Frequently Asked Questions (690)

Who wears the different color jersey and why?

A: the player who wears the different color jersey is called the libero. The libero is the best passer on the team and the defensive leader. Since they are the best passer, they get more playing time. The libero can go in for someone with out using a substitution. They typically go in for the middles when they get to the back row, but can go in for anyone in the back row. They usually play left back, but they could play right or middle back too. 
How do you get out of rotation?

A: first off, your team will start off in a line up, or an order, that you have to stay in the whole game, so when you rotate, you keep that same order. An easy was to tell if you are in the right spot is to look at the people to the right and left of you and your opposite, and if they are the same as when you started then you are in the right spot. 
How do you know who's turn it is to serve?

A: this goes with the rotations; if you know who is next to you in the rotation and you know where you are on the court, then it is easy to tell when you serve. The right back player is always the server so when your team rotates, then so does the server. So if you keep track of who serves right before you, you can tell when it's almost your turn to serve! 
What are the positions?

A: there are three categories to positions in volleyball: passing, setting, and hitting. For passing, you can have one or two liberos and then the rest of the passers are called defensive specialists, or DS for short, and sub in for hitters when they get to the back row. For setting, there is a setter. Their job is to set the ball after the pass and set it up to the hitters so they can hit. The setter is a leader who runs the offense and decides what the hitters are running. There can be one setter that sets all the way around for 6 rotations, or there can be 2 setters who set for 3 rotations each. Lastly, for hitting, there are different types of hitters. There are left or outside hitters who play left front. They usually get the majority of the sets and are supposed to be somewhat good at passing also. There are middles who play in middle front and they usually run faster paced sets like 1s, 31s, and slides. They are also one of the biggest blockers, since they are always blocking every hit from the other team. There are right side or opposite hitters who are opposite the setter and play in right front. They are also supposed to be one of the strongest blockers because they are blocking the other team's outside hitter, which is the player who gets the most sets. 
Why can't you touch the net?

A: just think if you COULD touch the net. People would be running into the net and the other team's players all the time. The passes would also get sloppy because the setter doesn't have to worry about being in the net. The purpose for the net rule is to prevent injury from happening. There are a lot of injuries, like sprained ankles, that happen at the net when people go up for a tight ball and one lands on the other's foot. This is also the reason for the center line rule that goes with the net rule. 
How many people play at a time?

A: There are six people on the court at one time; three in the front and three in the back.

What do you have to do for conditioning and workouts?

A: Honestly, this depends on the coach. Some coaches will have their team do a lot of conditioning, and some won't. Also, some will try to incorporate conditioning into the drills they do at practice instead of doing conditioning seperately. 

Tournaments (312)

People have asked how you run tournaments in volleyball, and my answer is this; it is similar to other sports. You have pool play, then move on to bracket/tournament play. In smaller tournaments, the pools are random, but in bigger tournaments they usually base the pools off of seedings. Seedings are what "rank" your team has before a tournament based on your record so far that season. They arrange the pools so that all of the highest seeded teams, which are "suppose to be" the best teams there, are all in different pools. They do this so that hopefully those good teams will meet up later in bracket play and in the championships. 

Once pool play is done, a certain number of teams move up depending on the size of the tournament. At smaller tournaments, only the #1 team in each pool might move up, but in bigger tournaments with 100 or more teams the 1st and 2nd team and sometimes 3rd teams from each pool move up to gold. 

Once pool play is over, bracket/tournament play starts. You either move to gold, silver, bronze, etc, depending on how you preformed in pool play. In this bracket, you have to keep winning to continue playing, so if you lose, you're done, although sometimes you can lose and still play if a third place team needs to be determined. This would be at tournaments that gave away bids to nationals, or any big tournament that would be a big part of your record and future seedings. So technically the only team that ends a tournament on a win is the champion and the winner of each bracket, if there are several different brackets. But at smaller tournaments, there are not several different brackets; instead there is a consolation bracket, where the lower half of the pools play for a consolation champion. 

Serving (434)

How does one serve? 

This depends on a couple of things. What level of volleyball is it? What type of serve are you trying to learn? 

For beginner volleyball, people usually start with an underhand serve. This is the most basic type of serve in volleyball, and this serve doesn't have very much control. All you have to do is swing your arm a little and hit the ball with the knuckle and palm side of the fist. For higher-level volleyball you serve overhand. There are different types of overhand serves including standing float, standing topspin, jump float, and jump topspin. Anytime you are serving, you want to hit the ball with a firm, open hand and aim more upwards. For any float serve, you want to hit the ball mainly with your palm, drive through the ball, and don't snap your wrist or follow through all the way. For this type of serve, the less spin the better. The purpose of this serve is to make the ball "float" or move a little in the air, making it difficult for the passer on the other side. For a jump float, the footwork is almost like a rhythm. I take my first(and biggest) step at the same time as tossing the ball just above my head, then take two little steps, then jump and swing. Since I'm right handed, my footwork is left, right left. A lefty's footwork would be the opposite: right, left right. 

For topspin serves, you want to contact the ball high and snap your wrist, causing the ball to have spin. When you toss the ball, you can either toss plain or put spin on your toss. When you jump serve, toss like you are bowling up at the ceiling with your hitting hand, then go into your approach, which is the same footwork for right handers: left, right left, or for left handers: right, left right. The toss should be higher and have some spin on it. 

To get even more complex, your coaches can call which zones on the court they want you to serve. The way you are facing, the direction of your swing,how high you aim, and the way you turn your hand can all change where the ball is going to go on the court. For example, a person's normal serve usually goes to a back row player on the other team, but your coach can call a short zone, for which you would have to change the trajectory of the ball(how high you aim) and how hard you hit the ball. 

Club Tryouts (577)

One of my favorite times of the year is club volleyball season, and to start this, there are club tryouts. These can be stressful for some, and not for others. It can be stressful for players to be trying out for a position on a team they would really like to play for, especially I might it is their top pick. A lot of players who tryout will tryout for multiple teams, just in case they don't make their top pick. Personally, I do not get very nervous about things like tryouts and tests. My thinking is that I will give my best effort and not worry about it. 

The first thing a player needs to do is decide which clubs they would consider playing for, and decide which ones they want to try out for. You can either pre-register or be a "walk up" and sign up the day of the tryout. At tryouts you get a preview of the players you are competing with, how the coaches are, and a feel for the gym atmosphere and intensity. The coaches are evaluating you as a player in different ways. They will evaluate your skills, attitude, court IQ, how you connect with the other players, effort level, and anything else they are looking for in a player. 

One of the most stressful, hard decisions in this process is choosing where to play. This is a big decision because where you choose to play includes the players you play with, the coaches who coach you, and the tournaments you go to. These things can affect how you will grow as a player. For example, if you get good coaching, that will improve your skills, and if you go to bigger tournaments and play in harder divisions that will improve your team and give you more exposure to college coaches. Another aspect is recruiting for college. Which club coaches will work the hardest to help you get recruited? Some clubs will even try to convince you to choose them by telling you what players have already committed to that team. 

There are some rules with these tryouts. Some coaches like to get a head start and secure spots for the players they are 100% sure they want to take on their team again, so they ask them to commit early. If you say yes and commit early, then you can only go to that club's tryout, and no one else's. For some, it feels like a weight is lifted off their shoulders since they made the decision early and got it out of the way. If you don't want to commit early, you can say no and you are not completely off the list. If you tryout, you could still make the team and decide then that you want to commit. Another rule with tryouts deals with the overlap of high school volleyball. The rule is that you cannot do any club tryouts until your high school season is over, so if your team qualifies for the state tournament, then those players can't participate in any tryouts until they are done at state. Because of this rule, many clubs offer a third tryout date specifically for the varsity players who make it to state and can't go to the normal tryout dates. 

For many people this is a stressful time where they need to make and important decision, but for others it is and exciting start to club season! 

Club vs School (293)

Most volleyball players play both high school and club volleyball. There are some similarities and also some differences. The biggest difference is probably the time frame. School volleyball is only 3 months- August, September, and October. Club volleyball lasts about 6 months- December to late June or early July. Part of the reason that the club season lasts so long is because of nationals. The last big tournament is usually in April or May and nationals is in late June, so there is a gap where you just practice and prepare for nationals. 

Another difference is that in club you are only playing with your age group, while in high school you are playing with a mix of up to four different age groups. Also, in club you travel out of state and in school you don't leave Iowa. 

There are some ways that they are similar though. Even though the end of the season tournament is different(nationals vs state) you are both working hard to qualify for the post season. If you are on varsity, then they are also similar because they are both highly competitive teams. 

Some players prefer one over the other for various reasons. Personally, I like club better. I love to travel and play in huge qualifiers, and the players and coaches are more dedicated. The players that aren't as serious about volleyball might either only play school volleyball or just like school volleyball better since some levels aren't as competitive(JV, sophomore, freshman) and you don't have to pay for school volleyball, unlike club volleyball where there is a club fee. 

Club and school both have their ups and downs, but overall they are both great programs to be involved in if you live playing volleyball! 

Team Bonding (473)

Team bonding is essential to good team chemistry, no matter what sport or who is playing. Having good team chemistry creates a sense of unity among the team in practices and matches. Most of this can be helped with team bonding. Team bonding comes in many different ways whether it is mandatory or just for fun. 

Some coaches will plan different mandatory team bonding times, like team dinners or scouting a team. A lot of times when we're at tournaments the coaches will have us all sit and watch one of the matches as a team so we know a little more about the other team, but also we are bonding instead of all being separate. At club tournaments, some coaches make a team watch other age teams from that same club play if they are at the same tournament as them, but if they don't have to watch anybody play, they just require that the team hang out together during any down time. 

Team dinners can be either planned by the coach or the parents (in club the patents always planned it). For school volleyball, it is usually at one of the player's houses, but for club the tournaments are out of town most of the time, so we find a restaurant to eat at. 

At the team dinners that I've been to, the coaches aren't there, although every coach is different- some might enjoy coming to them and talking with players and parents but others might not. 

During out of town tournaments, we stay in hotels and typically all of the time we are not playing is spent hanging out with the team at the hotel. You might think this sound boring, but you'd be surprised at how many things to do we've found at a hotel. 

Another way of team bonding is to have a sleepover! This is actually one of the best ways, since you are together (not playing volleyball) with the team for a whole night, and not only a few hours. We have a lot of fun at these sleepovers and this is usually where people get to know each other the best, especially when it is a new team or team with some new people on it. In club they are usually in the beginning of the season when everyone is getting to know each other, and for school a lot of them happen in the summer during pre season training when there is no school, or the night of a tournament. These are unplanned and happen with late notice, so it's okay if not everyone comes to them. 

All of these things greatly help the team dynamics on and off the court, and I think that our Kennedy volleyball team does a good job with bonding; we've had several team sleepovers and many team dinners! 

The Boys (458)

Believe it or not, there is boys volleyball. In Iowa it is not super popular, but in other big cities it is very popular, with almost as many guys teams as girls teams. When we go to national tournaments or qualifiers it is sometimes also a boys tournament. They will have the girls games on certain courts and the boys teams on other courts. Last year my team went to the President's Day Classic, which is not a qualifier for girls, but it was a qualifier for the boys teams. It was the only tournament last year that we went to that also had a boys division playing in it. It was really neat to see, and a bit weird, because I was not used to seeing guys playing volleyball at such a high skill level. The skill level of the U18 Open boys was incredible, of course they all jump so high and have so much power. We were watching the boys U18 Open finals with at least 200 other people surrounding the court to watch. 

In Iowa, we have very few boys volleyball teams. There are no school teams for boys, and for club there are only a few.  The club I played for last year, Adrenaline Volleyball Academy, had a boys team. It was made up of guys from age 12 to 18 but it had to be a U18 team since the oldest guy was in the 18s age group. They won the boys regionals and were the best guys team in the state, but compared to other states with hundreds of guys teams, they weren't at that skill level. 

High Performance (which I blogged about earlier) also has boys teams. In Iowa, they have less teams than the girls because of the smaller number of boys that play volleyball. They have a U15 team and a U18 team, which both compete in the HP nationals.  

Right now there are lots of opportunities for guys to play volleyball, and people who run the programs like High Performance and clubs who have boys teams are trying to expand the game for boys. Another opportunity for boys to play is playing now on a girls team. If they are 14 or under, they are able to play on a girls club team, but not any older because then they view it as unfair for a boy to be playing against girls. Other opportunities that are more for fun are sand and indoor leagues, like Volley's, where you can play 6s, 4s, or doubles. There are many ways to get more guys to play volleyball, but I think one of the easiest ways, that doesn't already exist, would be to have boys high school teams in Iowa. 

Reffing (338)

Have you ever been mad at a ref's call? Or even more mad if a player is reffing and they make a bad call or aren't paying attention? That is why we have to take a reffing course to be certified to ref. As a player for USA volleyball this is required so that we know what we are doing when we ref. It is necessary for us to learn this because at tournaments you get assigned to ref other matches in your pool. Sometimes they have an official to up ref (the main ref) and down ref (the other main ref) but you still have to do the other reffing jobs. 

There is a variety of things to do when reffing. First, you have to have an up ref who stands on the post above the net. They make all of the main calls. Then, there is a down ref who stands on the ground on the opposite side of the up ref and they watch for things that the up ref might not see like net, under the net, substitutions, score table, and out of rotation calls. Sitting at the table there is a scorekeeper who flips the score, a libero tracker who keeps track of who the libero goes in and out for, and a book keeper who has a score sheet that keeps track of rotations, substitutions, penalties, serving order, score, and all the information about the match. (I usually do this when I'm reffing.) The last thing that is needed is line judges. They stand on the corners of the court and say if the ball was in or out. They also watch for foot faults from the servers, which means the server stepped on the line. 

We need to learn how to do all of these things to be able to play club volleyball since it is required that teams ref during tournaments. It seems hard at first, but once you practice it and do it for a while it is easy. 

Being a Good Teammate (278)

One of the biggest components to being a great team is having good teammates. Teams that have good teammates also have good team chemistry, which helps them play better. Being a good teammate is not only important in sports, but in work and school. 

One way to be a good teammate is your attitude. You should have a positives mad encouraging attitude towards your teammates. Towards the coaches, you should be coachable and ready to take their advice. Even if you don't play that much, you should have a good attitude on the bench and understand that the situation is the best for the team, although sometimes that is not easy to do. Players shouldn't just focus on if they are a starter or how much play time they get because everyone has a roll on the team and they are all important in the team's success, no matter how much play time they may or may not get. 

Another part of being a good teammate is your effort at practices and games; are you working to make you and your team better? Are you giving 100% on the court? By always giving a high effort level you are helping your team improve. You are also showing that you care about what you are doing and showing that you want to be there. Not only do your teammates see this, but so do your coaches, and they want to see players  working hard. 

Being a good teammate is about helping the team, so sometimes the focus is not on just improving yourself, but helping to improve the team. Also, teams full of good teammates just have more fun! 

Stresses and Problems (530)

There are many stresses and things that could go wrong being an athlete. The biggest thing for me is the time management. I have practices every day along with the homework and family priorities. I often find myself very busy with little free time to relax or do activities. This is the worst during the busiest part of school season and the busiest part of club season when we are gone for days at a time. When you miss school, you have to do all the make up work along with all the current work. It can get very tiring and annoying. Also, it is VERY hard not to get distracted by your phone or other devices, especially after a game day or tournament, when you want to check what people said about the game. 
Another stressful thing about playing a sport is being frustrated about being in a rough patch. Sometimes, when you are working at things and trying to get better, you feel like you're getting worse before you get better. There are a lot of failures before success, but eventually you get it. Also, people get frustrated when they are  not doing so well in practice or in a game. In volleyball this is easy to do, and because so much of the game is mental, one mistake could affect the next play and sometimes the one after that if you get mad, upset, or let it bother you. We just have to remember that it is okay to make mistakes and that you learn from them. 

Another problem with some athletes is getting tired of your sport. If someone is constantly practicing and playing with no breaks, they might get burnt out and not enjoy playing or not want to play anymore. This is probably more likely to happen if the practices seem repetitive, like they're doing the same things all the time in practice. Some people will get burnt out, but some who really enjoy the game won't. It just depends on the person. Some ways to prevent this from happening is to take a break from it, or in your free time do things non sports related, so you're not always thinking about it and you're not always with the same people all the time. Sometimes it's not always the sport you get tired of, but the people. 

In sports, it's important to have good team chemistry. It is important for the team to get along so they can play well together, and when they don't it can be frustrating. That is another tough thing about playing sports; getting along with your teammates and how to deal with it if you don't. When people don't get along or if players have bad attitudes it can affect the whole team, even if it is just a couple people from the team because it can make the game not fun to play. 

All these things are very hard to deal with, but as athletes we have to push through it because that is what happens in sports, and if you love the sport enough it won't matter what you have to deal with to play it.