Beginner’s Guide to Setting, Hitting and Blocking
This is the second of a series of articles that deal with giving you the knowledge of the basic volleyball skills at the beginner’s level. We hope to provide you with the essential know how of the fundamental skills involved in volleyball so that you may
find it easier to play and practice the game.
Once you are able to learn and master the skills of volleyball, you will be able to appreciate the challenges it provides and use it as a tool to become a better individual as well as a team player.
As one volleyball player put it, “Give it your all on the sprawl, Drop a pancake and keep it clean, Find the target, put ‘em on the hook then dish it up, flare and catch some air, Check the set, bring some heat and watch them bail!”
The first skill that we will talk about is Setting. It is the job of a setter to position the ball in such a way that it is made easier for the hitter to send the ball on the other side of the court. The setter should be vigilant before receiving the ball.
The posture of the setter should be in the ‘ready position’. The shape of the hand should be such that the fingers are spread like a ball while a triangle should be formed with the thumbs and the fingers of both the hands. The hands should be right in front
of the face as the ball is coming towards you. The best way to set the ball is to jump and meet it in air by extending the arms with the hands in the same position as described above. Care should be taken that the ball us not hit by the palms and the setter
should face the direction from which the ball is coming from.
After the ball is set, it is time for the hitter to take action. The skill that the hitter makes use of is called hitting. This is a relatively difficult skill to master but once a player succeeds in doing so, he/she becomes a formidable element on any team.
The first thing to learn about hitting is that you need to come towards the ball by taking a couple of steps. Before hitting, the hitter needs to make a jump in the air and make contact with the ball airborne.
In this way, the ball is sent to the opponent’s court with full force. However, the jump should not be made with just a single foot in the air and the contact should be made with the ball while using a fist instead of the open hand.
Once the hitter has sent the ball in the opponent’s court, it is up to the blockers to save the day for their team. In order to do so properly, the skill that needs to be mastered is blocking. The starting position asks for positioning the arms and hands
in such a way that they are blocking the net. The arms should be locked together while making the block. The blocker should make sure that he/she jumps straight up and lands in the same position as he/she was standing on.
With this, we wrap up the guidelines in the important skills needed for volleyball and hope it helps you make a better player.
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