Showing posts with label volleyball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label volleyball. Show all posts

Monday, February 5, 2018

Volleyball: a Sport for Lazy People

When most people think of volleyball, they think of it as a sport for unathletic people or for just girls. Those people are far far away from the truth. To truly succeed in volleyball ,you need to have hand eye coordination, strength, speed, some general athletic ability, and the mental mindset to keep trying and get better.



Volleyball is not just a sport for girls. There are definitely many stereotypes for girls which is the thing that makes me most annoyed. For example, I hate hearing things that are like you probably just play volleyball because you want or have to play a sport. The truth is that a majority of volleyball players throughout high school and college are definitely girls, but when you get to the professional or olympic level many boys play volleyball as well. One of the main reasons volleyball is a female dominated sport is that many high schools or colleges don’t have enough interest or funding to support volleyball. In the fall, high school volleyball is in season, along with football. For some statistics on why volleyball is played more by women, click Here .
Volleyball is presumed as easy, because it seems like you just need to pass it up and over the net. In volleyball, you need to know how to pass, set, and hit. Passing is probably the most basic part of volleyball, but it is also the most challenging. If your feet are in the wrong place, or you aren’t low enough, the ball will schank off of you arms or platform and won’t go to the target. As you get older, you need to pass the ball perfectly every time, in order to have the best chances of winning the point, or the game. Setting seems easy, but it is hard to master. You need to use both of your hands to set, and they have to move simultaneously for it not to be called a double. Hitting, the coolest part of volleyball and the position that probably gets the most credit seems easy, but timing is everything. You have to set up your approach and start at the perfect time so when you jump you are able to hit it down well. For people to say “you probably just play volleyball to say you play a sport” or “volleyball is so easy”, I would like to see you try and play at a high level. When I play with my team, everyone will make some mistakes, and I think that it's good to help and encourage people so they won't make the same mistake twice. I definitely like when people don't tell me what I did wrong when I miss a pass, but say something nice so I can forget about it and do better next time.
To sum this up, I am trying to say that volleyball is way harder than it looks. You need to put in tons of effort to succeed. If you don’t play volleyball, DON'T say it’s easy. You wouldn’t know. I play volleyball, because I enjoy it and want to get better so I can play at a high level like this. I have been playing for four years, and compared to other people I kind of suck, but I’m just gonna keep trying my best and have fun.

Sources:
Images:
Videos:

Friday, January 30, 2015

Bump, Set, Spike




My passion is volleyball. I started volleyball last year. I first thought that volleyball would just be a sport for fun. I would only play for the short school season, and maybe play basketball in Winter. I started on the lowest team, learning the skills involved in volleyball. I still felt like it wasn’t a passion, until the first game.

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Procrastination, Volleyball, and Homework, Oh My!

As a middle school student, a volleyball player, and a kid who loves to waste all her time online, I like to procrastinate, all the time. I feel guilty when I do, but I love not doing my work. There are so many other things I could do like: watch TV, eat, watch hours of netflix, go on the world of youtube, and a million other things. How do teachers expect us that out of the billions things I could do they want us to pick the one thing we hate the most. Homework.
I play club volleyball which can make me extremely busy. The practices are twice a week and an hour and a half each. Now I know I should not be complaining because some people have it much worse, but what bugs me the most is that almost every weekend I have a twelve hour tournament. This can consist of eight to ten hours of straight volleyball! This means there is NO time for homework! Just to my luck it seems that I always have a volleyball tournament the weekend before a big test or a big project is due. When I get home from a volleyball tournament I don't want to do homework. To tell you the truth it's probably the thing I want to do least. That is one of my number one ways I procrastinate: being too busy and tired.
When I go to practice I sometimes get "volleyball homework" it's not really homework but it’s close. I sometimes will be told to do a certain amount of sets or bumps. Or sometimes I'll have to work on my approach and block jump. The thing is with volleyball homework I do it. I love volleyball so I love volleyball homework! So sometimes I'll work on homework just not school homework.
To help with my procrastination I try to do whatever I can. I will try to plan my whole day, I try to work on one thing at a time, or l will even try the rule of six. For the rule of six I write down six things that I want to get done. I put them in order if importance and I get to work! If I don't finish everything then it just gets moved to the next list tomorrow. But to find the thing that works the best for you you just have to keep trying new things and maybe one day you will cure your procrastination forever
The thing is with procrastination you never know when you will find a way to cure your procrastination. Hopefully I will find a way to cope with my busy life and work hard in school.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Good and Bad but Always Loved

 I have gone through many sports to find volleyball, I did soccer, basketball, gymnastics, ballet, tennis, swimming, and even a little lacrosse. I started bumping a volleyball around with my dad in 3rd grade, I just thought it was another sport that I would like but not love, of course at that time I thought it was called “ballyball”. In 6th grade I started played for my school team. I was on the lower team, but all the other 6th graders were on the same team. I needed to learn more about the sport to decide if I wanted this to be the sport I played. The season came and went by the time it was over I was in love with volleyball. Still I did basketball. I tried out for club but, it being my first year doing club I had no idea what to do I went to one of the hardest clubs and didn’t get in. I did many camps over the summer though and finally got my overhand serve down. 7th grade came and I knew volleyball was my sport. I did school volleyball again and was put on the same team, that didn’t bother me though I got more playing time to improve. I tried out for another club team and got in on the highest U14’s team in our club. I have improved my serve, passing, and hitting but, I have to say I am not the best at setting.

There are ups and downs to volleyball when you win a game you feel great but, it’s the little things to. When you do the perfect spike it is amazing. The down side is you can get hurt a lot. I have gotten hit straight in the nose before and two people on my team, of twelve, have gotten concussions because of it. I also get this horrible feeling too when I mess something up like a serve or a hit that costs us a point. The worst thing to happen is game point for the other team and then you go up to serve, you feel so much pressure, and then you mess up the serve it happens all the time. At points you can feel like you are a failure then, you pick yourself up and shake it off. Without all the feelings I have in volleyball, all the ups and downs, I would never be a better player. I love volleyball no matter what, it has taught me to be more disciplined, patient, and I have made new friends that I feel like I have a sort of bond with.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Win or Lose

Tournaments: long twelve hour days where you either lower your ranking, or you win. To win you need many things. There are many reasons why you can lose. You beat a team in your second game, but then you lose to someone way worse in the afternoon. Life is hard on the court.
When you win it feels great. everyone wants to win, and when you do it really boosts your spirit. It’s easier to win a game if you win the game before that. The winner is hugely dependant on skill, but you can beat a team that is better than you, if you are in the right situation. Volleyball is truly a team sport, where the winner is the louder, more excited team with the better mindset. You have to have talent to win, but talent can only take you so far. My team does best in these situations because when your energy level is up, you have more of a reason to win.
Losing is frustrating. But it happens. For some teams it’s a lot. Others (very rarely) it’s quite the opposite. But the most frustrating thing is when you lose in the game that counts. At some earlier tournaments, if you lose a certain game, you will have to stay and play a lot more because you lost. It happens, but it’s equally irritating every time.
Then there’s the time off court. There are many different things you have to do, depending on what you need at that moment. During some of your breaks, you have to ref, which is always dull. And a lot of people are involved in reffing. Not just the coaches, but the players (depending on the situation) will have to be the second referee (or as it is more familiarly called down ref), use the score sheet, score board, libero tracking, and flags. The other people on the team get a quick break, just to come back and ref the next set.
Some tournaments can be really hard… but they really help you become a team. Obviously, you improve on your skills. But it’s also a team bonding thing. For some big tournaments, you have to drive somewhere for hours, and then stay in a hotel for a night (or more if it’s a long tournament). Some of it is fun, some of it isn’t. Overall, the tournament is a thing of wonder. Excitement, happiness, disappointment, tiredness, and frustration. But in good times and bad, win or lose, we’re a team.

Image Sources