From Utility to Middle Spiker at Dumlao Gym

After understanding the basic player positions of the game volleyball,  my eyes were set to play for either the left open spiker or Middle position. Sadly though at my age of 30 years old, this is quite too late. Your fellow players expect a lot from the open position as the primary source of income. As a middle player, they expect you to be feisty and capable of managing the net defense. I tried playing volleyball but after several attempts, I felt pressured. I can see the disappointment in the faces of my teammates when I don’t make a kill.

Last Saturday, I joined the PVC Club. Since all the the utility positions were taken, I had no choice but to play the middle position. We were team #2 and there were 5 teams. We had a total of 4 games since it was a round robin format.

We managed to win against team #1 at 25-23. But the 2^nd and 4^th games were disappointing. We did not have good receives. I felt pressured because my teammates were expecting a lot from me. I felt annoyed with this guest player (who replaced our female utility player) who kept on coaching me. Honestly, volleyball is harder to play because there are 5 coaches in the group unlike the game of badminton where you only have 1 coach to deal with which is your partner. When the ‘intermediate’ or experienced player makes a mistake, it was okay. He piles up the points but he piles up some errors as well. From my count, I had 3 points, 1 from a block and 2 from attacks from that final game. From our strongest attacker, he probably makes 2 points and 4 errors. That was the ratio. I committed 1 error. What I hate about the game volleyball is that when beginners commit 1 single mistake, they make it appear that is crucial and that that 1 mistake you committed is such a big error unlike them, it was just okay. It was unfair.

This experience is pushing me even further to do well. There might be a game tomorrow for MVB at the DOE Gym. I might go. Will keep you posted.

Playing with Team PVC at Dumlao Gym

I am being invited to play later at the Dumlao gym in Mandaluyong. Game is from 9pm to 12mn. I’ll be posting my thoughts later.

Volleyball over Basketball

Why did I play volleyball? I was secretly in love with the sports ever since I was a child. Growing up in Surigao City, for a growing up male kid, loving the sports was somehow different from the usual. It was expected then that an ‘ordinary’ male child should be into basketball. I never really entertained the thought to seriously pursue this. I did remember that I always played in the mandatory Intramurals in Grade School and High School. We don’t have tryouts. Just sign up and you get a slot. I remember I was asked to play for the basketball. I made it to the team. There were no tryouts as well. There was an added pressure to excel because my father was a basketball referee. I chose volleyball instead