how can i stand up for myself more effectively?

basically I (female, early twenties) recently started to practice volleyball with older women (from late twenties to mid forties), and recently they’ve gotten somewhat rude with me, so for an example when I made a mistake one of them grabbed by my shoulders and dragged me around the court to show me where I was supposed to be positioned, I was startled but didn’t say anything and just agreed with her (I also accidentally stepped on her foot while she was dragging me and I apologized which looking back was super embarrassing), other than this situation sometimes they will just say things in a very rude and degrading tone, which they don’t really do with the other women who started playing recently, and I wanna know if anyone has tips on how to react without looking super defensive and aggressive! I usually freeze which is not great but i’m wondering if anyone has any ideas on how to properly address this.
not sure if this is relevant but we have a coach but he doesn’t step in when these things happen.

Posted Jul 5, 2026, 12:23 PM UTC

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