More than a game

The famous quote "The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will," by Vincent T. Lombardi help led my team to a successful year. My volleyball team took this quote to the heart. People learn a lot about themselves when they join a team, like volleyball. Each player reaches and even goes past what they thought was their limit. Volleyball is a popular sport worldwide and can teach players many important things. A few lessens volleyball can teach is competition, teamwork, practice and even lifelong skills.
Competition is a huge lesson learned through volleyball. It is why you push yourself hard in practice, the long drills and running. Completions are the one time you can show everyone the effects of practicing every day has on you. This lesson reaches far past the game. There is much more about competing. When you receive a victory, it has to be the best feeling anyone could get. It builds confidence in young girl’s minds. For instance, one of my teammates had never played volleyball before. She worked hard in practice for weeks building up for our first game. She didn’t get to start right away during the game but that didn’t affect her. It was game point, and our coach put the girl who wasn’t very experienced but had all the faith in the world into the game. We passed the ball and our setter set the ball right to her. She hit it over, and got the kill to win the game. She had a smile from ear to ear. She might not have been the best player out there but the win made her feel like she was. Everyone was incredibly proud of her and after that she just worked harder and harder in practice so she could continue to have those amazing moments. Competitions have more of an effect on someone than most people think.
The biggest aspect of volleyball is teamwork. There are six girls that are on the court. Between those six girls you have to all communicate, come up with a game plan, and not let the ball drop in a matter of seconds. All of the girls have to know what their job on the team is. Another important thing about teamwork is trust. As a team you have to trust that the other girls on the floor with you know what to do, are in their spots, and will do their job. For example, as a setter I have to trust that my back row players will be in the right spot to make a good pass right to me, then after is set the ball to one of my hitters, I have to trust that they will read where the blocker is on them, hit around them, and get a kill. As my volleyball team has made it to state all four years I have been in high school, I know that teamwork is the most important thing to have.
“Practice makes perfect!” I think everyone has heard this saying before, but in reality it is very true. It is the first step to everything. If you don’t constantly practice at anything, you will never be good. It is hard to see during practice how the ending result will be, but it is amazing. For instance, our coach is one of the best in the state. Every year he video tapes our practices for the first week of practice and the last week. No matter how we end up at the end of the year, we always have a team supper and watch both videos. Even though you don’t realize how much you are improving at the time, watching those tapes at the end of the year really put into perspective how much practicing is really important.
Another example of how practice is such a great lesson is it pushes you to and past your “breaking point.” Once practice starts, you are on a routine and expected 100 percent