The serve darts over the net. Six girls shuffle their feet in anticipation for the flying rocket that is wailing towards them. With a quick pass, soft set, and a killer spike, the ball is drilled back over the net. The sound of skin screeches across the wood floor as the Libero pancakes for the ball that was a couple steps too far out of reach. The ball is up, it is good. The Setter hustles to the action scene and pops the ball high into the air, while a Defensive Specialist comes in for a back-row attack. With a crack to the middle of the court, the ball crushes the floor, and just like that, the game is tied.
For more than six years of my life, this is what I lived for; the competitive nature of a club sport. While I loved the game, the traveling that came with the game, and the friends I made because of the game, I never realized how influential the game of club volleyball was on my life until after my volleyball days were over. While volleyball was the only competitive sport I played, I am sure many individuals who played other club sports could relate to these life lessons and skills.
1. Hustle
Playing a sport at such a competitive level instills a sense of hustle into your life and the way you do things. Whether it was hustling across the court or hustling to grab my stuff to get from one court from the next, you learn to move with purpose. You learn to give it your all.
2. Respect
Respect is crucial when playing any sport. You learn to respect yourself, players, fans, and referees. You learn to listen to your body, pushing it when it needs a boost and letting it rest when you are on the verge of an injury. You are respectful of your fans and thank them for supporting you. You learn to respect your teammates so you work together as team while allowing them to respect you. You may not always agree with the calls the referees make, but you learn the importance of respecting their authority and their decisions. Respect is sometimes hard to learn and portray in your everyday life. I am thankful I had an experience that helped instill respect into my moral compass.
3. How to work hard
A competitive sport is an insane time commitment and requires a lot of hard work. You learn to give it all you got and work your butt off. You commit hours of your time to weekly practices and tournaments. You commit yourself mentally, physically, and emotionally to the sport. There was blood, sweat, and tears put into the game. I also walked away with a few scars. There's not a feeling quite like fully committing yourself to something and working as hard as you possibly can. I wouldn't give up this experience for anything. This has relayed into my current life. I try to give it my all in anything I do and work as hard as I possibly can. I have my club volleyball to thank for that.
4. Grace
When playing a club sport, the stakes are high. You have a lot emotionally and physically invested, as well as quite a few dollars. This can make winning and losing harder than you might think. Playing a competitive sport taught me how to succeed and how to fail. I learned how to gracefully win and gracefully lose. I think these are two insanely important life lessons. Everyone will experience success and failure, it's important to know how to appropriately act in each situation.
5. The importance of practice
Practice, practice, practice. You won't get where you want to be without practice. Playing a competitive sport taught me you don't get what you wish for, you get what you work for. Improvement takes time, and spending time on working toward your goals is required. This takes an insane amount of determination, commitment, and perseverance. This process also improved my patience and helped me understand that anything worth having takes time.
6. Focus
Focus is crucial to playing a sport and to being successful at anything in life. Volleyball allowed me to commit to something and to learn how to direct my focus. Focus can be difficult in our world centered around multitasking. It's important to always have a focus and work toward that focus.
7. Determination
Playing a competitive sport is not something that just gets handed to you. It takes a lot of hard work and determination. You'll get knocked down 100 times. The important thing is you get up 101 times. I have a fierce determination and attack my goals with full force, and I have my volleyball experience to thank for that.
8. Commitment
Commitment isn't easy. It isn't easy to commit to a person, place, or thing. Committing to a club sports is committing time, money, yourself, and your time. Between practices, out of state travel, team bonding, and other related commitments, playing a club sports encompassed my entire life. I learned what it means to be committed to something and the importance of commitment. There's a lot of responsibility that comes with big commitment, and it's important to be a person who commits to things and actually fulfills that commitment.
9. Perseverance
Even the best fall down sometimes. Perseverance takes a lot of self motivation and mental strength. Playing competitive volleyball was one of the most difficult experiences of my life but it was also one of the most rewarding. I don't regret it for a minute. I would have never had the experience I did if I didn't persevere, and I wouldn't have the perseverance I have now without my experience while playing a competitive sport.
10. How to handle stress
School is stressful. Life is stress. People are stressful. Playing a club sport was insanely stressful. You have to juggle practices, classes, activities, friends, sleep, tournaments, and everything else in life. I learned to juggle whatever life threw at me and multitask. I learned to plan and organize my time. I learned how to handle the mental, emotional, and physical stress. And let me tell you, there are copious amounts of all three kinds of stress while playing a club sport. This stress made me a stronger person and helped me to better handle stress in my everyday life.
11. Resilience
You also learn resilience. You learn to bounce back no matter what happens to you. A girl serves four times at your face and you miss them all. You let it go and get the next one. Some girl starts talking crap, you let it roll off. You fall down, scrape your arm, and start bleeding; you stand up and keep playing. You are mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted, you still go to practice and give it your all. You bounce back no matter what happens to you. If you can handle whatever life throws at you, you will be a much stronger person.
12. How to be a team player
One of the most important things I learned while playing volleyball was how to be a team player. I learned how to confide in my teammates, ask them for help, and trust them. I learned how to be there for my teammates, how to carry my weight on the team, how to be a caring and trustworthy teammate, and how to get along with people that aren't necessarily easy to get along with. Teammates are kind of like family, you don't get to choose them. Camaraderie is crucial in being successful when playing a competitive sport. You learn to put your differences aside and get along with anyone. I learned how to work with a variety of individuals and how to play various roles in a group/team setting. This has been insanely beneficial.
While a competitive sport isn't a current part of my life, it was still a crucial time in my life. At the time I thought it was just a sport, something to do. Now I realize it shaped me into the person I am today.
