Crowds Lessen Impact: AKA Donaldson’s dive into the stands

I know this is a blog about volleyball but I pick up topics from all sports and after seeing something on FSN and searching for hours to find the video, I gave up. Well, I couldn’t find exactly what I had seen but I found the play that was being referenced in the show and that’s close enough for me.

Essentially, I was watching a highlight reel of last week’s MLB plays which include Josh Donaldson’s wicked catch from the Blue Jays game against Tampa Bay. I mean, this is the reason he’s playing professional baseball and I’m not. Not because I can’t hit a ball more than ten feet, which isn’t relevant. Anyways, check out his catch below.

Incredible, right?

But I don’t care about his catch, I mean, I do, but I’m about to relate it to volleyball and I know everyone is on the edge of their seats, just like those fans in the video.

Well, here it is.

The fans being there lessened the impact on Donaldson when he made that catch, therefore decreasing his chance of injury immensely. There is always the chance of injury upon making impact with any surface but a human is a lot softer than a hard plastic bleacher. The human can also move which increases the time of impact and spreads the force out over a greater period of time. That is what really helps prevent bones from snapping in half. Momentum and inertia like causing destruction.

Most of you know what it is like playing in gyms that barely have enough room to be considered legal. For those of you in the Puget Sound region, I’m talking Highline CC gym that holds six courts legally but not comfortably. U12’s tournaments are a nightmare there when everyone and their Grandmother come to watch. So it isn’t a leap that many plays get made around fans and team benches because we don’t always have the best ball control.

Most of the time, self preservation comes into play and we just let the ball go instead of risking the chance of injury. However, as you get more competitive you get over that fear and you do dive over the team bench or into the bleachers to rescue that stray ball. Volleyball does have the lovely rule that you must keep a foot in contact with the ground when playing a ball in the bleachers for safety reasons that are quite obvious now.

However, sometimes the bleachers are an uneven row of metal chairs and that rule magically floats away and your coach can protest it away if the referee argues. I know that I have made a save and landed on the crowd or my teammates at least once. And I was very happy to have them there instead of a metal bench. Concussions aren’t pretty things, worse than broken bones in my opinion.

My point in all this is to encourage your fans and teammates to stay put if you are barreling toward them to decrease your chance of injury.

That being said, check out the video of Kyle Seager’s catch that saved a toddler during a Mariner’s game. Go to my Pinterest page with the little link on the right hand side of the page and you'll find it under the page 'Articles'.