I played a lot of sports growing up. Little league baseball, basketball and soccer to be exact. I wasn’t very talented at any of them so, by the time I had reached middle school, video games replaced sports. Why play basketball outside when you can play NBA Jam in air conditioning. And when the internet came along, I became to a monitor competing with other nerds online. Upon reaching high school, my mom suggested I tryout for the men’s volleyball team. Her mom logic convinced her that, because I was tall, I’d be good. Deep down, however, I think she knew I was running the risk of becoming anti-social.
Up until that point, I had never so much as served a volleyball over a net. After two days of tryouts, it became abundantly clear that I was not going to make the team. So, doing what I do best, I negotiated with the coach to become the team’s manager in exchange for practicing with them throughout the season. I vowed to get good enough to become the team captain by my senior year. With a chuckle, the coach shook my hand and, just like that, I was on the team. When I graduated, I earned four varsity letters, won two county championships and made second team all-county.
The skills I acquired playing volleyball have served me well both on and off the court. I have a greater appreciation for things like teamwork, training, discipline, sportsmanship and hard work. But with volleyball, however, what I appreciated the most was the progression of the game. More specifically, the offense — bump, set and spike. Well after high school and even college, I found that bumping, setting and spiking aren’t just the steps to score points in a game of volleyball, but they are also the steps for setting up success in just about anything you’re trying to achieve, especially your financial goals.
BUMP
It all starts with a pass. Before a ball can be spiked over the net, it must first make it to the setter as accurately as possible. Bumping might seem boring, but it is arguably the most important part of the game since it’s the best way to ultimately score points. A bad pass leads to a bad set and a bad set leads to a weak attack. Therefore, the better the pass, the better the overall play will be. Great passing requires stable footing, proper direction and finesse. It showcases a player’s core skills.
It should be pretty easy to see how the concept of bumping applies to our lives, because without first building a strong foundation, we make achieving our own goals more difficult than they need to be. At worst, we risk not achieving them altogether. Life continuously serves crazy stuff our way, so being in the best position to receive those challenges allows us to set up the best plan of attack. It’s our footing and direction in life.
SET
Setting is refined skill. It’s delicate. Graceful. Regardless of how the ball is first passed, the setter’s job is to control and then place the ball at a specific spot and speed above the net. Set it too high or too low, the hitter will be forced to compensate on their jump. Too fast or too slow, the hitter will be late or early for the hit. Set it too on or off the net, and the hitter could quickly pivot to playing defense instead. At the very best, a bad set leads to a sub-optimal attack. At the very worst, it leads to the other team scoring a quick point.
Similarly, taking control of our lives and achieving our goals takes more than just building a strong foundation. Like a good set, it requires a deliberate plan of attack using careful calculations. Otherwise, we too could find ourselves quickly playing defense. Because when we fail to layout the steps and actions we need to take to achieve our goals, we increase the probability that we will fail to achieve anything. We end up rewarding others for our hard work instead rewarding ourselves.
SPIKE
The progression ends with an attack and when it comes to attacks, spiking is the most kinetic in the game. Nothing screams authority like a perfectly spiked ball into the hardwood floor on the other side of the net. A good spike pairs a steady approach and a well timed jump with a winding motion of one’s arm to ultimately be released as am open handed strike on the top of the ball. It requires the athletic execution of coordinating one’s body to the exact position of a ball floating in the air above a net. It’s the culmination of the team’s efforts.
In our lives, we can build the strongest foundations and design the best of plans, but if we can’t execute on our goals, we are likely to go nowhere instead of where we want to be. The same kinetic energy used to spike a volleyball is the same kinetic energy we must use to make our dreams a reality. Otherwise, all the work and all the planning we’ve put into achieving our own great things becomes wasted energy due to poor execution.
I am ridiculously far from the first person to write about the parallels between competitive sports and life, but the comparisons between life and volleyball seem almost endless. Just imagine what can be inferred from a player covering your attack after getting viciously blocked by the other team’s defense. Support systems? Friends? Loyalty? All of that. Nonetheless, for me volleyball has been instrumental in helping me understand what it takes to score points in this game we call life.
Come mount and offensive attack over on the digital court known as Twitter:
Millennials who bought one share of Tesla in their unlimited leverage Robinhood account last year… pic.twitter.com/K3eAsP8HZX
— Douglas A. Boneparth (@dougboneparth) January 13, 2020