V*lleyb*ll

The last couple of post have been about Erin.  She has a lot of action going on right now.  Last year when she was playing basketball, she was intimated by people touching her/pushing her, towards the end of the season she started to show some good aggression and even though she only got one basket the whole season, she was a good blocker and stealer by the end of the season.  She talked about wanting to try volleyball this pass fall but also wanted to do cheer-leading and couldn't do both at the same time.  She picked cheer leading and didn't like it much (it wasn't all chalked up like it is in TV/movies).  She has been talking all winter that she going to play volleyball this fall.  She never played it except a little bit at school.  I was hoping to find some summer camps for her to teacher and show her how to be a good player, I haven't found any camps yet for her age.  Most of the camps are for 12 and under.  I wanted her to get some serious practice and game experience to see if this is what she wants, as I don't want her to disappoint her teammates.  When she was in basketball, she wanted to do good for herself, but she didn't really care what her teammates thought, they were awesome with her and had a lot of patiences with her.  I wanted to be fair to her and her future team that Erin was going to give all she got if she joined the team.   Wednesday night I get an email from Erin's school stating a person was hosting a volleyball clinic at her school on Saturday.  You had to be 16 years old to participate.  I spoke to the person who was running it and said that he was fine with Erin joining.  It went for 4 hours.  Erin said she enjoyed it and that she learned a lot.  She also has sore hands and wrist from it.  The person that ran it, wrote me an email on Sunday apologizing that he had to put her in a different group due to her being a beginner and her physical size.  He went on and said this :

"ON a positive note tho:  Please - share this with Erin-  i noticed she was motivated to try hard and has good communication skills -  given the correct environment - she will be come a terrific volleyball player."

I replied to him and thanking him for giving her a chance to see if this is something she wants to do in the fall. And that she still wants to play volleyball, I told him her wrist and fingers hurt.  He then wrote back and said this"  For your information;  i have seen many female volleyball players with Erins attitude and enthusiasm who went on to be the greatest setters i know of.  So - if she keeps playing the sport she will be an excellent volleyball player."  I told Erin what he wrote, she got her shy smile, but I could tell it made her feel really good.  I gave her a lot of praise and hope this helps her self esteem.  That you don't have to be good in everything and think your are not "stupid" just because you can't do something.  I have been working on all the girls especially Erin to understand that.  I even point out when they are able to do something that I can't do or can't do as well.  

 This picture Erin took with her Ipod and then did some fun stuff to it.  I just love this picture of her, it so natural her smile and the sparkles in her eyes.  I tried to develop it and it didn't come out very good.  She didn't save the original picture before she changed it.  Now I will need to find a place for her to practice and learn more about volleyball as this has her interest.