Such a great “start” for a week. On Tuesday I was able to play volleyball after a long time again. The pandemic is true and we had to act responsible. So our hobby volleyball team had to make a break in November 2020. So after 7 (!) months we are now able to practice this sport again! Whoop whoop! 🏐 🎉
I’m not a big volleyball fan at all, but at the beginning of 2020 I searched for a new team sport to practice. Meet new people and enjoy the movement and the game. So I looked around…soccer…no, practiced it in my childhood and that’s enough. What about ice hockey? Yeah, big fan of our local club, but my skating level is not so high as it should be to play in a team. And it’s an expensive hobby also and not easy to get in. So ice hockey is unfortunately out. Table tennis? No, did it for a couple of years and it’s not really a team sport.
So by a coincidence I saw that one of my old school mates is playing volleyball at our local club and I asked to join. Well and how the story started.
Volleyball in school
…was not a great time. The reaction after our teacher announced that we will play this sport next: the girls screamed: YEEAHHH. The boys: ok. And I: Oh no, because my classmates weren’t unsporty at all, but most of my mates don’t know how the game works. So we have to started from zero and learned the basics, which is not bad in itself. But when we a played a “real” game everybody stood still on her/his position and nobody knew really what to do. So that’s was not fun, more balls flew into the net instead of over it. I think this is normal when you starting from zero, but for a person who has a lucky talent for every sport, it’s really frustrating when there is no gameplay.
In the first games I stood on my position and did what I have to do. But that was so boring for me, because nothing happened and frustrating, because simple actions of my mates failed. I decided to do more than I have to do. So I started to take about 3 position instead of one. I helped other teammates where it was clear that they will never get this ball. At this point it started to make fun, because I was on the move. Sometimes I was a “hero” because I got balls where everybody thought it’s lost, but to be a hero was not my intention. All I wanted was: to play.
That’s the reason why I was so sceptic about start playing volleyball in 2020.
Volleyball in a club
Is a complete different experience that I’have made in 2020. The different is that the people who play here, there want to play and had some experience about the game. So there I wasn’t the “game hero”, I was the “noob” and said “sorry!” every time I did a mistake. Everyone has his job and everyone did his job, not perfect, but we weren’t professionals.
Another good thing was, that beside my schoolmate there were some other girls and boys that I already know before. So I got quick in conversations and it felt like I was already there for years.
Within the weeks I got better and better, not the best, but a good one. And then…in November 2020 our government decided to forbid the indoor team sports cause the pandemic was uncontrollable at this time. So we had to stay away from ball, net and our mates – for an uncertain time.
Restart in 2021
So after 7 months of “doing nothing” we are now able to play again! Outside! First of all we are all happy that we can start again. Our first session was outside. The weather was good, round about 22°C, the sun was shining and we were motivated. Our club gave us a place beside the soccer field. There we start setting up a “mobile” net, marked the field lines, pumped up the balls and started playing.
It was fun. This was my first time that I played volleyball outside and I think I like it more than playing inside, because you have much more space to “jump around”, play higher balls and you have fresh air, what is usually difficult when you play in a hall.
We all performed good, but you saw that we all not played for a long time. One of the big disadvantages of playing outside: the mosquitoes! We started our session at 7 pm. It was a bit windy and the sun was still shining – no mosquitoes. The sun goes down and the mosquitoes came. At first ist was ok, but It got worse and worse by minute. At the End everybody was fidgeting. On the one hand it was very funny, but on the other it was very annoying. The motivation was big and we played our regularly session until 10 pm.
All in all it was great. Great to see all the faces again, great to play, great to be outside at the fresh air.
At the next day I felt that I played volleyball, but that was good. Can’t wait for next week!
Cheers Bennet 🏐🍻
Leave a Reply