Blocking, 2
This week, we will be working on blocking again. The drill itself will essentially have the mentors standing on chairs/tables to hit in to the blocks that the players will be setting up. This way, we can give you a controlled setting so you can get used to the contact of a block and hopefully get the hang of it.
This video is geared towards middle blockers specifically to middle blockers; there are a few key points that are great to pay attention to. There are a few things that he says in the video that you may not understand (back one, slide, front one)?don?t worry about it!
The eye sequence that he talks about is very important, you do not want to be caught watching the ball only. This makes timing your block properly much harder than it should be, and when the ball is tight to the net you can open yourself up for injuries. Once you know where the ball is set, watch the hitter, they will tell you where the ball is. Keep the hitter’s attacking shoulder directly in the centre of your body, and then jump slightly after the hitter does. Some players have a faster arm swing, higher jump, or can hang longer in the air, so you may have to adjust the timing of your block jump to be either earlier or later than their jump.
First off, you’ll probably want to listen to this with the sound off. I wish I could control what music they put on the videos. Here’s a great side view of some women’s club college teams from the US blocking.
First pay attention to the white team: their footwork in general is ok, but really look at the penetration (cue giggles) that most of their players get over the net. As soon as their hands are high enough to be over the net, they are starting to press over.
Now take a look at the team in black, their footwork is excellent, and all of their players are watching the hitters and not the ball. However, you should be able to notice that most of their arms are either completely straight up or just barely penetrating over the net.
Try to take the best parts of the technique from both teams and put that in to use when you?re on the court!
For those players not able to get above the net, here is a video quickly showing the form for a soft block so you can still be effective as a blocker. I’ll go over this on Sunday in more detail as well.
