| Volleyball Prepping and Practice |
From "Family Sports"
episode SPT-109 |
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As with most sports, warming up and practice drills are important to enhance your game play and avoid injury. Before beginning a game or match, take a few minutes to stretch and do some warming-up exercises. After some jogging or other physical activity to raise your heart rate and core temperature, you might try some jumping drills such as block-jumps. With another player on the opposite side of the net, go through the motions of blocking and jumping (figure A). Move up and down the net as you practice jumps in order to prepare yourself for the lateral movements you're likely to encounter when returning volleys. This exercise is particularly useful in warming up the leg muscles. After jumping drills, you might do some practice passes with a teammate (figure B). Begin by simply tossing the ball back and forth, then proceed to hitting, returning and spiking it back and forth to mimic some of the techniques used when playing. With a partner, practice passing and setting the ball (figure C). Work on your setting technique, concentrating on the proper use of your fingers and your follow-through. Your final drill might consist of what players term "peppering." This involves alternating between passing, setting and spiking in a single, combined drill. This helps by combining various elements of play into a single exercise. One way to help strengthen all of your game techniques is to play with a reduced team such as two-on-two volleyball (figure D). The two-on-two variation is growing in popularity, and a few specialized rules have been developed. Strategically, the game is the same, but since only two players are defending an entire side of the court, the receiving players play back on the court because it's easier to run forward to receive the ball than backward. Players alternate the serve and court position just as full teams rotate to change position and server. Two-on-two volleyball is a challenging variation that will improve your overall game skills.
RESOURCES :
USA Volleyball
USA Volleyball is the national governing body for the sport of volleyball in the United States.
Web site: www.usavolleyball.org
Volleyball World Wide
An online resource on the sport of volleyball.
Web site: www.volleyball.org
Volleyball magazine
774 Marsh Street, Suite C
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
Web site: www.volleyballmag.com
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