Thursday, July 20, 2006

REACHING A QUORUM (The Inner Game of Volleyball, Part 497) — by Steve Nadis

Everyone knows about the exciting part of volleyball: the awesome spikes, the tremendous digs, and fabulous dives. But a lot goes into setting up the games that makes those more celebrated aspects possible–a lot of hard work behind the scenes, scheming, maneuvering, arranging… Take yesterday, for example. I spent the better part of my “work day” trying to get four people to meet at a park by the river in the evening. I was not setting up some kind of anonymous sex tryst. No, this was something far more exciting: volleyball doubles. But getting it done took a lot of correspondence, considerable back and forth, and a good deal of luck. In the end, it all hinged on a sick child. Or two sick children, actually. Allow me to explain.

I had three players lined up, raring to go. But we needed a fourth, given that the name of the game is two-on-two. (You do the math.) I pinned my hopes on one of our regulars, but she had to bow out because her son was sick and needed attending to. Another guy, a neighbor, wanted to play but his wife had made arrangements for them to hang out with another family that night. It looked like we were sunk. Then, after I’d given up all hope, the neighbor called back and said that their friends couldn’t come over to their house after all because one of their kids got sick. Which meant he was free to play after all. In the end, it happened (the game, I mean, not shit), and it was beautiful. All we needed to secure our fourth player was one more sick kid, which balanced off the other sick kid who had been working against our getting a fourth. It’s complicated, I admit, far more complicated than most people realize. Which is why most people don’t play volleyball doubles. They watch it on TV.

Posted by Snake at 16:21:06
Comments

8 Responses to “REACHING A QUORUM (The Inner Game of Volleyball, Part 497) — by Steve Nadis”

  1. DrMax says:
    July 20, 2006 at 11:55 am

    This sounds more like chess than volleyball. I bet the two-on-two was kind of anitclimactic after the Stratego-like planning.

  2. Snake says:
    July 20, 2006 at 12:26 pm

    Sagely put, Doc. The inner game, & the back room stuff, is richer & ultimately more rewarding than the (outer?) game itself.

  3. ZARDOZ says:
    July 20, 2006 at 1:22 pm

    WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHH

  4. Snake says:
    July 20, 2006 at 1:28 pm

    My sentiments, exactly.

  5. Snake says:
    July 20, 2006 at 1:28 pm

    My sentiments, exactly.

  6. MarcoPolo says:
    July 22, 2006 at 6:42 pm

    Hmmm.. with hand response like THAT, Snake (3000 msec between strokes),no wonder your volleyball opponents are sweating in their socks! ;) Winning takes shrewd planning AND physical finesse.

  7. Snake says:
    July 23, 2006 at 8:21 pm

    With insights like that, Marco P., you sound like an inner game aficionado yourself.

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