18 It’s Just One Point

This essay was composed in September 2024 and uses MLA documentation.

Service

The score is 27-27. Game goes to 25, win by two. It would have been so much easier if you had just gotten a couple of points while you were ahead, but now you need to score two more consecutive points to win. It’s anyone’s game. And now it’s your turn to serve.

The entire weight of the game rests on your shoulders. Do you serve easy, avoiding risk, or do you aim for the deep corner, and serve hard at the risk of hitting the ball out of bounds?

Everyone is tired, it’s 11:00 pm, and it’s the last game of the night. Your legs are weak from jumping and running around. Your arms sting from repeatedly passing the ball. And yet, everyone else is going to give it their all, simply because they enjoy playing the game. And so will you. It’s the last game, the last point, and, taking a deep breath, you decide to play aggressively. You perform your ritual; spin the ball twice, bounce it once. You pick your spot to aim—the far, left-back corner, one of the hardest spots to hit. You toss the ball into the air, and swing.

The Basics

Volleyball is a sport played with six people on either side of a net. The court boundaries are nine by nine meters. Each side can touch the ball three times before they must pass it to the opponent’s court. The goal of the game is to score points by not letting the ball land on your side of the court.

The volleyball community is a very welcoming one. There are so many levels of communities within the volleyball sphere. You could simply be a watcher that enjoys watching the pros on tv. Maybe you just play when there is a party and someone happens to set up a net. I played during high school; I played on a club team as well. They were both a lot of fun, but the place I really enjoyed volleyball first and most was my father’s Wednesday night volleyball group of a bunch of old guys. That sounds weird, but it was the first place where I got to see what real volleyball looks like.

Old Men Chatter

My volleyball group gathers every Wednesday for one purpose: to play volleyball. I try to get better at the game, but playing volleyball is all that we expect. We start around 9:00 pm with a little warm-up and then play games until 11:00 or 11:30 pm. The games are usually very competitive–these so-called “old men” (anywhere from 26 to 56 in age) are really good at the game. A lot of them have been playing since college, and they have a lot of experience and technique. They may not be in peak physical condition, but they have skill and know the strategy behind the game.

A big part of the game that a lot of people wouldn’t notice is communication. In-game communication is very important. With six people on the court, everyone needs to know what is going on, and the way to do that is through our language. Often, that can be as simple as verbally calling for the ball or asking for a set (a set is usually the second touch of the ball and typically overhead; the purpose is to set it up for one of the other players to forcefully hit into the opponent’s court). The other thing it can be is hand signs. At my group, we have specific hand signs for different attacks (that’s usually the third hit and means hitting the ball downward into the opponent’s court as hard as possible). Hand signs help confuse the opponent so that they can’t hear what the next attack is going to be. The main four attacks that we use are a “four,” a “five,” a “one,” and a “pipe.” A “four” is a high set to the left side, and we use it frequently. Its hand sign is holding up four fingers. A “five” is a high set to the right side–holding up five fingers. A “one” is a fast attack, meaning the hitter will attack from right next to the setter, wherever the setter goes. Its hand sign is holding up the pointer finger. Finally, a “pipe” is a high set to the back row. If a player is in the back row, they must jump behind the ten-foot line for the hit to be legal. Its sign is made by tapping one fist on top of the other. There are more types of attacks, and the setter must know all the hand signs and the attacks and be able to perform their part in them as well as the hitters. The language of volleyball is advanced, and crucial to the game.

To Set

This diagram from DIGS Volleyball Club, which my dad showed me when I began to play as a setter, appeals to logos and ethos (Fig. 1). The diagram shows most of the attacks that a setter can possibly do. It came from the Dedication, Integrity, Godliness, and Service Volleyball (DIGS) Club. I don’t know the club personally, but the ideas they convey are applicable to me and other setters. It’s also useful; its credibility comes directly from the patterns of play and set identification. DIGS seems to be a small but respected club, and that community respect and the quality of the information gives the diagram ethos. It also strongly appeals to logos via the information conveyed and the aesthetic of the diagram, which is very straight to the point. Volleyball is a very physical sport; there is a lot of technique that is hard to learn. That’s why I think this source’s use of logos by having the picture and the color coding helps further its goals so well. Even if the various lines and positions seem overwhelming to the inexperienced volleyball player, ethos works in concert with logos for those who have a basic understanding of the game and its underlying strategy–I was a beginner when I first saw the diagram, so I couldn’t speak to the accuracy or relevance of the information. As I grew more experienced, and as I applied the material, I became more aware of why the lines in the diagram point to different positions. Anyone with my level of skill in volleyball, particularly if they didn’t know or understand standard setter lines, could look at this diagram, understand the theory behind it, learn from it, and be confident that the source knew their stuff. The ethos reinforces the logos, and the logos support the ethos.

Learning the technical names of the sets is essential to getting to the next level of volleyball. During the game you can’t all look at the diagram and decide what attack to do so learning the names of each of them is immensely helpful.

Two drawbacks of the diagram is that unfortunately, names are not universal and the sport is still changing. Names and hand signals for sets can change with each group of players. For example, what the diagram calls a “thirty-one,” I call a “three.” A “three” is a fast set, about as fast as a “one,” but is shot out into the gap between the other team’s blockers. Even though a “thirty-one” is the same physical set and action as a “three,” names and hand signs can be wildly different. The diagram’s “nine” is something my dad’s group of old men referred to as a “five,” and I usually call their “five” a “four” when playing elsewhere—so that’s one attack with three different names among three different groups of players. And sometimes groups will use the same names for different attacks. My dad’s group still has a “four,” but I use “hut” or “go” for the play that they call “four.” It can get really confusing when playing with new people while trying to figure out exactly what they mean by any given hand sign or call. Additionally, this chart is pretty recent, but it’s still missing some of the sets that I know and use. Attacks change over time and need to be updated constantly. Just as language changes, so do the words we use to describe each attack.

Despite these drawbacks, the source is still improving its audience’s skill because they need to know what the set looks like before they can even identify any given set. That’s why the diagram is so accessible and useful; the information it conveys is illustrative, which is universal. It’s the same reason that road signs are usually a picture or symbol, rather than text. People of any language can look at the image and identify what it means.

Game Point

Volleyball is a complex sport. It takes a lot of time to get good at, and by the time you’re done with practice or a game, your arms will sting and you’ll be sore for days (and no, that doesn’t go away, even with skill or experience). Regardless, anyone can find a way to interact with the game, whether you’re watching the game or going out and playing it. Everyone can be part of the community. If you are trying to get better at the game, there are tons of examples online for ways to improve. Watching the Olympics and studying their technique can help you as well. They are the best at the game for a reason, and you can always stand to learn something new, regardless of skill level—because like I said, the game is always changing.

Every sport has a point that I call the door. Everyone can see the door, study it, but until you start to understand the doorknob, you can’t open it to see what’s behind. The strategy—the doorknob—that goes into any game is immense, and not often seen on screen. Anyone can understand how to play volleyball: keep the ball off the floor, try to get it onto the opponent’s floor. It’s pretty simple. But in reality, there is so much more depth to how that goal is achieved. Even if you’re just watching the game, looking at the strategies the players are using can make the game more fun to watch. And when you finally can understand those strategies, the world beyond the door opens up to you.

The serve goes in. It’s beautiful, just breezing over the net. Not even a bit of spin. It looked at first like it was heading out of bounds. And then it dropped, right where you wanted it too. A no-touch ace. A perfect serve. Now all you have to do is get one more point.

Reflection

In writing this essay, I gained an appreciation for the diagrams and videos that are online for getting better at volleyball. As it is a physical sport, it’s hard to describe all of volleyball in just words. It also helped me remember just how far the strategy of volleyball has come. At the origins of the game, they didn’t even try to spike the ball; that was a strategy that was developed later. Setting and running offenses didn’t exist yet. I think that it would be helpful to remember this for later to remember that things happen for a reason. The diagram was made for a reason and there was a reason that we developed those advanced sets. Most things in life have some origin and understanding where it comes from can help me understand the nuances of the piece.

I found the source from some of my previous memories. I have a good knowledge of volleyball sets and I know that I’ve seen a similar diagram before so I went looking for one. This one was the most complete one that I saw and that’s why I chose it; I was mainly just comparing the sets that I know to the diagram and seeing how many of them line up.

I had some of my friends review my essay and that helped immensely in finding the form and structure of the essay. They are also a lot better at finding the grammatical errors and cutting down redundancy. I think I should start with a better outline of what I’m going to talk about. I can type a lot of words when I want to so word count has never been a problem, but staying on topic definitely is. The feedback that I got from my friends is already showing benefit. I am working on a video game right now and having people play test and getting feedback helps me make a better game. Asking for feedback can help improve anything I’m working on, and that’s the main thing I got out of this essay.

Works Cited

Digs at home volleyball training and Curriculum. DIGS Volleyball Club. (2020, April 6). https://digsvbc.com/at-home-volleyball-training/