The hitting technique of a 12 year old? Change now?

Question
Coach, I love your site and read it constantly.

I have a 12 year old that has been playing for 3 years in club ball.
She has been playing Middle but this year she was moved to OPP.
Her problem is that although she has excellent form when hitting it's not translating into good hits.
She has the form on her jump of the Greek Javelin Thrower and gets on top of the ball when she hits.
The problem looks like she just isn't getting high enough yet at her age. She is 5' 8" tall and her vertical is not great at 17.5".
Everyone is preaching for her to get her arm higher when she jumps but this is only going to mess up her form when she gets older. She is taking jump training to increase her jump height. Having trouble with her hits is causing her to see less playing time on her elite National team, and she is afraid to make the change. What do you suggest?
Does she go with an inferior high arm swat in order to get the hits over or does she continue to work with her superior form and wait for the jump increase to come?

Answer
Good evening Kerry, and welcome to www.allexperts.com!
A few questions:
* Do you an video of her that I can see?  On youtube?  Anywhere? I would like her hitting 5 to 10 balls, and/or seeing 5 to 10 mins of game action.
* Are you saying that the "Greek" is superior?  I'm having a whole lot of trouble convincing myself of that.  (a) I don't think I've ever seen someone hit like that and (b) that's not the way I've been teaching it for years.  

What makes me so confident in what I teach is that I've seen VERY few women in 25 years who "bow and arrow" with great success.  But I've seen hundreds of women hit "with both arms going up together, then snapping&crunching," and they are very successful, and the more average ones even overachieve.  I've sat in the bleachers watching my stepdaughter 6 years of school ball of 4 years of college ball.  I feel like I have a good idea of what works.  All that said, sure would like to see some video.  

Last night a 12 year old, who coaches say is a stunning athlete and has played a few years of volleyball, came to my 16's practice b/c her sister is on the team.  She was so overwhelmed.  She can't jump, can't serve tough, can't hit the ball hard.... what you're describing with your daughter sounds 100% normal.  She's 12.  She probably can't jump.  She may not jump well until she's 15.  

Next:  Your family chose her to be on this elite National team.  There will be playing time issues.  There will be changing of positions, injuries, crying, etc.  You sound like your little girl is in a dog-eat-dog situation.  Here in Roanoke, Va, I believe we have the best volleyball in the state.  We have numerous kids who play D3/D2/D1 ball. But, I don't know of any 12 year olds right now who are sweating over playing time, over their vertical, are going to jump training, etc.  All this I guess is good for her chances of being a top 100 player in the country when she's 18.  But I'm sure it's challenging for her to be a happy child when she's going all through this at 12.

It's great to hear from you!  I hope you're having a great week!  My team just went 15-5 at Myrtle Beach last weekend.  We can't WAIT to go to Richmond this weekend!!  Please visit us sometime at www.coachhouser.com!  
Coach Houser

I hope to hear from you really soon!