Clippers Teach Local Middle School Girls the game of Volleyball
On Monday January 24th 2011 several players from the
Concordia women’s volleyball team visited SAR an Orthodox
Jewish high school located in Riverdale. The purpose for this
visit was to interact and teach the young athletes new drills and
techniques to help improve their abilities and learn about what it
is like to be a collegiate athlete. During the first session
with 
the JV team we focused on the basics of the sport for example how
to pass and set the ball with control. After warming up and
fine tuning the girls’ body positions when they pass the ball
with a partner we moved on to more difficult drills. One of
the most exciting parts with this group of young girls was teaching
them to serve because little by little we challenged them to move
back to the end line to serve. Several of the Junior Varsity
team asked to serve underhand but our Concordia girls helped give
them the confidence boost to try something new with that overhand
swing. At the end of this exercise the majority of this young
team was serving from the end line over the net with power and
confidence, you could see and feel the energy was different in the
gym as well as the nervous faces turning to smiles.
After the first groups practice with the Concordia girls had
finished the Varsity team had arrived and was ready to see what we
had to offer. We kicked the intensity up a notch since these
girls had more experience and a higher skill level on the
court. During this session of 
the clinic we led the girls by example as they watched us perform a
drill and then after observing we would asked them to join
in. It was easy to see they loved the challenges we placed
before them and took our insight to heart. We focused on
hitting more with this group since they already had the basic
skills of volleyball. Working on footwork and timing
significantly helped the girls’ ability to successfully hit
the ball over the net. At the end of the night we played a
massive game of Queen of the court which was enjoyably competitive
with both the Varsity and Concordia girls joining in.
Overall the experience for all the teams was a success. New relationships were formed between all the girls during this new and different learning environment. Everyone is hopeful that this will become a traditional clinic between Concordia and SAR in future years so that other young athletes can have that intense collegiate experience, and learn from players with higher knowledge about the game we all love.
