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If you all recall my previous adventure with Beach Volleyball Coach Jack, for this occasion, I was invited to cover his volleyball team, boys and girls team from Bukit Merah Secondary School, in an invitational tournament whereby a few schools came together for 2 days of friendly competition, learning and gaining invaluable experience.

For myself, not only was I covering the sports photography of the volleyball tournament, the aspects of sports science and learning volleyball techniques and correcting mistakes were recorded with the help of my photographs. With my observations and evidence from the split second volleyball motions captured, these were my observations -

(1) Setting – Some teams have a great player in setting while other teams are less stronger, while discussing with Coach Jack, it was evident that the team’s volleyball coach personal skill set & former playing position influences the strength of their team.

(2) Spiking – Saw some good spikers with good techniques, movement, and power. Being a sports fanatic, I took upon myself to learn more about volleyball spiking and had a great sharing with Coach Jack and to really learn how to spike a volleyball, the fundamentals of volleyball are very important and even before a player learns how to run and spike the ball, they have to learn how to spike and handle a volleyball on a stationary basis.

Here’s some video clips on how to spike a volleyball (4 Steps Approach) and how to approach a volleyball.

(3) Defense and movement – Do you recall watching Olympic volleyball matches comprising of teams from USA, China, Russia, Italy, Brazil ? Their movement and defense are really very exciting to watch even for a not very volleyball fanatic like me. For the art of learning and improving volleyball, we must always model on the best and learn from them. Coach Jack’s team have improved in their volleyball court movements and this is a great achivement for them, the boys and girls from Bukit Merah Secondary School volleyball teams.

(4) Fundamentals and pyschomotor skills – In anything and everything we do in life, fundamentals are extremely important – Ask Yourself – Do you run even before you know how to walk ? The fundamental skills are not taught properly and this would affect future training and volleyball progression. Pyschomotor skills is essential to be trained and improved, thus the action, reaction and movement in a volleyball match will be easier for the players to take on, thus improving their game.

Without good fundamentals and pyschomotor skills, it is possible to get injured easily in training or matches and in all sports, this is something that should be minimised.

“Psychomotor (doing) domain: Relating to skills that require varying levels of well-coordinated physical activity and precise manipulative procedures”

Overall, the 2 days of invitational tournament was a very good learning experience and it was a great time for me too, especially on using the photos from my DSLR to highlight to the players on their techniques that Coach Jack would be working with them shortly in their future training. Drop by my flickr for photos of the 2 days of volleyball matches !

These 2 days not just gave me a photojournalist perspective, it gave me the perspective of an Assistant Sports  Coach and of course, sports science and management !