小天使 （640）- 'Got It!'

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by 冰溪
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This winter, Olivia has been taking a beginner volleyball class one day a week at the YMCA. The age group is seven to twelve, the first week she was actually still six years old but had a birthday coming a few days later so suffice to say, she was likely the youngest in the class.

Knowing very little about the sport (other than watching her mommy and daddy play sometimes), and not having played before, she was a little apprehensive getting on the court. But since then, she seems to really enjoy it. Although she started out not knowing any of the basics, she's making progress and really isn't very far behind many of the others.

It's funny to see her out on the floor learning to bump and set and serve with the other kids. Olivia has always been the tallest girl (and often tallest child) in her class, so we've become accustomed to seeing her towering over her playmates, but in this class she looks tiny. It's a strange sight.

At the end of the class, the teachers set the children out on the floor like chess pieces and try to play a 'game'. One child serves and the others attempt to hit the ball in the normal 'bump', 'set', 'spike' order. Of course it doesn't usually work out that way. If a player misses the ball or the 'bump' goes flying out of bounds, the teachers will give them another chance by tossing them another ball to hit. It takes some patience but they're improving week after week.

This past week Olivia got to serve and scored two straight points! Of course she had to step toward the net about five feet in order to get it over the net, but that's OK.

The teachers try to get the children to communicate on the floor by yelling out when a ball is coming their way that they intend to hit. At least from the session I observed, Olivia seemed to be the only one who had gotten this down while all other girls were too concentrated on hitting the balls than calling them out. Twice, the ball was hit towards her proximity. She got in her 'bumping' stance and yelled out "got it!", only to see the ball drop harmlessly not far away from her. Actually moving her feet fast enough to get to the ball will come with time, we hope.

As a mom and a volleyball player, I think it was one of the cutest thing to see other girls actually got the ball without saying anything while the youngest Olivia being the only "vocal" player on the court yelling out "got it" but really couldn't because her skills were not quite there yet :)