I have been playing volleyball for about 4 years now. My team has been representing our school at taluka level, district level, and state level competitions for almost as long. When you are on the court you hear the loud cheering from your friends, you screaming coach and the boo-ing of the opposite team but none of it matters. It might just as well be another distraction because in that moment all that matters is the ball and how you and your team members coordinate to send it to the other side. This year too we cleared taluka and district level and were selected to represent Fountainhead at states. Most of my team members including me play basketball as their main sport now and so we were out of practice during the season. It was very challenging for us to clear the first two levels because of this.

Learning outcomes achieved:-

• LO1 Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth. Because we all had been playing for so long we already knew our strengths and weaknesses. Planning plays a crucial role in a volleyball game from the beginning because your position makes a big difference. I am good at tossing the ball so I always start the game by standing at position 1. For some reason though in the district level competition I wasn’t able to control my power due to which all my services were going out of the court. But luckily the opposing team wasn’t able to judge where the ball would fall and they would hit it anyways. Now I know that I’ll have to work on controlling my power.
• LO2 Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills. As we were out of practice we severely lacked coordination. This created a very chaotic situation on the court and we started losing points because of it. After realizing this mistake we made it a rule that whoever was hitting the ball had to shout “yes” before doing it. I learned that communication is a very important skill that is required in any team sports.
• LO4 Show perseverance and commitment in CAS experience. After clearing the Taluka level we realized that we needed practice. Juggling schoolwork with practicing for Basketball competitions and Volleyball competitions became very difficult.  Luckily all my team members were very determined and so we started coming early to school to practice. We also took permission from our coach to let us practice in our free slots to improve coordination and plan strategies for the next match.
• LO5 Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboratively. Just like every other team sport, in Volleyball too trust and coordination are the pillars for success. We had to make sure that we took advantage of each other’s skills and also compensated for each other’s weaknesses. After putting in a lot of hard work and effort our skills finally complemented each other.  We wouldn’t have won if it weren’t for everybody to synergize and work collaboratively.

Playing such team games has taught me many valuable lessons.