From the beginning of the year I had one major goal in mind in terms of activities. It was to get into at least one SAISA sport. Realistically, I understood that my best options were volleyball and badminton because I enjoyed both sports and have had some past experience in it as well. Although I may not have made it into the team, I’ve learnt a lot of skills and techniques that have improved my overall playing. But most importantly, I have been able to identify the areas I need to work on and have been working on honing my abilities.

One of these areas is my serving. Although I can consistently serve it would only be by underhand which would allow the opposing team to receive it very easily. In a competitive scenario, it isn’t the ideal technique to be using and as such, the overhand serve is often the only serve being employed. It was difficult for me to get the ball over the net using the overhand serve as I was not very used to it. Throughout the duration of training for volleyball, I slowly improved on my ability to serve overhand. Now I have been able to find the spot on my hand to make contact with the ball to get it over the net. The ball still doesn’t go very far and still travels rather slowly but I have made great strides in getting the ball over the net at all using this serving technique.

Image taken by Satwik Nayak.

My other area which needs work on is spiking. This is something that still troubles me as I find it to be a very complex method of attack. Though it is efficient when implemented, the conditions have to be just right in order to get the perfect spike. One major element I seem to lack is the timing of going up to the ball, when to place each step, to swing my arms, and to jump. Depending on how high the set is, I need to wait a certain duration, position myself, and then run up with three steps and swing my arms and jump with my legs bent. And at the height of my jump, the ball has to be high enough for me to hit it but not too high or else I can’t reach, and not too low or else I can’t hit it or it goes below the net. Honestly, this is the most frustrating aspect of volleyball and it still puzzles me how people are able to get these exact steps right and time everything perfectly to get a good spike. I have tried practicing this shot but it has been much harder to do than a simple overhand serve. I think one way to get better at this to just do it enough times to get the hang of it. Next year, when I get the chance to practice this skill, I will just have to stay focused and try my best to time it right.