Awesome name aside, I think the necessity of sharing volleyball experiences became apparent to me in August 2012. This marked the beginning of my first collegiate season at Oregon State University. This was the first week of preseason, littered with meetings, doctor checkups, and of course homework. In our case, this meant reading the book, The Inner Game of Tennis. A book about tennis, what? I’m here to play volleyball, what is going on? I was a little confused to say the least, but my coach is the opposite of a dumb person, and although I won’t learn this till later, Terry Liskevych will actually turn out to be one of the most well-read people I’ve met and The Inner Game of Tennis actually turned out to be a very interesting book. But still, I was heading into what I perceived to be the illustrious career as a collegiate athlete and there wasn’t even a book about volleyball to read? The seed was planted.
Fast forward a little less than four years later, four seasons at Oregon State complete, one Sweet 16 appearance, one Single Season Digs Record, two degrees and one broken love for volleyball. My teenage dream of competing on the National Team transformed into a dream of doing anything besides play volleyball. But still, I had spent more than half my life (13 years) dedicating time to this sport and I couldn’t just let all my experiences die with my career. And the more I thought about it, the more I recognized just how many post-volleyball players there are, all with their own unique experiences that could help and inspire the next generation of volleyball players and not only that, there are coaches, officials, support staff, and parents all with their own understandings as well! So the dream existed and all I needed was a plan and some action to turn it into a reality.
The decision to create the VolleyBlog as opposed to some other resource came as a result of two major considerations: collaboration and availability. As I mentioned, a factor of success for the VolleyBlog is not just to get my own experiences down in writing, but to bring together other people’s knowledge as well. An online platform is opportune for continually providing new articles and reaching people looking for information. As I see it, a VolleyBlog is a user friendly platform that can reach every type of person, from less than tech savvy adults to shy children, and that is what I wanted, an open resource that anyone looking to learn could find.
So that's it: thought + idea + action = VolleyBlog
Are we still accepting writers?
In fact, we are! We believe that we can never stop learning and that there is no such thing as the same story, no one can tell your story like you can. Consider the first volleyball clinic you went to, or the first tryout you dropped your kid off at, or the first practice plan you wrote. What do you wish you had known then that you know now? It is your turn to share, fill out the form below with an idea you want to write about or simply that you want to write but don’t know what about! We would be happy to help you share your story.
If there was one position in volleyball that gets a bad rap, it is the Defensive Specialist. While it is easy to write-off these players, just as Setters, Pin Hitters, Middles, and Liberos have roles to take care of, so do Defensive Specialists! Check out our volleyball dictionary definition for Defensive Specialist, intangible qualities a coach wants to see on the court and the 1 key to being a great Defensive Specialist.