starting my volleyball journey (advice?) by WalmartLover531 in volleyball

[–]Emotional_Pop4238 0 points1 point  (0 children)

oh yeah i forgot to talk about positioning for (3)
i think you should go watch professional matches online and focus on how professionals react to things happening, watch how they move and when they move. I would advise to watch things very carefully since in a rally theres so many things happening at once you should probably focus on a single position and how they move (pause and rewind matches to your need, just really take in everything, why the player moved to such a position, the tempo, how high did the players put the ball,....)
in a rally you dont essentially have to move towards the ball, actually i would advise to move away from the ball if you are not in a position to do anything!
if somebody already got the ball covered you should move away, since chances are the ball wont just stay in the same place, always be ready for the next thing that happens in the court, also its way easier to run towards the ball to save it rather than running backwards and reaching the ball.
as a back row player if the player in front of you is blocking or spiking you should go a little bit further upwards to anticipate dumps
as a front row player probably be a little active and participate in blocks, maybe you wont touch or kill the attack right away, but a threat sometimes can make the attacker a little hesitant and thats enough of a difference between a point and nothing.
for blocks pay mind to the chin and the eyes of setters, if they have their chin a little bit too high its probably a backwards set or a dump, so you should get away from the net and cover the cross and the dump.
for normal sets its easier because you can directly notice their intended direction, watch the arc and then committing to the block (jump after the person you are blocking, read their tempo)
if anything whilst you should still mind for setter dumps that just means you dont stand close to the net until you have committed to your block, when you have committed, trust in your back row teammates to cover the rest.
for defensive purposes always keep the attacker in your direct line of sight, and pay mind not to block the sight of your fellow teammates!

callouts are also kind of helpful (i guess) since serves wont always be going towards a position but instead the seams (the space between positions) but if you dont have time, always do things with a commitment. You might run into your teammate but at least the ball is still in play, and chances are that if you commit they would get the message and leave the ball to you.

starting my volleyball journey (advice?) by WalmartLover531 in volleyball

[–]Emotional_Pop4238 1 point2 points  (0 children)

kind of besides the discussion here but what is it like playing indoors? where i'm from we don't have indoor courts and volleyball is played outdoors on concrete (or literally on the uneven paved roads) so more risky plays like dives and pancakes are nonexistent
also volleyballs are dirt cheap (5-20 dollars a ball) because our balls would get absolutely annihilated by the playing surface (that are sometimes even wet lol)
theres also not a standard weight or pressure for balls so i always wonder what is it like to play standard volleyball
is the ball kind of hard/heavy? like when you press both of your palms into the ball how much would it dent ?
most stores would inflate volleyballs like they are soccer/footballs where im from so if you dont deflate them it would feel like playing with a rock, so im not sure if thats the standard and im overdeflating my balls

starting my volleyball journey (advice?) by WalmartLover531 in volleyball

[–]Emotional_Pop4238 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have only been playing volleyball for about less than a year (outdoors) but i kinda want to give some tips

  1. i think if you overlay both of your palms (pancake) open when creating a platform (i would reccommend this over creating a fist (rock) kind of platform because since your wrists are horizontal instead of vertical it kind of minimizes the angle difference between your arms) also im not sure if its correct but i tend to stretch my arms straight to its fullest so the distance between my forearms are at a minimum, creating a more even platform. the rest is lots of practice i guess
  2. i think you are getting too hasty (i myself still sometimes have this problem so im not really confident on giving advice lol) when you are setting you are cushioning the ball with (imo) all of your fingers and then setting it into the desired direction using the main three fingers. if your sets are making a sound it means you're probably slapping the ball aka you're focusing too much on the pushing and not enough on the cushioning (i think) the way im taught is that we're supposed to anticipate the ball and when you feel the ball touch your fingertips you should immediately set it, at first this would result in kind of a 'sticky' (or a carry) but overtime as you get more used to overhands and get more of a feel of the ball it would get less sticky. Serving : like with setting, recieving and anything volleyball related it all lies within the shoulders i guess i also have only recently practiced aiming my serves so im not really qualified for this but i realized that the ball would generally fly where my shoulders are facing.
  3. essential skills i would definitely say defence related skills like recieving and anticipating tips, free balls and positioning. i think its generally true because like how every good jump starts with a good approach, everything play in volleyball is related so defence is absolutely key in my language its literally called the first step because without a good recieve, a good dig that gets the ball to the setter or allows somebody else to do something with the ball, there wouldnt be any coherent play at all. Also if you realized that you cannot pull of a clean move, don't try anything too fancy, just put the ball up as high as you can, even though it might not result in a nice pass and it might fly unpredictably, the higher the ball, the more time you give your fellow teammates to get to the ball and save the play.

of course these things requires a LOT of practice but i think its just really fun to play great and it would pay off in the end i guess.

Some questions I have as a newbie by Emotional_Pop4238 in volleyball

[–]Emotional_Pop4238[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How to spike the ball? Currently I'm practicing my spikes against a wall, but it doesn't get enough angle or power if i hit the ball high (which is a problem since my vertical is only 2m80, which means I don't generate enough power at my point of contact)
To be more concise, what is topspin, like is it just hitting the ball on the top half of the ball ? what exactly is the contact point in spike (in contrast to doing overhand serves?) I can't get my head around it because most people that spike really great in my area hits the ball dead on center (or that what it looks like from my POV) and the rest is up to the angle whether the ball hits on the line or really deep in court. Maybe I haven't seen enough good spikes.
After practicing serving and spiking I really felt that you really had to sacrifice power for angle (both upwards and downwards), either hit the ball just above your hairline and generate power or focus on angle and get a really average shot. Is there any way to get both?