Okay, so today I wanted to see what would happen if I played volleyball with a rubber ball on a hard timber floor. Sounds kinda random, I know, but I was curious!

Getting Started

First, I grabbed a standard rubber volleyball from my garage. It’s one of those cheap ones, you know, not the fancy leather kind. Then I headed to my backyard where I have a small area with, luckily, a hard timber floor. Usually, it’s for, like, outdoor furniture, but today it was my experimental court.

The Experiment

• Bouncing: First, I just dropped the ball. Man, did it bounce high! Way higher than it ever does on grass or sand. It felt like it was going to bounce forever.
• Serving: I tried a few overhand serves. The ball shot off my hand super fast and bounced so unpredictably. It was tough to control where it was going.
• Passing: I enlisted my buddy to help with some passing. Passing the ball was crazy! It came off our arms so quickly and with so much more force than we’re used to. We had to adjust our stance and be ready for a much faster reaction time. We missed a lot.
• Setting: Setting was… interesting. The ball bounced off our fingertips with a lot of speed, making it hard to get a good, clean set. It felt more like we were just trying to keep it from flying away.
• Spiking: This was probably the most fun (and the most chaotic). When I hit the ball, it flew super fast. The bounce off the timber was insane. It was like a rocket! Hard, Fast and furious.

What I Learned (The Hard Way)

Playing with a rubber volleyball on a hard timber floor is a totally different ballgame (pun intended!). It’s way faster, bouncier, and harder to control. I definitely wouldn’t recommend it for a serious game, but it was a fun experiment. It really highlighted how much the playing surface impacts the game. And I got a good workout chasing that bouncy ball around! Next time, I think I will change to other different ball and floor.