The Game | Fr 12/9

I woke up in time for stand-up, but other than that I didn't interact with anyone for work for the entire day. I barely even got anything done, just reading through a document about changes and notices of benefits for next year. Of course I had to get some unintentional napping in, this time in the morning and evening. Outside of that I just ate, watched volleyball videos, and cleaned up. I did also take a look at the TV and soundbar to see how I could connect the two, and it seems like I'm missing at least a few cables and remotes for both.

I messaged the Dallas volleyball group to see if anyone wanted to carpool, but didn't get responses even from the people who RSVP'd online for tonight. This got to me and I figured it was that time when friends stop putting up with my garbage always picking me up and dealing with me being late. I tried not to take it personally and figured that they still wanted to hang out sometime, but later they said that they're coming separately and I realized that I may have just assumed the worst from the lack of responses.

Playing tonight was amazing. The gym was busy like on Wednesday and our group formed teams just as I walked in, so I didn't get much of a chance to warm up. My team was friendly and having fun, which made the games feel fast.

At one point the team was essentially bullied out of a spot on a court by Luiz and his team. Even though we both won our first games and both could've played against a team of latecomers, his team stormed the court, which we thought we were next on, and started playing. My setter and I came up to ask to at least play rock paper scissors to fairly determine which team got to face the latecomers, but Luiz was adamant about not stopping since they just started. I figured it didn't make sense to kick his whole team off the court so I relented, but surprisingly others brought it up later in the night.

While I sat down in between games, John and Jennifer were next to me and advised that I not back down when talking to Luiz. I told them about how both of our teams could've played then, that I didn't want to evict his, and that Luiz and I don't dislike each other even though he's aggressive, both with me and in general. Despite all of these reasons, they didn't seem to be happy with the outcome or with Luiz. I've probably played with him more, and I have to admit that I don't always like how he treats his friends or myself, but I figure that it may just be a matter of different personalities since I don't think he's seriously trying to be mean so much as he's prickly.

Later I got to play with most of my original team in open court and we eventually moved to a just-empied court. The net was low, maybe youth height, but instead of raising it we decided to limit the guys from being able to jump past the attack line, which was surprisingly fun. The skill level of the teams varied quite a bit, but none of us were taking it seriously. It felt strange down-balling every hit and not being able to approach for hits like normal, but I was eager to get a D ball since we allowed guys to jump for back-row hits. Unfortunately that D ball never came before the game ended and most of the players dispersed afterwards, but the few who stayed practiced hitting for a bit.

Eventually we got kicked out from the court, but told that we could move to yet another just-vacated court where Kristi happened to have played with the mostly Cantonese group. She shared about not enjoying the feeling of being the worst on the court, which is relatable but I was also a bit jealous of how she got the chance to get smoked to learn from it. On the new court Emily and I joked about asking for cookies from the players already there since they had whole boxes of them, but Kristi walked up to us with one in hand and casually asked if we also wanted some. Despite saying the opposite, she seemed happy with how much we were savoring the cookies. This escalated when we asked her to get us more, with timid asking and 👉👈ing, soon after.

There weren't enough people to play a game, so the group started doing hitting lines and I tried to block. It was good practice trying to block as an opposite rather than a middle, and I got quite a few lessons from the session:

• Generally try to block cross, which may have you further left than even the hitter's right shoulder
• Try to rotate the hands out to have your thumbs parallel for wider coverage
• Get a feel for which hitters swing early vs late and adjust your timing accordingly
• Don't bend or arch your fingers to be more tense, but extend them straight out instead
• Bending at the waist to arch your whole body may only be necessary for blocking the hardest hitters
• I don't always need to max jump, especially when blocking shorter or less powerful hitters for practice
• Stay tense even on the way down to prevent waterfalls

It was also great trying to block good hitters like Albert, Paul, and Tommy from the Cantonese group. They challenged my timing, positioning, and form and I had a blast trying to block them, along with Sherry, Emily, Devin, John, Kristi, and Sara. They were shocked at how much energy I had, which surprised me too. I was drenched in sweat and felt my cardio being challenged, but my knees felt fine and I was having a ton of fun. Eventually the group of hitters dwindled until it was only Sara, Paul, Tommy, and for a bit Luiz. I probably got a total of 50 or so reps and eventually noticed people trying to hit my hands for a block out or tip, which made me satisfied in my improvement.

They got tired of hitting so I asked Sara to set me a D ball since I never got to hit one during the last game and it was oddly easy, especially for never having practiced it and only hitting a handful or so in games until that point. Sara and Paul commented that I seem to hit harder and with less trouble than for front-row attacks, which I agreed with. Paul then set me some 5's and I realized that I may be lacking in proper timing for my hits. They also commented that my contact point is quite high, which we confirmed when I realized that I could see over a men's net at the peak of my swing block, but that I should probably adjust to typical sets by approaching faster instead of asking to be set higher.

Eventually I wanted to practice serves, so Paul tried to receive and Sara tried to set. We got some nice reps in, but eventually Sara set me and my calves cramped a bit when I jumped to hit, which convinced them to stop practicing. Over the course of the night I also got several decent self-sets a la Yuji, which was satisfying.

We then talked about DIVA:

• There are no coaches, but every team has a captain
• I will probably be asked to play middle if I don't specifically try to avoid it
• Most players are not especially tall
• Teams generally don't do drills, but I can always grab a ball cart to do some
• Some high level players ask lower division players to join them if they don't have enough players to scrimage
• Sara thinks I'll probably be placed in the skilled division by simple virtue of being tall and my blocking ability
• She agrees that that I should try to play a different position for the sake of practicing more skills

And me/general technique:

• It's nice how I lift weights, so I should be max jumping a lot to train my vertical and get reps
• I should try to have my elbows very locked out when passing
• The back row defenders should try to line themselves up to protect the corners while defending angles that the blockers can't cover
• I never learned to use the guide hand as a help when timing hits, so I may want to try learning
• High ball sets generally go to antenna height, but it can be raised for people with high contact points like me

At that point it was like 1:30 AM and we could only stay because another group was supposed to close for the night. I was satisfied with the fun had, reps put in, and knowledge gained for the night. If anything it was a shame leaving when I wanted to try setting to get used to the distance of 4's, but the other two commented that I have so much energy again and convinced me to call it a night.

Now I'm back at home a bit sad that I didn't get to eat or hang out with anyone after playing, but also hungry to get back to playing and watching videos of left-handed hitters to work on getting my arms ready to hit faster. I'm also eyeing reviews I'd the Kyrie 8's since I saw they're deeply discounted, Paul plays with them and likes them, and I should probably get a second pair of volleyball shoes to keep from soaking and beating my current ones from too frequent play.

I also finally picked up the new hair clippers and crocodile clips, but I'm tempted not to cut my hair for now after seeing how nice the texture of my hair was after playing volleyball. It's as if letting my hair get drenched and air drying it while I run and jump around lets the curls set in a lot more than plain air drying. It's like when I walked outside with wet hair in windy days in college: there's a way to dry my hair and make it look amazing, but I have no idea how apart from perfect coincidences.