Please.. need volleyball help?

Question

Ok so i have been playing volleyball for about three years now and I still CANNOT, at all, spike a volleyball.

I made the team, I know exactly what to do to spike a volleyball, but still, I cannot do it. I am right-handed, I take the first step with my left, then my right, then together and can get a nice clean jump directly up by thrusting my body with my arms back and bending my knees, and to hit it I pull my arm back, point with your other, and find the contact point with a full swing and snap the ball down.

I hope I showed you that I know exactly how to spike one. I practice immensely, I always take about a half an hour to practice my approach. But when it comes to actually playing with a ball, I totally fall apart. I smack the ball so hard it hits the back of the wall on the opposite side. Why DO I fall apart? It's not nerves for sure, I am never nervous during playing. I must be doing something wrong, right?

thank-you -- kara

Answer 1

actually you seem to be doing everything right

Answer 2

if you're hitting every ball to the back wall, you're probably overrunning the ball.  try to make sure you keep the ball in front of you.  if it's behind you, you aren't allowed a great enough angle and the ball just flies out.  keeping it in front of you will allow you to drive the ball down to the court.  it might help to practice with a tennis ball.  use your approach and swing motion and throw the ball on the court.  you'll notice in order to get it on the court, you'll have to release it when its a bit in front of your body.  the same idea goes into swinging.

Answer 3

You are doing good, but it sounds like you need to slow your approach 1/2 a second down. You are contacting the ball to early and are not getting on top of it. You will meet the ball slightly lower and it will be easier to snap on it. Work on your vertical as well and then you will be able to get on top of the ball earlier and snap at a higher point and hopefully hit over the block and pound it in the face of some unsuspecting defender.

Answer 4

I would suggest you to do your approach as "normal", and try to **reach** the ball at the highest spot possible before snapping it down, without a full swing... or say try not to swing too hard at the very beginning.

Once you get the rhythm of reaching/hitting/snapping, you can add more to your "swing up", in order to get you more vertical, before adding more to your "swing down" for a kill.

Make sure you have a good timing when approaching, and you don't need to bend your knees after taking off (you only bend your knees for jumping, and at landing). I used to ask my players to practice rhythm jump with legs straight when they are in the air.

Answer 5

hey,

Well hitting is hard!

what works for me is to not really think about it and just do it!My coach told me that today,and it was totally amazing I hit every ball PERFECT!!

Before this i was not very good at it!!

Answer 6

snap your wrist down as soon as you hit the ball!!!  And ask your coach for help!