(A)(S) Journal Entry #1 [Boy's Varsity Volleyball]

Last week was the start of our first official practice. The team was cut down to eighteen people, and we started getting to know each other, and how we play on the court. The days of the week alternated between good practices, where the whole team was full of enthusiasm, which led us to play better, and not-so good practices, where we played with less energy, and did not communicate. We also had our first game last Friday, against Aura College. The first set, was a bit rough, with most of the opponents points coming not from their offense, but from our own mistakes. I actually did not get 2 out of 3 of my serves in because I was trying to do a "float" serve, in which I exerted more force and swung my hand with more speed, but with the wrong technique, leading to an overshoot for my serve. The first set started off not too great, but we eventually caught up, but we eventually lost the set by 2 points.My other teammates played for the 2nd and 3rd set, and I noticed a lot of my teammates were improving (even if we lost both sets again). In the 4th set, I played much better with my teammates, we communicated better, and I got my serves in this time. I was a lot more relaxed in this set. We ended up winning the 4th set. In the last set, some of my other teammates played again, they came close, but fell short once again, although a lot of my teammates were showing drastic changes in their awareness during the game.

For this coming week, I hope to continue working on my "float" serve, or even a jump serve, which I've been dreaming to learn and execute correctly during games. Another frustration that I would like to work on, is spiking. Even if I'm "vertically challenged," I hope to learn the proper technique and get some offense working for myself during the coming games, even for a short while (possibly when we play a 4-2 rotation). Lastly, I wish to continue learning how to set more gracefully, and get those terrible recieves up in the air, at the "open" area, by an underhand pass (something that I've been struggling with, and working on last week and last year as well).