This is my fourth attempt to start this post. My mind is like a pinball machine with ideas bouncing around. I think I’m going to have to take the Bay City Rollers’ approach at decision making and toss a dart at an idea wall to decide where to start this one.
Ok, the dart hit here: When I introduce younger players to volleyball skills, I set the net as low as it will go – approximately five and a half feet – and then begin all things hitting.
It only took 35 or 40 years to realize how foolish it is to teach young kids this game using a net at seven feet (the height for younger grades). It’s like teaching someone rock climbing and taking her to Half Dome in Yosemite to get her started.
It’s absolutely no surprise that these kids develop horrible habits. We ask them to do something they can’t do – regardless of how athletic they are. They cannot hit a set ball correctly over a seven-foot net.
Instinctively, they will contort their bodies to achieve the goal, getting the ball over that net. The process is counter productive. We are doing a disservice to these kids. Coaches are creating bad habits by forcing these kids to climb Half Dome before they are physically capable to begin the climb.
If you remember that D-1 coach on YouTube saying that if a player comes to him with a goofy arm swing, he finds it almost impossible to correct it. Where do those goofy arm swing habits come from? Trying to hit a ball over a seven-foot net when it is physically impossible might be a place to consider.
“Well, that’s where the net will be during matches,“ you might be thinking. You are correct. But what about changing it.
Here’s an idea, let’s lower the net during matches for these kids when they are in 5th and 6th grade. Give them the opportunity to attack the ball properly, learn to block much earlier, begin to understand defense, and begin to understand the game at a much earlier age.
Imagine how exciting these matches would be. Imagine how much better the players would be as they advance through their programs. Imagine how much fun the girls could have. It’s time to stop imagining; it's time to do it.
If you have a club start the trend. Sponsor tournaments with a six-foot net for 5th and 6th grade kids. If you are a CYO coach, talk to the other coaches and convince them to lower that net. Maybe the AAU could support it. Maybe USA Volleyball.
My next dart hit this one: Concentrate on the last two steps of the approach.
I can’t count the number of hours I have spent focused on teaching the three and four-step approaches. They were some of the first things that I read about when I began this journey. It seemed like I had to choose. Would I become a 3-stepper or a 4-stepper?
Left, right, left.
Left, right, left.
Over and over and over.
I became a three-stepper, I guess.
All this time, I should have focused only on the last two steps. The stuff leading up to them doesn’t need to be taught in the beginning. If the girls understand and perfect those last two steps, how they get to them will fall into place.
In some instances, a player may need five steps to get to the ball. In other situations, she may need only those last two steps. If she is too far inside, she may need to take an odd path to the ball. But regardless of the situation, the last two steps remain the same. Since 93% of the population is right handed, I will talk to the Rightys . I’m sure Leftys, the other 7%, are quite used to flipping everything around.
The last two steps of an approach are right-left. That seems simple and obvious. But those two steps may be the cause of more issues with the attack than any other aspect of the process. Here are a few possible issues:
The left foot hits first
The feet are too close together
The feet are too far apart
The left toe is jammed into the floor
The left foot does not travel far enough
The right foot continues onto its toe as if it will continue in a running motion
The entire left foot does not make it down before the jump begins
The player plants her feet before she is ready to jump
The player jumps into her jump
As a coach, it is imperative that you identify these issues.
Now, let’s take these two steps step-by-step.
To prepare for the last two steps, it is imperative that the player understands that she is preparing to jump. These last two steps should be considered part of the jumping process. This is difficult for many young kids because they need to take these 2 steps with their knees bent. That is tough for them. Their leg muscles have not developed. They want to take the last 2 steps and then bend their knees and jump. I always tell them to be like a roller coaster, not an elevator. Come in low and explode up.
In a perfect world, these two steps are taken at a 45-degree angle to the net.
The right step, the first of the last two, should be a big, powerful step. As she takes this step, her arms swing back to prepare to help with liftoff. They should be relaxed. There is no swinging them forward like a cheerleader before that big right step.
This first step includes the foot turning slightly to point at the setter.
With the right knee bent, ready to spring up, the right foot reaches way out, turning slightly toward the setter, landing on the heel. While the right foot is rolling to its jumping position, the left foot plants fully on the inside of the foot stopping the forward momentum. This is where the coach needs to look and listen. If you (the coach) hear a squeak from the left foot making contact, you know that the left knee is not bent enough, and the only part of the player‘s left foot making contact is the toe. It also means the player began her jump before her left foot hit the ground. She will not jump as high, and her momentum will continue forward. This squeak usually happens for two reasons. Either her right leg is too weak to hold her body in a low position, or she’s late to the ball. If you are just practicing the approach, you know it’s the former.
As the legs, both bent, are preparing to jump, the arms swing up helping the upward momentum as well as getting ready to hit the ball.
The player should take off of both from feet at the same time. Again, this seems basic, but it needs to become second nature. Most kids in high school don’t approach correctly. They need to understand these two steps when they first start playing.
After my realization, we spent time at every practice doing these two steps and jumping. It’s monotonous, (there’s a vocabulary lesson), but necessary.
We need to stop young kids from creating the bad habits I see with high school kids:
Not getting their left feet around so they are facing the setter as they jump
Starting to jump before the left foot is down
Not using the inside of the left foot to stop the forward momentum
Not using their arms to help them jump
Being elevators instead of roller coasters
The high school players that struggle with their approaches are surprised when they see their bad habits in a slow motion video of their approach to attack. They have no idea. They approached ineffectively for so long, with no one correcting them, they thought they were doing it correctly.
Once the final two steps are understood, we can slowly work on getting them to those final two.
I don’t give them a prescribed number of steps to take. First, I have them back up a few steps and walk into the steps. Eventually, I will speed them up. I tell them to go as quickly as they can, and as slowly as they need to, to get to the last two steps. Make sure those last two steps remain powerful. They have to get this down.
I don’t want to prescribe the number of steps they can take. I don’t want them to think ...
“I have to take 4 steps“
“That’s all I can take?“
“I can’t get there in 3 steps.”
In the process drills, I tell them to take as many or as few steps as they want – as long as the last two are as they practiced. Again, go as fast as you can, but as slowly as you need.
Another very important thing players need to learn is where to jump in relation to the ball's path. This is why working on the ground understanding contact point and trajectories is so important. They need to understand the path of the set and where to jump so the ball will pass in front of them when they are at the peek of their jumps.
This is not easy. Learning when to leave so the ball will be in a spot where it can be struck over the net. And at the same time, getting to the spot where the last two steps puts them in position to jump so the ball and the player meet at exactly the right spot in the air. It is not easy.
During practice each approach must be at the same speed – game speed. When a player speeds up her approach, she covers more distance. If a player practices at one speed and then changes in a game, being in the right place at the right time in the air becomes even harder.
Next dart: Please stop teaching players to jump, turning into the net and swinging at air. By the way, it didn’t take me 35 years to figure out this one.
First, can we agree that unless a team is running an extremely fast tempo offense – which 99% of high schools can’t run – the middle hitter is not fooling anyone when she jumps and swings at air because she is trying to hold the blocker.
This swinging at air creates the lazy habit of just jumping and turning to the net. I call it jump-turning. Bottom line, there is no reason to swing unless one is swinging at the ball.
Once, while picking my son up from school, I watched the volleyball coach working with a group of young kids. She had them lined up on the three-meter line practicing their approaches. Not only were they approaching perpendicular to the net, the coach was emphasizing turning to the net as they jumped. Two bad habits. Oh, I forgot, she had them swinging as if they were attacking and following through past their bodies. That’s three bad habits created in one drill. The trifecta of bad habits.
Of those three bad habits, one is extremely difficult to correct. Why is teaching hitters to turn into the net without attacking a ball a bad idea?
There are two reasons players struggle to attack efficiently. One, they are late. Two, they developed the habit of jump-turning. I will talk about being late later. Let’s focus on this crazy habit of jump-turning to the net.
Too many coaches create this habit with good intentions ... I think. The idea they are trying to convey is jumping and turning through the ball. That might be good in theory ... nope, not even good in theory. Forget I said that.
Let's remember the throwing motion. Where does the right shoulder go? It goes back to create power by involving the core. The core cannot be involved when the right shoulder goes forward.
Players go through this jump-turning movement to the net in practices and warm-ups so much they begin to approach and attack that way.
If they weren't late on approach, jump-turning will make them late after they jump. Before they can make a good swing at the ball that right shoulder needs to move back to swing. By the time they do that, the ball is too low and they have begun their decent. The ball flies out of bounds, and, listen for it, yep, the coach yells “Snap your wrist.”
I insist that if we approach and don’t swing at a ball, we should land facing the setter. With high school teams I’ve helped for the last decade, getting players to stop jumping and turning has been a chore.
Almost without exception, every girl approaches, jump-turns, and lands facing the net. And most of these kids played club ball for years. That is what they have been taught. Not surprisingly, all of these kids move their right shoulders toward the ball before they swing. Not surprisingly, they were not very successful. That one move changes timing and eliminates power.
We did basic drills on the floor to get them to understand what the hitting motion is and how much power is lost by jump-turning. That’s half the battle. Getting them to use that motion in the air and not instantly move the right shoulder to the ball, is frustrating work. Everything they did for years has to change. When do I start my approach? How do I jump without turning? What does it feel like to move my right shoulder and arm back? It is a tough transition.
That is the 2nd hardest habit to break when working with hitters. The first is trying to change someone who is goofy-footed, their last two steps are left right instead of right left. Goofy-footedness is not taught by anyone. It is just ignored at a young age by someone who shouldn’t be coaching. If it’s not chan
ged early, coaches better hope the player reaches 6 foot 4 inches so it doesn’t matter as much.
Last dart: Once in the air, the players need to use what they did when striking a ball on the ground.
The process is the same:
Both arms up
Left arm relaxed pointing at the ball
Right shoulder and arm stretching back
The hip and shoulders turn through
The left arm drops as the right side reaches toward the ball
As the turn begins, the right shoulder pulls the right arm through
The right arm extends and pulls the right hand through the top of the ball
After contact with the ball, the player needs to land on both feet. Landing on one foot is dangerous. No matter her size, every ounce of body weight being dropped on one leg from any height is tough on the knee and ankle. Sooner or later, one will bend the wrong way.
In review:
Work on the last two steps
Work on the last two steps
Work on the last two steps
Jump putting the body in the hitting position
After contact, land on two feet
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