Throughout this volleyball season, I have developed my volleyball skills greatly through training and game play. These skills not only include volleyball techniques but also collaboration and communication skills within the team.
At the start of this season, my two main goals were to improve my setting technique to increase my accuracy during game play as well as my serving percentage as many of my serves did not land in.
During training, we practiced serving so that we could improve during game play. By taking advice from my coach, particularly about aiming very high above the net, I managed to improve my serving percentage. In the photos above, it can be seen that I am aiming quite high, showing that I have learned from my coach’s advice and applied it in game play.
Although I now have the correct technique, I believe that I can further advance my serving by putting in more power which is now one of my weaknesses that I intend to focus on.
From the video above, it is clear that I have improved on my setting technique and as a result, I am more confident with setting and my accuracy is quite high. Setting is now one of my strengths in volleyball although at the start of the year it was a possible challenge for me.
In the video, communication between the team is clearly evident. In volleyball, collaboration is extremely important. During games, there is a lot of communication to help the other players on the team know what to do. For example, shouting “free” lets the people at the net know to move backwards and be ready to take a ball that is coming over. As can be seen in the photo below, we also say “here” to help our teammates know where to pass the ball.
In addition, collaboration includes motivating team members. For example, we congratulate our teammates when they have a good serve, set, bump, block, tip or hit. This increases the moral of the team and improves play as well. These are therefore valuable contributions to the team.
Collaboration in volleyball isn’t only important during games but also in training. In my team, everybody has different strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, we can take advice from each other in order to improve our game play. For example, serving is one of my weaknesses; however, one of my teammates is a very good server. She was able to help me improve my technique by giving me tips. I was able to help one of my teammates as well by helping her to understand where she was meant to be positioned during game play.
For the first sports season of the year, I was placed in the U18B Volleyball team. Personally, since I only started volleyball about a year ago, this is a large achievement. I am very much looking forward to improving my volleyball techniques to increase my level of play.
Last year, I was on the U18C Volleyball team playing in a ‘middle’ position. This year, my coach is hoping to move me to a ‘setter’ position which will be a new experience for me. It will most likely be challenging at the start to adjust to a new position however I am excited to expand my skills in this area.
So far, we have had one practice as a team on Friday. This practice helped me to highlight my strengths as a player as well as the areas in which I could improve on, which was especially serving for me. This season, I’m also hoping to improve my communication on court as collaboration is especially important in volleyball. Collaboration comes from forming a good relationship with your team, I am also looking forward to this and forming new friendships within my team.
Sport Ready is a netball academy dedicated to developing netball skills and giving passionate players a chance to compete in competitions around Singapore. This is a club that I have joined outside of school and have been a part of for 1 and a half years now. The year is divided into two seasons with try-outs at the start of each season for team placement. This year, I was put into the first team which competes in an adult league on Monday evenings.
Since the team competes in an adult league, the standard of play is quite high and physically challenging. Receiving a placement in the second team is a good achievement where I can show my strengths in netball. However, there are some areas in which I can improve on. This season I am looking to develop techniques that I can use during game play and increase my spacial awareness on court as well as improve my shooting accuracy. Games against adult teams will inevitably be challenging, which will help me improve as a player and highlights areas of improvement for me.
The commitment to Monday evening games will also be difficult at times as I will have to maintain responsibility in other activities and service in addition to balancing academics. Nevertheless, I am very committed to netball as a sport and will be willing to adapt to any difficulties along the way.
I’ve been playing netball since I was in Grade 4, which already shows that I am committed and passionate about netball.
Grade 9
In Grade 9, I joined pre-season netball and then the U19 A team. This helped me improve my fitness, netball skills and game play. Playing in the team was a great experience as I got to compete with players who were older and better than me, which helped me improve as not only a player but a person as well. I also played with new people that I hadn’t know before, and developed new friendships throughout the season. Teamwork and communication is a large part of netball as it is a team sport; playing helps me improve these skills not only for sports but in academics and projects where these skills can be applied.
I also represented UWC East in the SEANet games held annually at Tanglin Trust School. This means that I had to adapt to a new team and play against schools from foreign countries that produced new challenges and strengths. Due to the perseverance of myself and my team, we managed to win a silver medal despite having only one substitute throughout the weekend tournament for approximately ten games.
In addition, in Grade 9, I was in the ANZA Netball club, which is a leisure group to improve netball skills lasting for an entire year. My attendance showed my commitment to netball, and my passion for this sport.
Grade 8:
My volleyball journey started in Grade 8 where I joined a volleyball club in UWCSEA Dover on the weekends. I personally took initiative to find a way to improve my volleyball skills outside of school.
Grade 9:
In season 4 of Grade 9, I joined the U19 pre-season volleyball activity. This helped me improve my fitness and volleyball skills in order to try-out in Grade 10 at representing the school in volleyball. During the season, I developed my volleyball skills relating to passing, setting, serving, and hitting. My collaboration skills have also evolved as teamwork in volleyball requires communication. The overall team performance is determined by the attitude of each player and can be improved by either by encouraging and supporting other teammates, or becoming more confident and take more risks by trying to go for the ball.
In addition, volleyball pre-season has shown my commitment to learning new things, as well as shows that I am a risk taker for trying a new sport. The activity shows that I am committed as I hardly missed any of the practices and tried my best throughout the season.
