It is time! Volleyball practice starts this week...I am excited! Volleyball is a fun sport to watch, play and coach. I have been lucky enough to do all three. This will be my daughter's last season of high school volleyball. I have so enjoyed watching her and her teammates play over the years. They are very good and a lot of fun to watch.
I am fortunate enough to have been able to coach quite a bit over the years too. This is very challenging, but very rewarding at the same time. I coach junior varsity, freshman and sophomores. I love to win, but more importantly, I love to teach the girls the game, the love of the game and how to be great teammates. At this level this is very important.
Volleyball isn't as simple as it may look to the spectator. My husband has often said, "It's simple, just hit the ball over the nest and don't let it hit the floor." Oh, if it were only that simple. In volleyball, players have positions just like any other sport. We run offenses, have defenses and play strategies according to your player personnel.
I know many spectators and parents don't always understand why we do what we do as coaches. That is understandable, since volleyball has evolved so much.
When I was in junior high, we played our team volleyball on an outside asphalt court with nine players on each side and we just rotated around.
When I was in high school and my first few years of coaching, a serve couldn't hit the net on the way over, you had to stand in a specified are to serve and we didn't play rally point. There have been a lot of things change over the years.
Here's a few tips on understanding volleyball....
-The goal is to set it up for a "kill". We want three hits...Pass, Set, Hit (Spike).
-We don't want to play "Jungle Ball" and just pass the ball back and forth over the net.
-The setter gets the second ball.
-Players rotate in and out for their position
-Every player is responsible for a certain area on the court and a part of the offense or defense.
- The ball can hit the net on a serve.
-If a blocker touches the ball, they can hit it again, it is not a double hit.
-On a serve, it often looks like an unclean or double hit on the receiving pass, that is legal.
These are a few of the things I hear coming from the stands behind me...so I thought I'd throw this out there.
If you have the chance to watch any volleyball games where you live...I hope you get out and do it. It is really a lot of fun and a good volleyball game can be very intense.
"Bump, set, spike it!"
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