This week I believe what separated my performances in the two sessions was a mental thing. The session I did well in I was mentally sharp and excited to get into class and start hitting some volleyballs around. The other session I was lacking that enthusiasm and that is most likely why I feel I wasn’t playing my best. Overall I think I have improved throughout the semester even in the area’s I felt content with before I started this class.

Coming into this class my biggest concern was learning how to spike. Spiking was something I have work on a lot on my own but was unsuccessful furthering my ability. I feel I have succeeded in this area and even as classes went on I found that I learned a lot more than I intended. I feel I have strengthened my volleyball skills and I’m very glad that I participated in this class.

Finishing this class is a bit of a disappointment, I looked forward to coming to class for once and was excited about it. I came into this class with your basic volleyball skills and left with an improved set of skills and more confidence. My intensions are not to go professional or anything like that; I play volleyball in a couple of competitive leagues and just enjoy playing. I love to play and I just wanted to improve my game and take it to another level. I feel that I have accomplished that goal.

Even so, not all of the matches played were as successful as I had intended. Admittedly, one of my biggest pitfalls to a better game, is the instinct to bend my elbows while forearm passing. I need to improve on my forearm pass especially while digging, returning, and forward-passing a serve. Somehow this action of bending my elbows is done independently of my direct intention, with the exception that I am slowly gaining better control of the ball with my hands. If I was only able to improve this I might be a better volley ball player.

Finally, one can always improve on volleyball jargon, that is a given, however more specifically, I intend on increasing my own knowledge of volleyball terminology, in-game communication, and position playing. At the beginning of volleyball class, I lacked the confidence to execute new forms, maneuvers, and during-game critical thinking skills. I suppose my improvement will not be dramatic; however I can slowly improve in areas toward skill enhancement.

            Our instructor, Mr. Wilson had gone over a few techniques that were in the book we had for the course. One was the block technique which is for defense to keep the ball on the other side.  Another technique was when hitting under hand we were to hands and fingers locked together but not have one thumb over the other. This way the arms would be aligned. Another thing he brought up was how the setter is supposed to keep his or her eyes on the ball. Mr. Wilson brought some of these things because he noticed that some of us weren’t doing them right. His lectures about this stuff did help everyone do better.

            I believe we only have one class left. I will definitely do better than I had done before. I will stay focused and I may need to be ready to hit the ball sooner than I previously have. I feel I have improved more since I first started. Sometimes I’d just dodge the ball at first. I know that I wasn’t taking teamwork very seriously at first, but I feel that I have really improved. I may still need to move quicker to the ball but other than that I can’t think much of how I could improve.

My performance was not up to par because I didn’t feel well. Had I felt better, I believe my performance would have been like it was previous weeks, decent. I have been concentrating a lot on serving and setting but still making sure my passes are to the best of my ability. I haven’t been hustling like I should. It seems as though everyone is improving and I’m getting worse but I will definitely perform to the best of my ability the last day of class.

My goals for the next week are to serve well and set more. You only get better with practice, right? I must focus on technique if I want to improve. Also, I would like to try more jump serves. Over all, I believe I have gained more experience and knowledge of the game because of this class.

-Lauren High

I was never fully comfortable as setter. I constantly tried to attack serves (which cant be done). Thankfully I have developed a way to keep my mind of setting. I keep my hands on my head to stay focused. It has helped significantly, though I still scuddle around trying to be more involved in attacking than I need to be.

My future goal is to have a better serve. Unlike a few of my unnamed classmates, I refuse to do an underhand serve. Though it may have a better chance of a successful serve, It’s not a “proper” serve. So I will stick with practicing my overhand serve, stay confident in myself and try to get a better concept on the specific body formation. With these goals, I’m sure I will be serving better.

This week I worked on my attacking. I have very little on my vertical jump so I decided to concentrate on my attacking. I feel that I had some improvement by the end of the week on my attacking. I had several successful attacks during the games that were played.

In the future I want to work on my jump serve. I am very uncoordinated in my jump serve and know that if i were able to work on it for an extended period of time that I would be able to get it and make it good.

I Do believe that once i get down the notion that using your two open hands to hit the ball in an upwards motion over the net without holding or grabing the ball, is called a lift. Till i do, i will have to continue to realize that if that was a real game for an actual prize or stadings, then my team would not go very far if i continue to “lift” the ball. But i always thought that getting the ball over in 3 tries with any part of your body being legal, was the whole goal of the game. how was it that the one calim that your hands have to be closed in order for it to be a legal hit? it just is, so i’m going to have to work on keeping my hands closed. I do believe that my work ethic is good and i don’t upset my team by not trying to go after the ball to help our team win. I have become a better setter and spiker off of a set. Learning and getting used to taking hte right amount of steps and how to time my approach. I have always wanted to try back setting, and when i tried it, it whent perfect. just used the same priciples for a normal forward set, but pushing the ball in a different direction. Serveing was someting that i did not really do well at in the over hand form. But with practicing the steps and actions explained in the book and in class, i have become more than comfortable and quit skilled in my delivery. passing an bump setting is someting that i have always been good at, it’s just a means of hitting it right and sending it to the right place for the spiker.

Skills that i need to improve on is, not lifting the ball, keeping my hands closed and harms together. Communicating more on the court. making sure my team mates can hear and understand me when i say i got it, or “you” <– the persons name. And doing this people will trust me when i begin to call the ball being out or in and they should attack the ball in an attemp to save the point. Need to work on my jump serveing. trowing the ball up and timming my steps and using the right part of my hand to send the ball over and down at the same time.

             My future goal is to be able to bump the ball correctly and to the setter.  I honestly think I have gotten worse at bumping the ball from when I started because when I started I really didn’t think about it as much.  Now I get to technical when I try to bump and think about it too much.  I am hoping by the time I finish with power volleyball I get my bumping down, and accurate enough to make it to the setter most of the time.

            There is one skill that I have noticed, that isn’t very good.  I can not bump the ball to well at all.  Most of the time I go to bump the ball I tend to hit the ball with my hands instead of  higher up on my forearms.  I usually get into the right position, however I stil hit it off of my hands, making the ball fly into a crazy direction.  One skill I was happy with was my setting ability.  I could usually get a could handle on it and get it high up in the air for the spikers.  However the problem was getting the ball far enough to them as well as getting the height on the ball that I already had.

n

As for the amount of games i’ve lost last week it’s about half and half. I have good hustle I think but I get really tired towards the end of the class and start to do poorer. I’d like to see a game between fixed teams one of these last weeks and have the teams sort of have an elimination event. It would be something fun to do while practising. I’ve been practising setting the ball better and better this week but while im playing I tend to look up when i set the ball and cant tell exactly which way im facing if i dont see the net next to me. So, instead of setting the ball to the side of the net for an attacker, it goes sort of back to the center of our side.

Next week im hoping to do better on the jump serving because i still cant get it down at all. And im also still hitting the ball with fingertips when i serve but i’m not doing it all the time. I’m pretty sure that my problem with jump serving is the part where you toss the ball into the air. I just cant get it in the right  spot or i concentrate on the ball and go through the motions wrong.