Quarter 1 Reflection - Action

This quarter was very eventful in terms of action. I joined the SAISA Girls' U19 Volleyball Team. I had been on the team last year, and so my main focus this time around was improving my individual and teamwork skills. My serving and receiving were already pretty consistent, so I mostly wanted to focus on my spiking and being more aggressive, which I have a bit of a problem with in all sports. In terms of teamwork, I wanted to work a bit more on combos with the setters mostly, but the other member as well. One combo that we worked on a bit was a quick, where the setter sets a ball quickly to the spiker, to surprise the other team. I think we had a pretty good team this year in terms of teamwork as well as our awesome powerhouse captain Greta. One problem that came up a lot was support for the team, and so as my combined roles of team member and SGA Communications Officer, I made a few posters in support of our team and to encourage people to come watch our matches.

The SGA Spirit Coordinators made a promotional video, with video from one of our practice session, to play during assembly and on Facebook to spread the word even more.

Later on, we made our way to Mumbai, India for the SAISA tournament. I think that this was the time when our team bonded the most, through sharing cheering and chants and junk food, through dance parties and slaps on the butts, and through winning the entire tournament undefeated. Our toughest matches were probably the last two, especially the second last one against Dhaka. We were close to losing and making silly and avoidable mistakes, and we fought and shouted a bit at each other before our coach intervened. That was when we decided that winning did not matter unless we were having fun and enjoying being part of the team, and through our more relaxed outlook we won!

(Image credit: Diana Vargas)

This was probably my favourite SAISA to date, not just because we won, but because I really felt part of the team and genuinely enjoyed the sport and everyone’s company. I can’t wait until next year!