DALLAS SPORT

Learning how to jump higher for beach volleyball is a lot different than jumping for any other sport. Sure your typical polymeric exercises will help build up your leg strength and speed but that won’t be enough for jumping in sand. You have to know how to jump out of the sand. This requires some sand training.

You can’t do a typical jump approach when you are in sand that means that you can’t use your forward momentum like you would on a hard surface. You have to rely on leg strength to jump straight up in the air and not forward like you would in indoor volleyball. This means that your form is very important and will make up for the lost inches in your vertical jump in the sand. You won’t get nearly as high as you do indoor. You should expect to jump about 8 inches lower than you would be able to on a hard court. This means the net will feel 8 inches higher, and that is a huge difference for most people. You must rely on your arm swing as much as possible if you want to be able to jump high enough to hit the ball. The key to learning how to play beach volleyball is practicing your jumping in the sand. Practice jumping without even using a ball to hit. You must really stomp on the sand and pack it under your feet before take-off or you will simply sink deeper into the sand.

These kinds of serves are called “top spin” because the direction the ball is spinning appears to be over the top of the volleyball. After you make contact the ball spins away from you and toward your opponent.

This type of spin helps the ball drop quickly downwards because that’s the direction it’s spinning. Servers who can consistently execute a top spin serve are generally feared when they step back to the serving line, because these kinds of serves are notoriously difficult to pass.

As a passer, just when you think you’ve gotten yourself into exactly the right spot to receive a top spin serve it will drop about 2 feet in front of you. It’s counter intuitive, but once you realize you’re dealing with a top spin server try to force yourself to take an extra step forward. This can make the difference between a good pass and a shacked pass.

How to Serve with Top Spin

To achieve the top spin effect you need to contact the ball slightly below its center with the base of your palm so that you can roll your hand over it as you serve. This will give it the spin that you need.

You’ll also find that it’s easier to contact the ball farther behind you to give you more time to achieve the necessary wrist snap. If you contact the ball in front of you like you would when attempting a float serve it’s much more likely that you’ll end up sending your serve into the net because the wrist snap takes too long.

The advantage of extra height (both on the jump and the distance the ball is traveling once it reaches the other side of the net) is why may jump servers use a top spin serve as their weapon of choice.

Here’s something I put together for you that I thought you would get a little enjoyment out of… it focuses on “Teaching Novice Volleyball Players”

Envision this….. You are in the state championship, it is the last game, the score is tied up and it is against the team from across town!

The team has been playing extremely hard coming back from behind and then it happens, one of your star players sprains an ankle. As you are standing there looking up and down the bench it dawns on you that all you have left are rookies.

At this point there are all sorts of ideas floating through your head, but all is not lost since you have taken the time to teach your greenhorns the basics of volleyball drills. Teaching your players to be a contributing factor in a game as fast as possible is the answer to making sure that your team will not be caught in a compromising situation.

Seeing as that you are the coach it is your job to get the novice players on the court as soon as possible and practicing, now do not be a softy, put them through the exact same paces as starters.

Not quite sure where to start?

As a top priority, coaches should start with the basics when teaching drills.

The drills should be given to the athlete in a sequence that gives them the best chance to be a contributor as fast as possible while in game situations. When trying to determine where the first place to start is, we must remember that passing is needed to start a play; therefore passing would be our first set of drills.

Passing drills are a necessity as a player needs to know how to start a play.

If a player is not careful they could wind up being the opposing team’s best power if they don’t know how to prepare and ready themselves for the spike coming their way.

Maintaining a great deal of lower body strength is what beach volleyball players need to do through superb beach volleyball training to keep up with the players and the ball on the court or sand is essential. While preparing for the season, here are a set of exercises that are great for the lower body for volleyball players.

During complete beach volleyball training, an exercise each player should depend on is the lower body plies metrics drills. These exercises assist in building muscle in the legs since there is a lot of jumping that is require on the court. To complete these exercises it is required that you use all of your strength, which is why these ply metrics drills are extremely tiring. Building strength, stamina and power in the player’s legs is accomplished with this kind of comprehensive beach volleyball training.

One kind of ply metrics are depth jumps where the players do 3 sets of 10, twice a week. The player will stand on a short, sturdy box or some sort of table with their legs together and toes near the edge. Because you won’t be jumping in extensive training yet, you will carefully step down from the table and onto the floor. At this time when both feet are on the ground you immediately jump so high and extend your arms to the sky, then repeat.

To be able to keep up with the volleyball, the players need to stay limber to run, jump and reach for it. Flexibility exercises are great for the body, both upper and lower parts, in beach volleyball training tips. Be aware that exercises consisting of flexibility are different than stretching and that you need to stretch before you do these exercises. You don’t want to be harmed if you are not participating in the game!

A while back we covered passing the free ball when you get one from your opponents. Today we’re going to go over what to do when you’re on the giving end of a free ball instead of the receiving end.

Free Ball Basics

To recap slightly for those of you who may not have read my earlier article, when a team is unable to attack the ball and is forced to pass it over, we call that a “free ball.”

When you’re receiving it, a free ball is a gift to be cherished and exploited. You’ve probably heard a team yelling “FREE!” at the top of their voice — this is the cue for everyone to get ready for a nice easy pass that will hopefully lead to an awesome kill.

But, what to do when your team is the one who’s having trouble and must give a free ball to your opponent? There are a few little tricks that you can use to make the free ball a little less of a gift.

When to Attack

It’s sometimes hard to decide when a free ball is your only option and when you might be able to get away with a “down ball,” a.k.a. an attack executed with both feet on the ground. In a nutshell, go for the attack whenever you can. Even if jumping is out of the question, a hard-driven ball is always preferable to the free ball.

The faster the attack, the less time your opponent has to setup their offense, and the more likely it is that they’ll have a communication problem or otherwise mess up the pass. So even if you’re deadly accurate in placing a free ball, it should never be a go-to play. We’re talking extreme worst case scenario here.