Page 12 - On the Road to the Canada Winter Games

ISSUE : Issue 44

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1987/1/1

well, I enjoy hitting against other people, but I also enjoy meeting people from dif? ferent provinces. (Tell me about the joy of hitting.) It makes me feel good when I hit the ball and it hits the floor, to know that my hit was good, and they couldn't get it back up. It makes me feel good, and it makes me want to try harder to do it again • (What does "spike" mean?) You- jump up into the air, and you use all your power most? ly- -like, all the power you have in your . arms--to hit the ball across the net. The main objective is to (make) the ball hit the floor, and not for anybody else to get it. (Why do they call it spiking it?) I'm not really sure. Maybe because the ball goes hard. Like, most people, they hit the ball really hard, (The idea isn't just to give it to the other team, then,) That's right. You have to try to let the ball hit the floor, and not to let the other people hit the ball up to their centre so they can hit it at us • (Is a spike something you practice?) Yes. It takes a long time to get to know how to do it right. You go outside the court, to make your approach--it's a two-step ap? proach,. You go in two steps, and you put all your effort into jumping and then hit? ting the ball. (What in your makeup do you think made you a good volleyball player?) Well, when I started out in Grade 7, I really didn't think I had anything to make the team, be? cause I never heard of the sport before. But once I got better, it was my hitting, really. Because there's not too many good hitters down here in Cape Breton, So real? ly, it was my spiking that got me where I am todayo (You used the word "blocking." Where does that come in?) That comes in when the oth? er team is hitting a- gainst us • And we go up. And the centre, the out? side person, and my- self--middle--go up and try to block the ball, so the ball'11 go back to their side of the net, so they don't get a point against us, You're trying to stop it just as soon as the hitter hits it. You have to have perfect timing to do it. There's a good chance of getting hit if your timing is off. But if you have good timing, you shouldn't really get hurt o It all depends really on your timing. If you're trying hard e- nough to get over there, and don't realize what you're doing, you could injure the person that's next to you, if you don't stop first and then go up. Because you have to brake with your right foot or your left foot, whatever way you're going. You brake. And then you jump--with the centre, or with the person that's setting the block. (You're not worried a- bout your face, are you?) No. The only, really, thing that I'm worried about is my fin? gers , Or my hands, Be? cause, really, that's what does all the work, my hands and my legs. The way I look at it, my face has nothing to do with the way I play

Cape Breton's Magazine