Okay, so the other day, I was trying to explain to my kid how a volleyball game actually kicks off. It’s not as simple as just throwing the ball up, you know? So, I figured, why not actually show him, and then break it down for you guys too, since it turned out to be a pretty interesting process.
The Coin Toss
First things first, we grabbed a coin. In a real game, the refs handle this, but for our backyard demonstration, I let my son flip it. We decided heads would choose to serve or receive, and tails would pick the side of the court.
He flipped, it landed on heads, and he, of course, yelled “I want to serve!”. Classic kid move, always wanting to be the one smashing the ball.
Getting into Position
Next up, we got into our “teams.” It was just me and him, so pretty lopsided teams, but you get the idea. He stood behind the end line, ready to serve. I stood on the other side, pretending to be a whole team of players ready to receive.
- I made sure he was totally behind that line, like he learned in his gym class, not even a toe over it. Foot faults at the beginning of practice, no fun.
The Serve
Now for the actual serve. He’s been practicing his overhand serve, so he tossed the ball up, stepped forward, and swung. I told him to aim deep and try to make it tough for the “other team” (that’s me!).
- In our backyard, the “net” is imaginary, but he kept checking himself to hit it hard enough, like a game situation.
The First Rally
The ball came over, a pretty good serve for a kid! I “received” it (more like just caught it, haha) and then we acted out the rest of the rally. I tossed it up, pretending to set, and then he came running in for a pretend spike.
We kept going like that for a bit, showing him how the play keeps going until someone messes up, the ball hits the ground, or goes out of bounds.
The Whistle (Or Lack Thereof)
In real games, you’ve got the ref blowing the whistle all the time – to start the serve, signal a point, all that. Since it was just us, we skipped the whistle, but I made sure to point out when a whistle would have been blown in a real game, for example my son’s foot was over the baseline during a pretend serve, a big No-No.
So that’s basically how we broke down the start of a volleyball game. It was a fun little exercise, and I think it helped my kid understand the flow of things a bit better. Plus, we got some fresh air and exercise, so win-win!
