What is the worst habit a player could have on the court?

Glenn

revjim27 · **Hands Off!! -** 11-08-2006, 01:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glenn

What is the worst habit a player could have on the court?

Here is a quote I use on one of my league teams:
"Just because you can get a hand on the ball doesn't mean you should."

I hate it when I'm set to receive a serve, make a pretty pass and watch my setter put up a ball that is absolutely crushable and all of a sudden an errant hand gets thrown in between me and the ball and it ricochets off 30 feet behind me. If your brain can't process me calling the ball faster than you half-ass one-arm-swinging attempt to "save the ball" then why don't you just inch your way up and let me cover the back.

This also applies to blockers that throw their hands blindly behind them after a ball is popped over the block...I'm there, I'll take care of that...you just get ready to hit.

Trust in me and trust that if the ball does drop I'll take full responsibility for not being there.

EGOLDEN · **I agree -** 11-08-2006, 02:33 PM

I agree, I have seen said "errant hand" far too much. That said, we all have done it once or twice, but it really is the worst habit I can think of.

The second worst habit is when no one covers a dink/block when a blocker or hitter goes up at the net. One of my league teams gives away about 4 points a game not doing this; which is often approximately our margin of defeat, coincidence? I think not.

revjim27 · 03:53 PM

I came across another of the worst habits a player can have. This one is more about attitude than skill.

I can't stand it when people take on the "God's-gift-to-volleyball" attitude; like they know everything there is to know and are perfect players. Until I see you playing in the AVP tour I don't want to hear you of all people mention that you don't need to learn anything new. And even AVP athletes have coaches...for a reason. All Pro's do!! Side-note: these are also usually the players that have an outside excuse for everything they do wrong. I won't even get in to the myriad of excuses I heard last night except for the utterly ridiculous assertion from one person claiming that he hadn't hit two balls out in a row in 7 years...seriously...

I was recently fortunate enough to have a high school coach come to my rec. league to put on a mini-clinic for the night. Now, I knew there were going to be people there with the "I don't need to learn anything" attitude. Now, I could have stayed on the main court and just played all night long, but I firmly believe and loudly stated on my way over to the receiving line, "Even an expert can learn something new in a beginner's class." Every teacher and every coach has a different style, so while the overall message might be the same, the delivery itself could spark some new found understanding of a basic concept.

I'm a decent player and on occasion I've even played well enough to be considered good, but having never had the opportunity to play organized ball in high school or college I was glad to be given informed instruction on my technique. And I'll admit I was uplifted to get direct praise on some of my actions.

Getting back to new tips for the basics... a friend of mine (no, really) had mentioned to this coach that recently he's been having problems over-passing the ball to the other side of the net. Problem, his hands were too low when getting ready to pass so he couldn't get his hands up quick enough to make a shallow pass...in his mind this meant he needed to move his hands into position quicker which resulted in too much upward momentum in his arms which further continued his problem of over-passing. Simple solution: start with his hands higher while in the ready position and use his legs more, no need to move quicker b/c his arms had less distance to cover. Instant improvement to be seen by all (especially me as setter). He knew his problem(over-passing), and knew the solution (getting his arms up for a solid platform), but his method of achieving it was slightly off. Sometimes it just takes an outside perspective to draw that line from A-B.

The flip-side to the above mentioned attitude is the players that play regularly, but have no desire to improve their skills. Why bother? I don't get this attitude; if you don't want to get better then why do it at all. How is playing mediocre ball fun for people? I can understand not bothering to improve your bowling score, because you only go 3x a year and have no desire to be competitive about it; fine, great, that doesn't hurt anyone. But this is a team sport, so by you not getting better you're interfering with my desire to excel. And then getting mad when I bring better players around and don't want to play with you isn't really fair now is it. Of course you want to play on our team, we're "good" players...but we want to play with good players too. These "stale" players are the first ones to complain when another team is too strong, yet do everything possible to surround themselves with the players they perceive to be strong (which is sometimes amusing b/c their perceptions of skill level are sometimes way off). If it was possible, I would play against a better team every time I stepped onto the court, because that is what drives me to play better.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not that much of an elitist...if someone isn't that skilled, but has the desire to improve, I will play next to them every time and help them along as much as possible until only someone better than me can offer more help (to both of us at that point).

Suffice to say, all the good that came of the clinic last night will be washed away from peoples minds and I'll be forced to endure sub-par rec. ball once again. Hopefully there will be people that aren't too prideful and will take minor reminders from those of us attentive enough to soak up as much knowledge as possible yesterday.

I still think we should relegate our side court permanently to drills. Teach a few people how to run some basic drills. Winners stay on the main court, losers go for some drills and whomever has been off the longest moves back to the main court. In a few months we'd have so much improvement and the previously mentioned stale-players will be forced to get better or probably get bored and find somewhere else to play.

Wow!! I didn't intend on this being such a long post. Guess I'm just feeling a little verbose today.

-Rev

set10 · 11-28-2006, 10:04 PM

Like your idea Jim, unfortunately you're gonna need someone to devote themselves to running the drills. If you've got that then great, but otherwise your good intentions will be for naught. My high school coach used to say that practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect. So if the players keep doing drills wrong with no one to correct them its very unlikely that they will break their bad habits. I do like the idea though, don't get me wrong.

dja24 · 11-28-2006, 11:59 PM

A little verbose, but well said, Jim. I love to help anyone with desire to improve and I'm a sponge when it comes to finding anything I can do to improve.

Volleyball is a sport for anyone that wants to play, but you can't always expect to find the "right" level of competition. I recently had to gracefully leave a team of great people that I enjoyed playing with and being around because they weren't dedicated to improving and wanted just to play once a week for fun. It's just a matter of priorities and goals. V-ball isn't "life" to everyone (hard to believe) so you have to find situations that you are happy in and leave the one's you're not.

Good luck,

Dan

EGOLDEN · 11-29-2006, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dja24

A little verbose, but well said, Jim. I love to help anyone with desire to improve and I'm a sponge when it comes to finding anything I can do to improve.

Volleyball is a sport for anyone that wants to play, but you can't always expect to find the "right" level of competition. I recently had to gracefully leave a team of great people that I enjoyed playing with and being around because they weren't dedicated to improving and wanted just to play once a week for fun. It's just a matter of priorities and goals. V-ball isn't "life" to everyone (hard to believe) so you have to find situations that you are happy in and leave the one's you're not.

Good luck,

Dan

Same deal for me, I play on a league team who are just there to play. They play with no real enthusiasm or any desire to get better. Some oof the players on the team do, but the majority does not. Some of us are leaving that team to go look for more competitive leagues to play in. That way the two factions on our team can each gravitate toward playing with other like-minded players.

set10 · 11-29-2006, 11:41 AM

Thats too bad to hear. Fortunately you have the option of leaving the team. Where I am right now there are two, yes two, volleyball leagues that I can play in. One is Co-Ed one is men's. These leagues have been running for a few years now and they have decided that there are only a select amount of spots and returning teams get first choice, thereby completely destroying any possibility of a new team joining or disgruntled players leaving to form a new team (just kidding you guys aren't disgruntled). I mean we all know volleyball isn't getting the respect it deserves, so don't you think we should work together to give the sport more exposure and increase interest? Man, I can't wait to get back to CT. Atleast there are open gym nights there.

revjim27 · 11-29-2006, 07:00 PM

I'm not completely ready to abandon my nights of rec. play. There are many people there that are friends of mine, both on and off the court. Some are in the same position I am, looking for more competition, and others have the potential, but just aren't there yet. I would like to be there to offer what help I can those that want to improve.

One benefit of playing in a completely open rec. environment is the ability to try new things everytime I'm there. I can focus on one technique for the whole night and not worry if the rest of my game suffers for it.

BHitterDPasser · 11-30-2006, 09:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by revjim27

One benefit of playing in a completely open rec. environment is the ability to try new things everytime I'm there. I can focus on one technique for the whole night and not worry if the rest of my game suffers for it.

That's what the regular season is for where you subbed for me the other week. Everyone makes playoffs so it doesn't matter what you do during the regular season. Sure it impacts seeding but that's about it.