Tips On Improving Your Volleyball Game!

Everyone perceives volleyball as a not athletic sport because everyone says all you do it stand on a court and hit the ball once in a while. There is much more to it than that, sometimes a rally can last 1-2 minutes and 1 game can last up to 1 hour. There is specific training that you need to do to be able to keep up with the pace of the game. In this blog, I will be sharing my experience with training and which exercises and drills I think are most effective while training.

The average amount of times a volleyball player jumps in a game is 300 times. A person who plays hockey or baseball that doesn’t jump this often would be very tired if they played a volleyball game. I remember when I started playing volleyball it was around 4 years ago so I was 10, the game wasn’t very intense and there wasn’t much jumping, but as I’ve gotten older it’s been much tougher. I realised I needed to switch up my training to be able to keep up with my teammates. During my team practices, the way we work on improving our vertical is just hitting and hitting and hitting. Sometimes we hit for almost 30 minutes to help us improve, and it really works!

Here are some ways to help your vertical:

• Working out. Some workouts that will help is squats, jump squats, dead lifts, dumbbell lunges, leg extensions, and calf raises.
• Learn to use your arms when you jump to build up more momentum
• Jumping rope helps your legs build muscle while testing your stamina and hitting 3-4 times in one rally gets tiring so jumping rope really helps

Passing in volleyball is one of the most important parts of the game. It starts off the rally and can end it right away. You need to get a good pass to get a good set to get a good hit. Everything leads up to one another. Everyone has there own passing technique but they are all the same in general. Not everyone’s passing is perfect though.

Here are a few tips on how to improve your passing:

• Use your thumbs as pointers, where ever your thumbs are pointing that is where the pass will most likely go
• Make sure your elbows are locked. It’s a common mistake people make when they first pass and it’s a natural instinct, but it’s very important to keep your elbows locked to have good accuracy.
• Anticipate the serve or hit is always going to be coming to you so it’s not a surprise if the ball actually does come to you

Serving. A very difficult aspect of volleyball. The amount of focus you need to be able to have a good float serve is pretty crazy. If you’re not focused it’s very easy to miss the ball, hit it on the wrong side, not swing with enough power, or even just your foot stepping over the line and losing the point. Trust me, all those things have happened to me and let m tell you, it’s pretty embarrassing. With the right amount focus and power, you will be able to do any serve, at any speed, at anytime.

Here are some of the ways that help me with my serve

• Balance
• Make sure your toes are pointed straight

These are all ways that I train/have trained before and that I feel in my opinion really help enhance your volleyball games. Some exercises or tips may seem small but one little thing could mess everything up, make sure you focus on everything, not just one thing!