4 years after Basketball was invented, William Morgan who worked about 8 miles North of Springfield, MA, invented Volleyball to appeal to older gentleman who had a hard time running up and down the basketball court. He originally called it Mintonett but it changed to Volleyball as it was a more appealing name. Here at Barton graded, students were introduced to the main types of hits used to pass and hit the ball over the net. The forearm pass and the overhead pass were two of the skills that were learned and practiced. The emphasis on the forearm pass was on utilizing the legs and the shrugging of the shoulders to control the force of the pass and not the swinging of the arms. Through practice, you could see that the passes were more under control. They also practiced 2 types of serves which was either the underhand serve or the overhand serve. However, the main emphasis during the unit was placed on the footwork needed to play this game. Trying to get the students to move their bodies so that the ball came down in between their shoulders was the goal from day one and at the end, you could see some of the students moving their bodies to get under the ball before performing the skill. That was great to see. All in all, the unit went fairly well and I look forward to picking up where we left off for next year.
|