Page 40 - RADC 2023
P. 40

 Army Volleyball
Pte Singh Thakuri
This article is about my experience of Army Volleyball. I assume everyone knows how volleyball is played but just to confirm, there are two teams, each team has six players and six substitutes. The court set up is with three players at the front (near the net) in the attack zone and another three players at the back in the defence zone. Once you receive the ball from the opposing team, your team has only three chances to touch the ball, on third touch the ball must be passed over the net to the opposing side,
if not you will lose one point. To win an individual game a team must score 25 points. Once a game is won, you change sides of the court, and a new game will commence. The overall game comprises of either 3 or 5 sets, how many depends upon the competition. The game starts with the team captains tossing a coin to determine who will serve first, the choice is you can either pick your starting side of the court or have first serve.
I used to play volleyball when I was in school and I really enjoyed it so when I heard, before joining up, that in the Army you can join and play sports I was excited to be able to play volleyball again. However, after finishing Phase 1 and undertaking Phase 2 at Lichfield I was so busy focusing on my studies that I forgot about sports. But then I got the opportunity to do my training in Abingdon, here we discussed attending sports events and one of my colleagues asked if I was interested in joining the
AMS volleyball camp. I was so excited I immediately said yes without any hesitation. And so started my volleyball training.
My first volleyball training camp was held in Aldershot from 23- 26 January 2023. This camp was for all genders and open
to all Corps in the Army. The training was conducted together, regardless of Corps, however when playing games personnel played with their own Corps. It was the first time I had trained in over 15 years, so by the end of day one my hand was covered with bruises from digging the volleyball, but it was great fun. The volleyball camp
was not what I expected it to be, I assumed you would just go and play some volleyball games, but no. The camp had professional coaches who conducted sessions teaching all the techniques you need whilst playing volleyball. Upon arrival the 3-day itinerary was already planned by the coaches, starting at 0900 until 1700!!!
There were two training blocks per day, pre and post lunch, consisting of a warmup and then focusing on techniques such as digging, fingering, jumping, and spiking. Lunch was nice as we all went together;
it was interesting to meet people from various Corps doing different jobs. At the end of the day, we played a game, which was a great chance for us to show what
we had learned that day. By the end of 3 days my body was hurting, and I was so tired, but I had no regrets, I enjoyed every moment of the camp, next time though I might book accommodation, travelling daily from Abingdon to Aldershot to look after 2 children increased my tiredness.
The Army Medical Services (AMS) comprises of four Corps, for volleyball competitions these Corps play together
as one team. However, despite four Corps coming together to play, the AMS does not have many volleyball players. Good news for me though, as I got the opportunity to play for the AMS team following this training session even though it was the first one I had attended. So far this year there have been three main volleyball competitions and I have been lucky enough to attend them
all. First was the championship competition held in Kettering sport centre, this was an
  38 RADC BULLETIN 2023
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