Barrhead Composite High School (BCHS) Junior Jaguars brought home a pair of bronze medals in both the boys and girls triple ball divisional championships held at Rotary Spirit Centre in Westlock Nov. 1.
Girls coach Amber Smith said because of the interest in triple ball the school was able to field two teams in both the boys and girls divisions all of which played in the championships.
“It was a great year, learned a lot of skills and all our teams played very well in the tournament. Everyone had a lot of fun and Westlock did a great job organizing it,” she said.
Triple ball is a sport derived from volleyball and it is designed to give young players more touches in order to promote skills development. With players just starting out, a team with a strong server can dominate the game, piling up point after point without another player touching the ball. The same happens with poor serving.
A study by Alberta Volleyball indicated that when a player under 14 years old served the ball, there was only a 44 per cent chance of a second contact.
That is why in 2009 the provincial organization started a pilot project designed to get more balls in play. They did this by creating a protocol that starts with the server, who attempts to put the ball into play. After the conclusion of the play from the resulting rally, a game official, coach, or volunteer then tosses the ball over the net to the receiving team. This process is then repeated, but this time with the ball being tossed to the serving team. During this cycle, players are not allowed to switch positions.
Since Alberta Volleyball introduced the variation, they have documented that it has more than doubled the number of contacts and rallies versus the standard game.
Barrhead Composite High School (BCHS) Junior Jaguars brought home a pair of bronze medals in both the boys and girls triple ball divisional championships held at Rotary Spirit Centre in Westlock Nov. 1.
Girls coach Amber Smith said because of the interest in triple ball the school was able to field two teams in both the boys and girls divisions all of which played in the championships.
“It was a great year, learned a lot of skills and all our teams played very well in the tournament. Everyone had a lot of fun and Westlock did a great job organizing it,” she said.
Triple ball is a sport derived from volleyball and it is designed to give young players more touches in order to promote skills development. With players just starting out, a team with a strong server can dominate the game, piling up point after point without another player touching the ball. The same happens with poor serving.
A study by Alberta Volleyball indicated that when a player under 14 years old served the ball, there was only a 44 per cent chance of a second contact.
That is why in 2009 the provincial organization started a pilot project designed to get more balls in play. They did this by creating a protocol that starts with the server, who attempts to put the ball into play. After the conclusion of the play from the resulting rally, a game official, coach, or volunteer then tosses the ball over the net to the receiving team. This process is then repeated, but this time with the ball being tossed to the serving team. During this cycle, players are not allowed to switch positions.
Since Alberta Volleyball introduced the variation, they have documented that it has more than doubled the number of contacts and rallies versus the standard game.
