I do my very best to write about different topics each week, but I have once again been dragged back into volleyball. I'm quite conscious of when I write about it but it's something I could likely write about every week because I spend a lot of my time with it each week.
I'm currently helping to coach the Â鶹ÊÓƵeast Vipers out of and it's truly amazing to watch as someone's skills continue to improve. There's one girl who came with the best court habits and attitude I think I've ever seen. She continually talks on the court letting her team know what's going on and it's beneficial to have her on the team just for those reasons, but now, even though she doesn't have a big booming hit, she's found ways to get kills.
Playing smartly and placing her hits to where the other team isn't. She's even surprised herself with her abilities as she turned off the net in one match and chased down a rogue ball someone else had shanked.
This girl got the ball up and after picking herself up off the ground had a look of surprise on her face. I don't think she had really expected to get to the ball, but she had gone after it and made the dig. After that she has become a more aggressive player and knows if she commits to it that there's a good chance she'll be able to succeed.
It's one of the reasons I think sports, team sports in particular, are important for the development of youth. I remember back to what I learnt when I was younger and I remember the drive, the focus, the dedication, and how to work together as a team. Though these were factors in academic life too, it was somehow different on the court.
You could study and do well on an exam, but you're usually not surprised by the outcome. You have an expectation going into it about how you'll do depending on how much you've studied and after writing it you have an idea of how you've done.
Sports, however, no matter how much you train you can never have an idea of how you'll do against the other team or another competitor. The last time you met them maybe they had an off day, so you think it will be easy but may come away fighting the toughest match you've ever had.
For the one girl I spoke about above I don't believe she has missed a practice yet and has put all kinds of effort into each of the matches we've come across. Yet, she was still able to still surprise herself with her performance. She had crossed a threshold as one of the other coaches puts it, which I think she might have reached a threshold this past weekend with her hitting as well.
When it comes to academics students can surprise teachers and they can surprise themselves, but this is usually only the case if they hadn't been putting in much effort and then they begin to put effort into it; but, there's something about physically performing the task because there had been great effort in each motion constantly, yet as they pushed themselves harder they pushed past what academics cap at 100 percent and reached out to things.
You can only do so well in school, but sports allow you to push to your ultimate limits if you're willing to go there.
There's one individual on the Vipers who has in fact made some spectacular digs. In fact on multiple occasions the entire coaching staff thought the ball would be down, when all of a sudden this girl comes flying out of nowhere and puts the ball up. She's willing to put everything she has into getting that ball up which can't be capped at 100 percent because she continues to push past what we had thought was 100 percent.
Academics are extremely important, but it's limited by knowing the right answer which may or may not be something they remember from their study notes, thus being well rounded means discovering this uncapped potential you can push for in the world of sport.
