Gimme Five....Or Don't.

Yesterday I was watching the NCAA volleyball semi-finals between Penn State and Hawaii on TV. I played volleyball competitively for eight years, and still played for fun in intermural teams in college (DYNASTY Back-to-Back Champs).

Watching the match yesterday, I was struck by the ridiculous amounts of high-fives and/or low-fives that were given. These sweet little physical signs of "good job" or "congratulations" were doled out in huge amounts after EVERY SINGLE PLAY. You get a kill? High-fives all around (possibly even a butt slap). You miss a serve? High-fives everywhere. The ball goes right through the setter's hands and hits her in the face? Gimme five sister!!!

Here's a Q: Why?? I mean, isn't a high-five supposed to mean you did something good? I am by no means suggesting that a player gets the cold shoulder from his or her teammates if she isn't having a stellar game, but come on...let's earn those high-fives and butt slaps girls. Now, I was guilty of this high-five frenzy when I was a volleyball player as well. I lived in ignorant bliss of how ridiculous it looked to go around and give every player on the team a high-five after every single play. Mind you, a rally in volleyball probably lasts an average of 10 seconds, which means one is giving about 30 high-fives a minute. There is one word for this and it is the same word I would use to describe G.W. Bush's vacation days when he was in office: Excessive.



So I wondered, what does this ohenomenon stem from? At first I thought "Oh it's probably just because we are girls." Girl Power (circa Spice Girls '99), Solidarity Sister Suffragette.

But then I realized on my co-ed intermural teams at Linfield we also lived in high-five mania. So this could not be a "girl thing." This is just a "volleyball thing." It's unique to the sport. You don't see a girl's soccer team running around and giving every player a high-five after each dead ball. Soccer players are like "No way in hell am I running down this entire field to say 'Congrats on letting the other team score, you're a real star." But us volleyball players, we are on a pretty small court, don't have much personal space and we are nuts about congratulating each other, even when we look like complete dumbasses.

Now that I'm in Phase Four and I can look at this issue with unbiased eyes, I'm rather torn on how I feel about it. Part of me thinks the high-fives are overkill and most of the time undeserved. Nevertheless, the other part of me enjoys the team camaraderie. The jury is out on this issue.

But I do know one thing: When you are forced to perform physical activity in spandex briefs...you really gotta stick together.