Volleyball         

   Volleyball is a very fun, yet complicated and difficult game to play at times. It takes complete concentration, and you have to be smart as well as athletic to be able to be good at it. I personally enjoy giving myself a challenge by trying to play better each day, and I love it! The game of volleyball involves bumping (also known as passing), setting, spiking, and serving. But before all of this you must work-out and do warm-ups, as well as purchase a volleyball and getting the right equipment. There are also different positions in volleyball, such as middle front and middle back, setter, and outside hitter. And you must know your position well to be able to focus and understand what is going on. But after all the work, this sport ends up being very rewarding and fun.

EQUIPMENT

   In volleyball you need to have certain equipment. This includes volleyballs, a net and poles, as well as the appropriate clothes. These are all very important when playing volleyball. And some of them, as with volleyballs, you can't play without.

VOLLEYBALLS

   There are many brands of volleyballs to chose from, but I'm just going to tell you about three. These three are the brands: Wilson, Baden, and Spalding. These three brands are really great. They are available as outside, inside, or training volleyballs. The volleyball I have at home is a Wilson, and here at school we have Spalding and Baden balls. A training volleyball is softer than normal volleyballs and is for beginners, outside volleyballs are for playing outdoors, and as you probably already guessed, inside volleyballs are for indoors.

     NETS AND POLES

   In order to play volleyball you need a net and two poles. These enable you to set up so you can hit, pass, serve, set, and tip the volleyball over. Basically you need them to be able to play!

CLOTHES

   You also need to have certain clothes in volleyball. This includes spandex, kneepads, long volleyball socks, volleyball shoes, and a t-shirt. Without these clothes, you could hurt yourself (say you didn't have kneepads), or you wouldn't be able to hustle to get the ball as fast (say you didn't have volleyball shoes).

PLAYING VOLLEYBALL

      In volleyball there are four main actions. These are the spike, bump, set, and serve. They are necessities when playing volleyball, and they make up most of the entire game. You have to work-out to build up the muscles in you arms, legs, back, and abs so you can do these plays. And together with your team, when you all know how to spike, bump, set, and serve, you can play volleyball.

SPIKE

   A spike is a lot like a jump serve, if you know what that is. Right when someone sets the ball up to you, you run to the volley ball, left foot first once (if you right-handed, otherwise vise-versa), then right foot twice, then left foot again (all together it's left, right, right, left) and go down (squat) and put your hands to your right and left (kind of behind you) and jump up and hit the ball down on the other side of the court. Or you can do it the simpler way, which is where you run up to the ball and hit it over the net. But the first one really isn't as complicated as it seems, it's just all about timing it right.

BUMP

   Bumping is an action also known as passing. To pass, you squat down, put you hands in front of you together, your left hand in you right hand, or your right hand in your left hand. But whatever you do, DO NOT lock your fingers together, because that's the way you brake you fingers. Then rotate the inside of your arms outward, and hit the ball with that part of you arm.

SET

   A set is really simple when you know how to do it right, but there are many ways of doing it wrong. To set correctly, put your hands above your forehead, forming a diamond with your left and right thumbs, and your left and right pointer fingers. Your fingers should be spread out, and your hands completely open to set the ball when someone passes (bumps) it to you. When doing this correctly, your elbows should be pointing outward. Then when the ball touches your hands, flip them in a outward/forward position. And that's the correct way of setting.

SERVE

   Serving is a very important part of playing volleyball. You start the game by a serve, by serving in one of the three possible ways. These three types of serving are under-hand serving, over-hand serving, and jump-serving. To do and under-hand serve (for right-handed people), Stand facing the net with the ball in your left hand. Make your right hand either spread-out and open, or in a fist. Swing your right hand to hit the ball as you remove your left hand from underneath the ball. If you hit it hard enough in the right direction with enough control, it should go over the net. For over-hand serving it's way different. To over-hand serve, stand facing the net with the ball in your left hand. Put your right hand right above your shoulder, spread out with your finger facing your neck, ready to smack the ball over the net. Then toss up the ball, step forward with your left foot, and hit the ball with your open hand, which should touch the ball right in the palm of your hand. And last but not least, the jump-serve. To jump-serve, toss the ball up forward/up, run jump and hit it. And those are the tree ways of serving.

POSITIONS

   There are three positions in volleyball. These are the outside hitter, the setter, and the middle blocker (front and back). In volleyball, you usually specify in a certain position, and are better in that place than any of the others. Whether this is because of your height, or just because you tend to do better in this spot, the position will be the place that you spend the most time playing volleyball in games.

OUTSIDE HITTER

   The outside hitter does a lot of things in volleyball, but mainly hits, or "spikes" the ball. To be an outside hitter, you really don't have to be a specific height, but if you run to spike going left, right, right, left, it's a lot easier to hit the ball down when your tall. There are two outside hitters on the court during a game.

SETTER

   The setter is the person who set's the ball for the middle blocker or outside hitter to spike it. To be the setter, you have to be quick and good with communicating with your team players. The setter position can be complicated at first, and you have a lot of responsibility in the game, but it's still a lot of fun.

MIDDLE BLOCKER

   The middle blocker is the position I play in volleyball. There are two different types of middle blocker, the middle front and the middle back. When you play middle, you have to be able to watch the ball the whole time from the net or from the back of the court, you have to be able to pass, block, hit, and sometimes set. But this position is very fun, while being a challenge.

And know you know all the stuff you need to have to play volleyball, all the actions in volleyball, and the three positions that you can play. So go out and buy the equipment, and start playing the sport that is a good work-out and fun at the same time. And I hope that after you give volleyball a try, you'll love it as much as I do!