Monthly Archives: January 2016

How To Become a Better Volleyball Player

Many sport lovers are familiar with the beauty of volleyball game where players of two teams attempts to score points against each other with smashing and blocking. We all know that players with excellent physical endurance and athletic abilities have more advantage in this sport. Therefore, I hope the following tips will help you to play well in the game.

Always focus on your position. Player in any position has to focus on his or her position and ready to read their opponents body language. They need to learn how to jump higher as it is essential and integral part to play well in this sport. Leap high and smash the ball with powerful strike is the best way to score the game. Blocking the opponents attack is also important to control the game. Players in all time need to focus on their positions and follow the ball direction with high pace. Volleyball players need quickness, flexibility, fast reaction time and a perfect balance to perform well.

You need to get proper information about effective volleyball drills and techniques. You must learn to understand the game situation as it is vital to set the strategy against the opponent team. This is the most important part of the game and this task can be achieved with the help of professional volleyball coaches. Some people say that the difference between a good volleyball player and an average volleyball player is the amount of time they practice with their coaches. For me personally, I think that quality of the practice is more important than the quantity.

5 Types of Volleyball Drills

Volleyball drills are an important part of any volleyball training program. A team needs to know all of the skills learned through a good set of volleyball drills in order to excel in their game play and work toward being the number one team in the league. A good set of drills will help build great team work and individual play by teaching how to strike the ball, how to know the correct place to be during plays, and building self-confidence. Using drills to build these fundamentals will mean the difference between a good team and a great team.

Serving volleyball drills are important as they can help determine the pace of the game at the start of any play. A good serve can often mean the difference between winning and losing a game. The two main types of serves are the overhand serve and the underhand serve. Both have their advantages, as well as disadvantages, but it is a good idea to know both types of serves. Most other serves stem from these two basic serves, so it is a good idea to drill in both.

Passing volleyball drills help the team learn to control where the ball goes at any time. This is the way to get the ball from one player to another player who may have a better set up for a kill shot. Passing is essential, as it positions the ball in the best spot to continue the play, as well as controlling the speed of the ball at the time of the pass. That makes it an essential skill to practice with on a regular basis.

Another important skill to work into volleyball drills is the tip. The tip is a way to lightly hit the ball over the net, while making it seem as if the ball is being hit harder, thus further, than it truly is. In essence, the tip is a way to fake out the other team. Anything that can help psyche out the opponent is an important tool to have in the volleyball arsenal.

Drills that work on the dig are also important volleyball drills to work on. These drills concentrate on keeping the ball in play after it has been spiked. Often, this is combined with a pass to keep the ball from hitting the ground, while allowing for a good continuation of play. One of the most common combinations of this is to dig the ball to the setter, so the setter can set up the spike.

Four Volleyball Free Ball Tips

A while back we covered passing the free ball when you get one from your opponents. Today we’re going to go over what to do when you’re on the giving end of a free ball instead of the receiving end.

Free Ball Basics

To recap slightly for those of you who may not have read my earlier article, when a team is unable to attack the ball and is forced to pass it over, we call that a “free ball.”

When you’re receiving it, a free ball is a gift to be cherished and exploited. You’ve probably heard a team yelling “FREE!” at the top of their voice — this is the cue for everyone to get ready for a nice easy pass that will hopefully lead to an awesome kill.

But, what to do when your team is the one who’s having trouble and must give a free ball to your opponent? There are a few little tricks that you can use to make the free ball a little less of a gift.

When to Attack

It’s sometimes hard to decide when a free ball is your only option and when you might be able to get away with a “down ball,” a.k.a. an attack executed with both feet on the ground. In a nutshell, go for the attack whenever you can. Even if jumping is out of the question, a hard-driven ball is always preferable to the free ball.

The faster the attack, the less time your opponent has to setup their offense, and the more likely it is that they’ll have a communication problem or otherwise mess up the pass. So even if you’re deadly accurate in placing a free ball, it should never be a go-to play. We’re talking extreme worst case scenario here.

Practice hitting any and all types of sets from any and all spots on the court so that you can have the confidence to hit even in a bad situation. Use the tips we’re going over here if needed, but in a perfect world you’d attack every ball.

Disrupt the Offense

The first thing to think about when giving up a free ball is that you still want to make it as hard as possible for your opponent to execute their strongest attack. You can achieve this in a few ways:

  1. Send your free ball to their primary hitter. If the hitter is a poor passer, this is an even better strategy. Hopefully s/he will mess up the pass just enough to force a less than stellar set; if you’re lucky s/he’ll take him/herself out of the play entirely.
  2. Aim for the setter. If the other team is running a 5-1, the setter should transition from the defensive spot near position 1 to the setting target at the net. If you can put the free ball right into that path, you’ll have a good chance of causing confusion by placing the ball in the setter’s way. Then s/he either has to pass it or try and communicate with a nearby player that they should pass it. Either way your chances of putting a kink in the proceedings increase.
  3. Aim for the corners. Along these same lines, a shot into the deep corners can create errors and help throw off your opponent’s offense. Go as deep as you can without going out, and be sure to practice this shot from time to time so you can accurately gauge how much force you need to put behind your pass to reach the corners.
  4. Lower is better. You’re already giving up a gift - don’t make it any easier than it has to be. Pass as low and fast as you can, and make sure you pass with purpose. Don’t just throw the ball up into any old part of the court.

How to Do a Float Serve in Volleyball

Knowing how to do a float serve in volleyball is best used to keep opponents on their toes. In most cases, the receiver does not keep an eye on the ball for its entire flight over the net. As a result, a float serve in volleyball, which changes direction as it is hit without spin, can be most effective when opponents seem to be getting lazy.

To execute a float serve in volleyball, the server stands with their upper body facing the direction which the ball will be served with the feet positioned to allow the upper body to rotate easily through a throwing motion. This motion of throwing is performed more easily if the feet are placed with the left foot forward and the body and feet pointing toward the right. The weight of the body is distributed and the ball is held in the non-hitting hand with that arm slightly extended. Please note that I wrote the above with a right handed player in mind. If you are a left handed player, you would have the right foot forward and the body and the feet pointing toward the left.

Draw the hitting arm back. Drawing the arm up and back takes longer than the toss, so begin to draw back before tossing the ball.

In a float serve in volleyball, the toss or lift is out in front of the body and only high enough so contact with the ball can occur without waiting for it to drop significantly. The small step is with the left foot; at the same time, some body weight transfers toward the left foot and in the direction of where ball is being served. Again, I wrote that assuming a right handed player. For a left handed player, the small step is with the right foot and some body weight transfers toward the right foot.

Hit the middle of the ball with the palm of your hand. When the server contacts the ball with the hand during a float serve, the ball should be hit very firmly with the palm of the hand, not with a clenched fist. There’s no need for excessive follow-through except to decelerate the arm and hand after hitting the ball. If the ball is hit in the center, it will not have spin as it travels over the net. This allows the ball to float. It’s this movement that can make a well-executed float serve in volleyball so difficult to pass.

Many new players make the mistake of taking a big step with the left foot then a big step with the right foot. When this occurs, the player usually ends up facing far to the left while trying to hit to the right (again, assuming a right handed player. The opposite would be true for a left handed player). This makes it difficult to step into the direction of the serve. It is helpful to drag the back foot as the ball is being hit.

Following is a recap of the basic tips to remember when learning how to do a float serve in volleyball:

* Footwork (left foot in front, feet turned to the right, upper body facing direction of the serve). If you are left handed player, do the opposite with the right foot in the front and feet turned to the left.
* Draw elbow up and back.
* Small step and toss.
* Hit the center of the ball with the palm of the hand.
* Drag the back foot.

I hope this helped you gain a better insight on learning how to do a float serve in volleyball.