The Philippine Online Chronicles

In the Philippines, you don't usually expect a volleyball game to be flocked by large numbers of people jumping up and down, chanting their throats out, or waving their hands in the air, feeling ecstatic as the game escalates. We have our own gods and goddesses of sports and, unfortunately, volleyball superstars are not among of them.

While there is limited affection for the sport in the country, we cannot misjudge its potential. We have a good pool of talent. We just have to adjust our plays and strategies the Pinoy way.

Invention of the 'bomb'

Volleyball was developed in 1985 in the United States by William Morgan. In its infancy, it was called “Mintonette”, with the present name arising after a puzzled spectator said the players “keep volleying the ball”. It became an official Olympic sport in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

In the Philippines, volleyball was first introduced in 1910 by American missionaries who frequented villages to promulgate western ideals. As part of their bid to revolutionize the education system, they included sports in the curriculum of local schools and universities. Among the sports they taught was volleyball. They also organized competitions and demonstrations to further the popularity of the sport.

It was an instant hit, becoming a favorite because it had less body contact than some of the other rugged sports available then.

In 1916, the first genuine evolution of volleyball began in the Philippines. What was known as set pass and the offensive spiking was invented and adopted by Filipino players. It was initially called “Bomba (bomb)” with the players performing these called “bomberinos”. Popularly known as the ‘set’ and ‘spike’, it was a maneuver described as setting the ball high enough to allow another player to hit it, producing a fast angled shot. Today, it is the prime attack used in volleyball worldwide.

No exposure

But even with the long tradition of Philippine volleyball, how come Filipinos are not that interested in the sport? The answer is quite evident - the exposure given to volleyball is relatively lower than that given to the more popular sports available in the country. Notice that media coverage is highly inclined towards those sports events which are commercially beneficial to media organizations and those in which people are already interested. Sports like volleyball do not have the number of followers comparable to the PBA or to the Philippine Azkals. As a result, it does not have enough funding to provide an avenue for development.

The problem with this scenario is that we fail to realize the potential of the sport and our players. In the collegiate level, we have plenty of excellent players whose talents are not harnessed after their stint in collegiate volleyball because there is no avenue to play after they graduated. We need a professional ‘playground’ for our players.

Part 2 here.

Image taken from matt.hintsa on Flickr. Some rights reserved.