Volleyball is an 11/10 sport

I never played volleyball in high school, as my school never had a men’s volleyball team. Instead, in high school, I played baseball and tennis, and I also played youth soccer and basketball before that. After many years of being a super active kid, playing almost every popular sport, I have fallen most in love with volleyball by a long shot, and I have an argument to back up why I think volleyball is a perfect sport.

My volleyball involvement admittedly started after watching the TV series Haikyu! During COVID. I went outside and played with friends, and looking back on it, we were much worse than we thought we were. My obsession never really stopped, and it continued into college, frequently playing during open gym times at the rec center.

I am so passionate about volleyball because I love the level of activity, technique, and strategy that goes into it. It checks off many boxes that other sports don’t in my opinion.  

Activity

The game of volleyball has six players on a court at a time, each with their own role. I think this is a great number where every player is heavily involved in each play and makes a huge contribution to the team. The sport isn’t a standstill where, for the majority of the game, you aren’t doing anything, but you also don’t need marathon or Michael Phelps level stamina to be able to compete. Every time you get a good spike, block, or pass, it feels great, and when your rotations click, they feel so satisfying. Additionally, volleyball is just as much fun to watch as it is to play. I went to the UIC Women’s Volleyball game against Northern Iowa on September 26^th , and the game was so incredibly engaging!

Photo by me from the UIC Women's Volleyball Game

Low barrier of entry and high ceiling

Another reason why I think volleyball is so great is that it can be easily enjoyed for both competitive and casual play. The barrier of entry for new players to join and get better is pretty low, and the ceiling is just so high that you can always keep improving. I think it’s awesome that women can also dominate against men in Volleyball, and it’s a very co-ed friendly sport. The longer rallies get more and more fun, so I am personally always driven to get better so I can keep the ball up longer.

Technique

While yes, being very tall and strong helps you play volleyball, it is by no means the most important thing. The art of passing, setting, spiking, and blocking is surprisingly very intricate once you know more about the game. Shorter players definitely still have the ability to compete and dominate in games. For example, sometimes liberos and shorter defensive players are the best players on the court. Additionally, when you see Japan’s National Volleyball team play, you can clearly tell that the average height of Japan’s team is shorter sometimes by a significant amount. Still, they get massive spikes over tall players’ blocks.

Photo from Technical Volley Japan

Here's an image that just shows how the average height of Japan's National Volleyball team (black) is shorter than Turkey's (white), but they still compete at a really high level against them.

Strategy

The last aspect I am going to talk about is strategy. I am pretty new to this part, but learning about the many ways you can attack by speeding up the set, slowing it down, and attacking from pretty much anywhere really impresses me. Each player on the court has a super important role, and the way each player connects and links on the court is very interesting. I think the sport of volleyball also has a lot of room to grow when it comes to strategy, which I cannot say for lots of other sports.

That's all for this blog. Thank you for reading!

Caleb G / Industry Insider