Ball going through a passers hands

Question
Mr. Tovar:
I have one passer on my team who is having trouble with the ball going through her hands while she's trying to dig or serve receive.  Most of my other girls serve receive with their hands well or very well.  But not this one girls.  And it's so distressing both to her and to me.  
What strategies do you have to allow her to keep the ball from getting through her hands?
Tom Houser

Answer
Hello Tom and welcome to www.AllExperts.com

My name is Coach Tovar

To make sure that all my readers young and old can understand some of my comments, I have chosen to use simple vocabulary words and interpret the rule for this sole purpose.

Well Tom I know these types of players are sometimes a challenge but just like regular school students you have to do your best. I remember when I was teaching the 7th and 8th grade volleyball girls as well as the club volleyball girls in Mexico that I had to work with several students like that.

Also Tom there are so many drills out there that sometimes it抯 hard to see what抯 best for your players based on your teaching philosophy. Here are some ideas, procedures and drills that might help you or any team. Good luck and hopefully this might help someone.

"In order to help students learn any new skill whether in class or in sports, you always need to identify the prerequisites needed to master that skill." Tovar

Besides already teaching the proper basic skills on receiving a ball there are other factors that might impair a student in bumping or receiving a volleyball. These possible skill impairments include: hand eye coordination of the skill, vision impairment, trusting the skill itself, and Court area perception.

TRUSTING THE SKILL - a lot of students take a long time to learn a certain volleyball skill. To them they have always felt that they have really mastered that skill only to find out that when they are taught the skill the way it was supposed to, that their error percentage goes down and they become more consistent and successful with the skill. Their ball control also increases as well. These students might suddenly be faced with a "skill block". This is why some players get all the skills and some don't, even though they are great athletes. These players need a new way to learn that skill.

VISION IMPAIRMENT - receiving a volleyball takes perception skills such as judging distance, approaching speed and final drop point(please see mastering volleyball serving by Juan A. Tovar) some students loose focus on some of these perception skills because they might not have 20/20 vision. I know because I was one of those players. Have them checked out.

HAND EYE COORDINATION - to some players certain hand to eye coordination skills are much harder than others. To help these student with this they must practice these skills in the slowest possible way before they can perform them at full speed. These players need a one on one lesson on that particular skill.

COURT AREA PERCEPTION - in this impairment the player sees the whole court as her total responsibility on receiving a ball as opposed to a small area which causes the player to easily loose focus for this skill and create more pressure on themselves. They cannot understand that an average served ball will land past the 10 ft line and away from the backyard(3 ft. from the end line) creating a much smaller target or surface for them to cover.

Here are some skills to help players with passing and avoiding the ball passing through their hands.

Here is a skill that I tried out of the blue back in 1998 and have seen some teams use them but in different ways. This is a three level system I call - ALIGN, CATCH and TAP.

PROCESS
1. Toss the ball from the net to the backyard (3 ft in from the back line).
2. Toss a high ball from the same distance.
3. Toss the ball from half the distance.
4. Toss a short ball but not a run through.

DRILLS
A. ALIGN - in this skill the players elbows are touching her sides while hands are waist apart. As you toss the ball the player will bring her arms together while still touching her sides and only separates from her sides when she starts to extend her arms. The player should allow the ball to hit her striking area without any follow through while she is looking as the ball contacts her arm. As a coach you are looking to make sure that the player is looking at the striking area at the moment the ball hits her arms without separating them apart. You are also looking to make sure she is in a well balanced position enough to perform a follow through if needed.

Key words to use: elbows, hand, extend and look

B. CATCH - In this skill the player does two drills. The first drill is an alignment drill in which the player positions themselves in a way that the ball goes in between their legs when they are receiving the ball. The second drill is the one for your player in which the player again has her elbows touching her sides and at no point separates them from their waist. The player must catch the ball with both hands without separating from their sides and or waist. This skill will remind the players that their arms should always be together in general space with their bodies.

Key words to use:  elbows, balance, and catch

C. TAP - in this drill the student performs the ALIGN drill but actually bumps the ball to the coach and or setter. You are not looking for height just yet but more on arm extension. The tapped ball will allow the player to focus more on smaller  movements and less on complicated movements. The tapped ball will also allow the player to concentrate on the striking area of her arms at all times.

Key words to use: elbows, extend, and bump

The player should use these key words throughout all of the following drills above. Here are some other drills I have personally used to help these types of students.

D. T-SHIRT DRILL - in this drill the player uses an old shirt in which they cut around the 揾ead area? The player places this "ring or head area" up to their elbows. If the elbows relax, they will not over separate and cause the ball to go to their arms. This drill will help their bodies remember the movement and tension on their arms.

F. WALL BUMP DRILL - In this drill the player stands about five to ten feet away from the wall.
Drill 1 - The player will toss the ball up and let the ball hit them without striking the ball - 5 times each.
Drill 2 - The player will then toss the ball but tap the ball towards the wall but angled at the 8 feet height mark - 5 times each.
Drill 3 - The player tosses the ball up and balances themselves, extend arms and bump towards the 8 feet height mark - 5 times each.
Drill 4 - The player takes ten steps away from the wall. She then throws the ball towards the wall at the 8 ft height mark. The player will then quickly receive the ball - 5 times each.

I hope this answers your question.

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