by Madison Spaulding and Emily Almeida
The phrase “Set! 5,6,7,8” and “Bump,set,spike,” are two very different things that come from the world of two very different sports. But we decided to get out of our comfort zone and SWAP SPORTS (Insert intense music here).
My name is Madison S. and I have played volleyball for six years and am on the Freedom High School team.
On the court there are six players: an outside hitter who stands in the top left corner, a middle hitter/blocker, a right side hitter in the right front corner. Then you have the setter; this is also the place where you serve in the court. Next to them you have the libro,and finally we have an defensive specialist, which is a bumper in fancy terms. My position is an outside hitter which usually means I spike the ball a lot more than other players. Spiking is when you take a three step approach to hit the ball in the opponent’s court. This sport is such a big part of my life and who I am. I do not have any exposure with cheer-leading down in the other court, and I am excited to start learning.
Emily started by talking about safety which she feels is the most important thing to Cheer. Some safety precautions to take are to make sure you have a coach with you that is trained so they can be there to help if something goes wrong. You should also wear proper clothes and shoes, and cheer on a mat. I haven’t always been the best at memorizing things so getting the cheer down was pretty hard when you have to do certain hand movements with every word you say. The other difficult thing I experienced, was flips and somersaults, considering I can barely do a somersault. Emily said that all people have a hard time when they start, but I think she was just being nice. Emily is a flyer so she is used to doing flips and being tossed in the air by other people but we decided we should stick to the safe route for me and not do any flips. The part I liked most about cheer-leading was the pom poms they really made the routine complete. I also liked how spirited everything was. It really felt like something you could get into during sports.
Somethings that were similar to volleyball was that you had to work as a team to be able to perform everything and that they have different positions just like volleyball. On the other hand, there were many differences: in cheer you have to cheer at different events while volleyball is taking place in one area, on a court. Also in cheer you have to remember a cheer and a dance, while in volleyball you just have to remember skills and positions. All together I felt that cheer-leading is a great sport and would try it again but for now I will just stick to volleyball!
My name is Emily A. and I have been a cheerleader for more than two years and I am on the Freedom High School Cheer-leading Team.
In cheer-leading there are four positions: main base, side base, back spot, and flyer. All of this positions put together is called a stunt. The flyer goes in the middle, the two bases go either on the left or the right (depends if you are either a main or side base), and the back spot goes behind the flyer. My position is the flyer which basically means that I am the one who gets lifted into the air and thrown in the air too.
My experience learning volleyball was very hard. I have never been good at volleyball so when Madison explained all the rules and positions I felt confused and lost. We started out by Madison teaching me all the serves and passes. She taught me how to do both the overhand serve and the underhand serve, and I found that the underhand serve was easier for me to do. My passes didn’t have much control at first but as the drills went on I got better. After we practiced the serves and passes, we practiced the rotations. I found that remembering where to go and when was very difficult. I kept going into the wrong spot at the wrong time. We also practiced setting, which is where you set to hit the ball. I wasn’t bad at setting which lead me to want to be a setter if I decide to play volleyball again. I found setting to be the most fun out of everything else.
In the end I learned a lot about volleyball and its skills. I learned that it is so much more than just hitting a ball over a net. It’s about communication and teamwork, which ties into cheer-leading because teamwork is a key part of cheering and stunting. Volleyball is a very fun sport and I would definitely play it again but for now I think that I will stick to cheer-leading!
In conclusion, we thought swapping sports was a good idea because it helped us appreciate each other sports more. It also developed Madison’s Pom Pom obsession. In the future we decided we would love to swap sports again.