All About That Spike (With apologies to Meghan Trainor)

My volleyball reminder emails were getting more terse.  Last week mine was a one liner.  I decided to ramp it up.  I had some of these lines come into my head while cleaning out the gutter last night.

All About That Spike (With apologies to Meghan Trainor) (Footnote #1)

Because you know

I am all about that spike,

‘bout that spike, no dinking.

I am all about that spike,

‘bout that spike, no dinking.

I am all about that spike,

‘bout that spike.

Yeah, it’s pretty clear, I ain’t no 30 years

But I can fake it, fake it.

Like I’m supposed to do

‘Cause I got that wingspan that all the players want

And the anticipation to be in right places.

We see other people sweating at the Y

We know they working hard

Looking envious as they walk by

If you want fun, fun then join our game

Cause everyone is mocked,

but no one is ever blamed

Yeah, my daddy he told me “make sure you are having fun”

‘cause that’s what you remember when the day is done.

No one remembers the lunchtime you sat at your desk

If that’s what you’re into then I think that it’s grotesque.

Because you know

I am all about that spike,

about that spike, no dinking.

I am all about that spike,

about that spike, no dinking.

I am all about that spike,

about that spike.

I am bringing the volleyball out

Go ahead and tell your bosses so

We are just playing and you gotta go

No one remembers the lunchtime you sat at your desk

If that’s what you’re into then I think that it’s grotesque.(2)

(Sorry Meghan)…

FOOTNOTES
#1 www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PCkvCPvDXk
#2 Surprisingly, not a lot of words rhyme with desk…..

Volleyball and Exercise

Is this your exercise profile?

The 5 Step Plan for Getting to Volleyball

1. Cancel or send an "declined" message any meetings that involve your participation past 11am tomorrow. Even if they promise a 30 minute meeting, you know they lie.

2. Pack your shorts and sneakers (the two essentials) tonight and get them in your car. Just to be safe take those old sneakers and shorts and pack an extra bag that you leave in the car at all times. There is nothing worse than clearing the decks only to find you left an essential element of your gear home.

3. Make sure you tell your spouse/significant other how lately you have been feeling cranky if you don't get exercise every other day. Sit on the couch tonight and watch Syracuse play their NIT game while drinking beer and eating the house clean of snacks.

4. Quietly leave your work place at 11:40am. Do not engage in any conversations on the way the door. Do not make eye contact with anyone on the way out. If someone tries to talk to you tell them you have a meeting with Brent and you don't want to be late.


5. Drive directly to the Rome Y. Do not try to be efficient by running errands on the way. They can be done afterwards when you have wet hair from the shower and all your capillaries are flushed. It makes a better impression.

2010 - A new beginning

With our 1st 2010 volleyball game under our belts I am glad to report we had 11 participants. 10 people paid (we need 17 players to break even at the current rate).

The volleyball was a bit 'ragged' to start but definitely improved as the hour went on and resulted in some good volleys.

Jim was the 1st in the net to start the new year, but was soon joined by Scott and surpassed by Josh. Thanks guys!

Players Wanted

We are looking for additional players for our pickup volleyball league. If you know someone who might be interested, please let me know and I will contact them with information.

Jim

2008-2009 Season Begins

I have made contact with the Rome Family Y to schedule our new season. Sept 4 we will begin playing volleyball every Thursday Lunchtime. Pretty much everything is the same as last year:

• Volleyball - We will provide our our volleyball. i am trying to get one of the new FIBA Olympic models
• Net setup/teardown - Last year we set up the net and took it down after play
• Baskets - Last year we raised the baskets as part of our net set up procedure
• Tools - Last year the tools to set up the net were locked in the janitors closet and we would get the appropriate key, unlock the closet, set up the nets and return the tools and key
• Sweeping - Last year we swept the floor before our volleyball games if we could find a large push dust mop
• Leaving up the nets- The Winter Volleyball Leagues will be Monday and Wednesday nights, but the Y will let us know when to leave them set up for later activities.
• Time block - Our time block is 11:30am - 1pm so we could use the 11:30 - 12noon time for set up.

2007-2008 Season begins !

I have contacted the Rome Family Y and we are assured of our Thursday Lunchtime Volleyball schedule. Our 1st games will begin on Thursday (appropriately enough) September 6. I have begun contacting former players to see who is playing this year and I hope to recruit a few new players. More to come.

Summer Vacation

Our Thursday Lunchtime Volleyball is taking summer vacation as participants work compressed schedules to enable play in summer leagues, go golfing, go camping or just plan goof off.

We will resume September 6.

Summer Volleyball at Adirondack Lanes

If you are interested in playing volleyball this summer there are several leagues in the area: The Cove in Rome, Route 12 North, Sylvan Beach, and others. I don't have information about all those (maybe those of you that do can pass it to me for distribution), but I do have knowledge of a league in the Barneveld area - if you are interested. I am paraphrasing the flyer I received.

Adirondack Lanes has a sand court volleyball. Adirondack Lanes located on Route 12 North of Utica in Barneveld. This year there will be a Wednesday night recreational league along with the Tuesday and Thursday competitive leagues. The new Wednesday league will have it's own set of rules, separate from the Tuesday and Thursday night rules. Team fees for the 2007 season will remain the same as last year, $240 per team, which includes 6 players per team. Set up/ registration meeting for the new Wednesday league will be at the Lanes on Wednesday May 2nd at 8 pm. Please plan to attend or call Fitz at 315-896-2871 if you are interested but cannot attend. Set up/ registration meeting for both Tuesday and Thursday league will be on Tuesday May 1st at 8 pm.

Leagues will start: Tuesday May 22nd
Wednesday May 23rd
Thursday May 24th

Leagues will end: Tuesday August 14th
Wednesday August 15th
Thursday August 16th

Year-end party and awards for all leagues Thursday August 23rd.

News from Volleyball World

I have a HS classmate that runs a web site ( www.VolleyballWorld.org ), has several good sand volleyball courts in his back yard (Spakers, NY) and runs several tournaments through out the summer. If you are looking for summer volleyball alternatives check out the web site and/or get on one of the mailing lists for volleyball in the Albany/Capital District area. Below is a recent announcement I received from him.

Dear Friends of Volleyball World,

Please mark your calendars for August 11th for this year's King and Queen tournament at Volleyball World. Keep in mind that we always try to schedule our tournament the 2nd Saturday of August.

We will be raising funds for Juvenile Diabetes again this year and our Duanesburg Central School Volleyball program. Our fundraising efforts this year will also include a bottle/can drive for our Duanesburg Girl's Volleyball Team. We are trying to update our net systems and purchase new standards which will help us have more efficient and safer practices during our season now that we have 3 squads in our volleyball program, plus elementary level instruction. So if you have any bottles/cans that you would like to donate to our cause, we would appreciate it. Contact us or one of our players if you have any cans to donate or need us to pick up. You can also bring them to our tournament. We are running a contest for our players also. The girl that donates the most, will be awarded a prize so if you know a player on our team, you might want to donate the cans to her.

We have hopes to have two more sand courts for this year's tournament, depending upon how the weather cooperates for our landscaping efforts.

A registration form is attached with more information or you can get more information from our website at www.volleyballworld.org. Checkout photos and results from past tournaments or look for other upcoming volleyball events in the area.

Rules Discussion

From Julia.....

My recollection from years of playing in refereed matches, is that a block is also considered an attack. If any part of the active player is above the top of the net, or "broken the plane of the net" and that body part above the net causes the ball to go over the net, has "attacked" the ball.

Remember the other rule discussion? Rob, in a back row position, had come up in front of the 10 ft line and jumped, breaking the plane of the net, and sent the ball over. This is called a back row attack. Back row players also cannot block by this same rule. So Brent was not breaking the rule because he did not send the ball over the net (even though it was on the serve), and Rob did (even though it was the 3rd hit).

3/15 Report

We had 10 players this week. Dan, Sandy and I all employed the 5 Step Plan and arrived early. We had enough players to begin playing at 12noon. There were close games (mostly) although I seem to recall being on the wrong side of one blow out.

We had two ‘what are the rules’ situations worth discussing. I do mean to raise these as a discussion, so if you feel differently join in the discussion.

The easy one was playing a ball that hit the ceiling. There were only a few minutes left in our session so we decided to play a short game to 11. A ball was hit up and contacted the ceiling, Brent was near the net and trying to make a legal play by touching the ball before it went over the net. Unfortunately the ball got hung up on the overhanging basket and in the interest of time we decided to continue play using another ball. However, we generally do consider balls that hit the ceiling and come down within reach of your side of the playing court to be playable balls. Balls that hit side walls or hit the ceiling and continue over to the other playing court are not considered to be in play.

“Attacking the Serve” – I have to apologize to Brent in that I miscalled this situation. Brent was in the opposing middle front position, jumped up on the serve and directed it to one of his wing players. I stopped action and stated that we were trying to prevent “attacking the serve”. Upon review of the rules - “No player is permitted to complete an attack hit on the opponents’ service, when the ball is in the front zone and entirely higher than the top of the net.” However, an attack is a play that directs the ball back at the opponent, so which Brent wasn’t doing. I believe the volleyball gods rectified the situation with the ensuring play.

8 march Report

Attendance was pretty low, starting with 6 then adding 1 more about 15 minutes in.

Play was intense with a lot of area to cover, and I know I was not the only one getting tired. There was a lot of intense spikes, net play, digs, and crazy hits.

I recruited a new player named Mike who played fantastically, and will hopefully become a regular.

Everyone still had a lot of fun and get an extra workout with the 3 on 4.

8 Mar 07 Volleyball Aerobics

OK, My first post. Expecting a full volleyball regiment of people, we started with some three on three action. Jeremy was bragging about his serving streak, which didn't last long, I was serving in the stratosphere, and it was a true aerobic activity in that everyone thought they were Brent and kept strategically placing the ball where our fourth, fifth, and sixth person should have been, hence, making the hour one of running down the ball. Bill was secretly plotting against Jeremy and coerced me into lobbing one over to him so he can place the ball just over the net in an attempt for all to see Jeremy flounder from the back of the court trying to reach the ball. Josh came in a little later and surprisingly enough, we made the best of three on four volleyball whereas everyone left with a satisfied "yeah, that was fun" fuzzy that I continue to feel at this moment...

1 March Report

We had 11 players (attendance) and in my opinion there were more spikes and hard hit balls than usual. I credit not only the people spiking (mainly Josh, Gregg, Rob, and Brian) but also the solid passing and setting that started it all off.

On one play I ended up in the middle of the court as someone (Rob or Gregg, I think) crushed one and I barely managed to get both hands in position to protect my vitals (I may not have additional family plans, but all my remaining body parts are precious to me!). Steve was playing in the setter position and the ball richocheted off my hands, carromed off Steve's stationary foot and popped into the air where Josh, playing in the deep server's position was able to make a play on it.

In years past we have been hesitant to include foot play because we didn't want to encourage kicking. Our early experience with any kicking of the ball - even returning the ball to the server - wasn't positive. So in the spirit of "Safety First" we have generally not allowed kicked balls and prevented a lot of unnecessary dental work. In recent years as the overall skill level has improved this has evolved into allowing plays off stationary feet - which I feel is safe. I realize our rules of play may not map directly with USA Volleyball Rules but as I said in passing yesterday - "let's not confuse what we do with real volleyball".

Having said that I am open to discussion and suggestions to improve our play. Recently I believe we have had discussions clarifying:

• Net violations to include any intrusions under the net, whether it disrupts play or not
• Attacking the serve to be defined as any forward attack on an opponent's serve especially if someone jumps or leaves their feet.

Any others?

See you next week.

Out with a bad back

I was told that Tim has been MIA due to a very bad back. No word on his ETR.

Tim - I can suggest a couple of forms of treatment, but they involve small woman walking across your spine or being suspended by ropes between North bound and South bound donkeys. Give me a call if you are desperate.

We could always use you on the side lines taking pictures for this blog!

The best defense...

In addition to varying the net to screw up Julia we can make Josh always serve from the hall side of the court. Big difference in performance...... Are there other defensive ploys we can try?

2/22 Julia Kills

We need to remember to vary the net height more often to keep Julia's kills at bay. During the first two games she perfected both her serve and her hit creating a biblical ally for the last two games.

February 22 Volleyball Report

Play of the day….There were several great saves. We had some long, very competitive games as it took us 53 minutes to play the 1^st 3 games. But the play that was discussed in the locker room afterwards took place during a heated volley and I saw it perfectly from my setter’s position. Steve got a set and with a crafty look in his eye he prepared to ease the ball over the net for a clear dink in the opposing middle. Simultaneously, Dan launched from a deep setting position and clearly blocked the dink. The timing was perfect and made all the more impressive by Dan coming from a deep position to anticipate the play and make the block.

The upset victory…..Not technically an upset as the team didn’t come from behind, but the undermanned, 5 person team of Rob, Bill, Jim, Peggy and Steve faced the steroid infused, youthful team of six assassins including; Brent, Josh, Gregg, Mark, Julia, and Dan and won by a surprising margin. I am not sure of the final score, but I believe I recall hearing 12-2 at one point. Who would have thunk it? Not Brent, as he immediately requested a rematch, but was denied. Without getting into specific metrics, let’s just say that among Bill, Jim, Peggy and Steve there were enough combined years to know that giving them a 2^nd chance would ruin the storyline. ;-)

Blast from the past…..Some may remember Dave Christopher, a volleyball and ardent wallyball player from about 3-4 years ago. I saw Dave yesterday. He is still a pharmaceutical rep covering a large territory in the North Country. He has received a promotion and now moves psychiatric drugs. This is good to know in case you need psychotropics to cope with your last volleyball game; or perhaps to delude yourself prior to your next big match. Dave threatened to appear at a wallyball session some Tuesday as he is sometimes in the area on Tuesdays.

Player we hadn’t seen for a while…..After being waylaid by sickness and then put off by the weather, Mark returned to the court after a lengthy absence.

Serving run of the day……It has to belong to Josh. Serving from his comfortable position deep behind the end line, Josh ran off 5 straight points; causing the opposing back line “Serve one here, Josh” to go silent. Fortunately, Josh was on my team at that point.

How are those new procedures working out?....You probably read that I did a couple of exchanges with Michelle from the Rome Family Y to put our volleyball agreement into writing. My main issue was getting the net set up in a timely fashion so we can play a full hour. We agreed if Y maintenance personnel were missing then I would be contacted in advance so we could arrive knowing we needed to set up the net. The 1^st week of the written procedures we show up and the net isn’t set up. To the Y’s credit they got a fill-in, Bob, in quickly to set it up. I talked with Michelle who said their normal maintenance person, Nick, went home and Michelle wasn’t aware of his absence. It sounded like the Y was going do some internal memo with Nick as a primary topic. I plan to include Michelle on our emailing list to provide a reminder.

All we need is....

What's needed now is some players!

Guidelines and Procedures

Thursday Lunchtime Volleyball League Guidelines and Procedures

YMCA Members will present their cards at the desk when entering the facility;
non-Members will sign in at the desk before entering the facility

YMCA will have net set up prior to play. If maintenance staff is not available, the Program Director will contact Jim Muller in advance to notify league needs to set up nets.

Game time is 12noon-1:00pm

Sessions run from January-April and September-December

Prior to each session the Program Director will be notified of start date and will advise on set up and pricing etc.

Non-members are able to use locker room and shower facilities, other areas of the facility are off limits unless a day pass is purchased upon entering the facility

Rules of the game are set in advance and to be followed by all participants. The YMCA has no responsibility for game rules.

New Volleyball POC

Today I met with our new volleyball POC, Michelle Grifasi, at the Rome Family Y. Personnel and organization at the Rome Family Y seem to change frequently. The only constants have been Gary Fahey and myself.

Today I provided a roster, explained our history, and exchanged phone numbers. We are trying to keep our lines of communication open so we can communicate any changes in schedule and procedures.

Michelle said she was going to draft a 'procedures memo' so everyone (Y staff and us) is clear on roles & responsibilities. I believe the essence will entail sign in procedures and getting the net set up. Michelle is going to try to ensure there is a sign-in clipboard at the front desk and request that everyone use it. I know there have been situations in the past when things were jammed and confused at the front desk and the easiest and quickest approach was to walk in the open door. The Rome Y frowns on that; for safety reasons they need to have accountability of all people in the building.

The other topic of discussion was setting up the nets. We agreed that if, for some reason, the volleyball net could not be set up by the Y they would call in advance so we could get someone to the Y a little early and set it up. Of course, we didn't think to address raising of the baskets......

On the whole it was a good meeting. I feel better having a POC clarified. I will share the "procedures memo" when it comes available next week. :-)

No Volleyball or Wallyball Today

There are not enough people able to play today or they have something else that they have to do (including Brent) so there won't be any Wallyball today. If you have any questions or complaints call Brent X3507. :-)

Why the blog?

Hey Jim,
We need a volleyball blog, with a calendar and weekly attendance check-box for each player, so we can cut the e-mail traffic, monitor whose coming, and properly chronicle the highlights of our weekly high jinks!!

Heather

2/08 Volleyball Report

First let me thank the intrepid souls (Jeremy, Julia, Josh, Jim, Brent, Heather, Rob, Brian and Steve) who played volleyball today. We had decent 5 vs. 4 games that were largely competitive - except for a 2 minute spell when Jeremy was possessed by a foreign body and momentarily suffered a mind/body detachment that incapacitated his normal volleyball decision making process and the rest of us were rendered helpless with laughter.

IMPORTANT NOTIFICATION: Next week - February 15th - the whole gym will be occupied by a Rome Family Y function and we will be unable to play volleyball.

There has been discussion of substituting wallyball for those that wish to get exercise. Wallyball can comfortably accommodate up to 8 players (4 on a side). Contact Brent if you wish to play wallyball next week.

Thursday Lunch Time Volleyball Invitation

All -

We will be playing Thursday Lunchtime Volleyball every Thursday 12-1pm at the Rome Family Y from September through April - broken into 2 four month sessions September-December and January-April. The purpose of this email is to invite your participation. The cost is $xx four months and includes use of the Rome Y facilities such as lockers and showers. Unfortunately there is no discount for being a Y member.

In the way of background information it is helpful if you have played volleyball sometime in your life, but not necessary. This is pickup volleyball; we try to use three hits, pass/set/spike and occasionally, when everything happens according to plan, the ball does get hit hard (and sometimes in bounds!). Teams are mixed up after every game, an effort is made to keep the teams competitively balanced and everyone strives to have fun and be positive. The Rome Y sets up the volleyball net prior to noon and usually there are four good games during the one hour play period.

All of the players are contractors from BAE Systems, Booz Allen Hamilton, CACI, Dolphin Technology, L3 Comm, Northrop Grumman, and SI International and we hope to continue participation from these and other DoD contractors.

While we are looking for additional full time players not everyone's work schedule can accommodate that, so we accommodate part time players coming and playing at $1 day. If you are interested in being either a full time or part time player please contact me. If you still aren't sure and want to try playing just once to see if you would like it we can accommodate that too.

We will begin starting Thursday September xx and I hope to see you there. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.