I’m not one for sports. The only sport I really played was tennis in high school, and I was just OK at best. I enjoyed playing because my friends were there with me, so it wasn’t boring. After that, I never got back into it. It just wasn’t something I wanted to play without my friends. I did, however, get into anime and manga, which is not as active, but very entertaining to me.

I am currently following a manga called “Haikyuu,” a manga about boys' high school volleyball. While this may not be what most people think about when they hear the words anime or manga, this work has shown me how intense and creative volleyball can be.

The story introduces the character Hinata, who is only around 5 feet tall, a height that would usually shy away from the "tall-dominating" sport of volleyball, but he makes up for it by being able to jump extremely high. This allows him to become a regular on the team and play in tournaments around Japan. Through this manga, I’ve learned quite a bit about volleyball and its many intricacies.

I had originally pinned this sport as a game where you just hit the ball back and forth, similar to tennis, but with more people. However, there is a lot of strategy that goes into these matches. There are different kinds of attacks that can be done, such as a quick: As soon as the setter gets the ball, he sets it up for the "spiker," as if it happened in one whole motion. These attacks allow the games to be more diverse and intense, as each player on the court has a different job and must work well with their teammates to connect the ball with the right players to score.

This has inspired me to try playing some volleyball in real life, actually, passing with others on campus and learning to receive serves. I’ve used the knowledge gained from the manga to be better at this sport. I’m not perfect, but I think I’ve found something that I could be interested in again.