Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Volleyball

At the end of last week I took my 5 year old daughter to her (and my) first college women's volleyball game.  We've been to several college women's basketball games, but this was our first opportunity to check out a volleyball game, so we took advantage of it.  We had a blast!

It was a great opportunity to teach her about a new sport.  She's familiar with the basic rules of basketball since she's seen games before and is familiar with the basic rules of soccer from playing it, but volleyball was new to her.  I was able to explain some of the basic rules, such as out of bounds, only hitting it 3 times, serving, etc.  However, I realized there were many things I didn't know about volleyball.  Here are a few that came up at the game:

1.  Why does one player on each team wear a different color uniform?

2.  Why were 7 starters announced for each team, but only 6 can be on the court at once?

3.  How does one identify a double hit?  I know what a double hit is, but I swear that whenever one was called, the hit looked good to me.  

4.  Why do all the reserve players stand instead of sitting on chairs as they do during basketball games?

I'm sure there are other things I'm clueless on, but those were the main questions that popped into my head during the game.  This was the last game of the season, so I have a whole off-season to research the game of volleyball before the next game.  

Despite my confusion on a few things it was a great daddy/daughter date night!

2 comments:

  1. Sorry that this was not answered before. I will answer the questions in order but by now you probably have already fiqured out what the answers are.

    1. The different colored jersey signifies the librero. The Librero is the defensive specialist. She/he usually rotates in and out for the middle blocker. The Librero plays the back row and serves. The middle usually does not serve. So when it is the middles turn to serve in comes the librero to serve and play back row.
    2. In the case of 7 players introduced and 6 on the court. Again is the librero or another middle. My daughter plays club volleyball and her team has 2 middles. She will come out of the game and the new middle goes in as well as the librero to serve. My daughter will stay out for three rotations and when the other middle goes to serve the librero comes out and my daughter comes in and plays the middle for three rotations. Confusing I know.

    3.Usuall a double hit is called on the setters a good bit because when they set the ball if their hands are uneven the ball will have a weird rotation. To the normal observer it seems like a normal set. But to the official they can tell by the rotation (usually spins on is horizontal axis) that it was a double hit.

    4.Standing for most is a way for them to stay warm and because the roattions can happen quickly they are ready to go in.

    Glad you enjoyed your time with your daughter. I have enjoyed watching my daughter play. Best of luck.

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  2. Thanks for the reply! That was very helpful!

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