Questionhello, how are you hope all is well
i'm a setter on an 18's team and i have a couple questions for one i want to know how to make my serve harder i have a top spin serve but it's not hard enough my coaches always want me to serve harder but i don't know how because if i do it normally goes in the net or some how messes up my over question is that i am captain of my team which is nice and i feel i do a pretty good job at but when my team starts to loss or get down on their selfs my coaches expect for me to get them out of that rut which is my job if I'm not mistaking but when i try it seems like my team doesn't respond to me they just simply look at me and say ok or what ever the case maybe but nothing happens we just keep doing worse and i have a great relationship with every girl on my team so i don't get how I'm supposed to get them out of this rut when they don't really respond to me in these situations and once i sub out the game it just seems that everything beings to pick up this also makes me question my leadership ability because my team listens to me and my coaches always say we don't have a leader on the court but the expect or tell me I'm supposed to be the leader and i try but my team when were down gives me no feed back or i can tell them to pick it up of hitter to rip the ball or give them this really long speech about how we need to do what ever the case maybe and they all agree but no one does it so i don't know what to do what am i doing wrong or what can i do to improve myself to help my team please help an advice will mean the world to me thank you
Answer
Coach Houser's 15's Te
Good morning and welcome to www.allexperts.com.
First, the spinner serve: At 18 years old, you probably play against some very good teams. Passers who get beat by a spinner are rare. Your coaches are asking you to hit it harder to create more topspin b/c in order to beat an 18-year old passer, your serve has to have either CRAZY velocity or CRAZY spin.... and your serve may not have either. If you cannot create more velocity or spin w/o ruining it, then you may have to switch to a floater. There are a number of disadvantages to this type of serve. Here is some of what I think about a jump spinner. Then below that, you'll see what I think about a jump floater.
The Jump Spinner. The jump spinner has been in existence for a long time, and it's the more glamorous of the jump serves! To execute this serve, the player tosses the ball high into the air and out into the court. Many servers have their toss spinning when it comes out of their hand, so that the wrist has a little less work to do. Then, after the ball is tossed, the player does a complete spike approach and hits the ball.
Disad 1) What concerns me the most is that the jump spinner is rough on the shoulder! I don't encourage any of my players to do it, unless they're not needed in the front row. In other words, if I need a girl to hit, I discourage her from serving a jump spinner. Period.
Disad 2) It's very hard to master. It will usually take even your best athletes months to become proficient with the toss. Then there抯 trying to contact the ball with the hand and trying to just keep the ball in the court.
Disad 3) Once mastered, it is still not a high % serve, which is fine if you're playing a far superior team; but, missing 30% is not fine if you're playing an inferior team that depend on your team抯 mistakes to stay in the match.
Disad 4) If it's not hit with enough topspin and enough velocity, then the serve becomes a nice little spinner that the receivers will stick right in the setter's hands. Hmmm. Yes, I抦 saying that the same requirement of power that makes the serve lethal to opponents, is the same thing that makes it a low percentage play. Tough decision, huh?
Advantage) If the ball is hit with enough velocity and spin, it can be a brutal weapon. My team was in the finals of the Silver Division at Big South on April 5th, and we were playing a team from Louisiana, which had one girl with a wicked jump serve. She was incredible!! After we won the 1st game, and her jumper wasn抰 an issue, she started off the 2nd game with 7 straight points. Immediately she put her team ahead to such an extent that we didn抰 have enough time to come back. To tell you how unpredictable a jump spinner is, she missed her serve that started the 3rd game. But, then, later in the 3rd game when we抮e up 12-11, she served two aces, and then missed her next serve by inches. If that serve goes in, the match would probably have been lost. Sounds like, 揕ive by the sword, die by the sword,?doesn抰 it? That抯 exactly what a jump spinner is.
The Jump Floater. If the jump floater has also been in existence for forever, I didn't know about it. In Virginia, it's just become popular and well-executed in the past 6 or 7 years. The advantages are many, the disads are few!
Advan 1) It's easy on the body. Therefore, all players can be jump serving without worry of injury or fatigue.
Advan 2) For most girls, it's only slightly less reliable than the standing floater. For a few, the focus needed to jump serve creates a higher % serve. It's not what I expect to occur, but sometimes it's the case.
Advan 3) It takes much less time to learn and master than a jump spinner. MUCH LESS!
Advan 4) It's much easier to control and place. Advanced players even start jumping float-serving to the 3-zone! That's a cool sight to see!
Advan 5) Since the server is contacting the ball 12 to 24 inches higher, the serve will be flatter and not have as much arc. Flat floaters are nasty to receive!
Advan 6) Since the accomplished float server is contacting the ball a few feet inside the court, the serve gets to the opponents a little quicker; thus, reducing the amount of time for the receiver to adjust.
There are no disads to the jump floater, unless some of your girls serve it 85% in the court instead of 90%. But the increase number of shank passes and aces will often far outweigh the slight decrease in accuracy! :)
In 2006 my 15抯 team made Junior Nationals and was overwhelmed by our opponents?size and athleticism. However, we discovered that our jump floater caused their serve receive trouble. One girl in particular, had a jump floater that was eating up these teams from California and Texas. Therefore, she began serving first in every game, and we even told her to continue serving the jump floater even when she抎 missed a few. Hey, with most of our opponents so much better than us, we had to go for it!
Next............ being a team leader.
There are coaches who place a high priority on their setters being THE team leader. I抦 not one of those coaches. I don't even need my setter to be the speaking captain, and I don't need her to be a cheerleader. This year my speaking captain is my OH, last year it was my Libero, and the year before that it as one of my two setters.
I have also known coaches who think that they can force/coerce/convince certain players -- usually setters -- to become vocal leaders. But, often, the girls aren抰 that type of person. I抳e never tried to force leadership on anyone. I don抰 need my setter to fuss, yell, encourage or be an assistant coach. If my setter does her job, I抦 satisfied. And what is that?
The Setter抯 #1 Job. Take charge of the 2nd contact! Even if the setter is the most bashful girl on the team, she must make a decision about the 2nd contact. This can never be an issue with any setter, regardless of age or the team she plays on. Hey, if my setter can do her job AND be a team leader, then that抯 gravy.
I'm not saying that the setter should take every 2nd hit. Of course not. However, I am saying that I require my setter to make a decision and to stick with it.
The Setter's #2 Job: She must be the hardest working girl on the team! I will tell her that. I will tell her that in front of her teammates.
At the end of practice, my setter is usually the most tired. We expect her to go for every 2nd ball, just like it was a game situation. We praise and encourage her. I may also go over to her with a 揥hy didn抰 you go for that ball?? Our setter will be set the example for the entire team, or she will be replaced and/or she will find a new position.
When I played bball, some of my teams needed me to be the encourager/leader. So I tried. Other teams I played on had plenty of leadership. So I didn't try too much. Other teams needed leaders, I tried, but wasn't the right one to lead them .... like you described. So, I'd still try, but I had to realize that I just wasn't the one. :) Oh, well. You can work on becoming a better leader (which is what you seem to be trying to do), some sometimes it just won't work out, regardless of what you do.
I do have one piece of advice about being a leader: Just try to tell you teammates what you think they NEED to hear. Sometimes they may need fussing, but some teams will do worse when fussed at. Hmmmm. Sometimes a team needs to be praised; but, some teams don't respond to that either.
It's very hard to be a leader of a team made up of your peers. If your coach really wants you to be a leader, please keep trying. But, realize at the same time that it may not work.
Good luck!
For all this typing, can I ask one favor from you? Plz visit me at www.coachhouser.com, and look at all the smiling faces. I think you'll really like the pics of my 15's team! We'll be in Washington DC next weekend, then at James Madison University the next. My staff and I are directing TEN camps this summer! It's going to be a blast! We can't wait.
Please contact me at my personal email address anytime:
[email protected].
And please let me know if I can ever be of any help again.
Coach Houser
