Volleyball

Last night I went out to join a "Meetup" group for some volleyball in the suburbs. It's safe to say I didn't have quite as much game as I did when I played in Berkeley.

Volleyball was one of those sports I picked up in high school, where I found I could be a pretty good player despite not being tall and not all that strong. I was quick, and had pretty good reflexes, and that carried me a long way. In high school, we'd play at lunchtime on the outdoor concrete basketball courts, and being quick on the ground meant I didn't have to dive as often to dig out a spike.

At Berkeley I actually took an intro volleyball class, and found I had game. Of the four main skills: serve, bump, set, and spike; I was ok with the first two and awful with the others. After that class, I had a fantastic serve, was very good with bumps and sets, and could usually manage a decent spike. I could hang with the players in the level 3 (out of 4) class, which met just after the level 1 class let out. I could consistently hit the back line with my serves, keeping them fast and low with top-spin. It wasn't uncommon for me to score several points in a row just from the other team not being able to handle those serves.

My highlight of Berkeley volleyball happened at the little grass court outside of the CS building. I was working as a TA for a C++ data structure class taught by a theory professor who didn't know C++, and for whatever reason decided he didn't like me. Late in the summer we were both in an "undergraduate vs graduate/instructors" game, and I dug out his spike, got the set back to me, and spiked right at him.

Having the level 3 players think I was in the level 4 class was pretty cool too.

Years later, I coerced some coworkers into an evening league while I was at Scale 8. Most weeks we didn't get enough people to show up and had for forfeit, but we'd play anyway. I was the only one to attend all of the games. On the last week, we had several people show up, and I was the one booted from the team to make room for a guy who was making his first appearance of the season. The other team let me join them (they were short one), and while my coworkers mocked my aggressive play style--diving for digs, covering a lot of the court with quick lateral movement--I helped the other team soundly beat them. And yeah, I got to spike on the new guy who took my spot on the team.

After that, I'd play a few times at the sand court at Yahoo, but my knees don't take well to shifting around in the sand, and I had to give up volleyball for awhile. Last night my body reminded me how I was not in my early 20s anymore. My game had regressed to where it was before I took that class at Berkeley. I had moments where my serve had movement, and times where my bumps and sets were accurate with a soft touch, but the timing of the spike was gone. I did manage to play for two and a half hours, and didn't embarrass myself, but didn't play up to my own expectations.

I'd like to play more often, but it turns out I found this group at the end of their season. Last night was the last game I'd be able to attend for the season. There are other Chicago based groups which play indoor volleyball, but they still play on sand, and my knees still can't handle that.