Question: I’m a highschool volleyball player. I’m 14 and will be a sophmore next year. I am completely dedicated to volleyball. I played on a 16’s club team for my area this passed season, they made my position a libero. I am confident in my skills & would like to make my schools varsity team next season, I just think i need more work. Any advice on skills training, besides camps?
This question was asked by Emily.
Ok, well I don’t really have an entire article of information to write up for this one but I’ll give it a shot haha. The only thing I can think of to help your “skills” training outside of the gym and camps etc., is visualization training. Make a routine of “excersizes” that you can do everyday or w/e is most convienent for you, that allows you to go through all the motions of volleyball – without a ball. I like to make it a point when I can’t touch a ball for a while to stand in front of the mirror at night before I go to bed and practice my cut shots. I try to visualize the court in front of me and picture the ball being set and cut the ball to spots 1-6 on the court. For passing you can do the same thing. Practice the motion of passing and following through to target. Picture the ball coming in, practice good form (hands ready, arms high, feet shoulder width, etc.) and follow through to target.
There’s other things you can do with more room like practicing your approach. One main thing that will help advance any of your skills is repetition. Practicing your approach over and over again allows you to not have to think about it in game. Also, if you get a “correct” approach down, you can achieve certain cut shots and other things that you couldn’t before. Until I got to college I really didn’t have a coach that focused highly on footwork and body alignment. Training at first was tough. I was asked to make cut shots that I had never tried before and was very unsuccessful. The motions felt awkward and uncomfortable and I thought it was just because I have never had to perform such hits. My coach soon realized that it was because, although I had the right footwork for the approach, my hips were completely facing the wrong way. Once I fixed that everything fell in to place.
Another thing I can think of that will make you a better player is having more knowledge of the game itself. Doing what you did by visiting this site and asking your questions is one way to get answers, but what if you want to learn something but don’t know how to put it in words? Along with these self help articles I will start posting articles from other sites that I personally read for my benefit. It’s good to try to find more information about volleyball on a regular basis. That way, when you come across something difficult you may have the knowledge already to fix it.
I know it’s not much but I hope that helped a little. Thank you for the question Emily! 
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