Improve My Volleyball Jump

July 1st, 2009

Can I improve my volleyball jump? Yes, without question, most people can train to jump higher. Anyone with good joints, can train to jump higher. If you are involved in any activity that involves jumping, you can train to increase your jump.

There are many athletes that train very hard to increase their vertical jump, but just can’t make much progress. There are reasons why you don’t gain as much as you want, or think you should be able to gain. And most of the time its not that you don’t have the ability. If your not jumping in the 40+ inch range, then its not because you already reached your full potential.

Proper nutrition and diet is an important element that is missing from some of the training used to teach vertical jumping. As is the case in all training programs, nutrition is a very crucial part of the proper training.

You don’t have to be a natural jumper to increase your vertical jump. To be able to increase your personal ability, you have to train the correct way. When you do it right, your volleyball spike, will send shivers down your competitors back.

For one, it takes mental energy. If you don’t understand what is required on your part, you will not reach your full potential. Training alone is not enough, you must understand what parts of your body you have to train to improve the area’s that you want to improve. You have to have the mental ability to continue your training when the going gets tough.

It takes your commitment. You must be committed to achieving your goals. Your commitment will help to drive you to your full potential. Nobody can make the commitment for you. Your dedication, hard work, and will power are all part of commitment.

Remember that strength plus quickness, when you apply that to the same muscle contraction, results in muscle explosion. So you have to increase your muscle strength, your muscle quickness, and also neurological response. These must be trained to work together if you really want to Improve my volleyball jump

Never train your endurance, never pace yourself. Always train to your maximum, if you do you will see improvement over every workout. There are 9 different aspects to training your vertical jump. For you to reach your full potential, and ability, you have to train all 9. Your results will come to you faster.

Nutrition is maybe the most important part of any training program. It may be the most important part of any kind activity. With the correct nutrition, your training will progress to the limit. If you don’t include the proper nutrition, as a part of your training program, you wont Improve My Volleyball Jump. So, nutrition is the one ingredient you must not fool with. Its very crucial to your well being. Everything else will come into place after that. To get all the help and information you need, Click on the link below.
http://squidoo.com/improve-my-volleyball-jump

By Donald Paquin

Basic Skills of Volleyball

June 11th, 2009

The worst situation that a volleyball team could be in is to show up at a game without knowing the skills they needed to win the game. How to hit, being in the proper position, physical conditioning, and a player’s ability to jump can help to be competitive as well as gain confidence for the game. Focusing on the basics for volleyball can position a player to gain the skills needed for victory.

General Playing Skills That Should Be Developed

1. Serving. This is where the game starts and is a necessary skill. There are two basic types of serves. One is overhand; where the player will throw the ball above their head, then hits it on the way down. The second is underhand, where the server cradles the ball in one hand and swings the opposite arm underneath the ball to hit it. Once the one of these basic serves is learned, a player can the practice variations of both of these.

2. Pass or reception. This is usually set up by a player called a “setter”. It is used in order to take the ball and set the ball up to the other players on your own team. They will then have the ability to put the ball to the other side in a manner to win the point.

3. Tip. A tip is used as a way to trick the other team into thinking that the ball will go further than it will. The player will hit the ball lightly, making it barely go over the net but not too far into the opponent’s area so that they can’t hit it back.

4. Dig. This is a player’s ability to keep the ball from striking the floor after it has been spiked. A player may often dive underneath the ball and extend his/her arms to make the save.

5. Rebound. This happens when the ball stays on one side (from a block), making the players “rebound”, or take the ball back.

Physical Skills That Should Be Developed

1. Quickness. Quickness is often mistaken for “being fast”. A volleyball player does not require all out speed, but having quickness is a big plus.

2. Vertical Jump. All things being equal, a volleyball player that can jump higher than an opponent has a great advantage. Being able to jump up to hit a ball prior to your opponent can help to win many points.

Developing the physical skills often leads to the further development of the game skills. Increasing a player’s quickness will help them respond more quickly and let them get to more “saves”. A player that can jump higher will be able to tip and spike the ball over the opposition easier. And the development of both sets of skills work together to provide the player with more confidence in his or her game.

About the author

Tom Beagle is writer for EInfoHound. He does extensive research in many areas to “sniff out” and report the information you are looking for on the internet.

Making Volleyball Drills Effective

May 15th, 2009

By Bryan Watson

The volleyball drill is supposed to do several things. First, it should train the players to develop a set of skills that they can not get without repetition and continuous training. Second, it should teach your team to play well together making them unstoppable. Thirdly, it should help to develop muscle tone and strength in the necessary areas. And, the volleyball drill is also necessary to teach players how to react during a game in certain situations. But, why is it then that players hate to do the volleyball drill?

One reason for this is the repetition. No one likes to do the same thing over and over again. But, it could be that they do not understand what they are trying to learn from the volleyball drill either. In this case, provide them with the knowledge they need and they will improve faster during the volleyball drill.

There are several types of volleyball drills that need to be considered for every level of player.

* Attacking is one volleyball drill every player needs to have. In this case, some volleyball drills that could be done include approach and attack, drills that will teach middles to follow ball and beat ball to setter, cover self, defense to hitting transition as well as others.

* A key element that should be taught through a volleyball drill or two is control. There are many types of drills here including 2 X 2 tip drill, 4 X 2 Pepper as well as cross court pepper and a number of others all to teach ball control through volleyball drills.

* Defense volleyball drills are crucial to the successful game. From teaching aggressiveness, to practice digging balls to the responsibilities of players, these volleyball drills are necessary.

* Other important skills that your volleyball team needs to learn through the volleyball drill includes blocking, passing, serving and setting.

Probably the most important of all volleyball drill options is the team drill. All teams need to learn to work together, not to work individually, at making the team a success. Only then can a volleyball drill be effective at teaching students how to win. Both players and coaches can find awesome drills to use to teach these techniques online.

About The Author

Bryan Watson has enjoyed over 35 years of fresh air leisure pursuits, and has a passion to help as many people enjoy the great outdoors life to the fullest. He therefore has built a site dedicated to providing as much practical and helpful advice to help other people do the same. http://www.outdoors-life.com/index.asp?action=page&name=9&subname=18.

Differences Between Beach Volleyball and Indoor Volleyball

May 11th, 2009

By Cade O

Rules that differ from indoor volleyball:

1. You can’t set the serve. In indoor volleyball you may be able to set the serve all day but outdoor volleyball is different, you can’t double contact the serve. You may pass the ball with your hands above your head but your hands must be touching each other.

2. You can’t open hand tip the ball. This ugly practice that you may have developed playing sloppy indoor volleyball is a no no in the sand. You can shoot the ball gracefully but nothing with an open hand.

3. Your set has to be clean. Indoor sets look very ugly to an outdoor player because they spin a lot and just don’t look clean. The actual rule doesn’t count how many rotations the ball spins after the set but if it is spinning the ref will naturally assume that you doubled the ball on the set and it will not be good. Super clean looking sets are key. I say “looking” because they have to look clean to the ref.

4. You can’t set any ball that’s not hard driven unless the set is very clean.

5. You can’t side set over the net. When setting over the net you must set directly in front or behind you.

6. There are no rotation rules.

7. The block counts as one of your 3 hits.

8. You can double the ball when it’s a hard driven ball (spike). If someone spikes at you double it all you want.

9. This isn’t really a rule but something good to know if you are making the transition from indoor to outdoor volleyball. The ball is not going to feel like a rock because it’s so pumped up like an indoor ball. The ball pressure is supposed to be less in outdoor volleyballs, so don’t try to pump up all the balls or complain that they need more air. That’s the way they are supposed to be.

10. The court is smaller.  This means that if you are use to hitting the ball on the back line it will be a few feet out so you need to work more on hitting straight down and using shots.  The outdoor court measures 8 meters by 8 meters on each side.

About the Author

Cade Orvin
Sand Volleyball

Girls Volleyball Tips: How the Pros Stay Square to the Net While Blocking

February 16th, 2009

by April Chapple

To get the most out of your block its important to “stay squared” to the volleyball net. This means to keep your shoulders, your underarms as you jump, boobies, abs and hips parallel to the net keeping as little space as possible between you and the volleyball net while you block jump.

No matter how tall you are the following five steps will help you put up your best block!

1. Watch your hitter with your shoulders parallel to the net.

Watch the hitter to get indications of how she intends to hit the ball…Is she approaching you with her shoulders at an angle indicating that she is going to hit cross court or are her shoulders coming at you straight on with the intention of hitting down the line. Does she hit the ball low across the net? Does she hit on her way down? Ultimately you should even be able to see if your hitter is turning her shoulders to face outside the court indicating that she intends to wipe off your block.

Watching means Keeping Your eyes open . Don’t laugh. I can show you hundreds of action shots of players blocking with their eyes closed. Watch your blocker then Go get the ball. I say it this way to emphasize Reaching OVER the net to grab or block the ball.

2. Jump straight up and down…don’t fly.

Some blockers jump “up” in one spot and come “down” in another one. Learn to control your body while you watch your hitter so that where you go “up” to jump is where you come “down”. Why is this important? Because you have three defenders behind you who are figuring out where they have to be in defense based on where you set your block. If your block is uncontrolled or all over the place YOUR teammates on defense aren’t going to know where to set themselves up on the volleyball court in team defense. Help your sisters out…come down in the same place that you JUMPED up from.

Secondly, for the outside blockers your middle blocker is relying on you to set up a solidly “closed” wall. Walls don’t move around they stay right where they were built. It’s your job to position yourself in front of your hitter’s body. Get there and don’t jump out again or move side to side so your middle blocker knows exactly where to come to close up the block. If you fly or jump to the outside your blocker will never be able to close up that space between the two of you and the other team’s hitter will look like a celebrity spiker hitting between that hole you created between you and your middle blocker.

3. Keep Palms Up at Shoulder Height in Ready Position.

A lot of volleyball players and high school coaches have difficulty deciding where the hands need to be while moving along the net to block. I’ve seen coaches teach players to keep their arms fully extended above their heads while moving along the net which actually slows you down and doesn’t allow you to squat to maximize your full jump. More commonly I’ve seen players of all ages drop their hands and arms way below the net BEFORE block jumping in an effort to gain a couple more inches to their jump. This technique a) usually slows your block jump timing because of the time it takes to go down before coming back up b) increases your risk of touching the net when your arms are swinging up in front of you and c) actually puts more distance between you and the volleyball net because of the extra space needed to swing your arms up in front of you so you are actually blocking farther AWAY from the net wasting alot of your vertical jump.

The solution? “Tiger Hands”, “Bear Hands” whatever you want to call it but you keep your lovely bear paws at shoulder height ..six to ten inches in front of you, Palms facing the net, Fingers wide…Solid wrists….when you go down (squat) and then fully extending your arms reaching OVER the net when you come out of your squat to jump. Speaking of squats…this is pretty much the same position you maintain when you do squats during your weight lifting workout in a gym with a bar on your shoulders, just keep your hands inside your body RIGHT in front of your shoulders. Your body is already used to doing this movement over and over again. Squatting with your hands at the height of your shoulders maintains body balance, allows you to stay close to the net gaining inches you can use to reach OVER the net to choke off that ball and allows you to maximize your powerful block jump.. If you can do it in the weight room …you can do it against a net on the volleyball court. Trust your body memory.

4. Use Maximum Arm Length Your goal is to be able to fully extend your arms at the maximum point of your block jump…everytime you jump.

There will be times for middle blockers especially that they will have to block a quick set which is so fast that they only have time to just get there hands over the net to stop the ball. But outside hitters who block 4’s and 5’s, balls that are set high to the outside or shot out at a quicker pace to the outside have time to use the full extension of their arms to block the ball. If you were born with arms that are 45” inches long then you should be reaching some 45+ inches as far OVER the net as you can get.

You want to keep your arms fully extended for as long as necessary so don’t put your arms up there and then pull them away before you’ve completed your block jump. Hold your arms extended throughout the duration of your block jump when you land, land back down into a starting “Tiger Hands “ position in case you have to block again.

5. Commit to Taking One Area Away.

If you have watched your hitter then you know she is going to hit or tip either down the line or cross court, or wipe off the block…very simple. Your job is take ONE of these directions away. You can only take cross court or you can only take line.

What you decide to take away will depend on what your coach has told your team in pre game strategy -what team blocking strategy is going to be used for a particular hitter, or against a particular team. If you don’t have an established game plan then what you take away is determined by the indications you “see” the hitter giving you as to where she is going to hit.

Once you’ve decided to take an area away Don’t go chasing the ball in mid air with your arms trying to cover everything. You just can’t. Besides when you set up early and take ONE area (either cross court or line) then your defense will cover your butt by taking away the other areas on the court.

If you are at the net trying to take everything away …then your back row teammates don’t know where they need to be in defense.

Remember the ball is in Your Hands.

April Chapple is a former USA National Womens Volleyball Team member and Volleyball Professional who created Volleyball Voices the first virtual volleyball mentoring community with volleyball skills, stories by champion women volleyball players and volleyball coaching information sites where females learn how to play better volleyball.

The 6 Positions Of Volleyball

February 9th, 2009

by Gregory Wadel

Players of the same position are three spots away from their counterparts at the net to ensure that there is always an outside hitter, a middle blocker, and a setter or opposite in the front row. The front row usually consists of taller players that can jump the highest to block and spike.

Players such as Italy’s Andrea Santoretti are devastating jump servers, able to serve at great speed with tremendous spin. Setters, hitters, blockers are so your players can cover the court. Setters need to have swift and skillful appraisal and tactical accuracy, and must be quick at moving around the court. There are 6 positions of volleyball, we will talk about some of them.

Setters need to learn proper footwork technique, eye work, decision making skills, game management, and leadership skills. Outside and Right side Hitters need to learn transition footwork, approach footwork, arm swing mechanics, blocking techniques, passing technique, defensive footwork patterns, and how to be a captain.

Players cannot cross the line. The leader with a whistle is blindfolded or stands so he cannot see players. Players should always be prepared to dig because the ball comes fast. Players should always be located in areas of the court where digs are likely to occur.

Players try to pick out the worst passer on the opposing team and then serve and hit in their direction as often as possible. It is also important for the team to identify where they may have advantages in height match ups at the net and then capitalize on those opportunities.

The players in the middle provide the team with tough protection at the net. Middle hitters are just hit middle and block all side, left-side hitters always hit and pass on the left side and then right-side hitters always hit back and pass right.

Teamwork and sportsmanship are the foundations of sports and of life. We will use cooperation skills throughout everything we do and as we learn these skills ,we will improve our future skills with friends, family, leisure activities, and in the work place.

One Volleyball game rule is Teams can also try to block the opponent’s spike as it crosses the net. A block into your own court counts as one of your three touches in beach volleyball, but not in volleyball.

Servers must be more diligent to make legal serves as their serve violations no longer merely result in a pointless side out. All serve violations result in a loss of rally point. Service reception is normally done underhanded (on the arms), because services tend to be too strong to play decently with overhanded technique (with the fingers). The receivers are deployed in what is called a W-formation (see the red lines).

Gregory Wadel Get The Resources Needed To Dominate Volleyball http://volleyballdominationtips.blogspot.com

Get Into Shape With Volleyball

February 6th, 2009

by Sebastian Schneider

How are you feeling these days about your level of fitness or what you body looks like? Are you worried about bathing suit season? If so volleyball is the perfect “get into shape” activity. Don’t worry if you have never played volleyball before. You can still play on a league and use it as one of your cardio and strength training workouts.

Most YMCA’s support volleyball leagues at every skill level. If you are unsure of which league you should join, just speak with the activities director and he or she can share more league and team information with you.

Volleyball can be a great strength training activity because the basic moves of volleyball work your core muscle groups. So even if you can not commit to joining a league right now, just find a partner to pepper with and you will work your abdominals, glutes, and large leg group muscles. Pepper is a warm up drill for every level of players where partners bump, set, and then spike. The goal is to see how long you can keep the ball going. This is a great exercise to do on the beach, in the gym, or in your backyard.

Volleyball can really get you into shape because of the cardio workout it provides. Continuous play requires players to be constantly moving. These short sprints provide just the fat burning workout many of us are looking for. The best part is that you are so focused on the game that you really don’t think about how hard our body is working. This is way better then going to the gym to workout on a machine where you are staring at how much time you have left the whole time you are on the machine.

Another great reason that getting into shape with volleyball is a great choice is the camaraderie it provides. No doubt you will make some great workout friends and acquaintances if you join a volleyball league. Some leagues play year round or play tournaments in the off season. The great thing about volleyball is that you can play as much or as little as you want. Give your workout some variety by adding volleyball to get and stay into shape.

To get to know more about just like anything related to Volleyball please visit ABout-Volleyball.com