Summer Coaching

During the summer, I went to volleyball training outside of school. I go to a coach called Rangika who used to coach the women’s youth national team. As I went to training, looking forward to playing again after a long break due to my tennis elbow, she told me that we were having a visitor in training that day. I was excited since my coach informed me that she only speaks English and not Sinhala since she is a Sri Lankan American who was brought up in New Jersey. Once I was introduced to this girl who was in 8th grade, I was looking forward to teaching her everything that I knew about my favorite sport. I coached her through my regular warm-up that I do, as Coach Rangika taught us some drills, she instructed me to teach this girl the proper technique of playing. I felt as if all of my hard work and dedication that I put towards volleyball was something that I got to pass on to another person, so they could fall in love with the sport the same way that I did. Everything was going great until my blood sugar levels started to drop and I had to sit down and eat a granola bar… Other than that, I believe that having the opportunity to teach another girl the same skills I learned back in Los Angeles in 2018, really benefitted the both of us. I got to learn how to become a better captain for the SAISA team, where as she learned how to become a better player overall. I hope I get more opportunities, where I get to teach others how to play volleyball.