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Juniper1299

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About Juniper1299

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  1. Hey! It's always great to have and enthuastic new member! Welcome to the forum!!
  2. Welcome to the forum!! Let me first say that that age, I believe you said 5th grade, it is important to concentrate on the basics... bump, set, hit. I think a 3-1-2 as you called it is the best idea for players at that level. It is not confusing and through it, they are able to leard the roles of all the different positions: Hitters, setters and back row players. Serving at that age can be a bit of a challenge, so I usually just concentrate on the players getting the mechanics right, i.e. not throwing the ball in the air to serve underhand, stepping into the serve to put some power behind it and making contact with the balll at teh underside of your wrist. From your post it seems like you have the right idea. Don't forget the most important thing to teach them is TEAMWORK!!
  3. Hi Mary Ellen!! Let me first say that it is great to have you as a member of the message board!! I am sure your experience will be valued by all. I coach 5th-8th graders so I can understand your situation. In my leauge, 6th graders are just getting the hang of volleyball. Some serve underhand and struggle with it others have a killer overhand serve already!! My sister is in 7th grade and just began working on overhand this season. Luckily she seems to have gotten the hang of it. I do not think that overhand serving is that important for the 6th grade level. However, it is important to lay the ground work... good toss and all of that jazz. What I stress to my girls is that I don't care how you do it, just get the ball over the net. You can have a great overhand serve but if you are not consistant it does the team no good to have you slamming balls into the net. What I stress is the toss. It needs to be high and in front of the player's body so that they can step IN TO the serve. One of the drills I used to stress this aspect of the serve is simply to have the girls toss the ball up and act like they are going to serve but instead of making contact with the ball, they just let it drop. The ball should drop next to their stepping foot, and their shoulders should be square with the court. Other than that, I really don't have any good drills for overhand serves. Sorry !! Anywhoo, I hope this helps!! Juniper1299
  4. There is a drill I like that may help get them used to being on the floor and falling down my girls have deemed it "Humility." You start with two girls, laying on their bellies on the court. You stand in front of them and bounce a ball in front of/between them. Bounce it hard so it pops up in the air. They have to scramble to get up and usually end up having to dive to get a hand on the ball. The rule is that one of the two girls on the floor needs to get a hand on the ball. If neither of them gets to it, they all run laps or do push-ups. It gets them motivated to do ANYTHING NECESSARY to get to the ball and keep it off the floor. Plus they are already starting from the floor so they usually don't have that far to fall when they do hit the ground. It really tires them out but for some strange reason they LOVE this drill. Hope this helps!! Juniper
  5. This is a hard situation to deal with. If the girls do not get along there is no way that you as the coach can "make them." However, when my girls get down and start being miserable to eachother I put them on the bench. A bad attitude is not doing anyone any good on the court. Maybe let them know that you notice their poor attitudes and the next person you see with a bad attitude will sit with you on the bench. Now, I don't know how many girls you have and if you can afford it but even if you have to sit everyone with a bad attitude, let them see that their poor behavior is not going to get them anywhere but on the bench. I know I have told my girls that if they are going to have negative attitudes then we should just turn around and go back home, because we aren't going to have any fun let alone win a game with that type of sportsmanship. I hope this helped!! It is a really hard issue to deal with and it is all too common especially with girls that age. Juniper
  6. First off let me say that I think it is GREAT that you have taken such an interest in the sport. If you really want to play in college the first step is to do some research and find out what colleges offer men's volleyball because not everyone does. Once you have found some colleges, get in contact with their volleyball coach and let him/her know of your interest in playing as a freshman and maybe they could point you in the right direction. At least you would know what they are looking for. The next step would be to find an orginazation in your area that has competetive club volleyball. In my area (Philadelphia) club volleyball is a big deal. In my opinion, it is better experience than highschool volleyball. Generally, club volleyball is like a traveling team. You mainly play tournaments. The club I played for was Junior Olympic so we got to play teams from all over. I am not sure who you would have to contact about this but maybe you could ask your Aunt OR if your school has a volleyball team (Mens or Womens) ask the coach about it. Last but not least you could try looking it up on line and seeing what you find. I hope some of this helps! If not let me know and I will see what my contacts can come up with. And PS... 17 is definitely NOT too late to start!!
  7. This is a hard aspect of the game to "teach." I have found that it comes with time. I think that what helps best in this area is confidence. Most girls who let the ball drop do so because they think "well, i'll let someone else get it because if i do it i'll just mess up." The problem is that when it is between two girls and they both have that mentality the ball will always hit the floor. I tell my young girls that i do not care if the ball hits the floor every time, as long as they were on the floor too, trying to get there. It sort of takes the pressure to perform away and makes them feel good about trying, and at least getting to the ball, even if they miss it. Confidence take time and practice. There is a drill i do that helps. It is pretty basic and you have probably heard of it but if not here it is. Put two or three girl on the back line and toss the ball between them. This teaches them that they have to move to the ball and it helps get them used to being more aggressive. They have to call for it and get there. After a while of doing this drill they should get used to it. If they are still not motivated add another rule----If the ball drops and no one went after it those two or three girls run a lap. That usually gives my players that extra motivation to try.
  8. This is an aspect of the game that is hard to teach. I think it really comes with experience and time. The players need to remember to look at where the ball is on the opposite side of the net. They need to watch the setter and anticipate wha she is going to do with the ball. Usually they are going to do what is easiest for them if they ar facing left theset will probably be to that side. As for reading the hit, it is important to look at where the hitter's shoulders are facing because 9 times out of 10 that is the direction the ball is going to go. It is all about anticipation. There is one drill i do with my players. I line 3 up in their back row positions and hit balls to them. The trick is not to look at who you are hitting to. Look at the girl at the left but square your shoulders and hit to the middle or right. It teaches them to concentrate more on your shoulders and less on where it seems that you are going to hit the ball. That is all i can think of for now. Hope it helps!!!
  9. I was just thinking about ways to deal with bad attitudes and poor sportsmanship at practice. i'm sure many of you are in teh same position i am in with 5th- 8th graders, the attitudes can be more of a hinderance than the ability of the players. If they get down on eachother and do not respect one another they cannot expect to work as a team in games. If anyone has more ideas please let us know. I personally either have girls sit out the practice, run laps or do push-ups, depending on the type of poor behavior. I have also began to havethem eithr run a lap or do 5 push-ups for each ball that is not passed correctly out of 5. (i only do this with varsity because they should be able to pass the ball properly 4 out of 5 times)
  10. it is important for them to remember who they are opposite. like server is always opposite left front hitter. so if "amy" started as server then she is always opposite "heather" who was started as left front hitter. middle back is opposite middle front and left back is opposite right front. when they rotae the right front hitter always moves to the server position and everyone moves in a clockwise circle. they know where they have to be because they check to see who they are opposite. also i think i could help you with the serve recieve positioning if i knew what you were running. is it a 4-2, a 6-2, or a 5-1?
  11. I have my girls line up at the 10 ft line and go through their hit approach and block approach. Each girl does her hit approach at the right, middle and left of the court and then return to the back of the line to begin blocking in the right, middle and left of the court. each girl does each approach twice hit hit block block. when run propperly it should only take about 5 min. Onece the first girl has done her hit approach at the left of the court she runs to the middle and the next girl in line begins this way there are almost always three girls approach ing at the same time. it gets them used to being close to the net and helps them learn not to run into it. you could have the girls split up and run the drill on each side of the net so that they become used to their opponents blocking and being up close. it also goes quicker that way.
  12. nevermind i figured it out......i just was not thinking .........thanks anyway
  13. HELP! HELP! HELP! I just stared coaching a volleyballl team (5th through 8th Graders). It seems their old coach had them playing 6-2 and 5-1 and i cannot remember these rotations. could someone please explain them to me? If you ahve diagrams that would be a much appreciated help. I played from 5th grade to 12th but that was a while ago and we just played a 4-2 mostly. Any info you could give me would be GREATLY appreciated. Thank you
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