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8 Weeks Down, 2 To Go

// October 26th, 2008 // 2 Comments » // sports

I’ve completed 8 out of 10 weeks of the volleyball clinic I’ve been taking. Each Saturday I get up early, punish myself for three hours and then feel beat the rest of the day. Get up Sunday sore all over, but undoubtedly better at the game.

This week was particularly punishing, but I also finally seemed to get the timing down for spiking. I’m not great at it, but at least I’ve started approaching, jumping and swinging at the right time now. I’m still a better setter than hitter by far.

We’ve finally started playing some games during the clinic, which is the best part. I get that repetitive drills are the best way to learn and improve on specific skills, but it’s great to get to apply those skills in some games. Plus since we’ve all been working our butts off improving our skills for two months, the level of play is better than what I’m used too, so it’s challenging as well as fun.

That’s got me thinking about next time I’m on a team. I’d like to play with the same level of challenge & competition to keep improving. On the other hand, I love playing with my friends just for fun. Maybe I should join an intermediate 6s team with my friends and an advance 4s team with some more competitive players to keep improving my skills.

Anyway, two more weeks to go! It’s fun, but I really looking forward to sleeping in a little on Saturdays.

Warriors Volleyball Clinic

// September 6th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // sports

Today I had my first volleyball clinic with the Toronto Warriors Volleyball Club. I had signed up on the wait list as their fall clinics were full, but this morning I got a call saying someone dropped out and did I want the spot? I was preparing to go kiting today, but the wind at Oliphant looked weak, so I said yes and was on the court in an hour.

The clinic was intense — 3 hours of straight drills leaving me feeling like jello. I haven’t trained so hard since I was on a swim team in high school. It was great though. I play volleyball a decent amount, but I’ve never had a single day of coaching in my life. Everything I know about the game now I’ve picked up watching and getting tips from people better than me. It’s slow to progress that way, as I’m not sure what I’m supposed to drill or the proper way to execute a certain skill. It’s great having someone show you what the best way to hit, block, spike, dig, etc.

The clinic runs each Saturday for 10 weeks. I’m gonna be mad awesome at vball by the end of it.

Hope Volleyball Tournament

// June 22nd, 2008 // 1 Comment » // sports

I haven’t blogged about our volleyball tournament yet! Last weekend, Allen and I participated in the 20th Annual Hope Volleyball tournament, even though we almost weren’t allowed to play.

We had a team of seven signed-up to play but on the morning of the tournament, two people called in sick. We couldn’t get replacements on such short notice, so we went to Toronto Island with a team of five. In my regular beach volleyball league, you can play with five, so we thought it wouldn’t be an issue. However, when we got out there, we were told that our entire team wouldn’t be allowed to play because we were one person short! What?!

Fortunately that decision was overturned and they said we could play, but we’d have to default on every game. That was fine — at least we were going to get to play. So we started to practice, getting ready for our 1st game when two people approached us with a team of four who were told they couldn’t play. Long story short, we combined teams and played both teams games throughout the day, getting in double the games we would have otherwise gotten.

So, all ended up well. We played an entire day of volleyball out on beautiful Toronto Island, met some fun people (who could out-drink a school of fish) and did it all for charity. Good times.