Serving, Setting, Spiking, and Cheering!

Thursday August 1, 2024

Olympic Trivia

• The Olympic Motto is Faster, Higher, Stronger - Together.

• Six athletes have medaled in both the summer and winter Olympics.

• The first Paralympics was in 1960, to allow war veterans a chance to compete.
  

Olympic Culture and Sportsmanship, Deuxieme Partir (part two)

Yesterday's blog discussed the culture of valuing good play and being positive at the Olympics while observing an event. Well, today's Volleyball game took the level of enthusiasm to a whole new level. At the game there were 2 announcers/cheerleaders who kept the crowd involved during the entire game. Pre-game they were playing upbeat music, and then taught the crowd some "moves" to respond to plays in the game. We learned the Monster Block cheer, the raised fist move for an ace serve, and more. And to our amazement, the vast majority of the huge crowd played along, and did the motions when prompted during the game. Between sets the crowd was led in a cell phone light performance!

At every pause in the game there was sing-along music and the singing and clapping was so loud Karen's phone warned us about dangers to our hearing! We got into the music and cheering and had lots of fun. (Karen would be awesome in the announcer/cheerleader job!)

Today's Event

Volleyball, Women's- preliminary rounds.

Location: Arena Paris Sud 1 (bottom left quadrant of the events map in the July 28th blog)

Volleyball:

Serving Sequence:

Principles of the game:

• The main objective of volleyball is to score points by making a ball land in the opponent's court.

• The first team to win 3 sets (each set game is played to 25 pts.) wins the match.

• This sport combines agility and strategy, providing an exciting experience for both players and spectators.

Spiking Sequence:

Composition of the team:

• Setter - they are the strategist of the team, responsible for setting up attacks.

• Middle blockers: the two middle players are primarily responsible for blocking opponent attacks. They play a key role in defense.

• Outside hitters - playing diagonally from the setter, they are a powerful attacker and blocker.

• Libero - a specialized defensive player wearing a different-colored jersey; they cannot serve, block, or attack the ball above the net height.

Blocking:

Fun facts:

• The attack from the 3m (10 ft) line was introduced by Poland in 1976.

• The power serve, pioneered by Brazilian players in 1984.

• Volleyball has evolved both physically and technically, marked by a significant increase in the size and physical capabilities of athletes. This transformation has led to a higher frequency of "MONSTER BLOCKS" on defense and "ACES" on serves.

• You may use any part of your body to play the ball, including your arm, leg, foot, or hands, so long as you only contact the ball legally. We actually saw a player kick the ball to keep it in play. That was so awesome!

Setting Sequence:

Digging:

Game Summary:

Remember, the team that wins 3 sets wins the match. The first set was mostly balanced play by both teams. The score was going back and forth and the crowd loved it. However, Brazil was a much taller and more physical team and in the end, they dominated and won the first set 25-20. Brazil was favored to win and eventually won the next two sets 25-17 and 25-18. Brazil has a chance to move forward to a medal round if they keep playing as well as they did today! Congratulations Brazil!

This is what victory looks like!

We're excited to see Tennis tomorrow where we will watch Women's and Men's Doubles Semi-final matches and the Mixed Doubles Bronze Medal Match.

We just LOVE the Olympics!!