HSU Insider

Volley Kids Camp Helps Develop Skills Early

• By Janlyn Echols Thaxton
• Posted July 15, 2009 1:05 PM
• 0 Comments

Gracen Harris knows the secret of a high flat-footed jump. Gracen is a Hardin-Simmons volleyball player, and she is one of four college students helping with a new camp called Volley Kids.

"It's important to put your arms way back. That's how you get a really high jump," Gracen tells the fourth and fifth graders who have gathered around her. Pulling her extended arms as far back as possible, Gracen suddenly springs high into the air, effectively demonstrating the move to the amazement of the campers.

The camp is somewhat unusual since it is for elementary-aged students.

HSU head volleyball coach Sabrina Bingham says the sport is hard to learn when students are this young. "We try to make it a little more hospitable by using a lighter ball," says Bingham.

Bingham picks up a regular weight ball and one of the lighter ones to show the comparison. "Kids get exposed to some sports while they're young, like basketball and soccer, for example. Volleyball sometimes scares smaller kids, especially when they get hit by the hard ball," says Bingham. "I want these younger students to learn to love the sport earlier. That's why we are working to develop some of the skills they need before they reach middle school." Bingham adds, "This is really just a way to introduce them to the sport as an option for later on."

Although Volley Kids is an HSU camp, it's being taught at the Craig Middle School gym. Sabrina says since the camp is new, the facilities on campus were already booked up. Sabrina says the middle school gym is really a blessing since much of the equipment is geared to younger students. "We have activities like scooter races to develop leg muscles. We use some of the smaller equipment to work on shuffling techniques, and we play games just to practice getting their arms in the air."

At ages four and five, Lex'n, Hanna, and Micah are among the youngest campers here. They are in a group of children who range up through the third grade. The HSU coaches work with them using slightly less rigorous drills.

Meanwhile, at another net across the gym, Gracen pitches balls into the air as the fourth and fifth grade campers practice springing into the air and knocking it over the net.

Volley Kids is one of three volleyball camps going on at HSU this summer. High school students come to the campus for extended camps and get to experience staying in the dorms. Coach Bingham says many of these younger students are already talking about a summer in the future when they will get to stay in the dorms also.