I returned back to volleyball this season knowing I was not going to participate in the South Asian International Schools Association (SAISA) tournament. SAISA is an international academic and sports competition which takes place three times each year. The first season is usually girls’ and boys’ volleyball and swimming. Although I spent the beginning of the season training with the rest of the team, I knew that this year I would not be able to travel for the tournament due to the overwhelming workload of my senior year and only having permission to travel for one SAISA, from my family. However, I still came back this season with three personal goals to work on for the time I did spend playing volleyball:
- Work on passing and bumping to the setter
- Maintain and improve on my personal fitness
- Perfect my overhand serve
I initially set these goals as a continuation from what I struggled with last season. I noticed that a very important skill to have in volleyball was the ability to pass the ball from anywhere on the court to the setter. This was something I had been “okay” in last season, however, the passes have to be high and accurate. Occasionally, my passes to the setter were quite high and accurate, however, I decided to focus on making these passes more consistent.
This year, I used volleyball as a way to also maintain my personal fitness in preparation for SAISA football, which is a tournament I do plan on traveling for. Volleyball training focuses on some of the same areas needed for football, such as speed, accuracy, and skill. I realized this last year, as, during football season, I used some of the skills I had developed when playing volleyball in some of the practices and games which helped me play better and more confidently.
Lastly, something I really struggled with and hoped to improve on this year was my overhand serve. Last year, I perfected by underhand serve and was quite confident when serving underhand. However, the next step was to overhand serve, which was something I struggled with a lot. I focused on technique and the type of contact my hand needed to make with the ball to make my serves successful and accurate. I spent a lot of time this season working on my overhand serve, and personally, there was quite a big improvement. I was able to serve the ball over the net far more accurately and precisely towards the end of the season, however, I still lacked consistency. I was able to make a few successful serves each practice but I would always miss a few. So, if I were to continue volleyball, a new goal I would set for myself would be to work on consistency in my overhand serves. But I learned and understood the technique needed to overhand serve and the type of body movement needed for it to be successful.
Something I also worked and improved on a lot was by spikes and hits, which I did not really plan for at the start of the season. I have always enjoyed hitting; however, I spent a lot of time working on other skills that I never really considered it to be one of my skills. Over the course of the season, I had practiced a lot of hitting and improved on technique a lot. I find that spiking the ball is what I enjoy the most about volleyball but is not very useful when compared to most of the other skills. There is no use in being a good hitter if no one can pass the ball correctly to the setter, or if the setter cannot set receive the ball at a good height or does not set it correctly. There are a lot of skills to learn and perfect before focusing on a skill such as hitting; however, it is the rather “fun-er” side to volleyball, in my opinion.
As a closing note, I would like to comment on what a fun experience volleyball has been for me and how much I’ve enjoyed it throughout my time at OSC. It is a truly intriguing sport that has always interested me, and I am really disappointed that I could not partake in this year’s SAISA team. However, I do hope to play it once again in my life, and cannot wait till I get the opportunity.