Archive of ‘Activity’ category
During season 2, UWCSEA had the opportunity to take part in the FOBISIA Netball Tournament held in Dulwich College Singapore. As this is an off-season tournament, the team was selected based on the pre-season training sessions.
As I had surgery done on my ankle during the summer, I hadn’t played netball for many months, and so, I needed to find a way to re-develop my netball skills before the tournament. I had trouble regaining my previous level of play in the beginning. I believe my determination to train with a more focused attitude helped me to perform better during gameplay during the tournament.
In previous years, I have taken on a leadership role within the team, being captain and leading some training sessions. This year, I hope to maintain a leadership role within the team although I will focus more on re-developing my skills.
This season ended with my first SEASAC tournament, held in UWCSEA Dover. When the season started, I set goals for myself and my team, surrounding growing confidence in my abilities and developing a bond within my team.
I definitely believe that I have become more confident in my passion for volleyball as I managed to make many new friends in the team and improved my volleyball skills. The most notable part of being the team this season for me was developing my passion for volleyball as I now know that I want to continue playing at university.
Although SEASAC was the first and last SEASAC tournament I will participate in, it has made me more excited to continue volleyball and develop my skills and teamplay.
This season’s goals
Personal Volleyball Skills: I want to focus on slowing down my sets so that I feel less rushed and the accuracy of my sets will improve. I especially want to work on putting more strength into my sets and pushing my sets to power further outside the court.
Personal Skills: This season, I want to feel more confident and have a stronger and more positive presence on the court to encourage my teammates as a setter.
Goal for the team: I would like the team to grow stronger together and understand how each other plays to encourage a stronger bond.
In the past two sports seasons, I have participated in U19 Netball pre-season and I was in the A team for the last season.
In pre-season netball, I was able to develop my netball skills such as shooting, passing, communication and versatility with different players for the upcoming sports season.
During the season, I was nominated as team captain, which was a new experience for me. This showed my dedication and experience in the sport over the time that I have been playing it as well as the ability to collaborate with and encourage others in my team. This meant that I needed to have lots of self-discipline so that I would be able to motivate my teammates. This experience also encouraged me to improve my netball skills which resulted in a better performance on court. Additionally, I learned and emphasised the importance of teamwork and collaboration which are essential for a team sport such as netball.
This season I’ve decided to join U18 pre-season competitive and recreational volleyball. Through this activity, I hope to be able to improve my volleyball skills and knowledge, especially as a setter. Since I have only been playing volleyball for a couple of years, I believe that I still have a lot to learn and I hope that I am able to improve so that I can tryout for the SEASAC volleyball team next year as well as hopefully continue playing volleyball during university.
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.
