Volleyball in Japan
I played in a PTA soft volleyball tournament a couple Sundays ago. "What is 'soft volleyball?'" you may be asking yourself. Well, let me tell you! It's a form of volleyball that I had never heard of before coming to Japan, and someone here once jokingly said that it was created by the Japanese just for PTAs, which in some ways wouldn't surprise me. I'll take an aerial photo next time I have a chance because you have to actually see it to believe it, but here's the rundown, at least of the features I found 'unique' about soft volleyball:
1. The game is played with a softer, bigger, rubbery, bouncy ball similar to (from what I can recall) the balls we used to play 4-square or kickball at recess during elementary school.
2. There are 9 players on the court on each side of the net (18 players total if you count all players on both sides of the net) which can be as crazy as it sounds, but is great for those who were never really interested in moving much to get the ball. :-) Players do not rotate, so the setter always stands at the net, with three players at the 10-foot line and the other 5 players arranged behind them in a row of 3 and 2 per each team's preference.
3. As in tennis, you have two chances to serve the ball each time you serve. If you serve into the net or out on your first serve, you get another chance.
4. Each player can only serve 3 times. If you serve three times and your teams gets all three of those points, your team maintains control of the serve, you simply pass the ball on to the next player to continue serving.
5. I haven't completely figured this one out yet, but there seems to be a rule that you get at least one extra hit to try to get the ball over the net if it goes into the net on your side.
6. This rule isn't foreign to the rest of the volleyball world, but I keep forgetting about it because we played old-school rules in Arizona: If a blocker touches the ball during a block, it counts as a hit so the rest of the team only has 2 more hits left to try to get the ball back over the net.
7. And my favorite part- the net is quite a bit lower than women's regulation height. The best illustration I can give you of the net height in soft volleyball is on Sunday when I went up to attack a ball that the other team had accidentally set up on our side of the net, I smacked it straight down inside the 10-foot line. While it felt really good briefly at the time, there is unfortunately no pride to be gained from the accomplishment. :-) Those of you who hav seen me play volleyball on a regulation height net (whether it be men's or women's) know what I'm talking about.
We lost our first match and that's all she wrote for our team, but it was fun and we held our ground much better than we have in the past. The team consisted of only mothers of children at my main elementary school and one or two of the female staff/teachers (and me!). But some of the fathers and male teachers/staff would come to practices to serve as our practice team and a couple even came to the tournament. The principal and vice-principal of the elementary school also came to the tournament, which was kind of funny. Pictures will of course be posted on my Yahoo photos account. We had proper uniforms and everything!
It was a great experience. I got to meet and get to know some of the parents, which I'm sure wouldn't have happened outside of this opportunity. We had practice once a week in October and November, and some of the mothers always had to bring their children along, so I got to know some of the students better too, which was probably even more fun than playing volleyball!
The PTA Soft Volleyball season is over now, apparently. I'm sure another one will come up at some point. Hopefully they'll ask me back to play. In the meantime though, the female teachers at my junior high school have started Soft Volleyball practice for a tournament coming up in February. Actually, we've only had one practice so far, but it's already been a great way for me to get to know some of the teachers better - there are quite a few more teachers who speak English than there were parents on the PTA team.
I mentioned to some of you also that for the first two months I was in Japan, I was playing "Mama-san" volleyball with about 30 women from the town at the training center near my junior high school. Mama-san translates literally to "Ms. Mama." I haven't asked anyone specifically why it is called this, but people have indicated that all the women on the team are married and most, if not all, have familes also, so I'm assuming that is the reason for the name. Mama-san is pretty much the same as soft volleyball except in mama-san they use a normal volleyball and the play is much more competitive; a lot like adult competitive rec leagues in the States, except for the 9 people on the court and the unique rules. :-) They let me hit quite a bit, which was great. With the lower net, I really did feel like Misty May (shout out to you, Laura!). Sometimes I'd play setter too, but with the number of people on the court, the strange rules, and the fact that anything people called out on the court was in Japanese, hence incomprehensible to me, I was so confused that eventually I volunteered to play the back row (imagine that). It was much easier to play back there, but for those of you in Arizona, don't expect me to volunteer for that position next time I'm in town. :-) Nobody on the mama-san team really spoke English, at least not actively, and while the women were friendly and some of them always made sure I was included in drills and play, eventually I stopped going simply because volleyball just isn't the same when you can't be social as well. Maybe if I get to a point where I can speak decent Japanese I'll try going again. Until then though, I'll focus on becoming a Soft Volleyball master! Maybe I can spearhead the first Soft Volleyball Olympic campaign (ha ha).
Oh, I should probably mention that they do play regular volleyball in Japan as well. The sports clubs for junior high, high school and university (I'm assuming on the latter), all play 6-person, regular rules volleyball. Japan has women's and men's professional indoor teams as well, both of which will finish in the top 12 in the FIVB international competition taking place right now in Japan. Eastern Europe and Brazil are kicking butt. Who knew- Eastern Europe is a powerhouse in indoor volleyball.
1. The game is played with a softer, bigger, rubbery, bouncy ball similar to (from what I can recall) the balls we used to play 4-square or kickball at recess during elementary school.
2. There are 9 players on the court on each side of the net (18 players total if you count all players on both sides of the net) which can be as crazy as it sounds, but is great for those who were never really interested in moving much to get the ball. :-) Players do not rotate, so the setter always stands at the net, with three players at the 10-foot line and the other 5 players arranged behind them in a row of 3 and 2 per each team's preference.
3. As in tennis, you have two chances to serve the ball each time you serve. If you serve into the net or out on your first serve, you get another chance.
4. Each player can only serve 3 times. If you serve three times and your teams gets all three of those points, your team maintains control of the serve, you simply pass the ball on to the next player to continue serving.
5. I haven't completely figured this one out yet, but there seems to be a rule that you get at least one extra hit to try to get the ball over the net if it goes into the net on your side.
6. This rule isn't foreign to the rest of the volleyball world, but I keep forgetting about it because we played old-school rules in Arizona: If a blocker touches the ball during a block, it counts as a hit so the rest of the team only has 2 more hits left to try to get the ball back over the net.
7. And my favorite part- the net is quite a bit lower than women's regulation height. The best illustration I can give you of the net height in soft volleyball is on Sunday when I went up to attack a ball that the other team had accidentally set up on our side of the net, I smacked it straight down inside the 10-foot line. While it felt really good briefly at the time, there is unfortunately no pride to be gained from the accomplishment. :-) Those of you who hav seen me play volleyball on a regulation height net (whether it be men's or women's) know what I'm talking about.
We lost our first match and that's all she wrote for our team, but it was fun and we held our ground much better than we have in the past. The team consisted of only mothers of children at my main elementary school and one or two of the female staff/teachers (and me!). But some of the fathers and male teachers/staff would come to practices to serve as our practice team and a couple even came to the tournament. The principal and vice-principal of the elementary school also came to the tournament, which was kind of funny. Pictures will of course be posted on my Yahoo photos account. We had proper uniforms and everything!
It was a great experience. I got to meet and get to know some of the parents, which I'm sure wouldn't have happened outside of this opportunity. We had practice once a week in October and November, and some of the mothers always had to bring their children along, so I got to know some of the students better too, which was probably even more fun than playing volleyball!
The PTA Soft Volleyball season is over now, apparently. I'm sure another one will come up at some point. Hopefully they'll ask me back to play. In the meantime though, the female teachers at my junior high school have started Soft Volleyball practice for a tournament coming up in February. Actually, we've only had one practice so far, but it's already been a great way for me to get to know some of the teachers better - there are quite a few more teachers who speak English than there were parents on the PTA team.
I mentioned to some of you also that for the first two months I was in Japan, I was playing "Mama-san" volleyball with about 30 women from the town at the training center near my junior high school. Mama-san translates literally to "Ms. Mama." I haven't asked anyone specifically why it is called this, but people have indicated that all the women on the team are married and most, if not all, have familes also, so I'm assuming that is the reason for the name. Mama-san is pretty much the same as soft volleyball except in mama-san they use a normal volleyball and the play is much more competitive; a lot like adult competitive rec leagues in the States, except for the 9 people on the court and the unique rules. :-) They let me hit quite a bit, which was great. With the lower net, I really did feel like Misty May (shout out to you, Laura!). Sometimes I'd play setter too, but with the number of people on the court, the strange rules, and the fact that anything people called out on the court was in Japanese, hence incomprehensible to me, I was so confused that eventually I volunteered to play the back row (imagine that). It was much easier to play back there, but for those of you in Arizona, don't expect me to volunteer for that position next time I'm in town. :-) Nobody on the mama-san team really spoke English, at least not actively, and while the women were friendly and some of them always made sure I was included in drills and play, eventually I stopped going simply because volleyball just isn't the same when you can't be social as well. Maybe if I get to a point where I can speak decent Japanese I'll try going again. Until then though, I'll focus on becoming a Soft Volleyball master! Maybe I can spearhead the first Soft Volleyball Olympic campaign (ha ha).
Oh, I should probably mention that they do play regular volleyball in Japan as well. The sports clubs for junior high, high school and university (I'm assuming on the latter), all play 6-person, regular rules volleyball. Japan has women's and men's professional indoor teams as well, both of which will finish in the top 12 in the FIVB international competition taking place right now in Japan. Eastern Europe and Brazil are kicking butt. Who knew- Eastern Europe is a powerhouse in indoor volleyball.
Labels: sports
posted by Mandy | 8:05 PM
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