A Summer of Volleyball
So we finally did it: J and I won a tournament together, and we each won a volleyball.
It was a very successful summer season of volleyball -- in particular, R2-format volleyball. I think I am a total convert now. It actually feels like a completely different game -- while you are still basically playing volleyball, the reverse co-ed 2 format relies on a slightly different skill set. Most people say that R2s is a women's game because the net is set at women's height, and men can't jump (and attack) in front of the attack line. Ironically, I think R2s perfectly suits my game. I'm a big "ball control" kind of guy: the cornerstones of my game are passing and setting -- I'm not a strong hitter nor a strong hitter. Anyway, partnered with J, my monster female partner who finishes like a beast, we made a fairly formidable team. Upon reflection, I realised that we've actually had a remarkable run of luck. I've decided to write a little retrospective capture all of the tournaments I've played in the 2s format (basically, before I've played so many I can't remember them by themselves any more).
July 15, 2006: Gatorade Gulp (partner: Sharon -> Rose; level: B). Things got off to an inauspicious start: I was to play with Sharon (a girl I didn't know well), but she called me a couple days before the tournament to tell me that she'd sprained her ankle. I managed to bring in another friend (Rose), but the sad thing was that neither of us had actually played in the R2s format before. I have primarily three memories of that first tournament: (1) we got KILLED in the round robin -- even the team made up of the dad with his daughter took it to us... it was a tough morning; (2) Rhonda gave me tips even that day (where to stand when your teammate is serving), and (3) the sound of Rose's ankle when it broke as we were goofing around during the lunch break! What really sucked about Rose's ankle break was that it didn't even happen during a match! We were just goofing around during the lunch break. In the end, Rose's ankle was bad enough that we had to forfeit. I drove her home, and that was the end of the day. Pretty tragic.
Aug 26, 2006: The One After (partner: Jill; level: B). This tournament was the first time I played with Jill. We met at a "train & play" class down at the beach, I am pretty sure we both wanted to play with each other by the end of the class (most of the other players there were pretty weak). This tournament ended up being a lot of fun. Jill and I really got to know each other, and had a good time, doing reasonably well in the round robin. We ended up losing two straight in the tournament round, and the weird thing was that we'd seen beaten both of these teams during the round robin. Perhaps the funniest thing that happened was that we thought the last match was a best of three. We got down early, and I think we both thought we'd throw the set. Unfortunately, that ended up being the end of the match, and the day! I had a great time though, and ended up writing an entry about that day.
May - August, 2007: Tupper R2s League (partners: Jill, Lina, Joyce). Following a winter of playing fours and sixes, Jill and I signed up for the weekly R2s league. We had a blast, playing through the summer, both getting better with the experience. I found my hitting game, Jill hit like a monster (as usual), and we both learned how to play positionally. It was quite a learning experience, and the people we met were super friendly and always quite nice. As these things go though, Jill ended up not being able to play for some of the league days. I ended up playing with Lina a few times (which went really well -- I think this has something to do with both Lina and my being setters), and Joyce about four or five times. Both of these partners ended up being exactly what I wanted: capable players who gave me a chance to excel/learn, and hopefully vice versa.
June 16, 2007: Beaconsfield Swingers (partner: Jenny; level: B). The first tournament both Jill and I could play in was a swingers tournament! Ironically, it would be a tournament that we wouldn't even end up playing with each other except for one 15 minute stint. In this style of tournament, you play with all the members of the opposite sex (for a round robin) before getting paired with someone else to play in the actual tournament. I ended up getting paired with Jenny, and we got along quite well, though the tournament made me realise that even though I'd come a long way, I still had a long way to go. Jill and I ended up meeting in the tournament round, but only one of us could move on. I think she let my team win. :)
June 30, 2007: I am Canadian (partner: Jill; finish: 2nd; level: B; prizes: t-shirts and tiger balm patches). By the time this tournament came around, Jill and I had already played in the league for about a month and a half, so we'd already had a reasonable amount of experience and success with the R2s format. It shaped up to be a really good day: Jill and I won every game in the round robin except one. We worried for a while that we might end up getting bumped up a tier, but returned from lunch to find this was not going to be the case!
The tournament round also went extremely well, and we won the matches fairly handily heading up to the final. The great thing was that we could watch the two teams playing each other to decide which one we'd meet in the final, and we'd already beaten both. As we wandered over there, we caught sight of the prizes (new volleyballs!), and some fleeting thoughts of, "How cool would it be if I won a ball?!" As it turned out, there's a reason for those sayings, "Don't get ahead of yourself", or "One game at a time", or "We've got to focus on the game at hand." The best of three match went like this: we won the first set by a fairly huge margin. We got down in the second set by about 7 points (7-0) before playing, and ended up losing 25-23. In the third set, we were still very confident, but our play didn't match our ability. The other team stepped up, played an outstanding third set, and beat us. We didn't win the balls. It was a tough pill to swallow given how well we'd played through the day (and that we'd beaten this team twice during the day already); however, it was not all bad -- we got in on the prizing. We each won t-shirts!
The other thing I remember at this tournament was Rhonda again giving us more tips: basically, to learn how to hit cut shots, to tip with reckless abandon, and to serve short serves cross court. That first piece of advice would end up being something I would work really hard at until it became a part of my attack.
Jul 28: Impulse Energy (partner: Jon; level B -- mixed with A and AA). My brother and I had signed up for this tournament right at the beginning of the season. We recognized early that it would basically be the only time we'd get the chance to play together, so we signed up early. The neat thing about this tournament was that it would be played with the reverse rules (boys have to jump behind the attack line, net is at women's height), and so we thought we'd have a great chance. As it turned out, we'd of course never played together before in this format (we'd only each played with female partners), and so we ended up getting smoked in the round robin -- we lost every single game. It was a tough ride. The amazing thing was that my brother turned his game around during the tournament round: we ended up giving one strong team a really tough ride, and actually /beat/ another really strong team. Of course, we ended up bowing out before the final, but we had a really good time. It was a very memorable day, and I also wrote an entry specifically for that day.
Aug 5, 2007: Whistler (partner: Heather; level: B; finished: 2nd; prizing: t-shirt). Heather and I signed up for the Whistler tournament as soon as I knew Jill would be gone for August. It was a really really hot day. Heather and I walked through our first three or four matches without any difficulty, except that Heather started to look kind of funny in the last match... her heart was racing, she wasn't feeling well, and her palms were cold. It was very weird, and I think she was suffering from heat stroke or something. She took a rest, and we forfeited the rest of the matches in the round robin. After lunch, she seemed to be doing much better, and was her energetic self once again. We made our way through the tournament round, and did very well heading into the final -- I don't think we dropped a set, nor let anyone get closer than 20 points. Well, this was the story as we headed into the final. We watched our friends playing in the semi-final (the winner of which we would be playing in the final), and one of them (Becky) appeared to sprain her ankle! Fortunately, she turned out to be okay, but the near-sprain was the turning point of the game, and they ended up losing.
As Heather and I lined up to play the final, I saw that we'd already beaten the other team twice (fairly handily), so I wasn't too worried. I remembered my earlier loss, and was determined to stay focused. I think, though, that I was too dehydrated -- I hadn't taken care to drink water straight through to the later part of the day (I'd run out), and I wasn't even sweating much any more (I think I was low on bodily fluid, basically). I was also very nervous... I couldn't control my pulse. And I was really tired -- mentally and physically. Heather and I dropped the first set without even putting up much of a fight. We came back in the second and won (just barely), but then ended up losing in the third set. It was tough, because I really felt we were a stronger team, but unfortunately, we just didn't play well. We choked! For me, it was "Again!" The loss made me doubt the aspect of my game for a long time, though my performance made me happy because I came to see that I'd already reached another "level" in my game. I was considerably better now than at the beginning of the year: I'd begun to learn how and when to use the cut shot, and I was beginning to better understand the defensive positioning aspect of the game.
Aug 18, 2007: Confederation Park (partner: Mandy; level A/B; finished: 1st; prizing: bunnyhug/hoody & water bottle). When I found out Jill would be away for August, I really saw August as the chance to try playing with some other partners. I signed up for Whistler with Heather, and I had tapped Mandy (whom I'd never played with) to play in this tournament probably a month earlier. Mandy, it turned out, had never played R2s before, but I'd played against her enough to know that she was a smart player with very sound fundamentals. Given my experience at Whistler, I asked to be bumped up to the 'A' level, and was confident that we would do well, even though Mandy had never had experience with R2. As it turns out, this confidence was misplaced: we lost EVERY SINGLE MATCH in the round robin, except the one against our friends (who had also done the inadvisable, and signed up for 'A' level). We ended up getting bumped down to the 'B' pool for the tournament, which ended up going really well for us. We won! I actually don't remember much about the day, except that it was interesting trying to develop chemistry with a brand new player -- both in the sense that she'd never played the format before, and in the sense that I'd never played with her before! We ended up having a very good time, and gained a healthy appreciation for each other's game.
Thinking back, there is something funny that happened though... Someone said to me, when we'd reached the final, "Hey, you can lose now! You're already into the prizing!" That was true, actually. And it was weird, but I did, for a moment, think that it would be okay... after all, I was a choker, right? But then I dug in deep, and battled into the final. Amazingly, I was finally rewarded with a first place finish. Ironically, it wasn't with my regular partner, or indeed with even a regular R2s player. I think that says a lot about my partner.
My partner made one insight that I'd never realised before this game. She said to me, "You gave up before the ball even hit the ground!" I thought for a while that it was because I was so experienced, I knew which balls I could get, and which I couldn't get. As time went on after this tournament though, I realised that I was indeed allowing balls to hit the ground when if I gave it a second effort, I could get a touch on it. I used that saying as motivation to play harder in the next tournaments I played afterwards. I think that really changed my game.
Sept 9: Nibbles & Bites (partner: Jill; level A - bronze; finished: 1st; prizing: volleyball and t-shirt). Jill got back from her trip about a week before. I headed into this tournament somewhat resigned, as I was sure that all the effort we'd put in before her one month trip would be somewhat put to waste -- not only would she be probably somewhat out of game shape, we wouldn't have the chemistry heading into the tournament. As it turns out, we ended up doing quite reasonably well in the morning round robin (maybe going 2-3 or 3-3). Even though we had a losing record, we played quite well in every one of the matches. Everything was going really well: I was serving well (i.e. getting a lot of "free" points), I was hitting my cut shots well, and Jill was pounding the ball as usual. Heading into the afternoon tournament session, we were pretty happy with our play, but I have to admit that I was still somewhat resigned. Actually, that is probably not the best word. Really, I was just focused on "the next game." I didn't look ahead to see who we would play next, or who we might play next, or even count how many games we needed to win. I just focused, with blinders, basically, on the game at hand. I think this helped a lot.
The toughest match we played in the early round was the third round match. The team we were playing with was a really talented team, and we'd actually probably played them three times before, losing fairly quickly all three times. This time though, we focused really hard, gave them a tough time on serves and I worked hard to mix up my hits, using my cut shots for a long time to make them cheat to the outside, and then later blasting it down the 6 hole for some easier points. That game was probably the best match I've played in my entire life. The final was not quite as challenging from a skill perspective; however, I had to work really hard to stay mentally focused (i.e. not to give up), and to continue battling, even though I was completely exhausted before the match had even begun.
In the end, Jill and I won. It was the biggest victory of my life. Seriously. Winning at this tournament meant that the hard work we'd put into our game had finally paid off. On top of that, being cheap (i.e. not buying a ball) paid off. That victory felt really, really good. As I went home, I remembered the words of my buddy Tony: "When you get an A+, it's the best feeling. It's miles better than an A. With an A+, you never wonder, 'I wonder what I could have done better.' You know you did everything you had to do." And that was the exact same feeling I had after winning this tournament. I didn't think again about any mistakes I'd made, nor did I wonder what I could have done differently. I just enjoyed the victory. :)
Interestingly, Rhonda made another appearance at this match. It was really rewarding what she said, "I'm so proud of you guys! You made it to the final! You must have worked hard." And it was true. We had worked hard for the summer.
What did I learn through this past season? I think I learned a lot of important volleyball, and maybe even life lessons. I don't mean to get too deep or reflective about this, but I suppose I am allowed to do that given that it's 1:30 in the morning.
It was a very successful summer season of volleyball -- in particular, R2-format volleyball. I think I am a total convert now. It actually feels like a completely different game -- while you are still basically playing volleyball, the reverse co-ed 2 format relies on a slightly different skill set. Most people say that R2s is a women's game because the net is set at women's height, and men can't jump (and attack) in front of the attack line. Ironically, I think R2s perfectly suits my game. I'm a big "ball control" kind of guy: the cornerstones of my game are passing and setting -- I'm not a strong hitter nor a strong hitter. Anyway, partnered with J, my monster female partner who finishes like a beast, we made a fairly formidable team. Upon reflection, I realised that we've actually had a remarkable run of luck. I've decided to write a little retrospective capture all of the tournaments I've played in the 2s format (basically, before I've played so many I can't remember them by themselves any more).
July 15, 2006: Gatorade Gulp (partner: Sharon -> Rose; level: B). Things got off to an inauspicious start: I was to play with Sharon (a girl I didn't know well), but she called me a couple days before the tournament to tell me that she'd sprained her ankle. I managed to bring in another friend (Rose), but the sad thing was that neither of us had actually played in the R2s format before. I have primarily three memories of that first tournament: (1) we got KILLED in the round robin -- even the team made up of the dad with his daughter took it to us... it was a tough morning; (2) Rhonda gave me tips even that day (where to stand when your teammate is serving), and (3) the sound of Rose's ankle when it broke as we were goofing around during the lunch break! What really sucked about Rose's ankle break was that it didn't even happen during a match! We were just goofing around during the lunch break. In the end, Rose's ankle was bad enough that we had to forfeit. I drove her home, and that was the end of the day. Pretty tragic.
Aug 26, 2006: The One After (partner: Jill; level: B). This tournament was the first time I played with Jill. We met at a "train & play" class down at the beach, I am pretty sure we both wanted to play with each other by the end of the class (most of the other players there were pretty weak). This tournament ended up being a lot of fun. Jill and I really got to know each other, and had a good time, doing reasonably well in the round robin. We ended up losing two straight in the tournament round, and the weird thing was that we'd seen beaten both of these teams during the round robin. Perhaps the funniest thing that happened was that we thought the last match was a best of three. We got down early, and I think we both thought we'd throw the set. Unfortunately, that ended up being the end of the match, and the day! I had a great time though, and ended up writing an entry about that day.
May - August, 2007: Tupper R2s League (partners: Jill, Lina, Joyce). Following a winter of playing fours and sixes, Jill and I signed up for the weekly R2s league. We had a blast, playing through the summer, both getting better with the experience. I found my hitting game, Jill hit like a monster (as usual), and we both learned how to play positionally. It was quite a learning experience, and the people we met were super friendly and always quite nice. As these things go though, Jill ended up not being able to play for some of the league days. I ended up playing with Lina a few times (which went really well -- I think this has something to do with both Lina and my being setters), and Joyce about four or five times. Both of these partners ended up being exactly what I wanted: capable players who gave me a chance to excel/learn, and hopefully vice versa.
June 16, 2007: Beaconsfield Swingers (partner: Jenny; level: B). The first tournament both Jill and I could play in was a swingers tournament! Ironically, it would be a tournament that we wouldn't even end up playing with each other except for one 15 minute stint. In this style of tournament, you play with all the members of the opposite sex (for a round robin) before getting paired with someone else to play in the actual tournament. I ended up getting paired with Jenny, and we got along quite well, though the tournament made me realise that even though I'd come a long way, I still had a long way to go. Jill and I ended up meeting in the tournament round, but only one of us could move on. I think she let my team win. :)
June 30, 2007: I am Canadian (partner: Jill; finish: 2nd; level: B; prizes: t-shirts and tiger balm patches). By the time this tournament came around, Jill and I had already played in the league for about a month and a half, so we'd already had a reasonable amount of experience and success with the R2s format. It shaped up to be a really good day: Jill and I won every game in the round robin except one. We worried for a while that we might end up getting bumped up a tier, but returned from lunch to find this was not going to be the case!
The tournament round also went extremely well, and we won the matches fairly handily heading up to the final. The great thing was that we could watch the two teams playing each other to decide which one we'd meet in the final, and we'd already beaten both. As we wandered over there, we caught sight of the prizes (new volleyballs!), and some fleeting thoughts of, "How cool would it be if I won a ball?!" As it turned out, there's a reason for those sayings, "Don't get ahead of yourself", or "One game at a time", or "We've got to focus on the game at hand." The best of three match went like this: we won the first set by a fairly huge margin. We got down in the second set by about 7 points (7-0) before playing, and ended up losing 25-23. In the third set, we were still very confident, but our play didn't match our ability. The other team stepped up, played an outstanding third set, and beat us. We didn't win the balls. It was a tough pill to swallow given how well we'd played through the day (and that we'd beaten this team twice during the day already); however, it was not all bad -- we got in on the prizing. We each won t-shirts!
The other thing I remember at this tournament was Rhonda again giving us more tips: basically, to learn how to hit cut shots, to tip with reckless abandon, and to serve short serves cross court. That first piece of advice would end up being something I would work really hard at until it became a part of my attack.
Jul 28: Impulse Energy (partner: Jon; level B -- mixed with A and AA). My brother and I had signed up for this tournament right at the beginning of the season. We recognized early that it would basically be the only time we'd get the chance to play together, so we signed up early. The neat thing about this tournament was that it would be played with the reverse rules (boys have to jump behind the attack line, net is at women's height), and so we thought we'd have a great chance. As it turned out, we'd of course never played together before in this format (we'd only each played with female partners), and so we ended up getting smoked in the round robin -- we lost every single game. It was a tough ride. The amazing thing was that my brother turned his game around during the tournament round: we ended up giving one strong team a really tough ride, and actually /beat/ another really strong team. Of course, we ended up bowing out before the final, but we had a really good time. It was a very memorable day, and I also wrote an entry specifically for that day.
Aug 5, 2007: Whistler (partner: Heather; level: B; finished: 2nd; prizing: t-shirt). Heather and I signed up for the Whistler tournament as soon as I knew Jill would be gone for August. It was a really really hot day. Heather and I walked through our first three or four matches without any difficulty, except that Heather started to look kind of funny in the last match... her heart was racing, she wasn't feeling well, and her palms were cold. It was very weird, and I think she was suffering from heat stroke or something. She took a rest, and we forfeited the rest of the matches in the round robin. After lunch, she seemed to be doing much better, and was her energetic self once again. We made our way through the tournament round, and did very well heading into the final -- I don't think we dropped a set, nor let anyone get closer than 20 points. Well, this was the story as we headed into the final. We watched our friends playing in the semi-final (the winner of which we would be playing in the final), and one of them (Becky) appeared to sprain her ankle! Fortunately, she turned out to be okay, but the near-sprain was the turning point of the game, and they ended up losing.
As Heather and I lined up to play the final, I saw that we'd already beaten the other team twice (fairly handily), so I wasn't too worried. I remembered my earlier loss, and was determined to stay focused. I think, though, that I was too dehydrated -- I hadn't taken care to drink water straight through to the later part of the day (I'd run out), and I wasn't even sweating much any more (I think I was low on bodily fluid, basically). I was also very nervous... I couldn't control my pulse. And I was really tired -- mentally and physically. Heather and I dropped the first set without even putting up much of a fight. We came back in the second and won (just barely), but then ended up losing in the third set. It was tough, because I really felt we were a stronger team, but unfortunately, we just didn't play well. We choked! For me, it was "Again!" The loss made me doubt the aspect of my game for a long time, though my performance made me happy because I came to see that I'd already reached another "level" in my game. I was considerably better now than at the beginning of the year: I'd begun to learn how and when to use the cut shot, and I was beginning to better understand the defensive positioning aspect of the game.
Aug 18, 2007: Confederation Park (partner: Mandy; level A/B; finished: 1st; prizing: bunnyhug/hoody & water bottle). When I found out Jill would be away for August, I really saw August as the chance to try playing with some other partners. I signed up for Whistler with Heather, and I had tapped Mandy (whom I'd never played with) to play in this tournament probably a month earlier. Mandy, it turned out, had never played R2s before, but I'd played against her enough to know that she was a smart player with very sound fundamentals. Given my experience at Whistler, I asked to be bumped up to the 'A' level, and was confident that we would do well, even though Mandy had never had experience with R2. As it turns out, this confidence was misplaced: we lost EVERY SINGLE MATCH in the round robin, except the one against our friends (who had also done the inadvisable, and signed up for 'A' level). We ended up getting bumped down to the 'B' pool for the tournament, which ended up going really well for us. We won! I actually don't remember much about the day, except that it was interesting trying to develop chemistry with a brand new player -- both in the sense that she'd never played the format before, and in the sense that I'd never played with her before! We ended up having a very good time, and gained a healthy appreciation for each other's game.
Thinking back, there is something funny that happened though... Someone said to me, when we'd reached the final, "Hey, you can lose now! You're already into the prizing!" That was true, actually. And it was weird, but I did, for a moment, think that it would be okay... after all, I was a choker, right? But then I dug in deep, and battled into the final. Amazingly, I was finally rewarded with a first place finish. Ironically, it wasn't with my regular partner, or indeed with even a regular R2s player. I think that says a lot about my partner.
My partner made one insight that I'd never realised before this game. She said to me, "You gave up before the ball even hit the ground!" I thought for a while that it was because I was so experienced, I knew which balls I could get, and which I couldn't get. As time went on after this tournament though, I realised that I was indeed allowing balls to hit the ground when if I gave it a second effort, I could get a touch on it. I used that saying as motivation to play harder in the next tournaments I played afterwards. I think that really changed my game.
Sept 9: Nibbles & Bites (partner: Jill; level A - bronze; finished: 1st; prizing: volleyball and t-shirt). Jill got back from her trip about a week before. I headed into this tournament somewhat resigned, as I was sure that all the effort we'd put in before her one month trip would be somewhat put to waste -- not only would she be probably somewhat out of game shape, we wouldn't have the chemistry heading into the tournament. As it turns out, we ended up doing quite reasonably well in the morning round robin (maybe going 2-3 or 3-3). Even though we had a losing record, we played quite well in every one of the matches. Everything was going really well: I was serving well (i.e. getting a lot of "free" points), I was hitting my cut shots well, and Jill was pounding the ball as usual. Heading into the afternoon tournament session, we were pretty happy with our play, but I have to admit that I was still somewhat resigned. Actually, that is probably not the best word. Really, I was just focused on "the next game." I didn't look ahead to see who we would play next, or who we might play next, or even count how many games we needed to win. I just focused, with blinders, basically, on the game at hand. I think this helped a lot.
The toughest match we played in the early round was the third round match. The team we were playing with was a really talented team, and we'd actually probably played them three times before, losing fairly quickly all three times. This time though, we focused really hard, gave them a tough time on serves and I worked hard to mix up my hits, using my cut shots for a long time to make them cheat to the outside, and then later blasting it down the 6 hole for some easier points. That game was probably the best match I've played in my entire life. The final was not quite as challenging from a skill perspective; however, I had to work really hard to stay mentally focused (i.e. not to give up), and to continue battling, even though I was completely exhausted before the match had even begun.
In the end, Jill and I won. It was the biggest victory of my life. Seriously. Winning at this tournament meant that the hard work we'd put into our game had finally paid off. On top of that, being cheap (i.e. not buying a ball) paid off. That victory felt really, really good. As I went home, I remembered the words of my buddy Tony: "When you get an A+, it's the best feeling. It's miles better than an A. With an A+, you never wonder, 'I wonder what I could have done better.' You know you did everything you had to do." And that was the exact same feeling I had after winning this tournament. I didn't think again about any mistakes I'd made, nor did I wonder what I could have done differently. I just enjoyed the victory. :)
Interestingly, Rhonda made another appearance at this match. It was really rewarding what she said, "I'm so proud of you guys! You made it to the final! You must have worked hard." And it was true. We had worked hard for the summer.
What did I learn through this past season? I think I learned a lot of important volleyball, and maybe even life lessons. I don't mean to get too deep or reflective about this, but I suppose I am allowed to do that given that it's 1:30 in the morning.
- You can't dislike anyone. When a community is as small as the volleyball community in Vancouver (it's big, but in a lot of ways, it's still small), you can't ever get away with actively disliking someone. Invariably, you'll end up going out to play some ball with someone you don't know too well, and the person you dislike will be among the five or six people that agreed to go out and play that day. It's just too small a community to dislike anyone, and usually it turns out everyone is quite a reasonable person when you're on the same team. I think this is the same thing in professional life. You can't make enemies -- you certainly can't make too many. Word gets out.
- Getting down on your teammate rarely helps. On small teams as you might find in R2s, it's really not worth getting down on your partner. At least with the partners I've played with (and myself), most people don't play too well under extreme pressure. You always have to stay positive -- this makes things easy for people around you to play well, and to not second guess themselves. I haven't always been able to do this, but I've usually been "okay" at it. It's something I have to work at myself.
- "You gave up before the ball even hit the ground!" This was one of the biggest lessons I learned about my volleyball game, but I think it's really also a life lesson. Even when all appears to be lost, you have to keep trying. Suppose the ball has a 99% chance of hitting the ground, and that even if you made a second effort, it would still probably hit the ball 98% of the time. You have to make the second effort, because 1% of the time your team would still have had a chance to win the point. If you don't make the effort, then your team is guaranteed to have lost the point. Even when all is lost, you don't lose anything for giving it that second effort.
- "Hit short serves cross court, and hit cut shots because they're almost always available." It's unbelievable how true this piece of advice from Rhonda was. The cut shots almost always work well to get the point, because they're so nasty to dig up. As I learned how to hit these types of shots, I came to see that it was these same hits that I would usually give up on (see point 3). It was amazing to see how many points we could get basically "for free" with these kinds of shots -- it just required maintaining control of the ball. The great thing is that it wouldn't expend that much energy, too. The cross court short serves also work really well... Rhonda's advice was that this was because it was difficult to see for the cross-court person, even though the line person could see. This also turns out to be true for Jill and me: we often let the short cross ones go, even though the line person can see it.
- Be nice to noobies -- they will remember it. Thinking back, I came to see that Rhonda really helped my game, and made me a better player just by dropping a tip here and there. It's kind of an amazing thing. I doubt she knows she's had such a big impact on my volleyball game, but she really has. When someone you look up to (because of their play) is super nice to you, it really means the world.
- "Stay in control of your body." This was a piece of advice I got from a guy who is the embodiment of the term "grizzled vet." He totally looks the part, and he too is also very nice. This advice is something I think about all the time. Volleyball is not about flailing about, hoping and praying -- it's a game of control. While I was good at ball control when I came into the summer, I learned about bodily control as the summer wore on. This takes experience, probably, but it also just comes with trying to mentally slow the game down, and thinking about what you're doing -- even when things around you are happening at a blazing pace.
- "Line up with your hitter, angle your body inwards so you only have one direction to go." This piece of advice (from Billy) refers to when one is defending against the line hitter. Essentially, if you position yourself poorly, there are two possible directions to go. If you position yourself so that there's only one possible direction to go, then you can react faster in that direction, and move to contact the ball easier. Again, sounds a lot like "life advice," doesn't it?
- You don't have to be the best team -- you just have to beat everyone on one day. After the losses that my teams suffered in the finals (I don't meant to sound presumptuous here, but I really though my team was the better team) plus the final win Jill and I had at N&B, I came to see that volleyball, as with a lot of things in life, is a one-shot thing. Because it's a one-shot thing, it means that you don't have to be the best team to win. You just have to be the team that plays better than the other teams for one day. This means you just have to play better than each team on a day where each team may not be playing that well themselves. Again, sounds a lot like a life lesson, huh? Even when it looks like everyone else is better than you, it doesn't hurt to give it a try -- they could all be having bad days, and you could have a great one!
posted by tangaroo at 1:53 a.m.
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