Posted on 2010-08-19 08:00:00
Tags: Sport, Volleyball
Thanks to the invitation of Natasha Moore, I am playing volleyball again. It is in a recreative competition in the Menai sports complex, so it is only fun and games, no hard training. So far we are the last in the league, which means that things only can go better!
The team consists of eight people, a leftover from the fact that after the first match we lost two people and in the third match we got four extra people. That means that we have to wait out two rotations before we can go in again. It's not really optimal, but it will do for now. Playing volleyball is more important than that.
The first matches were confusing with the volleyball I was used to when I played it in the Netherlands. Because it is recreational volleyball and the team is young, the play isn't going too well yet. I am talking about playing ping-pong volleyball (getting the ball over the net in the first touch), unnecessary playing underhand (when you're near the net), using a single hand or fist (or foot *shudder*) or double fist to touch the ball etc. I am trying to explain the game and the setup of the game to the team, but so far it isn't being listened to. Give it a couple of more weeks and it will be there, but for now... No, we are not going to win this competition.
For people who wonder how it works: The first touch returns the ball to the middle-front man, who plays it to either left or right who gets the ball over the net. Play high, play controlled. That kind of play will give the advantage that you don't have to wait for the opponents to make a mistake, but it will push the opponents to make mistakes and thus give a scoring advantage.
Talking about score, something really weird has happened in the period I wasn't playing... The international volleyball association changed the scoring rules. Was it before 2000 that only the serving team could score points and that the team reaching 15 points first (with a two point difference) won, after 2000 they increased it to 21 but also the team not serving could score points. Suddenly sets are artificially limited to about 40 serves! According to the explanation on Wikipedia "primarily to make the length of the match more predictable and to make the game more spectator- and television-friendly.". We don't have cameras nor spectators, why do we need this? *grumble grumble*.
Natasha, who is the shortest person in the team, can do some great upperhand serves which makes everybody in the team jealous and the opponents shiver in fear!