AY Honors/Volleyball/Answer Key

Instructor Required

Some honors are designated as requiring an instructor when the skills are not easy to master through self study. In volleyball, you simply can't learn to play without two teams.

1. Describe the current FIVB rules and mention the eight major rules of volleyball.

The offical FIVB rules are updated regularly and are found here in various languages. http://www.fivb.org/EN/Refereeing-Rules/RulesOfTheGame_VB.asp

2. What does the expression "fair play" or “clean game” mean especially to a Christian?

The official rules say:

20.2.1 Participants must behave respectfully and courteously in the spirit of FAIR PLAY, not only towards the referees, but also towards other officials, the opponent, team-mates and spectators.

When you play a team game like volleyball By the grace of God, (for only through God's grace can we be who we should be) I will be pure and kind and true. (kind to other players and never cheat) I will keep the Pathfinder Law. (and the game rules) I will be a servant of God (representing God as his child) and a friend to man. (other players, referees)

You should also "Do my honest part" on the team, both on the court and off the court when setting up or putting things away etc. As an athlete you must "Care for my body" "Keep a level eye" by playing fair "Be courteous" to others "and obedient" to the rules and the officials. "Keep a song in my heart", because team sports should be a fun way to stay in shape and fellowship together "Go on God's errands" includes being a witness for Jesus in how you play.

6. If a beginning player, spend at least 4 hours learning and improving your volleyball skills from a more experienced player. If an experienced player, spend at least 4 hours helping a less skilled or younger player improve their skills in volleyball.

This is a great opportunity to learn how to couch and how to be couched. Pair off the players for the couching part of the honor. Most of the couching can occur while you are playing games, just intersperse the less experienced players with the more experienced ones, so that the pairs rotate together through the court.

7. Play at least ten games of volleyball with a full team (6 people). Show "fair play" during practice and games.

Have fun!

8. Report through a paper, skit, or other display about a famous volleyball player. Talk about why you think this player is a good role-model for a Christian.

The requirement presumes you choose a player that is a positive role model. We can't list all the famous volleyball players, but we can provide some general comments.

1. Christians and Pathfinders are encouraged to be fit and keep their body in shape because it is God's temple. All athletes must keep themselves in shape as well.
2. A good athlete has learned to play well with others, especially in a team sport like volleyball. As Christians we need to be productive members of God's team.
3. A good athlete follows the rules or law of the sport. They don't make up rules or choose to ignore rules they dislike. As Christians we must follow God's rules or laws.
4. A good athlete will do charitable work, like a good Christian
5. A good athlete will teach others to be a good athlete, like a good Christian teaches others to be a good Christian. There is no point in hoarding knowledge of how to be the best you can be.
6. A great athlete strives to do their very best. A Pathfinder and Christian should always try to do their very best.

10. Discuss, with your leader, pastor or teacher, the problems faced by the Seventh-day Adventist young person who wishes to compete at the secondary and college level. What alternatives are there to allow continuous involvement in the sport?

Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Problems faced by SDA sports participants

11. Discover and evaluate what Ellen G. White has to say about the proper use of competitive sports by Christians.

Ellen G. White wrote: "I do not condemn the simple exercise of playing ball; but this, even in its simplicity, may be overdone. I shrink always from the almost sure result which follows in the wake of these amusements. It leads to an outlay of means that should be expended in bringing the light of truth to souls that are perishing out of Christ" --Selected Messages Book 2, pg. 322.

Here, then, is one of the dangers of athletic sports: the expense involved. Naturally, the more professional the athletic program, the more structured the games, the more intense the competition, the greater will be the temptation to spend money for equipment, travel, rental of facilities, or, in the case of an institution, the construction and maintenance of sports facilities.

In this same passage, Ellen White says that it is "the way" that ball games "have been conducted at the college" at Battle Creek that "does not bear the impress of heaven. . . . There are threads leading out through the habits and customs and worldly practices, and the actors become so engrossed and infatuated that they are pronounced in heaven, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God." --Ibid.

Here is a second danger in athletic sports. If they are not properly conducted they become en grossing and infatuating.

She also states: "The games that occupy so much of ... [the student's] time are diverting the mind from study. They are not helping to prepare the youth for practical, earnest work in life. Their influence does not tend toward refinement, generosity, or real manliness.

"Some of the most popular amusements, such as football and boxing, have become schools of brutality. They are developing the same characteristics as did the games of ancient Rome. The love of domination, the pride in mere brute force, the reckless disregard of life, are exerting upon the youth a power to demoralize that is appalling.

"Other athletic games, though not so brutalizing, are scarcely less objectionable because of the excess to which they are carried, they stimulate the love of pleasure and excitement, thus fostering a distaste for useful labor, a disposition to shun practical duties and responsibilities. They tend to destroy a relish for life's sober realities and its tranquil enjoyments. Thus the door is opened to dissipation and lawlessness, with their terrible results." --The Education, pg. 210 & 211.

Look again at this quotation and ask yourself this question: Is it not true that every danger brought to view here is all the more hazardous the more intense the competition becomes?

The more competition involved, the more the student's time is consumed and the more he is diverted from preparation for practical life. The more intense the competition, the more brutal the game becomes as any football or basketball fan can tell you. The greater the competitive incentive, the greater the love for victory, the love of domination. Winning is the only thing. The future is now. Losing is like death. The more intense the competition, the more reckless becomes the dis regard of life. When competitive factors dominate an athletic event, that is when the stimulation and pleasure is the greatest, when practical duties are most likely to be neglected, when life's sober realities and tranquil enjoyments lose their relish, and the door is opened most widely to dissipation.

In 1899 Ellen White was in Sydney, Australia, when she encountered a huge crowd on one of the streets. "Hundreds and hundreds, and I might say thousands, were gathered together. 'What is the matter?' I asked. 'It is because of the cricket match,' was the answer. And while men were playing the game of cricket, and others were watching the game, Satan was playing the game of life for their souls.' " In Australasian Union Conference Record, July 26, 1899.

It's not just talking about about baseball or flagball or basketball. We're talking about a far more important game: the game of life. Our opponent is Satan, and only here may it truly be said, "Winning isn't every thing, it's the only thing."

Pathfinders and Christians must be cautious to what standard they hold games and how it is affecting their spiritual life and study of the Word.

References

• Ministry Magazine: Ellen G. White and Competitive Sports, written by Ron Graybill