QuestionMy daughter has played club (volleyball) for the past 5 years and 1 year high school varsity. She continue to drop her elbow.. one coach will fix it during the season ....club starts and the elbow drops again...what is the solution to this...
AnswerGood evening Deborah and welcome to www.allexperts.com.
The low elbow is a combination of factors:
a) She learned it when she was young
b) It was comfortable to her
c) she was successful with it
d) She isn't interested enough in fixing it.
I wasn't being disrespectful with (d), but was trying to be truthful. I've told several dozen girls the past 10 years about their low elbow. I have told them how to fix it. A few do. Most don't b/c:
a) It's hard to fix what you've been doing for 2 or 4 or 6 years;
b) it's been successful, so why fix it?
c) if she fixes it, will she eventually play better? She's not convinced. And when?
d) If she fixes it, then she realizes that she probably won't play as well for a few days/weeks, and someone may take her spot. So she figures, "I'll just stick with what I know I can do."
Now, how is it fixed?
a) For some girls, they have a low elbow b/c they are chronically late. I haven't seen this very often, but I've heard other coaches say, "If you want a hitter to straighten out her elbow, tell her to be earlier. The problem is, if the girl has practiced hitting with a low elbow for all these years, she WON'T straighten her arm to hit a ball that's higher than normal. She just say, "I can't hit that," and if she doesn't straighten out her arm, well, she's right! :)
b) Assuming she really wants to fix it, there are two key phrases I use: The first one is "When you do your arm swing, keep your thumbs pointed together." If you send me your email address, I can send you a video of my stepdaughter's spike approach. It's wonderful.
c) The second one is, "With your left arm, treat it like it's a boy: Use it and lose it." haha But, you have to "lose it" after it has helped you jump. In other words, after the girl does her arm swing, and jumps, she will keep her right arm high and straight (using her wrist and abs to hit the ball), but her left arm must fall away... or it's in the way.
d) The shoulder tilt is REALLY advanced! But if you see photographs of great spikers, you will see their shoulders tilted at about a 45 degree angle. Why? B/c they want (or were taught) to reach high. Check out the wonderful pictures of girls hitting here: http://www.biggirlinthemiddle.com/
The combination of thumbs together, "use it and lose it," and shoulder tilt is the way!
No, there is no "bow and arrow" for women who get the most out of the hitting. I heard that also when I was 25 and 30 years old. But after following D1 vball for the past 4 years, I've discovered that the best players do what I described in the (b) and (c) directly above.
I hope that you've had a wonderful holiday! If I can ever do anything else for you, please contact me at
[email protected]. And please visit my site camp website at www.coachhouser.com.
