- Signed: Matthew Hartman
- Filed under activities , volleyball , work .
Yes, very frustrated... Not only did we lose again in volleyball tonight, we lost a set 24 to 23. So close and we still find a way to lose. It's getting ridiculous and it really showed from me tonight. I managed to give away the second set all by myself by giving game point to our opponent with the lousiest serve ever. And with that, I stormed off the court - not before punting the ball as hard as I could into the air, though. It probably was not the classiest move, but it showed just how frustrated I really was... I quite frankly sat out several minutes before re-joining my team back on the court. They had decided to play one more game, for fun. Since it's only taken 15-20 minutes for us to get our asses handed to us, it's pretty much routine now. Heh...
Anyhow, I sat to the side, watched my teammates play for a while, took a few drinks of water, then walked and paced for a while to cool my jets. I'm not going to abandon my team, that's for sure, so I re-joined the game a short time later.
I really need to keep convincing myself that we all joined this league for fun, not really to be competitive. My teammates and I realize that we are not professional volleyball players, by any means. And knew going in that we probably were not going to be a very good team. But, we also knew going in that we were going into a league that was comparable in experience. I'm not sure of my fellow teammates, but I certainly thought we would have a pretty good chance to win some games.
The first two losses weren't that bad for me... The third started to concern me a little, the fourth, last week was frustrating. The fourth, tonight, just out-right pissed me off. We had a complete team tonight, with the exception of Lawson not being here. We had a couple of replacements to fill in for Mike. We had six players and not only that, we had three guys and three girls. An equal number of guys and girls is pretty important in the co-ed leagues and typically puts you at an advantage. In co-ed leagues at Center Court, they have a rule that if you hit the ball more than once and it goes over the net, a girl has to touch the ball at least once. The past couple of weeks it hasn't been as much of an issue since we're getting use to the rule, but it has still hurt us on several occasions, costing us points. I was, personally, liable for two points tonight because I had misplayed the ball because of that rule.
So, as you can see, even having a complete and balanced team, still isn't working for us. Our replacements tonight, even had experience. Jill came to us as a volleyball player - as in, she's been involved in organized, competitive volleyball. Chase, while not quite as experienced, was a good player and is pretty athletic. These components aren't working for us either...
So, what's the solution? I really have no idea... I know I could play much better and really should try playing without the emotion and competitiveness and just play to have fun. It would probably keep me loose and might just allow me to focus a little better. And like we all have agreed on, if we could just find time and a place to practice, we would all probably be a little better. I certainly would be if I just knew how to serve overhand. I'm pretty much forced to serve underhand - I have no idea how to do it any other way. I've tried overhand a grand total of four times in the 5 games we've played and only one actually went over the net, in play. Two others sailed wide right and WAY out of play... While the other - we still haven't found where the ball went. heheh...
We are making strides, though... We are much better than the first two games we played. We're setting the ball for each other - we did very little of that through the first two games and last week, we scored 17 points in one set (the most we had scored since week one) and we actually made it a game tonight in the first set before losing that nail-biter 24 to 23. We'll be without a few people over the next 2-3 weeks again, so hopefully we'll find replacements and I'm really, really hoping we find our way to a victory sooner or later... I'm severely hoping sooner...
On another note, I have the next two days off work. I have several things I really need to get done. I desperately need a hair cut... I need to get the battery terminals on the car fixed... And I really need to get back to work on the Webcam Network once again. I've been putting it off a lot over the last couple of weeks.
At the same time, though, I want to do some relaxing and slow down some. I've been working a lot over the past two weeks. In fact, I have worked 14 days out of the last 16. These 6 and 7 day stretches have really killed me... Bleh!
More later... I'm sure...
Anyhow, I sat to the side, watched my teammates play for a while, took a few drinks of water, then walked and paced for a while to cool my jets. I'm not going to abandon my team, that's for sure, so I re-joined the game a short time later.
I really need to keep convincing myself that we all joined this league for fun, not really to be competitive. My teammates and I realize that we are not professional volleyball players, by any means. And knew going in that we probably were not going to be a very good team. But, we also knew going in that we were going into a league that was comparable in experience. I'm not sure of my fellow teammates, but I certainly thought we would have a pretty good chance to win some games.
The first two losses weren't that bad for me... The third started to concern me a little, the fourth, last week was frustrating. The fourth, tonight, just out-right pissed me off. We had a complete team tonight, with the exception of Lawson not being here. We had a couple of replacements to fill in for Mike. We had six players and not only that, we had three guys and three girls. An equal number of guys and girls is pretty important in the co-ed leagues and typically puts you at an advantage. In co-ed leagues at Center Court, they have a rule that if you hit the ball more than once and it goes over the net, a girl has to touch the ball at least once. The past couple of weeks it hasn't been as much of an issue since we're getting use to the rule, but it has still hurt us on several occasions, costing us points. I was, personally, liable for two points tonight because I had misplayed the ball because of that rule.
So, as you can see, even having a complete and balanced team, still isn't working for us. Our replacements tonight, even had experience. Jill came to us as a volleyball player - as in, she's been involved in organized, competitive volleyball. Chase, while not quite as experienced, was a good player and is pretty athletic. These components aren't working for us either...
So, what's the solution? I really have no idea... I know I could play much better and really should try playing without the emotion and competitiveness and just play to have fun. It would probably keep me loose and might just allow me to focus a little better. And like we all have agreed on, if we could just find time and a place to practice, we would all probably be a little better. I certainly would be if I just knew how to serve overhand. I'm pretty much forced to serve underhand - I have no idea how to do it any other way. I've tried overhand a grand total of four times in the 5 games we've played and only one actually went over the net, in play. Two others sailed wide right and WAY out of play... While the other - we still haven't found where the ball went. heheh...
We are making strides, though... We are much better than the first two games we played. We're setting the ball for each other - we did very little of that through the first two games and last week, we scored 17 points in one set (the most we had scored since week one) and we actually made it a game tonight in the first set before losing that nail-biter 24 to 23. We'll be without a few people over the next 2-3 weeks again, so hopefully we'll find replacements and I'm really, really hoping we find our way to a victory sooner or later... I'm severely hoping sooner...
On another note, I have the next two days off work. I have several things I really need to get done. I desperately need a hair cut... I need to get the battery terminals on the car fixed... And I really need to get back to work on the Webcam Network once again. I've been putting it off a lot over the last couple of weeks.
At the same time, though, I want to do some relaxing and slow down some. I've been working a lot over the past two weeks. In fact, I have worked 14 days out of the last 16. These 6 and 7 day stretches have really killed me... Bleh!
More later... I'm sure...
This entry was posted on Monday, March 03, 2008 and is filed under activities , volleyball , work . Monitor this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You may leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.
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