Blocking is a
commonly misunderstood skill. Most people feel they have failed at blocking if
they are not able to prevent the opposing team from spiking the ball across the
net. However, the point of blocking is to guide the ball to your own teammates
by eliminating an alley on the court. It is always nice to block a ball though.
It’s not as
much fun to be blocked however, and your teammates don’t really like you when
that happens. Many teams struggle with being able to recover a blocked ball
regardless of whether they’ve trained during scrimmages. This drill can be
beneficial to a team that is struggling with recovering blocked balls and it
has the added benefit of not needing two full teams of six (or seven if you
include a libero).
The coach
will set up the drill by finding lines on the gym floor that are about even
with the volleyball court and declaring those to be the side lines and end lines,
it might not be exactly even but if you want you can use floor tape (or
something approved by the custodians) to accurately draw a court. It is
important to set up a line of tape along the bleachers that depicts the top
of the net. This drill isn’t useful if your players are hitting the ball into
the ‘net’ because the angles for recovering blocked balls are all wrong.
Set up your
team like you would for a normal scrimmage with six people on the court in
appropriate positions. The coach will start by tossing the ball to the setter
from somewhere at the back of the court and then the setter will set one of the
hitters. If you are just starting the drill you want your hitters to begin with
softer roll shots with just enough momentum to get far enough back for your
defenders to pick up. The attacker will hit the ball against the bleachers,
above the net line, and play continues as if someone on the opposing team
blocked the ball. Continue until a player hits the ball into the net after the third
ball or someone tools the ball out of the court.
A tool being that
the hitter attacked the ball into the blockers hands and then the ball went
out. That would be a point for your own team and a point is a point, regardless
of how you earn it.
This drill
works on a player’s reaction time as well as reinforcing their coverage.
Players are more likely to actually go to their coverage zones and build the
muscle memory when faced with the situation. As the drill progresses have the
players increase the intensity of their attacks so that the players need to
react faster to the oncoming ball.
One thing to
note is that you don’t want the players to hit too high as this is unrealistic.
A blocker won’t be able to reach a ball that is seven feet over the net. Have
the players continue play regardless of how high the ball rebounds.
One of the
benefits of playing against the bleachers is that most bleachers are uneven
which means that the ball will rebound in unexpected ways at times. This works
even better for training reaction times and so that the players don’t get used
to how the ball should rebound.
If you would
like to train reaction time in your players on an individual level without
involving a scrimmage there are a few training drills I recommend. Have players
pair up with one volleyball per pair. Have one player stand with a ball at
about waist level and have the other player stand with their hands over the
ball. The goal of this drill is for the player with their hands above the ball
to catch it when the other player drops the ball. Start with just having the
first player drop the ball and the other catching it. Advance this by requiring
the player trying to catch the ball to clap their hands above the ball before
they catch the ball. A further advancement (and extremely tricky) is to have
the player clap below then above the ball and then catch the ball.
Another
training technique that I’d recommend requires an added training tool. Again,
have players in pairs with one reaction
ball per pair. Have one player face a wall in a ready position with the second
player standing a few feet behind the first. The second player has the ball in
hand and throws it at the wall and then the first player has to catch the ball.
Do about five each before switching and do this for anywhere from ten to twenty
minutes. This will work change of direction, agility, reaction time, and
hand-eye control.
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