Guest Columnist Linda Frohlich: A few scrapes won’t hurt the Liberty

Thursday, July 24, 2003 | 8:42 a.m.

Linda Frohlich, an All-American at UNLV, is in her second season with the WNBA's New York Liberty. She writes every Thursday in the Sun. Find out what she's up to by checking out her Web site at www.LindaFrohlich.com.

Do you remember when you first learned how to ride a bike?

It was a difficult process for a lot of people. First you get on and usually there is someone behind you guiding you along the way. Then that person lets go and you are riding, and it is great ... you are moving down the street ... you are feeling the wind blowing through your hair.

Then you look back and see that there is no one helping you anymore. This is when your comfort zone comes to an abrupt end.

You crash, fall on the ground and scrape you knee, but you wipe it off and give it a try again.

Once you finally figure out how to ride the bike, it is a joyous feeling that you will savor. Riding a bike is something that you will never ever forget, even if you don't ride for years; you just never forget that feeling.

My New York Liberty teammates and I have been losing at a rate that we have not been accustomed to. But just like you never forget how to ride a bike, you never forget how to win. Recently we won our past two games and it feels pretty good. We are starting to get that champion swagger back.

We played Charlotte and Indiana in our past two outings. These hard-fought games were crucial for our survival in the playoff race. Not only do Charlotte and Indiana have better records then us, they are also in our conference. We were able to pick up some valuable ground in the Eastern Conference. With these two victories we were able to move from fifth place to third place.

Right when things are going good for us, here comes the Storm, and I mean that literally, the Seattle Storm. This week, we have four games and all of them are on the road. Right now I am on the West Coast: We play Seattle, Sacramento, Houston and Phoenix before we return home.

This trip is definitely going to be a great test for us, seeing that we have not had great success on the road sofar. We have only won one game on the road this season. So I guess you can say we are going to see what we are made of.

Until next week!