We all know the old good saying “Slow and Steady Wins the Race”! While that’s actually True for volleyball, you can still implement some particular approaches that will help make the improvement process faster …
You should not take any of what I am about to share as a shortcut for success in volleyball. You should rather take it as a way where you will avoid most beginner mistakes; these are generally what hold back most players from improving.
In this article, I share the best ways ‘I know’ to ensure a reasonably fast and sustainable improvement in volleyball.
How long does it normally take to get better at volleyball?
This is a very common question btw! Indeed, while there is no straightforward answer to how much time does it take to master volleyball … There are a lot of factors that you should consider.
Every individual is different. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. You should focus on improving your own weaknesses.
Indeed, if your weakness is lack of speed, then this would generally takes more time than somebody who’s weakness is lack of volleyball shape.
Another important factor is simply your dedication and amount of patience you are willing to allocate for your improvement goals.
If you have an assessment of these elements, then you should be able to figure out on your own how much time it might take you.
However, you probably should not be concerned about this question, unless you are practicing at a quite higher level (semi-pro and above)
5 Important Volleyball Skills for Faster Improvement
Volleyball is a game that incorporates a ton of skills. While it is acceptable to try improving all those skills, it is definitely smarter to focus on the most important ones. These are will prepare you to master the other remaining volley skills.
Below are the skills you should focus on …
Quick Tip: To practice those skills, I highly recommend doing them with proper volleyball shoes as this will give you a feel of what real situations look like. These quality pair of volleyball shoes is a good example.
Perfect serve
Serving is one of the most crucial aspects of volleyball. A good serve can surely make the point go in your favour, whereas a bad serve can get your team into trouble.
Hence serving becomes an important skill to master. There are various types of serves, upper hand, underhand, floater, jump, topspin and so on.
Practising all these will surely make you the ace server. If one gets better at it, then he can get the charge of serving.
Being in such a high responsibility position will surely help one in improving further.
Keep in mind that you can easily practice volleyball serving at the comfort of your home!
On point passes
Volleyball is a team game and demands a lot of coordination amongst teammates. Passes are used not only during the offence but in defence as well.
In a team game, passing plays a crucial role. If an individual masters the art of passing, he can make the whole game fall in favour of his team.
But on the contrary, poor passing in a team can get them into a lot of trouble. Hence every individual in the team must master the skill of passing.
Being dynamic
Every player is comfortable playing at one particular position. It’s not wrong. But one must know what to do when shifted to another position.
A player must be dynamic and must be able to fill in the shoes if there’s a gap in the team. Although, it’s not practically possible that a player to master every position.
One must master only one position but must know the basics of every place. This gives him an upper hand in every situation.
For instance, if the player playing as the setter gets injured, then the middle blocker must know how to set the ball. This prevents any break in the team.
One more thing, is that to be more dynamic you also need to improve your volleyball footwork!
Reception
Reception comes into the role after the service of the opponent. The receiver must take the ball in such a way that he gets the play in his team’s favour.
Every server serves the ball after estimating various possibilities. He nearly takes three to four possible reactions of the receiver and how those reactions can be turned into a possible point.
The skill of reception deals with doing something out of the box. The receiver must outshine the server and try to shift the momentum of the game into his team’s favour.
Finally, if you don’t have access to other partners, you can well practice receiving just by yourself!
Defence- rolling and sliding
It may be impossible to play the ball from a standard underhand passing standing position when the ball does not come directly at an athlete.
The player maintains his focus on the ball and takes a step in the direction of the oncoming ball with his near foot. When playing the ball, the body is extremely low.
To guarantee that the athlete does not injure oneself, the athlete will maintain his or her momentum. Either slide out of the game or roll out of the game.
The objective is to bring the ball up to the target and back to the starting point safely. As soon as possible, go into the ready position.
For more, I highly invite you to check those other extremely important volleyball skills!
3 Tips to help improve your skills faster
Below are some tips by the help of which you can succeed in these skills even fast …
Be more physically fit
Just like any other sport, volleyball demands its players to be physically fit. The more fit you are, the better you can perform.
Not being physically fit can be a major setback in your growth. You should focus on more cardio and strength training.
Sprinting for 40-50 yards at maximum pace for 15 minutes with a 30-second break improves physical stamina and endurance.
Regular workouts for volleyball players include dumbbell snatch, overhead-triceps, single-head-RDL, dumbbell-squat, shoulder and leg stretches, and overhead press.
Jump-roping is a great approach to improve upper and lower body muscles while also improving your cardiovascular fitness. A two-minute combination of a single foot, two feet, and a crossover can be beneficial.
Learn to block
Blocking is an important part of the game. Defence plays a very crucial part in the game. The most important aspects of ball blocking practice are jumping, ball handling, shoulder, arm, and hand alignment, and ball viewing.
You may improve your blocking efficiency by practising good finger and wrist position, court penetration, and body posture while blocking. To master this skill quickly, one must majorly work on his vertical jumps and shoulder movement.
Keep in mind that it is well possible to practice blocking at home!
Train power-hitting
Dumbbell arm swings, military presses, and pushups are some shoulder and arm workouts that can assist you to learn power hitting.
Spiking, returning, and power-hitting are among the workouts that might help you become a point-winning player on the court.
To do so, you’ll need to invest in an excellent volleyball portable net to practise within your backyard in order to vastly improve your volleyball skills.
Again, it is worth mentionning that you can improve your hitting skills just at home!
How often should you practice volleyball for quick improvement?
When it comes to practice, you should keep in mind that the muscles need rest too. Ideally, an individual must train an hour and half during the usual time and more than a couple of hours when a tournament approaches.
The frequency must remain between four to five times a week and two days must be kept as rest days.
But this frequency can vary from the level of the players. A beginner needs time to get his body used to such an intensive workout.
So a beginner must train less both in terms of duration and frequency. Talking about an intermediate level person, here the person’s body is ready for a workout.
Final Thoughts …
I do understand the urge you might have for fast improvement in volleyball, especially if the idea of having a pro career excites you …
Keep in mind that Compound Effect is real! In other words, you don’t have to overtrain everyday for several hours to get there, instead, just by training like an hour+ a day consistently (don’t forget your rest days) you will reach a certain point where your skills will just explode and find out that everything you try in volleyball just works perfectly. That’s the power of compound effect …
You don’t have to force anything by overtraining yourself. Just be consistent!