Pass, Toss, Smash

Over the last two weeks I have joined my school's volleyball practices in the afternoons. They meet twice a week to practice and scrimmage. Before arriving the first day I thought that I was heading to an adult pick up game. This was the second time that I was told that there would be volleyball at the school and although no one showed up the first time, I had been told that it was for the teachers. I therefore jumped onto my bike wearing basketball shorts and a t-shirt. I didn't want to be uncomfortable and play in pants, but I also wanted to remain relatively modest.

When I arrived at the school I was surprised to have 60 young faces turn to watch me ride into our courtyard. I was pleased to see that it was about a 60/40 boys to girls, but I was suddenly very aware of my choice in clothing. All of the girls were wearing their olahraga uniforms (gym clothes) which are comprised of a long sleeve shirt and pants. In addition to this they were all wearing jilbabs (head scarves), which is to be expected because I teach at an Islamic school. Needless to say I felt a bit more exposed than I wanted to be in front of my students. Although I often actively choose to wear clothing that is slightly less conservative than what my co-teachers and students wear in public (3/4 length sleeves on my work shirts, but always with pants or a long skirt and t-shirts and capris when going for a bike ride) I do, however, still prefer to make sure that I am not pushing the boundaries too much. On that particular day I did feel that shorts were more than I was comfortable with. Fortunately no one said a word.

I was invited over by the gym teacher and asked to introduce myself to the girls after they had warmed up. As the boys put up the nets the remaining students started doing some passing. The 20-some girls broke up into three passing lines and got moving. I made some observations first before trying to communicate with the girls.

I first did a general assessment of equipment and facilities. For 60 youngsters there are only 5 balls. I had been told that there were 8 on another day, but clearly some were out of commission. At that particular moment the girls were allowed three of these balls and the boys had two. All the balls are severely beaten up because they are indoor balls, but are played with outside on a cement surface. My eyes shifted over to the courts. The nets aren't too bad, but the poles don't have cranks and instead each has a few eye-loops to stick the net strings through. I could see that this was going to make it difficult to get the net to the right height and sure enough it was very low when I walked over. The surface of the boys court isn't too bad. It is fairly smooth, but it is also very dirty which makes it easy to slip and the cement ends only a foot beyond the end line. On the other hand the girl's court is riddled with potholes, rocks, and dirt. Because of the dirty courts the balls get covered in dust, which can be dangerous when setting.

Seeing all the students with only five balls made me laugh. I couldn't help remembering that when I coached club laughed at myself because only 2 months before I would get upset when my JV team would only have 18 balls for 14 girls. As a club coach we had 11 balls, one for each girl. It didn't seem too bad, but I would have preferred more. Now the situation was ludicrice; here the students outnumber the balls 12-1.

I then turned my attention to the girls and in an instant my coach mode kicked in. Although I wanted to correct many of them immediately I made myself observe first. Not wanting to overstep my position, I then talked to the gym teacher about their technique (well tried to anyway, my language skills weren't quite good enough). He stopped them and explained what I couldn't and then they continued. Here and there I tried to demonstrate better ways to do things individually, but overall the communication wasn't great.

After only a few minutes of passing half of the girls got on the court and scrimmaged each other. The skill level wasn't too bad, but it was on par with a high school JV team. Just like most JV teams there were a few girls that knew what they were doing and there were a lot who had some basic levels but no control whatsoever. Even those with natural talent still lacked training that you get from rigorous drills and daily practice. It is clear that these girls learn by playing. Between the lack of balls and number of students attending the practices there isn't much room to do more than just play.

As soon as I made all my observations my mind started racing with solutions. Call up people in the US and get them to donate balls. They are renovating the building right now, any chance that they will resurface the courts after the construction is done? Maybe we can split the girls up and have them come on two separate days for drill practices and technique work and then on a third day they can all come to scrimmage. Even with only five balls it my be doable.

Since this initially stream of ideas I have calmed down a bit. I had to remind myself that this isn't the US and these kids are just playing for fun. Well I do hope that all kids, whether Indonesian or American, play for fun (and also to get better), but there is no need to turn it into an American volleyball program. Although they do play teams from other schools it still not the same. The fact that these girls show up and enjoy the time that they are here is good. If I can help them even further then I will be more than happy to.

Eventually I was asked to join in and so I did.

Although the initial emotions of being back in a coaching setting was comforting, it didn't stick around long. The funny thing about an inability to communicate is that it can make even the activities that you enjoy most incredibly difficult. This is especially true when those activities involve a team where communication is critical. The funny thing about doing activities that you enjoy a lot in another country for the first time is that it shows you where your language is week. Between both experiences I realized that I need to study up on volleyball terminology so that I can simply play with them and hopefully in the long run coach them.

My games with the girls were more than a bit confusing. I know that when playing level is lower coaches tend to simplify the rotation and sometimes break the rules. It would not have been difficult to make the adjustments if I could just have figured out how they were doing it. It was obvious that they had modified their play, but I couldn't figure out how to ask them where I was in the rotation or where they are used to having their setter move from. Maybe they wouldn't have know, but it still would have been nice to ask.

At the end of my first afternoon I got to play with the big boys, literally. It was teachers (plus three students) verses boys. I enjoyed it. Because of communication I screwed up a few times, but I also managed a few good plays here and their.

All in all it has been good to be back around volleyball despite the frustrations. It was only sebentaran (for a moment) though. Tomorrow marks the start of Ramadhan which means that all extracurricular activates will stop. That topic, however, is for another day.