Volleyball players hustle hard with Shanghai Lightning during the off-season

While many of us are sleeping in on a Sunday morning, a few dedicated athletes are on our volleyball court, developing their volleyball skills with the non-profit club Shanghai Lightning. Founded by Coach Sandy Elder, the varsity boys coach at the Shanghai American School Pudong, Shanghai Lightning is the only non-profit volleyball club in Shanghai open to all international schools in both Pudong and Puxi.

Coach Eric Nikolai from SAS Pudong and Coach Wesley Davis are also part of this amazing team, and they teach the students higher level volleyball techniques and help them develop better sportsmanship skills. Students from Concordia, Fudan International, SAS Pudong, SAS Puxi, Dulwich, and SMIC all participate and work together to improve their skills during the off-season. The coaches hold volleyball practice every Sunday from 9 AM to 11 AM, and anyone who is interested will be welcome to join the club. If people don’t know how to play, they can come and watch how the club students practice because they will be training at a varsity level.

Coach Elder shared that “volleyball does not have many places that they are able to do pick up games,” when asked why she initially got the idea for a club like this. “There is a lot of kids that like it and it is more about camaraderie and teamwork, ” said Coach Elder, she believes that the value of teamwork will benefit these students when going into college or starting their careers.  Michael Lee (11C) commented that “playing with other schools gives you more motivation to train and improve together.” Coach Wes, who initially proposed the idea to move the club’s training grounds to SMIC, is very enthusiastic about the results that Shanghai Lightning could have on students’ developments as athletes. Ethan Li, a graduate of SAS, is very appreciative of the club and their fundamentals, “I think it is good because we can get more experience from playing with other people instead of [playing] with the same people.”

All the club members and coaches love this club and how it is helping the students with their teamwork and sportsmanship, because of course, as Michael Lee proclaims: “Iron sharpens iron.”

Featured Image – Hassan (left) and Joshua (right) reach over the net to block the ball Photos Courtesy of Anouckjin Jayasuryan