Volleyball Skills and Drills:Setting

"The skill of setting is crucial to every team's success. Your team's setter and all other players who deliver a controlled ball to be attacked by a teammate must be able to set effectively" (AVCA 36).

Body positioning of the setter should be an upright stance, having the feet shoulder-width apart. The feet should be shoulder-width apart having a heel-toe relationship. The shoulders should be over the toes still leaving a slight flex at the waistline and your head is up.  The shoulders should also be relaxed, loose, and forward rather than upright.

There are four different phases for the footwork in setting. The first is simply getting to your target. The ball traveling from the server to the passer and the passer to the target should give the setter enough time to get to the target. The second phase is to be ready to move from the target. The setter should move from the target towards the passer. The third phase is beating the ball to the spot. The goal is to try and see where the ball will land and get there before it does. The fourth and final phase is to stop and set. Stopping and setting can help eliminate the term called floating, which is when the setter jumps from one spot then sets the ball and lands in another place.

The setters wrist should be “cocked” and the fingers should be open to receive the ball. One good technique for the setter is to have their hand in the shape of the ball. Another is to pretend they’re dumping a cooler of water on their own forehead. The entire finger pads should encounter the ball and not just the finger tips. The elbow should be at chin level to allow higher contact.

!LEAVE A COMMENT DOWN BELOW!
Lenberg, Kinda. Volleyball Skills & Drills. Human Kinetics, 2006.

Dog Training: Repetition and Consistency

Repetition and Maintaining Consistency 

"Dog training is all about consistency.  The more consistent you can make your requests, feedback, and consequences, the quicker your dog will learn," (Sundance, 50).  As with many things, consistency is one of the key things in training and teaching your dog.  Having a uniformity with your commands results in a better understanding from your dog, (Sundance, 51).  Within the theme of consistency, the book recommends that a dog have 100 repetitions to fully learn the trick.  I decided to put this advice to the test with a new trick.

Over the course of two days I practiced a new trick, (shaking with a paw), 50 times each day.  This totaled for 100 repetitions total with the trick.  As I look back, I see the improvement from the 50th repetition to the 100th.  During the two days, I kept everything I did consistent, keeping the treat size and amount, motions, and phrases I said, consistent and the same throughout.  I felt as though this aspect of the training helped familiarize my dog with the trick faster. As I repeated the same phrases or rewards for completion, it was more clear to my dog that she would get the treat only after completing the specific action.  In addition, each repetition became slightly better as we went along, and there was an obvious improvement from the first to the last.

In conclusion, I would say that reading about implementing consistency and repetition within my training with my dog helped tremendously.  This is not to say that I did not know that these two aspects were important.  However, reading about them in this book helped identify the specifics of how to channel these ideas into training.  Repetition and consistency definitely helped my dog training skills.

Doing 100 repetitions of a trick at one time can be boring and frustrating, how would you divide up the repetitions? (doing it in one day vs doing it over the course of four days)

Sundance, Kyra. The Dog Tricks and Training Workbook: a Step-by-Step Interactive Curriculum to Engage, Challenge, and Bond with Your Dog. Quayside Pub. Group, 2009.

Learning Origami: Fortune Teller

Learning Origami: Fortune Teller

2017 is officially over, with the new year beginning, release everything from the past and be ready to celebrate 2018. There is no way to determine the future, however, a fortune teller can release your worries for the upcoming year! Today I will be showing you how to create your own origami fortune teller, and have some fun with the idea of knowing what will be coming this year. Fortune tellers, also known as “cootie catchers” have been passed down through centuries and is usually performed by children. Thanks to the book, Practical Origami: A step-by-step guide to the ancient art of paper folding, I can show you how to make an origami fortune teller. This origami design is very well known and popular, the book states, “This has to be the one model that virtually everyone remembers making as a child at school” (Beech 175). I never knew how to make my own fortune teller, so for those like me, below are six simple steps to creating your own fortune teller.

The first step to creating an origami fortune teller was to fold the paper into fourths, unfold the paper, fold the four corners into the middle evenly, then to repeat again on the other side. “Blintz fold the corners of a square. Turn the paper over and Blintz fold again” (Beech 175). Although the wording of this step was confusing, this instruction was easy to accomplish thanks to the inclusion of a photo in this step.

Below are Six Steps to creating an origami Fortune Teller:

Step One: Fold paper into fourths, unfold paper,
fold corners towards center evenly. Repeat on reverse side.

 

Step Two: Fold model in half, horizontally.

Step Four: Open the slits created in step one.

Step Three: Push corners towards center.

Step Five: Place fingers into the four slits made 

in step four, to create creases.

Step Six: Label Flaps with colors, numbers,

 and objects.

To conclude, making an origami fortune teller was very easy and fun.  After completing the steps, label the folds of the design so you can use the model effectively. The book states, “Write four different colors on the inside, and underneath each panel write a fortune” (Beech 175). Practical Origami: A step-by-step guide to the ancient art of paper folding allowed me to make a craft that I always played with when I was younger. I look forward to showing my younger sister how to make this on her own, and play with her! The fortune teller is one of my favorite art crafts that I played with when I was younger. I hope you enjoyed this blog post, and hopefully you will try out making your own origami fortune teller. Thanks for reading!

What was your favorite craft to play with & make growing up?

 

Beech, Rick. Practical Origami: a Step-by-Step Guide to the Ancient Art of Paperfolding. Hermes House, 2006.

Photography: Guide to taking beautiful Digital pictures, photographs and compositions

By: Nicole Woods

-Improving your portrait photography- 

Photo By -  Mankinder Takhar

This photo has many contrasting shapes and colors. The colors from the sunset mixed with the sky create a contrast of colors, also making the main focal point be the sun.

On page 36 Nicole Woods describes focal point as, " ...a focal point is something that your eyes cannot let go of. Yes, your view may stray from time to time, but it will return to the focal point."

A focal point can also be described as the first thing that catches your attention.

The contrasting of shapes and colors can help recognize the focal point.

This quote from page 36 from Nicole Woods tells us how using the contrasting colors of the sky and sun we can recognize the focal point.

How do you think the focal point of this picture could have been improved? 

Photography: Guide to taking beautiful digital pictures, photographs and compositions 

By: Nicole Woods

- Flowers and wild plants-

This photo was taken by keeping the focus point towards the center of the flower.

Nicole Woods the author of this book explains how the background can create a good balance with the flower.

On page 65 Woods says," The darkness of the background, contrasted with the detail of the flower makes the balance and composition good."

This quotes explains to us how the dark background surrounding the flower can make the flower stand out that causes it to be the main focus point of the picture.  

What backgrounds should I try next?

Acoustic Guitar: How to Read Music

Another step needed to take to learn how to play the guitar is to learn how to read music. You will need to learn how to play sheet music with time signatures, notes/scales, and also strum patterns. Reading sheet music and notes isn't new to me. Though I did take some time to review and remember notes, since it has been a while since I've done so. This was a fairly simple process for me. Once again, this is more of just reviewing, remembering, and improving for me. One thing I did learn is how to read strum patterns on sheet music (shown in the picture alone). Figuring out what I need to do is pretty simple. The main thing that is needed for me to improve is to just practice and get the information I learned programed into my brain. Guitar is a very difficult instrument to learn, but with patience and persistence my skills will gradually grow and get better.

Strumming consists of up strokes and down stokes.

My book had me practice different strumming patterns while switching between different chords. One strum pattern that was given was a constant down up motion, always playing the strings in the down strokes and only playing the strings every other up stroke.

Origami New Years Hats

Fun With Origami: Origami Hats

A new year has just officially begun. A new year means a new beginning. This may seem like a cliche statement but it is a statement that is true. 2018 may be a great or terrible year. It could also just be an ok year. For this post, I will be making origami hats that I gave out as party favors to my family at our new year party. New years is a time where people could have fun and be closer together. A new year calls for a celebration, which is why I had a new year party. And thanks to the terrific book called Fun With Origami by Harry C. Helfman. I am able to create hats that could act as party favors. These hats only take a couple of seconds to create. 

In order to make these hats you need origami paper, a flat surface, and possibly markers or color pencils if you want to decorate them. The origami paper that you use could be any color you like. These hats are a great party favor because they are simple and easy to fold. The text stated, "You can use your paper folds for greeting cards, party favors and on posters" (Helfman 2). This means that origami could be used as many other things.

Decorating your origami hat is optional, but after completing this fold, I personally think that decorating it is an important part. This is because it makes the hat look more appealing. And it allows you to show your creativity. The text stated, "You could decorate your paper folds with coloring materials" (Helfman 2). This is why I decided to decorate my hats. 

The hardest part of this paper fold is the decorating. This is because it is very time consuming depending on how you decorate your hat. For my hats I used bright colored origami paper to mark a new beginning, but you could use any color as you like. 

Below are steps to make your own origami hat. 

Step 1
Fold in half

Step 2
Fold the left side diagonally
as picture shows.

Step 3
Repeat step 3 for the right side

Step 4
Fold both sides upward and crease as picture shows

Step 5
Place fingers inside and open

Step 6
Decorate (optional)

Three origami hats

Making these origami hats was calming and fun. I had never made something like this. After making a lot of hats I feel like my patience is improving. After making two of these hats, I was able to make more from memory. I handed these out at my holiday party and my family was surprised that I made them. I feel like my knowledge of making these creations is improving. I have faith that this year will be better than the last.

Would you consider making your own decorations for your new years party next year? How do you celebrate the new years?

Helfman, Harry Carmozin. Fun with Origami: 17 Easy-to-Do Projects and 24 Sheets of Origami Paper. Dover, 1991.