Once I graduated, I struggled to find a volleyball league on Long Island. Luckily, through a fellow graduate of SUNY New Paltz, I got invited to a league. Unfortunately as a substitute player and as a middle. However, I would never let this discourage me from playing volleyball. At the end of the day:
One More Point
I started out my volleyball career playing middle blocker (and I differentiate between middle blocker and middle hitter). However, as I began to get better, I played various positions with great success. My most success came from outside hitter. This is where I knew I belonged. The main reason was, of course, scoring the points, but the attention from observers, and in my high school mind, the girls, meant a lot too. In college, I became a swimmer instead of a volleyball player. Then I graduated, and any touch on the court was more meaningful then trying to play my position.
I began to prove myself more and more. I got blocks, I played solid defense, and I was sociable with the teams. I substituted every week and even began to joke I was the permanent sub. This eventually led me to be exposed to more positions. I managed to get back to outside hitter. The past weeks I have been playing as a part of the last place team and gave the team their firsts wins. This wasn’t all because of me, but I’ll proudly say I contributed.
My serve-receive is currently my weakest point. I often under-think the serve and don’t realize the trajectory of the ball. With defense, I react on instinct. This instinct doesn’t apply so much on serve-receive. This is especially compounded by the fact that the serves are more often then not floats. These float servers come from grass too, so they are truly knuckle balls coming at your face. Top spin serves have become easy to receive since they have an easy trajectory to follow. What I need to do is get under the ball more and receive the ball underhand more. My platform gives enough space for the ball to go up, rather than my hands where I often miss.
My strongest point is my height, which I use to my advantage when hitting. My hits aren’t strong, and therefore not flashy, but I score points. A technique I don’t use enough is taking a breath when hitting. This gives less then a tenth of a second delay and perhaps half an inch of height on my hits, but that is an eternity in volleyball. The block begins to drop and defenders already reacted to my hit. It doesn’t work at high levels since I don’t switch up, but it works on lower levels. I tell people this often, but they don’t typically know what I am talking about. This must come from my extensive breath control work I got from swimming as a child. I am able to inhale and exhale whenever I wish, it’s hard to explain to none swimmers. It comes as naturally as breathing, but further controlled.
Email: themisterolo1128@gmail.com
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