Characteristics of an Elite Player
(from
What Are
we in the High Performance Program Looking for in National-Level Volleyball
Athletes?
-
Listed below is a general
discussion of the characteristics we in the High Performance
Program are looking for (and
hope to develop) in National Level Volleyball Athletes.
These characterizations are
not an exact science and their application may mean different
things to different age groups, types of players and positions.
1) Athleticism - The
best volleyball athletes are “dynamic.” This is a word we use to describe
athletes who have a mix of core strength, quickness, flexibility and power that
allows them to play the game with speed and control. Dynamic players usually
have strong quadriceps muscles and are very flexible in the hips and groin.
They can move among their various responsibilities on the court very quickly,
even in a low, “athletic position.” They also can effectively/efficiently use
their torso and arms in their jump,
attack and other skills. They play as well in the air as they do on the
floor. Quickness and speed are composed of a number of physical components that
can be developed and improved if an athlete is willing to train very hard in the practice gym
and in the weight room. Another important component of quickness is the trained
“reading” of the play and the knowledge of what to do in response to the things
that you read. This ability mostly comes from playing the game and
understanding system-specific, and
position-specific, responsibilities on the court.
Part of being able to move
fast is an understanding of balance, body control and the ability to stop
quickly. An athlete can only move as quickly as he/she can stop, and perform a
skill when the ball arrives. Top coaches like athletes who are fast jumpers and
fast reacters. However, even if you aren't naturally
a "fast-twitch" athlete, you can achieve the "stability
component of speed" by having strong quadriceps muscles and core muscles
(abs and lower back), flexible hips and groin, and supple ankles/feet.
You can test yourself on
balance/speed very easily. Stand in a ready, athletic position and imagine
yourself in the center of a 10-12 feet diameter clock that is laid out on the
ground. Your partner will call out random numbers from 1-12, and you will
immediately make a 2, 3 or even 4 step move (approximately 5 or 6 feet) to that
position on the clock ending up in a ready, athletic position able to play the
ball. In which directions are you the slowest? Do your feet get tangled up in
any directions? Can you effectively regain
body position whenever your move includes a crossover step? Does your
center of gravity go up and down during the 3-4 steps, or do you maintain a
straight line with balance? What are your arms doing? Are any problems that you
encounter due to your original foot position/balance, or are they a result of
an inefficient first step?
Please see below #4
Confidence and Leadership and #7 Vision, because these
are key elements of improving your quickness and your response to things that
occur on the volleyball court. To become more athletic and dynamic, you have to
force yourself to step out of your “comfort zone” and see/respond confidently,
dynamically and efficiently. Think of every skill originating in your center of
gravity and power – your hips.
2) Technique – For young
athletes, coaches aren’t as concerned about whether you execute a play
perfectly every time. They are more concerned about whether you have any major
flaws in your technique that will limit the rate, and top end, of your
development as a volleyball player.
If your technique is sound, you will improve at a higher rate, given the
same number of training hours, as someone whose technique is biomechanically inefficient. For example,
if you have an efficient and effective armswing,
every gain that you make in the area of strength and conditioning will
translate into more power in your attack. Most importantly,
however, for the majority of skills an improper technique will limit the top
end of how good you can become at that skill. In most cases, these limits do
not manifest
themselves until you play at the highest levels and have to perform against other
top players.
This concern is most
important with passing platform and arm swing. With regards to passing, we like
to see stable arms, with supple shoulders. This is not an easy thing to
achieve, because at the same time you have to have the flexibility to react to
a moving float serve and the strength to manage a high-speed spike. And for
both of these, you need to be able to control the ball for an instant and to
then put it where it needs to go. One thing we like to see is athletes who can
track the trajectory of the ball very early and
who can continue to track it as they move quickly and efficiently to that
location on the court – while at the appropriate time preparing their platform
for the pass. You don’t want to get your platform ready too early, because that
makes it difficult to move quickly to the ball; but you must have it ready
early enough so that pass does not end up as the end of a jabbing motion at the
ball.
The arm swing technique is one of the most important factors in
determining whether a player can reach the National Level. Any player who wants
to be an elite volleyball athlete should work on strengthening and stretching
their shoulder, and developing an efficient and powerful arm swing. One key
issue relating to an athlete’s armswing is his or her
ability to transition their arm(s) quickly/efficiently from their role in
assisting the jump to the role of executing the attack. A second key issue is
the ability to generate arm speed power for the spike at a high arm position,
at the peak of the jump. These two issues are
closely related, and they also are both largely a result of a player’s shoulder
flexibility, core strength and upper
back strength. During the approach and attack, athletes should focus more
on the roles and positions of their elbows and hips (using their torso turn in
the air to add power and to maintain a higher snap point), rather than on their
shoulders. The great hitters extend their hitting shoulder higher than the
other shoulder just before, and during, the time of contact. This puts less
strain on the shoulder, allows you to hit the ball at a higher point and
involves the strong pectoral muscles in the spike. They then follow through
with a snap-down motion from the elbow, rotating the shoulder forward to
maintain longer contact with the ball to transfer greater power (this takes
practice).
3) Strength - Size is
important, but a lot of people think that we are only looking for big, tall
players for our National Programs. That is not true, because the key thing is
not how big you are … it's how big you play. One of the top-rated players on
the 2001 and 2002 Womens Junior National Teams (and
not a libero) is approximately 5' 7". This
athlete is very strong and she plays big. In the Boys Youth National Team
Second Tryout held in
Any great volleyball coach will tell you that the strength of your core
is a determining factor in how quickly, efficiently and powerfully you will be
able to perform any volleyball skill. The core muscles, including the abs,
lower back and hips, should be the center of attention for any volleyball
athlete’s training routine. Any qualified trainer, or
even a search on the internet, can help you to find helpful core exercises that
will lead to improvements in all aspects of your game.
One of the most important
areas of strength that deserves continual attention is the upper back. Again,
you “can only go as fast as you can stop” (assuming you plan to “go” more than
once). Therefore, your speed of armswing is limited
by the strength of your upper back and the ability of these muscles to
cushion/brake the speed of the attacking arm. If you don’t have strong traps
and rhomboids, you will likely end up with an injured shoulder at some point in
your volleyball career. An athlete’s dynamic power in the hips (and, as should
be mentioned here, their flexibility throughout the core area) can compensate
for size. A major goal of every young volleyball player should be to master the
“squat” lift to a level appropriate to their physical development, and then
progress (cautiously – only after recommendation and oversight from a qualified
trainer) to the Olympic Lifts (jerks, snatches and cleans). At this point, an
athlete is ready to combine base strength with dynamic hip explosion to achieve
the best vertical jump that their frame will allow.
4) Confidence and leadership
- It is not surprising that the best athletes demonstrate confidence and
leadership on the court, and make the players around them better. The question
is: "Which comes first, being a good player or being confident in your
abilities?" I think that the answer to this question is a balance between
the two. As a player, you may have to begin acting confident and aggressive on
the court first, and your skills and game will usually
follow. At tryouts, our eyes
are caught by players who take charge.
5) Aggressiveness - following
from #4, aggressive play is something that all good coaches look for. At the
younger groups, we would rather see a highly aggressive and athletic player hit
five great kills and five balls into the bleachers than ten “get the ball overs.” Roll shots and tips are important things to learn,
but even they can be done aggressively and confidently.
6) Ability to learn and improve
– At the National level, and even for most college programs, the rate at which
a player can adapt and improve within a tryout, or training environment, is
very important (even if these changes are subtle during a 3-hour tryout). For
our USAV National programs, this is critical because we are only able to train
our athletes with our top coaches for about 2% - 4% of a given year; so we need
to know that you can adapt to our National Team systems and quickly reach your
potential when
placed in an elite training environment. Our tryout coaches track players’
progress throughout the course of a tryout to determine whether you adapt. This
may be your first chance at playing with such a high level of competition; and
we want to see how you react. Part of this comes from how open you are to
change (the ability to step outside of your "comfort zone") and part
of this is determined by #4 and #5 above. The more confident and aggressive you
are, the more you will find yourself adapting to the demands of higher levels
of play. This definitely is something that athletes can work on whenever they
are on the court. During the
tryout, make sure you learn and adapt in response to playing with new players.
Don’t just leave it up to your physical abilities – the best volleyball players are as
mentally tired as they are physically tired after an important tryout or match.
7) Vision and reaction -
Volleyball is such an interesting game because every play is different and it
happens so fast. Therefore, a
volleyball player can’t be trained specifically how to react to every play.
Rather, they have to be able to observe and creatively respond to each new
situation. A lot of this just comes from playing the game as much as possible;
however, yo u can train yourself to be more observant
and to look for more subtle cues that you will begin to pick up (for example,
when a hitter will tip a ball,
or when a server will serve a short serve, etc.). This is called
"playing the game in the future" because you begin to look for
smaller cues and “reads” that an opponent will give away before she even knows
it.
Important
Position-Specific Elements
With regards to
specific positions, we are looking for outside hitters who can pass
a good portion of the court and then terminate an outside set. We like
our outside
hitters to have great vision, a fast/explosive approach and a “live arm.”
We
are looking for setters
who can jump set and who have great body control and
speed, even when the passes are all over the court. We also want our setters
to
have strong, supple wrists/hands that can control the ball for an instant,
and then
execute a quick, fluid release. We want them to be calm, confident and smart.
We
are looking for middle
blockers who are trained to read (excellent vision),
react and move very quickly in response to the opponent's setter and
offense, and
who can reach over the net and stuff 'em. Quickness and aggressive are
determining factors (also a good mix of discipline and creativity).
We
are looking for all types of hitters who have more than just one or two
standard shots (they can score against different kinds of blocks and in a
number of
different situations).
We
are looking for liberos who can pass all types of serves and who can defend
the ball in front of them and to the side of them very effectively, using
their hips
to get behind and underneath every ball.
In general, we are
looking for players who can control the volleyball, while
passing, defending, setting, serving and attacking.
As a final note, we are looking for players who naturally
enjoy the rigors and
challenges of high- level training. We find that the best athletes just naturally
find it very
rewarding to give everything they have, working with their teammates, to become
great
at their sport. For these athletes, one of their definitions of “fun” is to
succeed at a high
level and to put in the work necessary to get them there. Those are the kinds of athletes
who will continue to love the game for a long time and who will put in the
kind of work
necessary to reach the highest level. Is that something you can begin to change?
Maybe.