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Weird Volleyball

A few weeks ago, my school had a parent's day. This consisted of two classes in the morning where parents came to watch, lunch, and a parent v. teacher volleyball tournament all afternoon. The morning passed without incident, although I did get to see many fashion victim parents, which was fun. The volleyball, however, was some of the silliest, strangest activity I've ever been involved in.

Let's begin with the ball. A true volleyball has some substance to it, does it not? It packs a punch. It doesn't travel obscenely high. It is often white. Our volleyballs? Foam. Bouncy. Yellow.

Moving on to the rules. To be fair, it's been such a long time since I played volleyball that I can't remember most of them. I think I have a vague memory of a 3-hit rule on each side of the net with the basic setup being bump, set, and spike, and just get it the hell over, already! I remember that anytime in the 3-hit limit the ball can go back over the net, you just can't hit it more than 3 times on one side. Okay so far? Also, the same person can't hit the ball 2 times in a row, but he or she can hit it on the 1st and 3rd time. (Please correct me if I am wrong.)

Japan's rules, at least for the parent-teacher game: 4 hits on each side, no more, no less. The ball MUST NOT go back over the net before the 4th hit, or the other team gets a point. All 4 hits MUST BE delivered by 4 different people.

This made things very interesting, especially with an incredibly bouncy ball that no one could control. With simple, well-placed, effective hits, the ball just went back over the net and a point was called for the other team! The more outrageous the play, the more wild the ball, the easier it was to keep it on your side for the allotted 4 strikes. You just couldn't let it get too out of hand, or the ball would go flying away somewhere. Also the politeness of Japan sometimes got in the way, as in when two people dove for the ball and at the exact same moment stepped back in order to politely allow the other to hit it. Well, in that case it always hit the floor.

I have to say that while frustrating, these rules combined with the type of ball made for a really entertaining afternoon. Even funnier? Both teacher and parent teams were split into older and younger. Both parent teams absolutely creamed the teacher teams, and the older teachers beat the pants off us younger teachers. Wonderful, don't you think?

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