The info campaign #365volley continues! Every day we will post interesting facts from the volleyball world, for 1 year, on our Facebook page. The materials have been researched by the international volunteers Alexandra (Portugal), Azer (Azerbaijan) and Alejandro (Spain) and prepared by Andreea (Romania). Follow us on Facebook to find out more about its history, variations, playing rules and more about this world!
Here are the June facts!
1. In the book “Thinking Volleyball”, first published in 2003, the author Mike Hebert goes beyond the development of motor skills to show a unique cerebral look at how athletes learn. The author also describing how important a positive environment among everyone involved with the programme is as he considers this to be a vital component for any coaching programme both on and off the court.
2. Let’s see now some exercises for the upper body
Push-ups are a compound exercise, meaning that they work multiple muscle groups at once. Push-ups strengthen your arms, core, chest, legs, and hips. To do a push-up, start in a plank position, then bend your elbows, lower your body to the ground, and push yourself back up. Engage your core to keep your body in a straight line as your lower down and push up.
Push-up - Perform three sets of 10 repetitions.
3. Tricep dips work the muscles on the back of your upper arms, as well as the pectoralis minor. To do a tricep dip, stand with your back to a low, flat surface such as a table or a chair. Keeping your body off of the object, place your hands on either side of your body with fingers pointing forward. With your back flat and knees bent at 90 degrees, bend your arms and lower your body toward the ground, then push yourself back up, keeping your elbows tucked tight to your sides.
Tricep dip - Perform three sets of eight repetitions.
4. Bicep curls strengthen your deltoids, wrists, flexors, and biceps. To do a bicep curl, hold a dumbbell or kettlebell. Keeping the elbow tucked tight to your side, and raise the weight up to your shoulder. Slowly lower. You can do the same exercise with a band tied to a stable object.
Bicep curl - Perform three sets of 10 repetitions per arm.
5. Burpees work your arms, chest, quads, glutes, hamstrings, and core. Begin standing up, then bend over until your hands touch the floor, and jump your feet back into a plank position. Hold the plank for a count, or do a push-up, and then jump your feet back to your hands and stand up. To make this harder, you can add a vertical jump after standing up.
Burpee - Perform three sets of six repetitions.
6. The core exercises are as important as all the rest. Let’s see 4 exercises for this:
. Planks strengthen your arms, back, shoulders, glutes, and hamstrings. To do a plank, extend your feet behind you and place your elbows under your shoulders, pushing against your arms and feet to lift your body up off the floor. Keep your back straight and hold.
Plank - Perform two sets of 30 seconds each
7. Russian twists work your obliques. To do a Russian twist, sit on the floor with your knees bent and feet flat on the ground. Lift your feet off the floor, bringing your knees toward your chest. Twist your torso from right to left, tapping your hands to the ground with each twist. You can make this exercise harder by holding a dumbbell, plate, or medicine ball.
Russian twist - Two sets of 30 seconds each.
8. “Volleyball drills” published in 2014 by Chris Kroeger is another book about volleyball, more specifically compiling the most effective drills. The book has many illustrations and one of the purposes is to help improve the fundamental volleyball skills. Volleyball Drills features 97 basic drills & 19 basic games designed to help players improve their serving, passing, setting, attacking, blocking, and defending skills.
9. Crunches work the rectus abdominis, the midsection of your body. To do a crunch, lie flat on the ground, bend your knees to put your feet flat on the ground, put your hands behind your head, and contract your abs to curl up toward your knees. Don't pull on your neck -- only go as far as you can with the strength of your abs.
Crunches - Perform two sets of 45 repetitions.
10. Leg raises strengthen your interior hip flexors and lower abs. To do a leg raise, lay flat on the ground with your arms at your sides and bring your legs to hover six inches off the ground. Raise your legs up until they are 90 degrees from your torso, then slowly lower them back to a hover.
Leg raise - Perform two sets of 12 repetitions.
11. It is important throughout your training to continue to work on your game. Certain aspects of your game will change as you get stronger in the gym. You will find your upper body getting stronger and you are able to hit the volleyball faster and harder.
12. You will also notice that you are jumping higher than you previously could due to increasing your power in the gym. One thing that shouldn't change (unless you get sloppy) is your biomechanics. You will have the same form on your bump/set/spike/serve as you did previously.
13. Continue to play even during the off-season. It will keep your mind fresh and you can continue to work on aspects of the game that you lacked the previous season. Also, playing is a great form of cardio and allows the time to pass quickly. Before you know it you will have done a few hours of cardio without even realizing it.
14. Stick with it and never give up. Success comes with hard work. If perfection came easy then everyone would be the same. What sets you apart from everyone else? Never be outworked. Give yourself every opportunity to be great. Train hard and work hard.
15. The Volleyball Coaching Bible” published in 2002 and more recently The Volleyball Coaching Bible volume II published in 2015 by The American Volleyball Coaches Association and Cecile Reynaud, is considered to be a must-read for volleyball coaches at all levels. In the second volume, twenty top volleyball coaches share personal insights and advice on building a successful high school, college, etc.
16. Let’s get to check a bit deeper the techniques used in volleyball. Here we have 3 tips from coach Byram (Nike Volleyball Camps)
The key to a good overhand serve - “While there are several steps or pieces to the overhead serve, I think as players begin to become strong enough to use it, they need to remember to accelerate through the ball. A lot of younger players swing at the ball and slow down at contact. At Nike Volleyball Camps, we're encouraging them to continue to swing or accelerate through the ball to get the power they need.”
17. How to improve service receiving - “There is only one way to really get better and that is reps. I'd encourage newer players to learn to set the platform to the target with as little motion as possible From relaxed positions with the arms in front just extend the hands forward to create the angle you're looking for.”
18. How to improve blocking skills - As you go up in level, you need to pay attention to where the hitters are and identify them before the play. If you know where their approach is coming from, you can adjust your starting position and put yourself in a position to be disruptive to them. Once the ball leaves the setter's hands, the eyes really need to be able to come off the ball and find the hitter and then have both the hitter and ball in their focus at the attack. Too often players follow the ball and miss all the clues of the hitter's approach.”
19. Let’s see more skills and techniques used in volleyball, starting with different types of serves.
20.
An underhand serve is a type of serve in which the player holds the ball in one hand, swings the other in an arc motion below the waist and strikes the ball from the bottom with a fist to put it in play.
21. There are three other main types of serves utilized in volleyball: Floater Serve, Topspin Serve and Jump serve.
22. “The Volleyball Psychology Workbook: How to Use Advanced Sports Psychology to Succeed on the Volleyball Court” published in 2017 written by Danny Uribe was exclusively designed for volleyball players to build mental toughness and boost their athletic performance.
23. A back row attack in volleyball occurs when one of the three back row players attacks the ball and contacts it at the top of the net. In a back row attack, the back row player jumps from behind the white line, also known as the ten-foot line, or the three-meter line and contacts the ball.
24. Penalty - In a back row attack, the back row attacker must jump from behind the three-meter line. If the player attacks from in front of the three-meter line, a penalty is called.
25. What Position Should You Play in Volleyball? In volleyball, the position you play should be based on the type of player you are, your size and agility, and the skills at which you excel.
26. We already talked about the positions. Yet, let’s retake them to see more about the skills and abilities you need for each role.
The outside hitter is a position that requires a good all-around player. The team relies on the outside hitter for a significant amount of serve reception. It is not only responsible for blocking the other team’s opposite but needs to help the middle blocker with some of the quick attacks and setter dumps. The outside hitter's best skills are: Hitting (front and back row), passing and blocking.
27. The middle blocker is mostly responsible for keeping the opponent’s hitters in check. A good middle is great at reading the setter to determine where she will set the ball and is quick enough to get there and put up a solid block. The middle blocker's best skills are: blocking, hitting, reading the setter and lateral movement.
28. The volleyball setter is often referred to as the quarterback of the sport. The setter has to be a smart tactician and needs to know the team better than anybody to determine who the set should go to and when. Good setters can deliver the ball where it needs to be when setting underhand or overhand. Setters also need to be good diggers, great communicators, and team leaders. The setter's best skills are: all-around ball control, setting (overhand and underhand), digging, communication and team leadership.
29. The Best 5 US Volleyball Colleges are: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Stanford University, University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA), University of Florida and Harvard University
30. The opposite is responsible for blocking the other team’s best outside hitter, so they need to be able to set the block well for the middle and take away a good portion of the court with good blocking position. The opposite's best skills are: hitting (front and back row) and blocking.