Pan American Cup is getting hot!!! : Costa Rica to Victory Over Trinidad & Tobago

Costa Rica swept Trinidad & Tobago 25-15, 25-15, 25-18 and advanced to the 5-8 positions round of the Eighth Women’s Pan American Cup. In that stage of the tournament the Costa Ricans will compete with Canada and the losing teams of the quarterfinals phase.

Trinidad & Tobago will face Mexico in a match for the ninth position on Friday at University of Miami’s BankUnited Center.

Siblings Angela and Verania Willis paced the Costa Rican attack with 16 and 13 points, respectively, while Irene Fonseca charted 10 tallies. Karen Cope Charles added 8 points, including four service aces.v

Krystle Esdelle led Trinidad & Tobago with 10 points and Kelly-Anne Billingy and Sinead Jack each scored 8 points.

“We tried to play as good as we could and to minimize our errors,” said Verania Willis, the captain of Costa Rica. “Our serves worked well and we will try to stay focused and play point by point the rest of the tournament.”

“My team played very bad today and we know we can play a lot better,” said Nicholson Drakes, the coach of Trinidad & Tobago. “Obviously, we have a lot of work to do.”

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Named AVCA National Coach Of Year: Bill Ferguson

Who would have thought that the USC men’s volleyball team would have a near-historic season in 2009?

After all, the Trojans entered 2009 picked sixth in the MPSF pre-season poll and seventh in the AVCA national pre-season ranking. The program had virtually fallen off the volleyball map, last making an appearance in the NCAA championships 18 years ago. So downtrodden was USC that it had averaged just 9 wins in each of its previous 7 seasons.

But third-year head coach Bill Ferguson and his staff did the near-impossible, getting the Trojans to the brink of a national championship in 2009. While the coaches privately had expressed high expectations for USC’s prospects in 2010, they viewed 2009 as a stepping stone year.

Little did anyone know that 2010 was to arrive a year early!

USC got a preview of what was to come in 2009 when it won a pair of pre-season tournaments (the Can-Am Challenge and then the Hawaii Fall Tournament). The Trojans parlayed that success into a quick start to their 2009 campaign, barely losing the season opener to No. 1 Penn State, then running off 5 straight victories (their best winning streak since 2001). In fact, the Trojans won 11 of their first 14 matches, including consecutive wins over BYU for the first time since 1997-98 (snapping a 14-match losing skid to the Cougars) and a win over UCLA to give USC its third win in a row over the Bruins (its longest such streak since 1980-81).

“… Who would have thought it ….”

However, the Trojans limped home, losing 4 of their final 5 regular season matches (all on the road), including the finale at Hawaii that left them tied for fifth in the MPSF standings at 13-9 (still its most league wins since 2000) and deprived them of hosting an MPSF tourney quarterfinal match.

Instead, USC went as the tourney’s fifth seed to Stanford, where it came back from a 2-0 deficit to win in 5 sets. The Trojans then shocked top-ranked UC Irvine on the Anteaters’ home floor in the MPSF semis, 3-0 (ending a 10-match losing streak to UCI), to make their first MPSF Finals appearance since 1999. USC then captured its first-ever MPSF Tournament title with a dramatic 3-2 win over No. 2-ranked Pepperdine, earning the Trojans their first NCAA Championship berth since 1991. At the NCAAs, USC beat defending NCAA champ Penn State in the semis before falling in 5 hard-fought sets to top-ranked UC Irvine in the final

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Want to Improve Your Volleyball Game? Follow These Tips

By Kevin Smullin

The other day, I was thinking back about how I got started playing volleyball. I was thinking about how terrible my skills were and as I was thinking, I started to remember the things that helped me become a better player and the things that sped up my development. I wanted to share these ideas in hopes that they would be useful for someone else. Here are the key things that I did:

“… to find a coach or another player that can teach you the proper techniques …”

1. Play Beach Volleyball - One of the skills that I was the worst at when I started playing was setting the ball. I could not get the ball to go where I wanted it, and I felt like I was always slapping at the ball. I started to play beach volleyball (two-on-two) and this really helped my skill develop. When the other team saw how bad I was at setting, they would serve the ball to my partner so that I would have to set the ball every time. Since the pressure was on me as a setter, I got to develop the skill very quickly.

The same would also be true if you were not a good passer or hitter. Since this type of volleyball will force you to be well rounded, it is a great way to develop the skills that you have wanted to develop.

2. Focus On Technique - In my opinion, volleyball is a very technique driven sport. Those people that have good techniques will always prevail over better athletes with worse technique. I was fortunate enough to be taught the game by a couple of very gifted coaches that focused on techniques of their players. Try to find a coach or another player that can teach you the proper techniques. If you cannot find one, then do some research on the internet to find the right techniques to improve your game.

3. Play Every Chance You Get - As with any type of skill, the more you work on it, the more you will improve. I played any time that I could. Whether it was a beach volleyball tournament, or an indoor league, or a pickup game with some friends, I would take every opportunity to play that I could get. In fact, I remember one job I had where a co-worker was a volleyball player. There were some lunch breaks that we would take our lunch outside and play pepper during lunch. Find opportunities to play so that your muscle memory will be sharp and learn from the repetition.

These are a few of the items that really helped my game improve over the years. I hope that they will help you as well.

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Coaching a Leader

One of my favorite memories growing up as a child was making trips with my family to my sister’s volleyball tournaments on the weekends. Those memories are filled with being a part of an exciting atmosphere, sitting in the stands and watching the action-packed games. Along with watching my sister play, I recall two other players by the names of Christy and Liz, who stood out to me because of their athletic talent on the court. Over the four years of my sister’s high school career, I followed their volleyball careers as well because Christy was my sister’s teammate, and Liz was a player from a rival school.

Several years later, I started high school sports, and during the off-season, joined a club volleyball team. When I met my coaches, I was surprised to find out that it was Christy and Liz. They were coming off of seasoned volleyball careers on the collegiate level. I was eager at the opportunity to play under the direction of two favorite athletic role models.

When I think of that one particular season with my two coaches, I recognize it as the best season that I have ever experienced. Likewise, I can distinguish Christy and Liz as the best coaches whom I have ever associated with. As far as my physical abilities and coaching guidance are concerned, I had the best physical and mental growth with volleyball under their coaching.

As effective coaches, Christy and Liz have demonstrated ideal qualities that have made a positive contribution to their coaching abilities.

Leaders as athletes: During their playing careers, Christy and Liz were both the go-to players on the court, the MVPs of their team, and arguably the most exciting players to watch. Their leadership attributes were demonstrated by making amazing plays and scoring many points for their team. Christy and Liz were not just any former athletes; they were the elitist among their teammates. Their leadership as players transitioned easily into their new roles as coaches. As coaches, they would expect the same standards that they were up against when they were players. Those high standards elevated us to challenging, but very attainable goals.

Player experience: There are many pros of being a former athlete turned coach. First of all, Christy and Liz could empathize with us because they also had played on the court. They knew of the competition and conditioning needed to excel in volleyball. They knew firsthand how hard it was to balance sports, schooling, and other activities at the same time. They knew what to look for in their players’ potential. I remember feeling more confident when my coaches gave me one-on-one advice about what I needed to work on to become a better player. I appreciated their mentoring because I knew it was backed by their own experiences on and off the volleyball court.

“… leadership attributes were demonstrated by making amazing plays and scoring many points …”

Enthusiastic and energized: I have come across many athletic peers, and the ones who have succeeded are those who have played for the love of the game. Athletes can perform at various levels of talent, but if their heart is not 100% into the game, they will most likely not continue playing much longer. My coaches had incredible talent as players, but it was not without their enthusiasm and giving their all on the volleyball court, that improved their performance. Their positive energy excited us as players and it impacted the way we were playing. At practices, Christy and Liz actually played against us, giving us much competition and hands-on coaching. Their animation on the sidelines and constant feedback and advice was very motivating.

I credit Christy and Liz for being the best coaches to me during my playing days in high school. What sets them different than any other coach whom I have had was that I had the opportunity to see them as players years before they were coaches. They obtained leadership coaching through their many stages of playing volleyball and brought that to their coaching game.

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Top 5 little secrets to help your serve receive game

By April Chapple

Learning to pass the ball off a serve correctly, sets up your entire offense.

The volleyball, the ability to serve receive is the key to running your team’s offense. Here are 5 “little” tips that will make a BIG difference in your volleyball passing performance.

1. Keep a straight platform, by keeping elbows straight.

Just one of the biggest mistakes players make when serve receiving or passing is bending their elbows to pass the ball. If you review the photos of elite players, both indoor volleyball and sand volleyball players when they serve receive, you will notice that their “platforms,” or the inside of their forearms that they present, are so straight you could use their arms as a flat table to eat on.

Bent elbows means less ball accuracy, while straight arms gives more ball control and accuracy to guide the ball to the “setter” who is the target.

2. Track the ball visually all the way into your arms.

There are a lot of things to look at when the server has the ball just before the ref blows the whistle. There can be a lot of things to be distracted by if you don’t learn to concentrate and narrow your focus.

What do you focus on?

Once the server takes the volleyball in their hands and positions themselves to indicate where and how they are going to serve, it’s at this point most elite athletes focus 125% on the ball in the server’s hands. From this point on your eyes and mind should see and focus on nothing but the ball all the way into your arms.

Track the ball all the way into your arms visually until you can see your straight platform.

3. Don’t break your arms apart.

No matter how hard or easy the serve, keep your arms together when you pass. Fight to maintain good passing technique. I’m guilty of committing this error when I know it’s an easy pass or free ball. You have to fight the temptation of breaking your arms apart, especially when you are passing on the move.

“… most elite athletes
focus 125% on the ball
in the server’s hands …”

That’s why it’s important to pass with your feet first, get stopped, then use the correct technique. Don’t become lazy just because it seems like an easy pass to make. (see point #5.)

4. Pass with both feet on the volleyball court floor.

Don’t jump bump. The reasoning behind this is very easy. When you are in the air, you have much less control of your body and/or the ball. However, if your feet remain on the ground, you can make small adjustments, such as taking an extra step forward or backward, if needed, to control the outcome of the serve receive 99% better.

5. Pass with your feet first not with your arms.

This sounds a little tricky to understand, but what this means is that you need to get into the habit of getting to the ball first by getting your feet behind the ball first, no matter where it is.

There is a drill that really illustrates how this should look. A player starts in the left back serve receive position, while another one can be in the right back position as well. A coach from mid court on the other side of the net will serve a ball anywhere to the left side of the court. The left-side passer has to keep their arms behind their back at all times, and run to get their feet to the ball in time to allow the ball to take ONE bounce through their legs.

To make the drill more challenging, the server backs up to make full court serves. Short serves are really interesting, as one passer has to cover the entire half of their court, getting to each served ball with their arms behind their back.

Try this drill with a teammate or suggest it to your coach. As a team drill, after the first person goes on the left, then the server serves to the right, alternating players as they run behind the last person in line to try again. This is a very effective foot speed drill, which I’ve had both American and Italian Pro team coaches run in my practices.

Aside from this drill, if you are having a hard time getting your feet to the ball to serve receive accurately, then here’s an extra tip — work on your foot speed and agility drills.

This is why your warm-ups should include short sprints forward and backward, and agility foot work drills at the start of every practice. By doing these types of warm-up drills, you can increase your reactive speed towards serve receive and defensive balls.

Work on foot speed and foot work so that you can get to the ball fast and then pass the ball.

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Breaking Up The Serving Volleyball Skill: How To Become A Serving Sensation

The volleyball serve is the first form of attack. It’s the first attempt you have to make a Direct point against the opposite team. By breaking up the serving volleyball skill by body part you will learn how to effectively put the opposite team in difficulty.

You will learn quickly that what you do with your feet and lower body determines how well you will perform all volleyball fundamentals. That’s why alot of my advice and tips focus on the correct positioning of your feet and lower body.

Feet In order to begin the serve we first start with your feet positioning. Right handers place your right foot behind your left foot so your Right foot is perpendicular to your Left. Your left foot should be pointed Exactly in the direction of where you want to serve. If you want to serve down the line then your Left foot ,hips and upper body should be pointed straight ahead. When serving cross court your left foot , hips and upper body should be turned and facing cross court. All your body weight should be on your back (right foot. The only lower body movement needed when you serve will be a shift in weight from your back (Right) foot to the front (Left) foot. Upper Body – Left Arm Extend your Left arm straight out in front of your palm facing up. Place ball in the palm of this hand.

Toss

– The toss is one of the most important elements of the serve. Make sure the starting position for your Left arm is straight out in front of you – not down by your waist. With a straight Left arm Toss the ball no more than 2 feet in the air. For practice, while learning, let the ball fall to the ground. A correctly tossed ball will land about 10-12 inches – Every Time. Your toss should be the same EVERY TIME. Two feet up in the air and 10 inches in front of your LEFT foot. If you Toss to the left or right of your front foot

1. you will be forced off balance.

2. you will be forced to chase your toss – which will force you Not to serve in the direction you want to. Believe it or not the TOSS is where many serving errors start. RIGHT ARM Right arm is fully extended with fingertips and palm facing downward lightly covering the top of the ball. After the toss – you step forward shifting your body weight from back foot to front foot to meet the ball. At this moment you begin your arm swing. Start your RIGHT arm swing by pulling your arm straight back – palm facing outward – keep elbow high your elbow should pass Over the level of your ear – in slow motion you should be able to turn your head slightly to look underneath your elbow as you pull your arm back – use the same movement you would use to pull a bow and arrow. Once you’ve pulled the arrow (your elbow) as far back as it will go, keeping the elbow as high as possible -raise the forearm above your head – palm facing the sky – bring arm foreward to make contact with the ball. Contact should be made squarely in the center of the ball with the flat upper palm portion of your hand.

Establish a Serving Rhythm

1. Assume the Start Position with your feet in the “2 o’clock” position – your weight on the back foot, prepare to toss with the Left hand.

2. Take a step shifting your weight from your back (Right) foot to the front (Left) foot towards the ball.

HIPS

1. Start arm swing (just like pulling the bow of an arrow) as you step forward (shift weight) to go contact the tossed ball.

2. Contact the ball squarely in the middle of it – with the upper part of the palm of your hand. Don’t “Shot Put” Your Serve. Shot putting occurs when your elbow is too low during your arm swing. When your elbow is low the server is forced to try and lift the ball over the net just by using the force of an open palm which doesn’t produce enough force or momentum to get the ball over the net. Don’t Disguise Your Serve Let everyone in the gym know where you are going to serve – especially whoever you are serving to. This often puts pressure on the passer. With practice and repetition you will be able to serve tough enough so that your target will have difficulty passing your serve.

Also, when you try to show that you are serving in one direction then serve in another direction- it usually forces you to add more movement than necessary in your serving technique. When this happens more often than not you will

1. miss the timing of your toss, or

2. Contact the ball on its side or

3. Be forced off balance which all contribute to a possible missed serve.

So Remember you want to …

0. Face your target

1. Aim

2. Toss

3. Shift your weight

4. Step to the Toss

5. Contact the ball squarely

6. Serve Tough.

7. Become a Fabulous Serving Sensation!

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Practice volleyball spiking drills to smash your opponents!!

To have a great kill you need to have some awesome hitters. And to have awesome hitters they need to train extra hard to get off the ground and swing all the way through.

Just like any other sport, practice makes perfect. If you didn’t have practice when would you learn? So, during volleyball practice you could have special drills going on for each specific position since not everyone does the same thing. You could have volleyball spiking drills for your hitters.

These spking drills should consist of:

• Going over spike approach
• A resistance drill to help your legs get stronger
• Distance running
• Location specific jumping
• Follow through when you swing

Make sure you try to do those key parts in the drills because I promise you over time your hitters will improve. Or it could just be a warm up before your hitters start swinging full power.

Even though these players are labeled hitters, they also need to practice passing to the target since they won’t always be in the front row hitting. However, since your hitters won’t only be hitting, but blocking as well, they will need to do some volleyball blocking drills, too In addition, since hitters will be doing a lot of jumping when spiking and blocking, they need to also have some volleyball jump training on top of all that! Phew, that’s a lot, but you’ll only be getting better as you train in these categories!

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Volleyball Drills For Beginners – Where to Begin

The importance of drills is to help build team spirit and make the team play better as a unit. Building communication skills and improving on required skills. The same old drills can get stale, so give your team a few fun drills to break things up a bit.

Teaching the fundamentals of volleyball should be taught in a way that increases as the team’s skills do. You can do this with incorporating fun drills along with the regular drills. The most basic volleyball techniques can be quite difficult, and it takes numerous practices to become skilled at them correctly. To make the process easier, it is suggested that you keep the whole thing very simple, and break the drills down so they are easy enough for the players to learn each facet of them.

There are books, and websites, and even DVDs that you can get to show you all of the most important drills that your team needs to learn. The most important thing to remember is to let them learn the basics of each skill before trying to improve their skills. They have to have the skills down first.

When you start to progress to the improving of skills, know what each team member’s strengths and weaknesses are and then you can pair them up to do drills in a way that one who is good at one skill will work with another who may be lacking in that skill but is good in another. This way they learn to communicate and help each other.

You never want to pit one player against another so when you put the team mates together, make sure they are have some equal talents. The drills are not supposed to point out who is better and belittle the others. You want to teach team unity, and get them to want to help each other for the sake of the team.

By Wayne Hairston

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How to Become the Most Valuable Player on the Volleyball Court

Part of what makes sports great is that feeling of being part of a team, the sense of accomplishment one gets from doing their part. Like any team sport, the success or failure of a volleyball team relies on the performance of each individual. You can become a vital part of your team and assist them in great success; all it takes is desire and the right preparation.

At volleyball practice coaches have their players focus on volleyball drills, technique and game situations to prepare them for a game. This is obviously a huge part of what every volleyball player needs to know. However, the difference between a good volleyball player and a great volleyball player is the amount of time they spend training their bodies for the game of volleyball.
In order to excel at the sport of volleyball, a player needs to develop certain athletic abilities not just master a few volleyball drills. They need to have a good vertical jump, they need explosive arm power and swing speed, they need quickness, flexibility and fast reaction time and they need balance. Unfortunately these aspects of volleyball training are overlooked a majority of the time.

Understanding the need for volleyball specific athletic traits is the first step. Think about the different positions and game situations that a volleyball player faces. They need to travel very short distances quickly to get to a ball; this requires quickness and reaction. They need to jump high at the net to block a ball; this requires spring-like power in the legs. A volleyball player needs to spike and serve the ball; this requires explosive arm power. They need to dig for the ball; this requires flexibility. Of course, like any other athlete, volleyball players also need a strong core and balance to provide them with power and keep them stable during play. Drills alone cannot provide these strengths. A player who trains to improve these abilities will be the most valuable player on the court every time.

Strength training for volleyball is not about lifting tons of weight while lying or sitting down.

Instead, creating workouts that mimic the movements a volleyball player makes on the court and adding flexible resistance and balance challenges into those moves great results are ensured. Another great thing about this type of training is that the athletes actually look forward to it unlike ‘hitting the weights’ or running. This makes it all that much more rewarding.

It is not enough for a volleyball player to know how to play the game. It is safe to assume that every player on the court knows how to play and what is expected of him or her. To be the player that stands out it is necessary to not only know the game but to be prepared physically for its demands. This is where functional training comes into play.

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Volleyball Rules

If learning about volleyball rules leaves you scratching your head, you have come to the right place. We have broken down and simplified the rules of the game of volleyball so that anyone can easily understand. Volleyball is one of the most popular and fun recreational sports for all ages, and will be on your way to an enjoyable volleyball experience once you become familiar with these simple volleyball rules.

Volleyball Rules – Serving

• The game starting serve is decided by a volley
• In official play, a coin toss is used to determine who will serve first.
• The server has to stay behind the end line during service.
• The losing team gets the serve for the next game.
• The server can serve the ball overhand or underhand.
• If the serve hits the net, the receiving team scores a point.
• The receivers must be able to see the ball clearly before the serve.
• The receivers can only use a bump to return the ball to the serving side.
• A serve cannot be attacked or blocked by the receiving team.
• The server scores if the ball grazes the top of the net and falls onto the other side.

Volleyball Rules – Playing

• Each team has six active players.
• Each side can hit the ball a maximum of three times before hitting it over the net.
• A player cannot hit or touch the ball two times in a row.
• A hit can be made with any body part as long as the ball does not visibly come to rest.
• If the ball hits a boundary line, it is still fair and in play.
• Each team does a rotation whenever they win the serve.
• In a rotation, the players move one position clockwise.

Volleyball Rules – Scoring

• A point is scored every time there is a score of the ball.
• The serving team scores when the receiving team misses or the ball is hit out.
• The receiving team scores when the offensive team misses or hits the ball out.
• The first team to score 25 points wins the game.
• The winning team must have at least 2 points more than the losing team to win.

Volleyball Rules – Violations

• The server cannot step over the line when serving.
• A serve must be hit over the net to be successful.
• A player has 8 seconds to successfully serve the ball.
• It is against the rules to carry, palm or throw the ball.
• Touching the net with any part of the body or clothing is illegal when the ball is in play.
• Proper serving order must be followed.

In competitive play, the official volleyball must have a circumference of 65-67 centimetres and weigh between 260 and 280 grams.

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