There’s Beauty in Team Sports- Food for Thought
Originally published November 28, 2024
I grew up in a baseball family. We’re Puerto Rican. All of my cousins played baseball or softball growing up, and we were all coached by our dads at one point or another. I started playing tee-ball when I was six years old because I wanted to be just like my older cousins. My family loves the Yankees. My favorite movie is The Sandlot. We are a baseball family.
I played other sports too; I tried my hand at basketball and soccer, I did taekwondo for a few years, and I ended up a dancer.
My stint as a taekwondo student, 10 years ago. I was only a couple belts away from being a black belt when I stopped.
To this day, my family still loves baseball, and football, and volleyball, and softball. I don’t have a lot of athletic friends (sorry y’all), but I do have some that love to play volleyball, and I love to watch. I spent a lot of time this summer watching volleyball game after volleyball game, and sometimes joining. I recently played my first game in quite awhile, and I’ll say that I’m glad I stuck to softball.
For reference, I don’t watch sports. I listen to MLB highlights and watch UFC knockouts and listen to my uncles talk about the NFL games afterwards, but I’ve never been one to sit in front of the tv and pull up a game. But spending all the time I did watching these pickup volleyball games kind of opened my eyes to how cheesily poetic team sports are.
When you’re playing the game, at least for me, it’s easy to get caught up in rules and signs and plays. I don’t really stop to think about what I’m doing, or why. I’m in a sort of flow state. When you’re watching the game, though, you can see the flow state. You see the players not thinking about who to hit the ball to or how quick they need to get there; you see them dive on instinct and move in harmony. It’s really, really, interesting to see.
They communicate of course, but more often they just understand each other. They know what everyone’s going to do in what scenario, and I’ve learned that that doesn’t come from discussing it or practicing it; it comes from knowing each other and knowing the game. They trust each other. Even if it’s just a pick up volleyball game with some people you’ve never met, when you’re watching them play, you can see in the end how they all understand each other and their movements are in sync, like they’re speaking their own language that they taught each other with each volley. It’s a relationship.
And it’s not just team sports. Like in Challengers, when Zendaya’s character says for that brief moment, her and her opponent were in perfect sync, in a relationship, both focused on each other and the ball.
Everyone has a position on the volleyball court. It takes about two serves before everyone knows each other’s role, even if they don’t know each other. Everybody stays in position until the ball is served, then the whole court is on the move, following the ball. If you sit down and watch a game of volleyball through, you’ll see them move differently each time, but all at the same time, because they all know what to do and how to move with each other. Watch a game. Watch volleyball, softball, tennis- just not football because that is too confusing and coordinated in my opinion- and really pay attention to how the team relates to each other without speaking. They talk through their sport. It’s cool.
With love, Willlianny
