In volleyball, is it better to dive on your knees (with kneepads) or to land flat and hit you hips hard?

Question

In practice, my coach tells us it is bad to dive for the ball and land on your knees, but when we dive and turn out our front knee like she told us to, our hips hit the floor really hard and I am a little afraid of breaking a hip. When we turn out our knee, however, we are able to stretch out further and cover more ground. If we are going to dive like this, should we have some protection for out hips? And isn't that what knee pads are for...to protect our knees when we land on them?

Answer 1

it really depends which way the ball is coming at you...forward your gona wana come down on ur knees or stomach and if its coming to either side u want to come down on ur hips

Answer 2

when i was in volleyball, our coach made us do special exercises where we dove for the ball and land on our kneepads, so i dont think it's bad.

Answer 3

You don't do either.  Usually the kneepads in volleyball are worn almost below the top of the kneecap.  When you dive, you don't land directly on your knees, usually a little below the kneecap.  And you are always supposed to roll when you dive for the ball which breaks the fall.  Never ever land directly on any one part of the body girl!  Just remember to roll.

Answer 4

I agree with a lot of the answers for this question.

I must say as a coach, and I know this probably sounds bad. I make my players practice without their knee pads once a week, this helps them figure out other ways to get to the ball on time. People relay way too much on their knee pads and dont hustle towards the ball. This helps them get quicker.

Also I have been trying to get them to dive vs falling to their knees, if you dive properly getting as low to the ground as possible on your feet and then going to dive then you will not hurt your hips or anything. If you are worried about hitting your hand and not slidding, like your hand getting stuck on the floor. They sell special sliding gloves to wear while you are playing.

www.eastbay.com is a really good site for a lot of volleyball equipment.

Answer 5

First off, there are special shorts you can buy with padding in the hip area and tailbone.  They are nice, but really I found them to be a pain because the pads shift.

Knee pads, while they protect your knees, will not prevent you from shattering your patella (knee cap).  Knee pads tend to make players lazy, for they go to their knees instead of moving their feet and getting to the ball.  Coaches find that to be the case.  Also, if you dive properly, you don't hit your knees OR hips.  

If you are concerned about your hips, check out the shorts.  Eastbay carries them, as does Spikenashbar (www.spikenashbar.com).  

Good luck!!!

Answer 6

boys: knees

Girls: hips

Answer 7

You shouldn't hit your hips hard. Try to get lower and dive on your side. You should hit the ground with your arm extended out to play the ball. Hit the ground with you arm side and legs at the same time. It should be fluid but its not going to be completely comfortable. This also allows you to reach further. I have played for 3 years at the Junior Olympic level and all my coaches have coached like this. Hope this helps!

Answer 8

landing on your knees

Answer 9

I do dives when I have to - and never had any worries about my hip area. You do land flat, and I had to get some knee pads - because with dives your knees do take the punishment. You should be using/landing on the soft parts of your body when you make contact with the ground - of course, no bones should be making contact.

If you are seriously worried, I would recommend maybe trying out a judo class - you just need the one lesson where they introduce you to diving - if you know someone who does judo, they can maybe show you... It is not their technique as such, but just to have that confidence in making contact with the floor...

Answer 10

you should try not to land on your knees... your hips are much stronger than your knees... if you contiunally land on your knees you could pop a knee cap out of place or you will have knee problems for the rest of your life... (a girl on my team landed on her knees and her knee cap went out of place!) the knee pads give you protection but not enough to completly protect you knees from damage.... hope this helped!!!

i love playing volleyball!!!! ♥♥

Answer 11

Whenever I play I land on both, depending on how far or low I have to go to get the ball.  I can't say that I have ever heard of hip protection for volleyball lol but it's fine if you land on your knees.

Answer 12

well,for me it depends on where the ball  is going.if it's going to my side,i dive on my hips,and if it's going in front of me,i go out on my stomach sorta.before games,i take an asprin,so i won't feel it that much when i land,but to me,the most important thing to me is getting the ball back up in the air!! hope it helps.

Answer 13

From my experience you always have to dive, theres no getting around it, but if you have to then you want to hit the ball before you hit the floor, it gives you more control. When you dive, start low to the ground that way it does not hurt as bad. It will hurt, but volleyball is a tough sport no matter what anybody says. Its not for whimps.

I hop this helps

Good luck

Answer 14

My answer would be neither.  If the link below works, it asked about the sprawl and barrel roll.  It was asked and expertly answered by several of the answers.  I was taught to dive for the ball and land on the hands and make your body as U-shaped as you could make it.  You would then let your body down on your chest and rock toward the bottom of the body.

The best answer as chosen by the asker was by frisbeegod33.  But read all of the responses.  Dan_Ye has a great answer as well.  

to sprawl:

1. start really low

2. assuming the ball is to your right, push off your right foot and keep your platform either facing or angled toward your target

3. make a perfect pass

4. quickly brake your platform and put your arms on the ground without locking your elbows, and keep your chin up or else you'll split it open and probably need stitches

5. when your hands hit the ground, push off a little (chin up)

6. when your on the ground, bring your right (or left if more comfortable) leg up so it's near your chest, then push off and you'll get up in less than half a second

it takes a little practice, but after like 20 tries, you should be okay. also if i make it sound hard and dangerous, remember, it's not really that hard with practice. i don't know how to roll through...

Answer 15

First of all, if you can move your feet and get under the ball, you should never dive.

When it is hard to get to the ball, for boys, they dive with arm/palm support, and land on their chests if ball is "in front of them" or land on their knees and hips when side-diving.

For girls (and older boys including me :), they should land on knee and hip, and quickly roll to their back, no matter which direction they are going. See the following link for more details regarding "Dive and Roll Over to a Standing Position":

http://volleyball.about.com/cs/advancedi...

I believe it was some talented Japanese coaches (and their female players) who invented the technique, and got their three-peat with their outstanding defense, then Chinese women's team learned it and had their five-peat...

It is a good idea to have special shorts, or a pair of thinnest baseball sliding shorts inside of your volleyball shorts (if possible). I personally use sliding shorts (inside my basketball shorts so that nobody could tell) these days and they helped a lot.

By the way, I have played 20+ years against players at different levels, and never had to repair my knees or hips... so don't worry that much.