The Passion Play

Since Christmas break starts next week, I probably won't be posting anything for a few weeks. So, I thought that this last post should be able something a little less technical. Volleyball is definitely a sport that requires a lot of skill, practice, training, and ability. However, volleyball isn't just about physical ability. Volleyball has a lot to do with something else to . . .

Passion. 

In so many ways, volleyball has nothing to do with skill and everything to do with a genuine love of the game and a will to win. Often times in volleyball, you'll see girls wearing shirts that have corny sayings on them like, "Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard." Although it sounds corny, in some ways, it's true. 

I still have a very vivid memory of a volleyball game I played when I was in the seventh grade. My team was down, and the score was 9-22. My coach called a time out, and told us that only we controlled the outcome of this game. We could give up now, and accept the loss, or we could fight. My team decided that we were going to fight. 

When we got back on the court, we started playing like we were tied with the opposing team, not down by 13 points. And guess what happened? (I'm sure you can guess because if anything else happened I wouldn't be telling this story.) We started catching up. And with every pointed we earned we gained more and more momentum. And the more momentum we gained, the more excited we became.

At the end of the game, the score was 26-24. Us. 

Passion isn't everything. Obviously if the U.S. national team played a local middle school's team, and they played with absolutely no passion, and the middle school team played with all the passion in the world, the U.S. national team would still win. 

Passion is not a synonym for miracle. Rather, passion is the deciding factor in those close matches. It's the part of the game that players can't be taught; they have to simply have that drive inside of them. 

Before every game my high school team played at our state tournament, there was an inspirational speech we would watch to get us ready for the game. (Click here to view it yourself.) Now I can't say that we won every game we played at the state tournament, but I can say that we played with as much heart and drive as we've ever played with. And I think that was why, after every tournament, we left the court feeling like winners. 

Serving Up, Well, Serves

For my last technical post for a while, I thought I would talk about the one super-important aspect of volleyball that we have yet to discuss. I'll give you some hints to see if you can figure out what it is: it's how you start every game, all positions have to do it, and it can be the difference between winning and losing a game.

If you guessed serving, you're right.

Although many people think that serving is just a simple, necessary way of starting each rally, serving in reality is much, much more than that. 

Yes, serving is how you start every rally. But that doesn't mean the serve can't be the way you end many rallies as well. The ultimate goal of a serve is to get an ace. The word "ace" can be interpreted in different ways in volleyball, but the general gist is as follows: an ace happens when the serve either hits the ground on the other side of the net or one of the players on the opposing team shanks the ball, making it unplayable. 

A basic serve is not a hard skill to learn. All you need is a little power, a little technique, and the tiniest sprinkle of aim. However, mastering a serve, or serving in general, is a much bigger task. 

To start, there are many different types of serves. The two most basic types of serves are float serves and topspin serves. Float serves are serves with little to no spin on the ball, and they have a tendency to "float" or move while they are in the air. Topspin serves, on the other hand, have a heavy downwards spin on them, and then often drop sooner and sharper than they appear to.

Another common way to separate serving styles and techniques is into short serves and deep serves. Deep serves are typically supposed to land in the last five or ten feet of the court. With deep serves, the hope is that either the players on the opposing team will think it's out of bound, or they will be caught on their toes and not be able to move back in time to give a good pass. 

A short serve, on the other hand, is meant to be served within the first five or ten feet of the court. With short serves, the hope is that either the players will think the ball is too short to be over the net and not even try to get it, or that the players will be caught on their heels and not be able to get to the short ball in time. 

There is also the all-impressive jump serving, which incorporates all of the above techniques and styles, but with a jump. To learn more about serving in general, click here. Until next week, practice some topspins or some short serves (whatever FLOATS your boat) and happy holidays!

Don't PLAY Me

There are lots of different versions of volleyball. You could compare them to the different versions of the iPhone, I suppose. First, there was Volleyball 1.0, also know as middle school volleyball. This is mostly just the volleyball flying aimlessly back and forth over the net, only landing in the court about 40% of the time. The most basic skills are there, but just like with the first iPhone, there is a lot of refining and improvements that can be done.

Then there's Volleyball 2.0. This would be like your average JV2 team in high school. They can bump (sort of) they can set (if the refs are generous) and they can spike (once in a while). No, it's not pretty, but it's getting better.

Following this progression, the next version would be Volleyball 3.0, or JV high school volleyball. They've got the bump, the set, and the spike pretty much down, but they haven't gone much farther. Maybe they run some ones here and there, but for the most part, it's just a really refined version of the basics. They aren't doing anything too fancy, just trying to keep the ball in play and wait for an especially good hit from their one superstar hitter or for the new libero on the other team to shank a serve.

Finally, there's Volleyball 4.0. Although not the most advanced version, Volleyball 4.0 is what I am going to talk about today because it is when one of my favorite features becomes available: Plays.

Plays in volleyball are an interesting, complicated, and extremely important part of any successful team's offense. Plays, in the best way I can describe them, are different ways that the offense can attack the ball in order to get a kill and delay or confuse the players on the other side of the net. 

Now, plays are not always standard throughout all teams. In fact, 99% of the time, they are not. Every team in the country has different plays with different names and different ideas of when the play should be run. For example, my team in high school had plays such as Piggy, Black, Gold, Double D, and Snake. These were plays with names that we made up ourselves, and no other team in the country has those same plays.

However, there are a few more basic plays that are standards pretty much everywhere. Some of those plays are explained below:

One: a middle hit when the setter sets a very low set and the middle hitter must approach really fast 

Hut: a low or "quick" set to the outside hitter; similar to a one but for a different position

X: two players switch positions to hit; for example, the middle goes behind the setter to hit from the right side and the right side moves to hit in the middle

32: a set that is placed between the middle and outside positions; either the middle hitter or the outside hitter can attack

To learn about other offensive plays that are pretty universally accepted, click here. That's all I got for today, PLV (peace, love, and volleyball)!

HIT Me Baby (One More Time)!

The server goes to the backline. She slowly bounces the ball a few times, waiting for the referee to signal for her. Once the whistle is blown, she gives it a nice, low toss, and floats the ball into the left back corner on the opposing side. The libero, who is stationed there for that rotation of serve-receive, gives a beautiful pass to the front right position, where the setter had released to just seconds earlier. Her fingers rap around the edges of the ball as it reaches her forehand. She then pushes a gorgeous set to the outside. Now, it's all up to-

the hitter.

Ah yes, the hitter. Or as many of you may know her as, the spiker (which is not what the position is really called, but you are forgiven for your ignorance, for now). The hitter is undoubtedly the position on the court that receives the most glory and credit, and in some ways, this recognition is well-deserved. 

The hitter is the main, and I guess you could say only, offensive position on the team. Their job is to try to hit the ball so that the other team cannot get a good pass, so that their team wins the point. However, hitters do not just play offense. They are also an important part of the defense as well. When the hitters on the other team go up to hit, the hitters on the opposing team jump up at the net and use their hands as an extra barrier to try to stop the ball from ever reaching their side of the net. This is called a block. 

Although it may seem as though being a hitter is a fairly easy position to play, it's not. Many people think the only thing you need to be a hitter is the genetic quality of being tall, but this is not the case. Yes, if you are on the taller side, it is easier for coaches to train you to be a good hitter. However, I have played against many hitters in my day that if you saw in passing, you would probably qualify as rather short, around 5'5" or 5'6". 

There is a lot more that goes into being a hitter than simply your height. Another misconception about hitting is that to be successful in that position, you need to have above-average strength. Again, this is not the case. Often, a smart hit is going to be much more effective than a hard-as-you-can hit. Hitters need to be able to assess what is happening on the other side of the court and decide where the most effective spot to place the ball would be. 

Unlike liberos and setters, where there is one or at most two of them on the court at a time, there are always at least three hitters on the court at a time. There is the outside, who hits from the left front position, the middle, who hits from the middle front position, and the right side, who hits from the right front position. With three different offensive players in the front row, there are many different plays and sets that can be run to try to get a kill, but I'll go over those in my next blog.

Until then, it you want to learn more about hitters and how they contribute to the game of volleyball, you can read about it here. And with that, we've now completed the sequence of bump, set, and spike! Woohoo! It's been a KILL-er run if you ask me. ;) Come back next week so we can really DIVE into the game of volleyball!

Game, SET, Match

Alright, since I spent my last post hyping up liberos/defensive specialists, I believe it's only fair that I do my next post on the next player to handle the ball after the passer: the setter.

To the unaided eye, it may seem that the setter isn't that important, or that her job isn't that hard. However, if you start to think more critically, the setter, in many ways, has the hardest and most important job on the court. 

The setter is like the point guard in basketball, she is the one who decides which plays the hitters are going to run. Plays in volleyball relate to the different kinds of sets the hitters can give the hitter. For example, my high school varsity team had a play called Double D, which meant the outside hitter would go for a hunt set, the middle hitter would hit a one, and the right side hitter would go for a back one. 

If that made no sense to you at all, don't worry, I'll explain in it a further post. Basically, the setter decides which hitter is going to get the ball, and what type of set they are going to get. In the most basic terms, the setter really controls the offense of a team. 

Besides having to make crucial decisions for how a team will run their offense, setters have a very physically demanding job as well. The setter is the only player on the team who touches the ball just about every time the ball comes over the net. And although the passers are supposed to pass the ball right to the setter in the right from position, I speak from experience when I say that this doesn't always happen. Setters often having to go running (and diving) all the way across the court to save a ball. 

I, personally, have always secretly wished that I was a setter. I fooled myself into thinking I could set for one season of club volleyball, but when I returned to my high school team the following year I was awakened from my dream. Although setting looks as though the physical act is easy, I can assure you it's not. Setting is arguably the hardest skill in volleyball to perfect, and it is one of those abilities that most of the best setters you watch are simply born with. (Lucky ducks)

Now I'll get on to the last position in my next post (it's a crowd favorite I guarantee it), but if you want to learn some more about what it takes to be a setter, there is a great article here about some different skills and abilities that setters need to have if they want to be the best at their position. Until next time!

"The Girl with the Wrong Jersey"

Now that we've become acquainted with each other, I decided it was time to blog about something (or some position) very near and dear to my heart: the libero.

Now many people simply know the libero as "the player wearing the wrong color jersey." This an unfortunate failure of our sports fans that is extremely upsetting to me. Because, in reality, the libero is so much more than simply a player wearing the "wrong" jersey. 

Now, I might be a little bias when it comes to talking about the libero, simply because this was the position I myself played in middle and high school. But in general, I and many other players as well believe that the liberos are not properly understood and under appreciated. (Just so you know, I will be doing posts about the other positions too, I just decided to start with this one since it is my position.) So, let's get down to business. 

Obviously, the libero is a passer. I think most people understand that. She is usually the best passer on the team, and he/she will play the back row for hitters in the front row that are perhaps not-so-stellar passers. The libero can go in for as many different players as she pleases, and she does not need to sub in and out of the court. That being said, she cannot, under any circumstance, play the front row. She can also only serve for one player on the team, per set. (If you would like to read more about the specific rules that apply to the libero, click here for the official rules.)

All of the positions on the court are difficult. I'm not going to try and convince you that the other positions have it easy, because they don't. However, think about it this way: the libero, or simply the passers in general, are the only ones that have to play the ball off of an attack from the other team. The passers job is to pass balls that the hitters are trying to hit away from them at all costs. 

Setters, on the other hand, are getting a ball that is a passed to them from their own teammates, who are trying to give them as perfect of a pass as possible. Similarly, hitters are receiving the ball from the setters, who are trying to set them up for a kill. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that the passers are the only position were the ball is not coming from a teammate. 

However, being the libero, or a passer in general, does have its perks. One of my favorite things about being the libero is when you get a great save. One of those moments when the hitter spikes it super hard, in an area that you're not, and everyone (including you) thinks it's down . . . and then you get it up. It's honestly the best feeling in the world.

Speaking of the best in the world, to end this post here is a little video of the Japanese National Volleyball Team's libero. She was voted libero of the tournament in the last Olympics, and for a good reason. If you're not a libero, or even a volleyball player yourself, watching this video should make you feel about 10% of what it feels like to actually be there, getting those incredible ups for yourself. :)

The Court of the Sport

Okay, since my last couple of posts have been more on the philosophical part of volleyball, I thought this week I would focus on something more practical: the court.

I figure the beginning is as good a place to start as any. So let's start with one of the first things you have to learn about volleyball, either as a player or as a coach. Below is a diagram of a typical indoor volleyball court.

As you can see by the diagram, the court is 18 meters long and 9 meters wide. The height of the net varies, depending on whether you are playing on a women's net or a men's net. A women's net is typically 7"4' high, while a men's net is almost 8". The ten-foot line is, yes you guessed it, about ten feet (3 meters) away from the net.

Now that's about it as far as the actual dimensions of the court go. There aren't a lot of markings on the court like there are in say basketball. However, there are many different spots, or areas, on the court, and each spot is played by a different position.

We'll start by talking about the different areas of the court. As you can see in the diagram below, there are six different areas of the court. When numbering off, you start with the number one and goes counter-clockwise around the court, with one number in each of the six spots.

Next, we'll cover the different positions on the court. I wasn't able to find too great of a diagram for this one, but what's below will have to do.

As you can see, the areas are labeled on this court as well, which is very helpful. Area one is called right back. In most rotations, the setter's base would be at this spot. A player's base is like their home on the court, it's the spot where they would be whenever the ball is on the other side of the net, after all the rotation switches have been made. 

Area two corresponds to the right front position. This is where the right side hitter is based. Area three is usually called middle front (unlike center front which is what the diagram calls it) and this is where the middle hitter is stationed. Similarly, area four is known as left front and this is where the left-side, or outside, hitter is based. 

Going to the back row of the court, the next area (area five) is the left back position. Now, the player who has their base here can vary. Without using any substitutions, the other outside hitter would play this spot. However, most teams use substitutions for the back row unless their outside hitters are extremely good passers, so a defensive specialist (a player who is very good at passing and defense in general) or a libero can also play this position. 

A libero is another type of passer, although most people recognize that player by the opposite color jersey she wears. If you don't know much about the libero, don't worry, I'll cover that in an upcoming post. However, if you're just dying to find out now, click here to learn more about the details of all the different positions on the court and what roles they play. 

The last position (area six) is also a tricky one. Again, if no substitutions are used, the other middle front would play this position. If substitutions are used, a defensive specialist or libero would play this position as well. 

Well hopefully that all made sense to you. (There will be a quiz posted later so be ready!) If you have any further questions or would like something better explained, please feel free to comment below! 

Take a Ha (or Two)

Volleyball is a sport. Hopefully I won't get too much of an argument when I make that statement. And as with most sports, it involves physical strength and endurance. You have to train for it, practice the different skills often, and make sure you're in good enough physical condition to be the most effective on the court. You have to have strong legs to block and to play defense. Strong arms to serve and hit. Strong hands to set and to tip. Overall, if you're going to play volleyball, just like any other sport, you have to be physically strong and "in shape."

But volleyball isn't all about being physically strong. By any means. Volleyball involves something that my high school coach used to call mental toughness. Unlike most other sports, being mentally tough in volleyball is more important than being physically tough. And of course you can argue that you have to be mentally strong in any sport you play, which I have no doubt is true. But in volleyball, it's different. I like to think of it like this:

A volleyball game is fairly long, usually somewhere from an hour to two hours. However, in that hour or two, think about how much time is spent actually touching the ball for any individual player. Even if you're the setter or the best player on your team, and the ball is always heading your way, the amount of time spent being in contact with the ball is very short. In an entire five game match, I would guess that the average player touches the play for a total of 10-15 seconds (this is only counting contact with the ball while it is actually in play).

So, in a sport where you actually have physical contact with the ball for such a short amount of time, a lot must go into the time before and after you touch the ball. And here is where the mental game is so important.

In volleyball, you have a lot of time to think. And unlike on a test in school, this can be a dangerous thing. The more time you have to think in the middle of the game, the more time you have to psych yourself out and let your nerves get to you.

This is why in volleyball, being mentally tough is so important. You can't let the little pressures and stresses mess up those 13 seconds you get to change the outcome of the game.

When I was in high school, my team went to a week long camp called Guy Enriques Team Camp every summer. There were some incredible volleyball players at this camp, and many of them took the time to talk to all of us players about things like mental toughness.

The one thing they taught me to do in pressure situations is to take a "ha." Ha is the Hawaiian word for breath. Before you serve, serve receive, or the whistle blows, the players at this camp told us to take our has. At first I thought it was dumb; I didn't think taking a breath before I served or passed would make a difference. But boy was I wrong.

Taking a ha before I begin play actually made a huge difference in my volleyball career. Every time I took a breath, it would remind me to relax, and just play how I know I could. Once I started taking my ha, I truly did notice a difference in my presence on the court. I was calmer, more relaxed. I would't let little mistakes get to me, and some of the best games of my life were also some of the closest ones This helped me prove to myself that I could handle pressure situations and play at my best when I really needed to.

Being mentally strong is not always easy, and it took me years of playing volleyball to develop enough mental toughness to perform under pressure. But sometimes all it takes is a deep breath to calm those nerves and set your mind on the track to success (and victory)!

The View from the Sidelines

Well this past weekend turned out to be a very nostalgic one for me.

I decided to go home for the weekend and visit my sister for her 17th birthday. She's on the varsity volleyball team at my old high school (the same team I was on for three years), and they had a tournament on the Oregon coast this weekend, so my mom came to pick me up and we drove there together.

The team was staying at a beach house owned by the family of one of the girls on the team. While the team was out at the pool together, we snuck into the house. I hid in the kitchen, and when the girls came back I jumped out and surprised my sister. After her original shock she started crying, along with some of the other girls on the team!

So that was pretty cool, but what really got me reminiscing was actually watching the team play at the tournament the next day. The girls played exceptionally well, taking second place out of the 16 teams there. I was really proud of them, but every time the girls were in a tight spot or won a close victory, I kept wishing that I could be out there with them.

Things look a lot different from the side lines. And I don't mean just when you're on the bench for a few rotations. Watching as a fan proved to be a lot different than watching as a teammate. I noticed a lot of things that I never noticed while being on the court, or simply on the team for that matter.

For example, the setter for the opposing team in the last match of the day set all of her balls extremely low. Therefore, the hitters were forced to tip more often than not. Forced or unforced, my girls failed to pick up a good portion of these short attacks. From my conveniently located spot on the sidelines, I could easily tell that the defense needed to move up in order to get more of these easy tips up. From the perspective of the girls, however, this was not such an easy realization.

I feel like this is an issue not just in volleyball, but in people's daily lives as well. It's hard to see things from a different perspective, when you're stuck in your own position. For me, it took actually leaving the team and watching from the bleachers to notice the mistakes I had been making for years as a player; details I had never noticed that could've made a huge difference in my effectiveness on the court.

Sometimes it can be really hard to look at things from someone else's point of view, but I've learned that a good alternative to this is simply stepping back and looking at the big picture. I was able to do that this weekend too. I was used to seeing only a limited view of the game from my position on the court, but being in the audience gave me a clear view of everything happening on both sides of the net.

Being a back row defensive player, I used to blame the front row blockers a lot for balls that went down in spots that I believed were impossible for me to get to. Watching from my front row seat this weekend, I realized how hard it is for the blockers to predict where the set is going, and to get in their spot and coordinate their block.

This, I guess you could say, is part of the Spike Approach; it is one of the many lessons I have learned from the sport of volleyball. Even though our perspective may be the easiest to see, it isn't always right, and it certainly isn't ever the only way to look at things. Sometimes taking a step back from a situation can make the biggest difference. Just like in a game, taking a time out every once in a while can be a good thing. Take a second look, from a different angle this time, and the whole picture can change.

A Little Pregame Warm Up

Hi everyone! My name is Emily, and this is my very first post on this brand new blog, The Spike Approach. Now as you may or may not have figured out, the title of this blog is a play on words. The Spike Approach sounds as though it could be a certain methodology or way of looking at life or a more specific subject field. However, a spike approach is also the name of the footwork that hitters in the sport of volleyball must learn in order to properly attack a great set. 

In the case of this blog, I will be posting about both meanings of the spike approach. Some of my upcoming posts will cover topics such as the proper passing form, different defense formations, and tips on having a killer serve. However, some of my posts will follow a little different path. Some of my posts will cover the more mental and emotional sides of playing a sport like volleyball. Mental toughness, how to react to different coaching styles, and the blatant importance of being a team player. ALWAYS. Beyond this even, I want to talk about how playing volleyball can help you to grow and mature as a person. I can't wait to get the chance to share some personal stories as well about how volleyball has changed my life for the better in so many ways. 

I started playing volleyball in the fifth grade. Needless to say, I was terrible, but it was okay because I wasn't the only one. Most of us had not even the slightest idea what we were doing. But that was okay, we had a lot of fun that season, and it made me incredibly excited for volleyball season to come back around the following year. After another school season of fun game play but little improvement,  my very best friend decided she was going to try out for a volleyball club in our area. Reluctant at first, I neglected her offer to try out as well. But after hearing countless stories from her for the rest of sixth grade about how fun club volleyball was, I decided to try out the following year. 

I played club volleyball from seventh grade through my junior year of high school. I was my high school's junior varsity libero my freshman year, and then moved on to play on their varsity team for my remaining three years of high school. My team made it to the state tournament all three years, and we took second place my junior year!

Now I am a first year student in college, and unfortunately this is the end of the road for me when it comes to playing competitive volleyball. It was a great eight years though, and I will remember them for the rest of my life.

To try to keep alive as much of my years playing volleyball as possible, I decided to create this blog. To help me remember, reminisce, and reevaluate my years as a volleyball player, and also hopefully to help any of you who read this get just a little more out of the wonderful game we call volleyball!

Although my blog is going to be an amazing all on it's own (obviously), I thought I would give you guys some links to a few blogs that are similar to mine as well. These cover anything from volleyball in the big leagues to just some helpful hints about the most basic skills, but feel free to take a look! 

http://thenetsetblog.com/ (Links to an external site.)

http://www.offtheblockblog.com (Links to an external site.)

https://volleyballblog.wordpress.com (Links to an external site.)

Well there you have it! I'm super excited to be starting this new blog and I can't wait to start posting. :)