For Sturgis Volleyball, I served as one of the captains and played the left back position on the court. In the end we won one of your matches but won several sets in the others macthes.I sincerely enjoyed being on the team. I felt like our team was really close and there was not a lot of problems between the players. When we lost, we knew we lost together, and when we won we always won together. I especially liked how no one on our team blamed one person in specific but should anything have gone wrong it was the whole team that did something wrong.
It was interesting to get to know some of the freshmen and the sophomores and have them become my friends. Volleyball was agreat bonding activity for all of us. I tried to interact and talk to as many people was possible. I warmed up with somebody different everytime and I ran with somebody different. I talked to everybody from the team outside the gym and they did the same to me. I gained a lot of friends from this and it was especially nice because I never wanted to take part of this activity for the friendship but for the sport.
This activity was extremely valuable to me because I really enjoy this sport and since boy's volleyball is not commonly found in any school I was granted the opportunity to play even though it was with girls thereby limiting what I could do on the court. Nonetheless if it wasn't for Sturgis Volleyball then there would be no hope of me playing volleyball in college. Volleyball is also important for health reasons. I can excersize and play and do something physically, something I would not be doing during the fall season if it wasn't for this activity. More importantly this activity was very valuable for social reasons. I was able to meet new people from different grades and I was able to strengthen my friendship with those in the class above me and even those in my class who I don't see often. I gained more friends and am able to talk to some people that I would otherwise not even realise they existed.
In regards to my goals I feel that I almost met them but not as much as I would have liked. First, one of the goals that I set was I wanted to be able to serve floaters (a specfic type of serve). I practiced it over and over again and halfway through the season I had accomplished it. I served them perfectly during practice but the real test was being able to do it during the game. In the end my serves were flawless and I got them all in. My second goal was beng able to hit backrow well and consistently. I worked hard during practice but it proved to be more difficult than I imagined. Many of my hits were not well and they especially weren't consistent. Every now and then I hit backrow during a game. About 50% of them went in. Although I greatly improved in hitting backrow I didn't get to a point that I wanted to and I now know it's going to take even extra practices in order to get it. I will definitely set this as a goal again next year and I believe that I will reach it because I will go in already knowing so much from what I learned this year. I think my goals were set just right because I met one of them and although I didn't meet the second one completely it was undoubtely attainable because I came very close, I just needed to practice a little harder.
I am 100% certain that I met both of my learning outcomes to the fullest extent. I selected L.O. 4 and L.O. 8 for this activity. For Learning Outcome 4 (Working Collaboratively With Others) I believe I met it because volleyball is a team sport that requires team collaboration and there is no way to win without working together. As both a passer and a de facto attacker I had to work with my teammates to coordinate passes, sets and attacks. I had to trust them to go for the ball and make sure they did their best to pass it or get it over the net and vice versa. I made sure to pass the ball to the setter instead of just passing it back to the other side. And I made sure that if anybody called "mine" to back off and let the other person get it. I tried my best not to hog the ball and pass it to them. For Learning Outcome 8 (Develop New Skills) I feel that I certainly met this. I extended my knowledge and skill level in this sport by learning some specific techniques. I learned how to hit a floater serve and I learned how to better attack. I also unofficially taught myself how to jump serve, although it needs more practicing. But overall I certainly developed new skills in an area I was already familiar with.
I found there were some personal difficulties during the course of this activity. Because of MIAA rules, as a boy playing on a girl's team, I am not allowed to play in the front row. I really enjoy playing middle front and it would be a great advantage to the team if I did because I am tall and I can hit and block. It was a personal difficulty for me because I really would have liked to play front row but I was limited and I had to do my best with what I was restricted to.
I learned many new skills from this activity but what I really learned that I can carry with me for a long time and apply to any sitiutaion is the knowing when to sacrifice my personal goals to the goals of the team. During the games I had been given many opportunites to hit backrow but because I didn't feel ready and I knew I would probably not get it in, I played safe and won points that way even though my personal goal was to hit backrow. I had to sacrifice something I wanted to do for the sake of the team. I had to make split second decisions on whether to hit or play safely and in the end I decided to play safely. I feel like I made the right decision because I made many points from playing safe. I learned that sometimes the team comes before the individual and I can certainly apply this in many areas other than volleyball.
