Today I think I will talk about volleyball clothes and balls and stuff like that. You always want to have the best stuff. You want stuff that will last long and will not break. I have done some researching so I can tell you what the best companies are to buy volleyball apparel. I can also tell you from my experiences which is the best and which is the worst. You can hear it straight from somebody who has used everything. I can also give you some links to the websites of the companies so you guys can check the websites out for yoursleves. I hope what I talk about on this blog helps a lot of you. I know if I had opinions like this when I first started it would have been a lot of help and would have saved many trips to Sports Authority ha ha. So I hope by the end of this you guys have a better idea of each type of company that sells volleyball stuff.



Well first off there is a company called ASICS. I do not know if you have heard of this company but it is pretty popular. I know a lot of people have items from this company. You probably have heard of this company because it doesnt just sell volleyball things it also sells the basic athletic apparel. It sells knee pads and spandex but then it also sells regular gym shoes and running outfits you know stuff like that. I like this company for certain things. If you just want the plain volleyball things then you should probably look and buy here but if you want colorful stuff like neon colored spandex they might have it but not much.



Another company is Nike. I am 100 percent sure that you have heard this county. I am also sure that you have at least one thing from Nike. They sell almost everything. Nike is kind of like ASICS just a lot bigger. Nike has everything, They have regular, everyday clothes. They also have bags and sports balls for almost every sport there is out there. They have knee pads, volleyball shoes and spandex. Also clothes for other sports. Again though Nike is like ASICS because they have spandex but they do not really have them in neon and funky colors like some of the other companies have.



Another volleyball company is Mikasa. This is one of my favorite companies because they have all the volleyball accessories. They even have volleyball jewelry. They have some really cute stuff for girls but they also have cool stuff for guys too. Also you can pretty much design what you want your volleyball to look like. I mean you can pick two or three colors out of many and customize your volleyball. They also have the fun neon colored spandex. They have pretty much anything you can think of for volleyball. They even have key chains and blankets. The stuff they have is really cool. If you have friends that like to play volleyball it is a really good company to buy presents for you friends and family. Since this is one of the countries I like the most I am going to give you a link to their website. http://www.volleyballmarket.com/mikasa-volleyball.htm





Here is a picture of a Mikasa volleyball:

















The last company I will talk about is Molten. I love this company. They also have everything from the basic apparel to little accessories. I like them because they have fun colored spandex. They also have really cool socks. They have all different designs in them. They are really cool. They are really similar to the last company I was talking about, Mikasa. I just like this company because they are really cool and creative. I like them a lot so I will give you a link to their website. You can check it out. I hope you like it too. http://www.volleyball.com/








Here are some really cool colored volleyballs:

Hope all of you liked this :)

-Sabrina :)

This time I am going to talk about the history of volleyball and where it all started.

The game of volleyball was invented by a man named William G. Morgan in 1895. The game was originally called "mintonette". The guy that named it volleyball was Alfred Hallstead. He said that the players were "volleying" the ball, hence the name volleyball. He designed the game to be a combination of basketball, baseball, tennis and handball. The game at first was popular in the United States but then couple years later it became more popular in Canada and Cuba. After that a lot of more countries became fans of the game volleyball. Little by little more and more countries like Poland and Czechoslovakia were staring to be interested in the game. The first net that was played with was borrowed from tennis and it was raised to 6 feet and 6 inches of the ground. The offensive style of setting and spiking was first demonstrated in the Philippines in 1916. After a while it became obvious to people that there needed to be rules to the game. That is when the USVBA was created. (United States Volleyball Association)

This is a picture of the flag for the Phillipines because they played a big role in the game of volleyball



In 1900, there was a special ball invented for the game.
In 1916, in the Philippines, an offensive style of passing the ball in a high spot to be struck by another player (the set and spike) were introduced. Also in 1916 the Filipinos developed the "bomba" or kill, and called the hitter a "bomberino"

In 1920, three hits and back row attack rules were formed
In 1930, the first two man beach volleyball game was played
In 1934, referees were approved to ref the games
In 1960, new techniques were added to the game including the soft spike (dink), the forearm pass (bump), blocking across the net, and defensive diving and rolling
In 1964, volleyball was introduced to the Olympics in Tokyo
In 1983, AVP was formed (Association of Volleyball Professionals)

This is obviously a picture of the flag of the United States because they are the one the invented volleyball.



There is something called the Morgan trophy. It is a trophy given to the most outstanding female and male volleyball player. It is presented annually obviously named after William Morgan, the inventor of volleyball.

Volleyball ranks behind only soccer in participation sports. Today there are over 800 million people who play volleyball a week.

I hope you all enjoyed learning about the history of volleyball.

-Sabrina :)

Today I am going to talk about my school volleyball team. We had such an amazing season. We went undefeated and won the name of conference champs. All of the girls on our team had their strengths that made our team the Woodland 8th grade green team. We also had really good coaches. They worked us so hard, sometimes to the point where the whole team wanted to faint but it was good for us. None of us ever wanted to do the super hard work outs but we knew if we tried really hard that it would be worth it in the end. We did not start off the season doing these really hard workouts but when the end of the season came around we started doing them. We started doing them because we had this one game that according to our coaches we did not move our feet enough. So after that game we had practice the next day and that is when we started these work outs. Some of the work outs we did were made up by the coaches but some of the other workouts were videos. They were all the same video made by the same guy but each video had a certain workout for each part. The videos were all P90x. Some were for plyometrics and others were like for cardio. Those were the ones that were the hardest from what I remember. We also had to run a lot. We did a lot of running like suicides, usually at the end of practice. We also sometimes did yoga. Our coach said we did yoga to relax our muscles and to cool down. We had a lot of tough practices but I bet that is why we did so good this season. I am so glad that we did this good my last year in middle school. It was an amazing way to end my sports in my last year.






As I have talked about before I play on a club volleyball team. It is called Sky High. Here os the link for it: http://www.skyhighvolleyball.org/Default_css.aspx



The girls on my team had so much talent. We were all like sisters, we all got along and we all were so close. We could tell eachother anything and we could come to eachother for advice or whatever. I am sure that because we all got along so well that it did help us with the actual game of volleyball. We were not on the court like yelling at eachother and stuff like that. We helped eachother out.

This is kind of like a shout out to my volleyball team. They were all such great girls. Each of them helped me with something in my life. It was either with life or volleyball or something else but they all helped me. I am so happy to have shared an amazing experience with such amazing girls.

-Sabrina :)

This time, on this blog today, I am going to tell you about the two different types of volleyball. One of the types of volleyball is beach volleyball. The other type is indoor volleyball. You usually see indoor volleyball most of the time. Indoor volleyball is the type you see in schools and stuff. Beach volleyball is so much different than indoor volleyball. Beach volleyball, in my opinion is so much harder than indoor volleyball. I have never actually played beach volleyball but I am going to start playing it through a club. Even though I have never done beach volleyball I know that will be tough. I think this just because of the obvious reason. That the courts for each type of volleyball are the same size but for beach volleyball you only play with two people on the court and in indoor volleyball you play with six. This obviously means that when you are playing beach volleyball you have to move your feet and talk way more than when you are in indoor. I am actually curious though, to find which court is easier to move your feet on like sand or hardwood floor. I would think that hardwood floor would be easier but I don't know. If you know anything about you can comment and tell me what you know :) I am really excited to see if when I start beach volleyball if I might like it more than indoor volleyball. It probably will not happen though because I love indoor volleyball so much. So beach volleyball would have to be like pretty much amazing for me to like it more than indoor. All my friends that have done beach volleyball have said that they like it a lot so I hope I do too. So I know a fair amount of stuff on beach volleyball but I don't know as much about beach volleyball as I do indoor obviously. I know that the two players should stand side by side not one in front of the other. There is though, a similarity between the two. If one of the players goes up to block than there needs to be another player up front covering just in case something goes wrong with block. For example if it rolls off the blockers fingers or the blocker misses it.

If you watch beach volleyball I am pretty sure that you will be really interested in it. Its really intense because of all the moving and talking and everybody yelling and screaming. I could not even really imagine how hard it is to play beach volleyball. I am sure it is probably a really tough work out. You definitely have to have a good relationship with your partner because it is just you and them on that court.

I hope you guys did like this blog. I always enjoy writing for people who share the same passion as me. See you all.

-Sabrina :)

Today I am going to talk about some of the most amazing volleyball players out there. One time, a couple years ago I did a project on a professional volleyball player named Gabrielle Reece. Now whenever I see or hear her name I am interested to know what she has done. Gabrielle is not just a really good volleyball player she is also a very successful model. Now I can give you some interesting facts about Gabrielle Reece. :)

-in 1989, they named her one of the top 5 most beautiful girls in the world

-she has just recently became a spokes model for Nike and Coppertone

-she has also been a sports commentator on MTV

-when she reached the age of seven she was already 5 feet

-she is now 6 feet 3 inches

-she plays the same position as me which is a middle hitter

-she went 5 seasons being team captain

-she had the most kills for 3 years in a row


Here is a video of Gabrielle Reece: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmyCc99VZVg

I want to do play volleyball for the next couple years, at least. I would like to play in college too. I hope that eventually I can be as good and successful as she is now. I do not really want to be a model but I do want to be a volleyball player ha ha :)




Anybody can do volleyball if they just try. That is why I think you should start volleyball. It is never to late to start. It is an easy sport to learn if you actually make the commitment. I am saying all of this of this because as you can see, you can be very successful at volleyball. If you are good enough you could eventually go to the Olympics or even JO which is Junior Olympics. Professional volleyball players also make a lot of money. Also playing volleyball or even any kind of sport can lead to many different things. For example, Gabrielle is now the spokes model for Nike. That is a very big company. All I am saying is that with volleyball you can get many more things out of it other than just the fun of playing the sport.


Well boys and girls, I really hope that you like what I am doing with my blog and volleyball. I want everybody to like this and always want to keep up with it. So if you have anything that you want me to fix or put more information, I can try to do that. Like I said I am really hoping that you like reading this as much as I like doing it. I just like to know that I am educating people about a sport that plays a really big role in my life right now. It is the most amazing sport. I hope I have convinced you to like the sport as much as I do.

-Sabrina :)

This time I am going to talk about the rules of the game.
When you play at middle school age, during a game you play with rally scoring. Rally scoring is when there is a point scored to either team no matter what. So every time you play out the point one of the teams that are playing it out get a point. When you get to high school level it is usually the same type of scoring. You play the game untill one of the teams gets to 25 points. In some cases though, you might have to go over because you have to win by two points. So that means if the score is 25-24 the team with 25 would have to still win another point. You always play three games untill 25 but sometimes the third game is only played untill 15. This could be because the referee has to go somewhere or the teams do not have time to play untill 25.

Another type of scoring is called side-out scoring. This means that you can only win your team can only win the point if you are serving the ball. If you are the team that is recieving the ball and you win the rally, you do not get the point. Nobody does. Now the only way you can get a point is if you win the next point because you are the team that has the serve.

When you play three games it is the best out of three. If one team wins the first game and the other one wins the second than the the two teams have to play the third game to determine who wins. If one team wins the first two games then the third game is optional.



Again, I hope his helps you understand more about volleyball!


-Sabrina :)

My first post is going to be all about terms we use in volleyball. I am going to tell you all of this in my first post because if I say one of them during the next ones you might not know what I am talking about. Hopefully these will help you better understand what some of the words I am talking about mean.
ace-this is when the server serves it over and either the other team doesnt touch it or they try to hit the ball and it goes wherever
side out-this is when the other team is serving the ball at you ad you want to get the point back, it just basically means get the point
approach-this is what you do to get the most power in your spikes, for right handed people you go left right left and if you are a left handed person you go right left right, then you bend your knees and swing your arms to get power
spike-this is when you take an approach to jump and smack the ball to other side of the net,it is usually the third hit.
set-this is usually the second hit, it is also know as an overhand pass
kill-when you bump, set, or mostly spike the ball over the net and nobody on the other side touches the ball
serve-this is when you get the point the server goes to the back line and serves it over
lift/carry-when somebody tries to set the ball but sets it too low
double hit-when the setter hits the ball twice, you can usually tell this when the ball has a lot of spin to it
jump serve-its the same as the serve but you jump well serving
defense-this consists on bumping in the back row and blocking in the front


Hopefully now that you know the terms you will know more of what I am talking about :)
-Sabrina :)

About me :)

Hey Everybody!

My name is Sabrina I am fourteen years old and an eighth grader. My favorite color is neon green. I love to hang out with my friends and I am involved in many sports. I play a couple like basketball and tennis but the one I likethe most is volleyball. This blog is going to be about volleyball because it is my favorite sport and I have a lot of interest in it. I have been playing volleyball for four years, on a school team, park district team and a travel team. I am qualified to write this blog about volleyball because I have done projects that involved professional volleyball and the players of the game through out my middle school years, also I have a lot of knowledge because

I have been playing for so long.

You can ask me questions about volleyball or comment if you want. I hope you like this! :)

-Sabrina :)