Grimsley High School Volleyball 2013-2014 Season

Goals: I am very excited for this season to come! My main goal that I have with every team that I am on is to simply bring out the best in the each of my teammates through constant encouragement and putting forth all the effort I can in the sport. I also want to make myself a better
player by challenging myself to take more risks through
making riskier sets and using the new skills that I learned this past
summer at the Sports Performance Volleyball camp.
There I learned a lot of higher level setting footwork
and concepts that girls in college use. If I start forcing myself
to use these new skills, even if I do not master them until later, it would be better to
start them now.

   2013 Season:  As mentioned before, volleyball is my life. I would rather be practicing than constantly going out because there is always something to work towards in volleyball, nobody is perfect, but volleyball is not about being perfect, it is about learning from your mistakes and keeping yourself mentally checked in during a game. This is my third year playing volleyball for Grimsley and so far, it has been a great experience. I love everyone on my team and they are all such nice and talented people, it makes me want to play ten times harder for them. Over the summer I went to a Sports Performance setting camp in Chicago, and they taught me so many new things that I could not wait to try for this year's season. A major goal of mine throughout the season was to make smart sets. My position on the team is the setter, and an important skill that comes with that position is being able to read what is going on with your opponents as well as your team. Before setting, you need to use your peripherals to see if the blockers are cheating, which lets you set the hitter who only has one blocker and not two. You also need to know how your players are doing physically and emotionally at any given time, this is because volleyball is mainly a mental game, if one person makes an error, the point is lost, so it is really easy to get down on yourself. If I know someone is having a bad day and they made an error, I know I need to set someone else because mentally they are already down for that rally. However, it is also my job to boost their confidence, so if they are having a bad day, I need to make sure my sets to them are exactly what they need to make a point so they will feel better about themselves. The same thing goes with physically, I have to make sure to not push a hitter to her limits if she is already hurt. If setters are trained to take note of these and make their sets accordingly, then their teams will be more successful. This was my goal throughout the season, I really made an effort to be strategic with my sets. Once I started getting the hang of it, it started coming naturally and now, I am starting on my next goal for club season, jump setting. My favorite game was our annual fundraiser volleyball game with Page, this year we decided to support the American Cancer Society, it was a great game and I enjoyed sharing the victory with my team.

The annual Page-Grimsley fundraiser game

 Learning Outcome: Worked collaboratively with others
    Volleyball is definitely not an individual sport, everyone relies on each other to win. There are six people on a 30x30 court, so talking to each other is key. Who is going to get the short? The deep? Who is taking the second ball if setter gets first ball? Who has the seam? Is setter front row? These are all things that we constantly talk about, if one person sees something, they need to let the other person know. If someone messes up, we have to make sure the ball gets back over the net. Volleyball requires people to pass, different people to set, and another group of people to hit, we are all dependent on each other because it is not possible to get a win based on one person's performance.

Learning Outcome: Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities
    We have had practice almost every weekday after tryouts started in August, and I have made sure that I never missed practice, I wanted to keep my commitment to my team and every day of practice means you are improving one way or another. Every team has its issues, and despite that we all had to stick together because that was the only war we could become successful. Outside of practice, I attended college games to train my brain and eyes. By watching college volleyball, I learned about different tactics and how the best players play, so that I can try to mimic their moves in practice. I go to college games so I can make a difference in our team and be a part of its success.

Learning Outcome: Increased their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth
    Through the season, I feel like I have improved a lot, however the improvements of some areas opened my eyes to the areas that I need to work on. One of them is jump setting, I only do it when setting middles, which is not bad, but if I did it while setting all the hitters, I could be more deceptive and the other team would have a harder time to read where I am setting. I have a left handed player this year, so I have been setting a little more in on the right side for her to hit, I also have a right handed player in the same position as the left handed one. Because of this, I realized that my sets for the right handed girl are not being pushed out enough because I am so used to setting the left handed one. My hitters are really good, so I did not find a huge need to cover, however, when we were playing the tougher teams who were really good at blocking, I realized that I was not covering while they were hitting, which resulted in us losing a point. These are all things that I have noticed and will keep trying to improve on.