dxmachina | Snowy Friday

So sick of February. The toll so far? Friends losing jobs, friends dealing with health emergencies, friends (and me) dealing with dead animals, it's snowing again, and it hasn't even been a full week! Feh.

Volleyball was mildly bizarre last night. Five teams, so one team sits out a game in each rotation. My team wound up on the wall first. When we finally got to play, we got crushed 11-0, and it wasn't even that close. It was over so quickly that I never even got to serve. (I got pissed off, too, because a couple of people on the other team started patronizing us. Shut up and play...)

So we went into our next game expecting another debacle, but we won three in a row in pretty convincing fashion. Even weirder, I served out all three games, finishing two of them with aces. That's unheard of. Then we were back on the wall.

When we came back out after our break, we were facing the team that smoked us in the first game, but we were confident. We were ready. And they beat us 11-0 again!!! Feh.

I was serving really well last night. I am not a power server. I used to be, many moons ago, but my shoulder and elbow complain too much if I try to serve overhand anymore. Now I'm the volleyball equivalent of Tim Wakefield, the crafty righthander who serves up knuckleballs and occasionally sneaks in a sinker when the opposition isn't expecting it. I serve the ball underhand, usually hitting it with the heel of my hand, so the ball floats over the net with no rotation, which lets it knuckle if there's any kind of air movement in the gym. It's not hit especially hard, and it's an easy ball to receive, but the movement forces the receiver to adjust, which leads to mistakes, which is the whole idea. Serve one high and long so the receiver has to back up, then follow by hitting one softly so it just clears the net and drops. Anything to force the receiver to adjust. Then, when they least expect it, hit it hard and straight while pulling your hand up so the ball rolls off your fingertips, imparting some top spin. The ball flies straight and flat, just clearing the net, and then sinks just enough to completely surprise the receiver. Do it right, and you get two aces to finish games off.