How do you teach hitting and digging?

Question

I've just began to coach a middle school team, my little players are ready to learn and have good potiential but learning how to dig and hit is off to a rocky start anybody have any idea as to how and teach the girls how to dig and hit?

Answer 1

Teach Digging as legs shoulder width apart. Arms strait and try and touch your elbows together . and push the ball up with your knees. Practice one-on-one with each girl and just practice throwinf the ball to her and her getting the ball back up. start off easy strait too the wrists and then get harder eg. to the left so she has to step to the ball.

with hitting. show them Big Small small . and practice the run up first. teach them that the ball should be a bit in front of them so they dont hit it too high or out. but not to far infront that they hit it in the net. TIMING is everything.

Hydie :)

Answer 2

You pretty much have it from the other contributers, but I want to add something. When they go to make a pass, have them move their arms out of the way at the last second to let the ball bounce under their legs. We do this drill all the time to practice our depth perception and accuracy. Just make sure they don't stand strait up while doing this, because no matter how small they are, if they do it right it will go straight between their legs. GL!!

Answer 3

I'm a 6th grader that was on the 8th grade team, and got the M.V.P, for digging, just spike the volleyball in a different direction, where they have to sort of dive for it...

Answer 4

I'm not a coach, but I play travel, so I know a thing or two about hitting and digging, and this is how I've been taught..

Hitting-

Make sure they know their approach.

Have them practice it over and over

and over again, because it is basically

the most important thing with hitting.

Get tennis balls and have each person

put one in their dominate hitting hand

and have them do their approach to the

net, and once they jump, have them throw

down the tennis ball, with a snap in their

wrists. This helps with hitting, because it

gets you used to the snapping of your wrist.

If I were you, I would do these 2 things A LOT,

and once they seem to get that all down,

THEN bring in the real balls, and start

hitting.

Also, once you start actual hitting, have

them be patient, and a thing that helps

is, once the ball is passed to the setter

and the setter touches it, have them

spell "Pig", and then go up for their

approach and hit, because that helps

with the timing of the hit.

Digging-

-Butts down

-Moving your feet (not diving all over the place, and

if they seem to have a problem with all the diving,

have them dig without kneepads, so they won't

have such a tendancy to drop to their knees, and

they'll actually move their feet)

-Scoop the ball (explain that it's just like doing

a water balloon toss, you have to come down

to catch it lightly, and the come up a little)

-Not swinging arms

-Explaining the importance of never

letting a ball hit the ground

-Hands apart until you reach where the ball is...you

don't want their arms to always be together, because

it makes them slower

-Shuffling

I hope this can somewhat help.

I mean, I'm only 14, but this is

just what I've learned..

Good Luck=]

Answer 5

for hitting i would teach them the approach(Left right left) then i would have them stand about 10 feet from the wall and throw it up and hit it to the wall a few times. then for passing i would put a ball up their shirt and have them rest their arms against them so they dont swing their arms. then throw the ball to them and teach them how low they need to be and how their feet should be placed.

Answer 6

Cait has made alot of good points. I think he should coach a team, very good.

I do coach High School Volleyball and would encourage you to touch bases with your local HS coach for tips as this is an investment for their program as well. Your kids could maybe attend a HS camp for the purposes of fundamentals; the HS will be primary beneficiary and they know this. :)

Digging and hitting, two big things. I'd say Drill, drill and drill; be consistent with 3-5 drills each day on footwork and moving threw the ball on approaches. Teahc that they move threw the ball rather than "to it" as stopping and leaning forward usually means they hit early and near the wrist; we want the ball mid-forearm.

For digs it's important to drop the hips while keeping forearms as level as possible; the idea is to save the ball and pass it off; Passing in this sport is Everything; absent a good pass you're not going to set off you offensive attack for the "pass-set-hit" offense; a good rule is to demand players learn to pass off to center court around 3-4 feet from center net, setter sets to outside or middle hitter and boom...set up a garbage can mid center court and let them try and pass off to sink it in the can; fun drill, demand they sink five a day or run laps; this is a good attention getter.

On digging up a ball many times it comes fast; however, the athelet needs to drop the hips, tuck in thier shoulders and brace thier arms arms to form a stable-"platform" to launch the ball in a direction they choose; they must drop their shoulder on the side they wish to pass off the ball and pass by Minimally using their arms (do Not Allow arm jerking, arms are stable "boards") and Using their Legs; the Legs push Up as if starting to stand up and this is the empitus for guidence on ball trajectory; the balls own inbound-speed dictates power to move the ball, I hope this is clear and not confusing; athelets can take a ball home and roll it off the roof and practice (for hours as my daughter did) and get use to the ball coming from above and hitting their arms; on digging, it's major important that athelets understand a dig is a save and should become a Pass and Not used to simply Launch the ball back ovber the net; this is a big thing in Junior high and even HS. J.V. programs and is poison to your offense. Demand, demand and demand that they Pass-Set-hit...:); last thing on digs is to re-emphasize the legs do the work, Not the Arms; as soon as arms start jerking you're going to see the ball rocket skyward to the cieling and your offense just went defense to keep thier own ball off their court floor.

Hitting requires aggression for your athelets (tell them you have no Girls, they are Ahtelets, period) breed aggresion and competitiveness while still having fun, the balance is to be firm on expectations, work hard, be on time and work as a unit, no bad attitudes or your benched.

Most hitting issues at your level are lack of aggression and failing to keep the eyes on the ball and the ball being hit when it is actually slightly behind the shoulder as athelets mis-judge and run past the ball on appraoch; watch the ball, attack the ball when it is 45 degrees in front from the shoulder; the ball needs to be In Front of the athelete and the arm needs to swing threw it, do not allow then to "hit" and stop the arm in mid-swing, make them follow threw like hitting a baseball; while setting up a ball to be hit, Do Not use setters right away to set it up, You do it first, toss the ball about 3-4 feet above the net and 3 feet away from the net and Make them time thier steps to the ball, 1,2,3, hit....1,2,3, hit; they should be attacking the ball from OUTSIDE THE COURT at 45 degrees and hitting cross court (baseline hitting is advanced).

you can e mail me at askew2005 at hotmail dot com

I would be glad to offer more if you ask.

Last issue is coaches talks during games; you can rattle on and on about what to do and how to do it; one thing I learned from a seasoned triple champion coach is to keep it simple and to tell them only TWO things at a time during competition. Those Two thinghs can be anything you feel is the Big issue of that particular game; ie, watch mid-center court for that Dink  as # 23 is going to dink there; or Sara (your kid) be sure to set to Andrea and Andrea will target thier back...yada yada; the Two things need to be so important that if they follow them you are still in the hunt; fun, um? :)

good luck, have fun