By Lee Young Yit (19S03H), Boys’ team captain and Tan Si Jing (19S03P), Girls’ team captain

Volleyball is a complex game of simple skills. The ball is spiked from up to 3.65 metres and takes fractions of a second to travel from the spiker to the receiver. Within this time frame, the receiver must decide where to pass the ball in the blink of an eye. Indeed, volleyball is a game of constant motion and players cannot risk missing a second of the game.

After reading this, you might be really interested to join. However, you might be afraid and these thoughts might come to mind: “Am I too short?” or “I can’t jump high!” or “I’ve never touched a volleyball!”

However, don’t fret as these thoughts were common among all of our members during the CCA trials and even as we first started training. Volleyball is a specialised sport that accommodates people of different skills and sizes – there will always be a position suited for you. Most teams will include in their starting lineup: a setter, a subset, two middle blockers, two outside spikers and a libero. These are specialised positions for attack and defence.

Most of the students in Raffles Volleyball join without prior experience in volleyball. However, we are not put down by the fact that other teams have much more experience than us as this lack of experience has fostered a passion in us to work hard. Passion, coupled with a sense of camaraderie, allows us to put in our utmost effort as a team during trainings and competitions.

We display our teamwork and passion through supporting each other on court and sharing the same goal in mind. When a mistake is made, we comfort and spur each other on; when a point is scored, we huddle up or cheer to celebrate our success. “Raffles- ACE!” will reverberate through the court whenever we win a point. Even when victory might seem far away, we never fail to give our best till the very end. Others may look down on us as a team with little to no experience, but we will not lose in terms of our desire to win and the effort that we are willing to put in. This is the spirit of Raffles Volleyball.

Our volleyball training sessions are held on Tuesdays from 5.00pm-8.00pm and Fridays from 4.30pm-7.30pm. During training, we start off with a quick warm-up before doing ball throws which include basic volleyball actions like digging, setting and spiking the ball. Afterwards, we would carry out drills like free spikes and receiving serves. Training ultimately culminates in a game where we split into two teams and play against each other, pitting our skills and applying what we have learnt. When our volleyball season is reaching, we have an additional training session on Saturdays from 9.00am-12.00pm, along with many friendlies lined up for us, where we compete against other volleyball teams from different schools.

Apart from the usual volleyball trainings and our A division, we also have our annual Old Rafflesians League, where we invite our alumni back to play with us. The event is enjoyed by everyone as we are all bonded by our common passion for the sport, where our age gaps and differences are removed. Also, we have our annual volleyball camp, where the new members will be able to bond with their batchmates and seniors through fun games and activities.

You can also look forward to having fun with your teammates outside of training sessions! Beach volleyball at Sentosa and playing volleyball at the Amphitheatre after school are a few examples of activities that we engage in together as a CCA. Team dinners are definitely something to look forward to as we reflect on our training and joke around with our teammates, filling the air with fun and laughter as we escape from the academic grind.

Raffles Volleyball is a family that you can trust to be there for you. As you embark on your two-year-long journey here at Raffles, the goings can get rough but with endurance and teamwork, Raffles Volleyball will be a fun and enriching experience for you. If you are interested in volleyball and have the passion and drive, we look forward to welcoming you into our family.