Volleyball Skills & Drills

Volleyball Skills & Drills American Volleyball Coaches Association Kinda S. Lenberg Editor Human Kinetics Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Volleyball skills & drills / American Volleyball Coaches Association; Kinda Lenberg, editor. p. cm. ISBN 0-7360-5862-1 (soft cover : alk. paper) 1. Volleyball--Training. I. Title: Volleyball skills & drills. II. Lenberg, Kinda. III. American Volleyball Coaches Association. GV1015.5.T73V656 2006 796.325--dc22 2005017608 ISBN: 0-7360-5862-1 Copyright © 2006 by American Volleyball Coaches Association The Web addresses cited in this text were current as of September 2005 unless otherwise noted. Acquisitions Editor: Jana Hunter; Developmental Editor: Kase Johnstun; Assistant Editor: Cory Weber; Copyeditor: John Wentworth; Proofreader: Sarah Wiseman; Graphic Designer: Robert Reuther; Graphic Artist: Tara Welsch; Photo Manager: Dan Wendt; Cover Designer: Keith Blomberg; Photographer (cover): Associated Press; Photographer (interior): Tom Kimmell, unless otherwise noted; Art Manager: Kareema McLendon; Illustrator: K&M Services; Printer: Versa Press We thank Joan Powell and Coronado High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, for assistance in providing the location for the photo shoot for this book. Human Kinetics books are available at special discounts for bulk purchase. Special editions or book excerpts can also be created to specification. For details, contact the Special Sales Manager at Human Kinetics. Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Human Kinetics Web site: www.HumanKinetics.com United States: Human Kinetics P.O. Box 5076 Champaign, IL 61825-5076 800-747-4457 e-mail: [email protected] Canada: Human Kinetics 475 Devonshire Road Unit 100 Windsor, ON N8Y 2L5 800-465-7301 (in Canada only) e-mail: [email protected] Europe: Human Kinetics 107 Bradford Road Stanningley Leeds LS28 6AT, United Kingdom +44 (0) 113 255 5665 e-mail: [email protected] Australia: Human Kinetics 57A Price Avenue Lower Mitcham, South Australia 5062 08 8277 1555 e-mail: [email protected] New Zealand: Human Kinetics Division of Sports Distributors NZ Ltd. P.O. Box 300 226 Albany North Shore City Auckland 0064 9 448 1207 e-mail: [email protected] iii Contents Introduction by Taras Liskevych v Key to Diagrams x CHAPTER 1 Serving . .1 Tom Peterson CHAPTER 2 Receiving Serves . 19 Marilyn Nolen CHAPTER 3 Setting . .35 Sean Byron CHAPTER 4 Attacking . .53 Jim McLaughlin CHAPTER 5 Blocking . .69 Don Hardin CHAPTER 6 Digging . .91 Joan Powell CHAPTER 7 Playing Offense . 111 Joe Sagula CHAPTER 8 Playing Defense . 13 3 Julie Backstrom and Mike Schall Edited by Russ Rose CHAPTER 9 Transitioning . 14 9 Stephanie Schleuder CHAPTER 10 Practicing . 17 3 Paul Arrington About the American Volleyball Coaches Association 18 9 About the Editor 19 1 About the Contributors 19 3 iii v Introduction It is a privilege for me to introduce Volleyball Skills & Drills, an outstanding book that will become an invaluable resource for you. Volleyball Skills & Drills is a compendium of skill and drill instructions from the very best coaches in the game today and is presented to you by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA). The six major skills of volleyball—serving, receiving, setting, attacking, blocking, and digging, as well as the tactics of team defense, team offense, and transition—will be presented and discussed in a way so that you can apply them to any level of play. Every chapter will provide detailed instruction, including many progressions and variations, and will be supported by drills specifically arranged to help your athletes progress through the varying levels of difficulty within the skills and tactics. Volleyball was first played more than 100 years ago as a non-strenuous lunchtime activity and has now become a fast-paced, action-oriented sport played worldwide. The 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo were the first to feature men’s and women’s indoor volleyball, and this great spectator sport has been an Olympic fixture ever since. Volleyball boomed in the United States with the passage of Title IX, when it became one of the premier women’s sports. With the advent of rally scoring, the game has become much more understandable for the average fan. The intricacies of volleyball skills, techniques, and tactics—while steeped in tradition—are constantly evolving. Volleyball Skills & Drills contains all the new and updated techniques and tactics and will become a fixture in your volleyball library. This book will be a great resource for your coaching and teaching of this great sport. Volleyball is unlike any other sport when it comes to teamwork. A team cannot attack if a proper set has not been executed. Of course, the proper set cannot mate- rialize unless a solid pass has been implemented. With the advent of rally scoring, whereby every error is a point for the opponents, teamwork becomes more crucial. Truly, each player’s actions and skill level on the court affect the five other members of the team—for every rally. In addition to the concept of teamwork in the truest sense of the word, volleyball is a unique team sport because of the following features: • Separation of Teams. The physical barriers of both a net and centerline sepa- rate the teams. Except for the dynamic hitting and blocking above the net in the attack zone, there is no defending, jostling for position or hands in your face as one performs his or her contact with the ball. • Small and Congested Playing Area. The volleyball half-court area of approxi- mately 900 square feet (81 square meters) is the smallest team sport playing area. Since there are six players in this half court, they must learn to perform in a limited area. Intricate movement patterns must be executed very quickly, must be efficient and must involve a minimum amount of movement. • Rotation. According to the rules, the six players must rotate on the court in a clockwise fashion following each service change. The original intent of this rule was to create an environment in which there was a generalization of skills. v vi • INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION • vii Today, there is more specialization for two reasons: (1) multiple substitutions at the collegiate and high school levels and (2) the addition of the libero—a player who can play back row for all six rotations. However, rotating still puts players in different positions and presents different situations where players must both perform different movements and utilize different skills. In addition, rotation results in new positions and perspectives for the entire team, present- ing many different relationships and spatial orientations among teammates. Finally, rotation creates a new personnel orientation for the opponents as they attempt to identify the hitters, setters, libero, and so forth, on the other side of the net. • Concept of Rebounding. Volleyball rules stipulate that the ball should never visibly come to rest. However, at the international and collegiate levels, there has been much more latitude given to the first contact. Even with this liberal- ization of rules each contact is, in effect, a rebound. The spatial positioning of the ball, as well as the sequence of the contact, determines which individual technique or skill will be employed in rebounding the ball. Rebounding is alien to our American sports culture, since almost all of our sports skills have a “catch and throw” orientation. Rebounding implies non-possessiveness, so in volleyball every player is in contact with the ball for a fraction of a second. For this reason, in most cases it is very important to assume a stable and bal- anced position prior to contact. • Cause and Effect. Other than the skill of serving, each volleyball skill is entirely dependent on the previous skill executed. Each contact is built upon the previous contact. Each player involved in the rally is part of the chain reaction. A cause-and-effect principle underlies every contact. • Unit Versus Individual. Volleyball is one of the best examples of teamwork in sport. As a result of the small and congested playing area, the concept of rebounding and the cause-and-effect principle, it is very difficult for one player to dominate a match completely. Each player must think of his or her role to better the play or make his or her teammate successful. • Fast Pace. Because of the small playing area, one is constantly transitioning from offense to defense in a split second. Both the serve and spike can travel at speeds of 50 to 70 miles per hour, and a player may have only a few hundredths of a second to react to the ball. As for skill development, ball control has always been a cornerstone for my teams at every level that I have coached. Very simply, the teams that have the best ball control and mastery of the six volleyball skills (serving, serve receiving, setting, attacking, blocking, digging) will be a contender at their respective levels. With the advent of rally scoring, the premium at the lower levels should be, more than ever, an emphasis on ball control! Every error results in a point. At the higher levels—top collegiate and international—attacking (particularly in transition), blocking, and serving factor heavily into determining the winner. As a beginning coach, I often followed the principle that at the lower levels serve-receiving will determine the level you play at and serving will determine who wins at that level. This holds for almost all levels except for top international volleyball, where successful attacking is often the most important ingredient to success. Once the coach and the players understand the unique features of this sport, the key to having a successful team is to teach and drill the correct six skills as well vi • INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION • vii as the correct offense, defense, and transition tactics.

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