“Ball till you fall.”

– My Volleyball Anthem

Well, here I am again.

If you read my previous blog last year, you would know that this is my second time trying out for the OSC SAISA Girls’ Volleyball team. This time though, I changed things up to optimize my chances of getting selected.

So, I was at a disadvantage this year just because I was a senior and the coaches would be looking at prospective players to play for future years as well so I knew I had to work twice as hard as last year. However, this year, my skill level improved significantly thanks to my experience from last time. The moment I started volleyball this year, I started at a good spot; I was able to set and serve overhand quite consistently unlike last year. This was not enough, however, and I knew I had to work on my bumps and spikes because we already had prospective setters that showed potential.

The first change I made this year is my commitment level to volleyball. I showed up to every practice session and even came for optional practice sessions in the mornings before school. This helped me significantly improve my skills and foot movement and I was able to learn new things much faster. My efforts eventually paid off as I got selected for the team. However, this was just the first step and I needed to show the same level of enthusiasm on the court as I did off the court.

One thing I’ve learned throughout my high school years of doing sports is that the way you play during practice isn’t necessarily reflected in the way you play matches. During matches, there are so many other factors to consider such as peer pressure, nerves, unknown opponents and the call of the referee. These things don’t affect you during practice and can only be introduced in a game situation which is why I don’t believe in the saying “practice makes perfect”. Practice can get you so far but the rest is up to you: your mental game cannot be “practiced”, that comes from experience and confidence in oneself.

The reason I say this is because, when we had our first few practice games against other schools, none of my skills showed in practice initially appeared: I made silly mistakes, let the nerves get the best of me. but once I told myself to relax this got better.

It became routine that nearly every other Friday, we had practice matches with a local school girls’ team. During these matches id often mess up my service, would hit to the net rather than over and I’d just get more worried. But after some encouraging words from my coaches and my teammates, I knew the problem wasn’t my skills, but rather myself: I was being my own limitation. My mental game was weak and that shocked me: I have played two sports competitively under some of the most stressful and pressurizing conditions and I handled both of them so well so, what was wrong here?

It was my self-confidence. No matter how much I trained and practiced, I always second-guessed myself. Could I do it? Should I let someone else take it? What if I go wrong? I wasn’t calling for the ball, moving away from it, not from fear of the ball but from self-doubt and I knew no amount of training could help that. So I decided to change. I put myself out there, one step at a time. I let myself mess up and I let myself calm down. It may sound simple but it took so much time and energy. It took so much encouragement and motivation but eventually, my serves started going right. My spikes started going over and even my sets became hittable. The improvement I saw in myself, the coaches did too and they decided to train me for both hitting and setting as I showed potential for both. I may be a reserve for both positions but I know that I showed more consistency and I knew I had improved at both an individual and team level.

Now, I just keep training as I await SAISA!