Serving Myself A Chance

Thursday evenings this summer are volleyball night for my two oldest daughters.  We head to Neighbor Town East and sit in their cool (air temp, not ambiance) gym for a couple of matches against other local squads.  For once I'm not coaching, so I can just sit and watch....and shake my head a lot.  A lot.

Tonight the head shaking was directed at the team's serving, which was abysmal.  A true team effort, too - wasn't a single player who consistently put the ball in while serving.  A week ago the group served fine; tonight they could've served from a boat on the ocean and not hit water.  Awful.

Needless to say it's pretty hard to compete on the scoreboard if serves don't get put in play.  A net serve or a ball that flies out of bounds provides zero chance at scoring a point.  Zero!  In basketball a bad shot has a slight chance of going through the hoop, or might even be rebounded and put in; a weak slapshot might trickle past the goalie in a hockey game, or get redirected by a teammate into the net.  But a botched serve is nothing but a zero chance moment for the team.  No serves, no game.

Tomorrow afternoon my girls and I depart on an interstate adventure to go visit my sister in Indiana.  We're going to drive halfway tomorrow evening, spend the night in Madison, WI, and drive the rest of the way Saturday morning.  We'll be making the return trip on the 4th of July.  What's this have to do with volleyball?  Nothing....except somehow the lousy serving tonight got me thinking about how often I've missed serves in my life.  Poor decisions, bad timing, too many excuses.....I've managed to NOT have adventures in a variety of ways.  My bad serving has resulted in too many zero chance moments, moments that could have been memorable but for my lack of decisiveness, courage, or assertiveness.

But tomorrow I serve straight and true, and all four of us are cautiously enthusiastic about the days ahead.  Oh sure, tomorrow afternoon is supposed to be hot enough to melt paint off cars.  Yes, somehow we have to enter Chicago and come out alive.  And then there's the 11 hours in a small car together.  Aside from all that, though, are the positives:  new states (for the girls), cousin time, car snacks, etc.  I'm apprehensive about the drive and the heat, but I'm at the serving line with the ball in my hand.  I'm not just going to serve - I'm ready to deliver an ace for my daughters.

So, two things to leave you with tonight:  1) You can set in stone what my next half-dozen posts are going to be about, and 2) Put your ball in play and give yourself at least a chance at whatever the opportunity is in front of you.  If I can do this trip, you can do probably just about anything by comparison.

Bon voyage!