Drills to improve blocking in volleyball
Volleyball is a game that looks simple but it involves many technicalities. There are many aspects to volleyball that only a player can understand as a casual onlooker would be oblivious to them. The two main components of a volleyball team are the defence
and the attack. The players that play on the defensive positions in a volleyball team strive to stop the opposite team from making a point while the attacking side makes every attempt to make the ball hit the ground on the other side of the court for a point.
Both the attack and the defence of a volleyball team have integral components that need to work in sync in order to make a good team. On the attacking side, it is important that the setter as well as the hitters perform well or scoring will be severely limited.
On the other hand, the defence should have a strong libero and blockers so that it is hard for the opposing team to score any points. However, both the attacking as well as defensive skills of players need to be developed in practice sessions otherwise the
players would not be able to perform well. It is also important that the practice sessions are designed in such a way that players find it interesting and are able to stay motivated.
The following quote by Mark Hansen explains the importance of having creative practice sessions, “Players want to play volleyball for many reasons, one of which is to have fun participating. Players who are not kept active in practices nor allowed to play
in matches will quickly lose interest.”
There are several techniques that can be made use of in order to improve the volleyball skills of the entire team. However if the blocking of the players need to be worked upon, the following drills will contribute a great deal in increasing the level of
performance of the volleyball players.
One of the drills that can be practised to improve the blocking technique of players is called the Block Jump to Ball drill. In this drill, one player stands at the other side of the net on a box or a chair and holds the ball high up with one of the hands.
At the start of the drill, the blocker makes the jump while the person standing on the box can shift the position of the ball by using the hands. The blocker should aim to make a block where ever the ball is placed. This drill should be practiced a number
of times by each blocker on the team so that they are able to increase their level of blocking skill during every practice session.
Another drill that can be made use of in order to improve the blocking skill is called Mirror Blocking. This drill requires two blockers, one on each side of the net. The drill starts off with one of the blockers making a block while the other blocker copies
the action. In order to make the best use of this drill, an expert blocker can be used to perform a certain block while an average blocker copies him or her to improve the blocking skills. Different types of blocks can be practised in this drill.
The above mentioned blocking drills can add a lot to the development of a solid team defence in volleyball.
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