This is an excerpt from Kyla Richey’s website. It’s a great spot to check out and read about volleyball, travel, life in general and more!

Hey guys, my name is TJ Sanders and I have spent the last 6 years of my life playing volleyball internationally. Approximately eight months of the year are spent with a European club, and the other four months is with our Canadian men’s national team. I am going to start this off with an example of how my life was humbled by an injury not too long ago. I was a volleyball player who had plans of playing in Ankara, Turkey when a serious back injury got in the way. I am now (four months later) writing this from Calgary, Alberta and theoretically unemployed. Going into the World Championships this past summer I was excited to make a push with the guys to see what we could accomplish. We have made a lot of progress over the last couple of years and we all had high expectations. I had high expectations. The problem was, right when we got to Europe to prepare for the tournament my back started bothering me. Then this “bothering me” turned into immobilizing me. Eventually I was unable to play at all. Or walk. Goodbye, World Championships. This also resulted in the termination of my contract in Turkey. Definitely not what I had planned. This meant a drastic lifestyle change; not only was I unsure what I would be doing (as I planned to be playing in Turkey for the next several months), but my day to day would look completely different. I wouldn't be dedicating my time to high performance. I wouldn’t be pushing myself in the weight room or work on a new strategy on the court. Like I said, very different.