belizean professional volleyball athlete Bryton Codd is back in the Jewel after playing an intense first season with a Finnish team. It’s been eight months since the twenty-six-year-old signed a two-year European contract. After a brief adjustment period to train and play the sport full-time – not to mention the cold and shorter amounts of sunlight in Finland – Codd has been improving his game and playing in around-the-clock matches. News Five spoke today with him at the Body 2000 Gym in Belize City where he was training.
Bryton Codd
Bryton Codd, Professional Volleyball Athlete
“It’s definitely good to be back in the warmth. Subzero temperatures – hard to deal with as someone who comes from the tropics so it is good to be back home. And of course, with the situation that’s unfolding in that side of the world, it is definitely good to be back home.”
Duane Moody, Reporting
It’s the off season for the Finnish Volleyball League and professional volleyball athlete Bryton Codd is home for the next four months, after training around the clock and participating in matches for the last six months. It was a transition to playing because the sport was no longer a pastime or something he was good at, but his job.
Bryton Codd
“Transitioning from the national team to professional, I had to get a bit more disciplined in taking on this as a full time job. So changing my diet, what I consume was critically important and also the workout routines being more structured. We had to follow a programme. We had to be on time to practices – so no Belize time. Be there thirty minutes before practice, get in those workouts. We did a lot of road travelling as well so knowing how to take care of your body recovery was super important. It’s been a huge learning curve playing professionally. I have been challenged day in day out, meeting people with my same height, body stature, same abilities, better technicalities in the sport, more experience. It has pushed me to another level and it’s created so many opportunities for me to see how much I could grow within the sport.
So how has the overall first season experience been? Codd says it has not been without its challenges, having lost his grandmother and adapting to the high level of competition and the climate condition.
Bryton Codd
“The level of competition is very, very high. When I started out last year, I was in the top five for reception in the entire league. And I noticed that I had to find better recovering methods for my body because I was declining. So because of the extent of the season and not being used to playing for so long, I had to find what mechanism worked best for me. Sunlight came out ten o’clock in the morning and sun went down three in the afternoon. So limited sunlight during the winter, so lots of vitamin D, stayed on my other vitamins as well, tried to stay engaged, contact family back home even though there was an eight-hour difference. Just trying to build on the mental aspect of getting through a new environment was really a challenge at first, but I think I overcame. Our team sort of built throughout the season because we ended up getting a new libero in January who is from Japan and he ended up being the number one libero in the league. We also had other guys from Colombia, from Sweden and myself from Belize, so our team was very diverse. So we spoke Finnish, Spanish and English every day at practice. So I picked up a bit of the Finish, I got better in Spanish and of course, English. In terms of the camaraderie with the team, of course, there are going to be players that you don’t get along with on the court, but we are professionals and we have a job to do and a service to deliver so we know how to act professionally on the court.”
And while it is the off season, the training doesn’t stop. News Five caught up with Codd at the Body 2000 Gym already engaged in training.
Bryton Codd
“I start now with my off season training. I have until August thereabout before I go into the next season. So I need to stay conditioned. Also we have tournaments coming up for Belize throughout the summer as well and there is one in October, the Central American Games, which I will have to negotiate with the team in my contract to be able to come back and play as well.”
So what’s next for Codd?”
Bryton Codd
“After the first season, I learnt the politics of volleyball globally and what it means to go to the next level and how to get there. So while I was there, I met other agents and I decided to make decisions then. Will I continue with my same agent? Will I change my agent? Will I come back to the team? You start to understand the politics of volleyball and the networking capacities that certain agents have. And next season, I may be looking to go to either France or Spain. I don’t know as yet.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
