So for my second round of CAS reflections, I wanted to reflect on my volleyball experiences as not just part of the team but also the club which runs from 6-8 pm on Mondays and Thursdays. My two learning outcomes are bout challenging activities and collaborative work. We have participated in a few competitions – namely the IVC competition at Swiss Club on Dec 8th. We played in the adult women’s league – and as a group of 16yr olds, we were at a disadvantage. At the very least, it was very much a challenge. I have never played against such skilled players before – and I learnt a lot myself. The competition was less of an opportunity to refine our current skills – as in gameplay, this is challenging – but we learnt new offensive strategies, defensive formations, and the skilled competition forced us to work together – leading us on to learning outcome 5.
Obviously, volleyball is a collaborative sport, and it is impossible to play by yourself. We really had to communicate – or else our play would either be a free ball (not attacking) or more simply we would not get it over the net. This links back to the training we had done and the skills we were developing. It was also a matter of getting used to the team and getting a handle on the different skills and preferences. This is not something unique to volleyball: one often has to adjust what they’re doing according to their audience or team. Thus this adaptation and flexibility will also help me in the future and outside of the scope of team sports. For me, letting go of a leadership position is particularly challenging, but in volleyball, I believe I have made great progress on following the lead of the more skilled players as well.
