While swimming was a sport which I had been doing on and off for the last four years I never built consistency or routine till 10th grade. It was at this point I felt like I needed more variety so I decided to continue with volleyball, which I had started in the last quarter of 11th grade. I was looking forward to playing with my friends from my grade as well as the grades below, volleyball is a sport I find very interesting mainly thanks to my good friend Miku (Higashi). I thought it was a good idea to start further developing my skills as there were and still are certain areas in which I need improvement. 

The girls’ team began competitive games on September 9th, I hadn’t played in a game before as the one we were to play in 11th grade got cancelled because of protests so, I was going into this with no game experience. While we didn’t win we did perform progressively better, we made mistakes and learnt from those mistakes to improve our game play which resulted in us winning the fourth set. 

Scores 

• Set 1: 12-25 
• Set 2: 20-25 
• Set 3: 22-25 
• Set 4: 25-13 

There are several things which I know I perform well but choke when am on the court such as fast overhand serves which I practice regularly to improve on. Passing efficiency is also a skill I need to work on as I quite often lack in this department, I realized this on our second game which was on September 16th. So, we dedicated our following training session (September 17th) solely to improving our receives and digging approaches. 

Energy and motivation, however, are something we do not lack as a team, we are all very supportive of each other and will make sure it stays that way, especially considering prospective games and tournaments. 

We recently started morning practices at school, most people come to these and it has helped us to get to know each other as a team and have a little more time to work on ourselves as well as group performance. 

Overall, I do feel that I have improved in several areas during the first three weeks of training which led to me being selected for the travelling team. 

Learning Outcomes: 

• LO1: Identify your own strengths and develop areas for personal growth.
• LO4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences.
• LO5: Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively.