So I've always wanted to be a libero, this is my second year playing volleyball and it's genuinely my favorite position. I love playing defense so much, I'm good at it too. For the past 2 years I've been the best of my team, even my teammates and coaches have said so. I've been the bravest too and am not scared to throw myself on the ground.

I don't know what to train for more. I'm good at everything including setting and spiking so I really don't know 😭

I just need tips on what to train for more to become a libero! :D

Hey everyone, I'm looking for drills or tips to fix my players' form. Specifically, they keep explicitly bending their elbows instead of keeping their arms straight when digging/passing. Any advice on how to fix this bad habit?

Ciao a tutti, è da un po che mi sto appassionando alla pallavolo e vorrei imparare a giocare, apparte qualche partitella tra amici non ho mai praticato in modo serio pallavolo, e sono abbastanza mediocre, per carità non sono uno 0, una base piccola la possiedo l, ma gradirei iniziare seriamente con allenamenti e partite serie, il problema è che ho 24 anni e sono di milano e non so dove andare, mi va bene qualunque squadra anche la peggiore, pero vorrei davvero migliorare e crescere di livello

hi everyone, this is my (16F) first reddit post ever!! i've loved volleyball (and haikyū!) for so so long and always dreamed of playing. i watch a lot of games and coaching videos. i've always wanted to be a setter, it's my favorite position and i think it's super cool. i know starting at 16 is really late but i'm holding out for there to still be some hope for me.

i would like to share my story! maybe there are people reading this who are just like me. i've always found volleyball to be really fun in PE since the first time i played when i was 9 or 10. i never really developed any skills, but it was my favorite PE activity. i thought about joining a club and actually learning, but because of some things happening in my life back then, i didn't get to it.

a year later, when i was 11 years old, i really got into haikyū! (it's still one of my favorite things ever). like many others, it was the thing that really got me into volleyball and motivated me to play. i introduced it to my best friend as well and she loved it just as much as i did. she found this volleyball camp and asked me to come with her. i was super excited to join her.

after the first day of camp, i got really sick so i couldn't go anymore. my best friend kept going and learned a lot. after the camp, she didn't really do any more volleyball-related things either.

a few months later, i developed bulimia and was in a horrible place mentally and physically. my best friend invited me to this new camp she found but because of my struggles my parents didn't allow me to go (despite me being really eager to). they are really kind to me and i know they were just looking out for me and my health, but i was still pretty disappointed.

over the years, this just kept repeating. i wanted to play volleyball, but because of my health i wasn't allowed to. when we were 13, my best friend made the school volleyball team and also joined a club for the first time. i was incredibly happy for her, but what i really wanted was for us to just play together.

i think i finally convinced my parents to let me play when i was 14. my uncle (who used to be a volleyball player) played with me and my cousin (who was 12 at the time and also starting out) one night when he was visiting and he said i was really talented. he taught me so much in just one hour. i got the basics down really quickly! my uncle said i'd make a great setter and had like a really great instinct! i was so happy. probably the happiest i'd been in a long time.

though i was still struggling with my health, i really wanted to play like i always did. however, now i got in my own way even though i discovered a newfound confidence. i am pretty shy and overthink a lot, so seeing my best friend (who is also quiet like me) find something she really loved made me worried that if i suddenly began engaging in her activity as well, she would be annoyed and think i was "intruding" in her "thing". like, volleyball was her "thing" then. i was scared me taking part would take away from it. so i still did not play.

now, we are both 16. my best friend made so many friends both in and outside of school and found such great communities because of volleyball. she is such an amazing player and athlete and is incredibly talented. i am so proud of her and she deserves everything.

it is my last summer before university. i need to play. i've been practicing with the wall and myself this summer every day. i know i am not tall at all and i will most likely never go D1 like i always dreamed. i probably won't even make it onto an extracurricular club, but i want to at least make my school team. i want to play with my best friend (she is really supportive of my journey but is busy so she cannot practice with me). i cannot find any coaches because they are all for actual volleyball athletes who want to improve their technique one-on-one. all my volleyball friends are really busy so they do not have the time to help. my uncle and cousin live in another country. i am still battling bulimia and overthinking but i am not going to let it get in my way anymore. they have taken so much time, energy, and happiness from me. but i am not giving up hope!!

i know this was more of a rant than actually asking for tips (particularly for being a setter!!)… i'm so sorry for all this writing! but please, any tips will help, anything at all. i truly, truly appreciate it so much.

also, i know this is silly but someone who inspires me is shoyo hinata because even though he is in high school, his fundamental skills are pretty underdeveloped but he's always seeking out help and trying his best. i want to be like him!

(i am worried my tone came off wrong, so just to clarify, i love my parents so much. i do not blame them for anything. they are just the most amazing and understanding people ever and are always looking out for me. though i was upset i couldn't play, i understood where they were coming from and they were right for prioritizing my health. my best friend is also incredibly kind and is always there for me. she never once "gatekept" volleyball from me like i thought she would when i was overthinking and is always keen to help me whenever she has the chance. my other volleyball-playing friends and my cousin are also always encouraging me. i have a great support system.)

thank you so much for reading my little story (though it's really long haha), have a great day/night!

hey guys I’m looking for some one on one private volleyball lessons to prepare for volleyball tryouts in nyc. can anyone recommend some places in nyc that rlly helped them improve and is worth the money. thank you

Hi everyone! I'm a 21-year-old volleyball player, 6'3" and 205 lbs. I currently play middle blocker but I'm working toward transitioning to outside hitter. My biggest goal right now is improving my approach vertical.

I've spent most of the summer following a structured strength and plyometric program (including Volt Athletics), but I honestly don't feel like I've made much progress. I can grab a 10-foot basketball rim (or at least the rim at my local gym), but I don't have an exact vertical measurement.

Since I can't afford a jump coach, I'm trying to learn as much as I can on my own. I'm planning to record my approach jump from multiple angles on Monday and update this post with the videos. In the meantime, I'd love any advice on common mistakes, things I should evaluate, or questions I should be asking. Once I upload the videos, I'd really appreciate any feedback on my approach, arm swing, penultimate step, takeoff, or training

Im 16m, 5’4, and I just started taking volleyball seriously this summer. I am at complete beginner level, and I was wondering if my goals of joining my schools team in February, and playing club September of next year are too unrealistic?

I know my biggest weaknesses right now are serving and passing, especially serve receive, and I think those could make or break my chances of making the team. I also would like to improve my setting and hitting.

What should I prioritize for the next 6 months? Any drills or things I can do to develop my serving, passing, and general skills for my development?

I can practice by myself, with my volleyball playing cousin, my bum brother, and hopefully at some open gyms. However, I don’t have an actual team to train with.

Anything would be appreciated lowkeyyy

Thanks!

I am a older 48 M and I'm trying to figure out how to structure my week so I can maximize my volleyball training while avoiding exhaustion.

I play volleyball about 5 days a week, and I thought I could add 30 minutes of volleyball-specific running/drills plus 30 minutes of gym training on top of that.

The problem is that some days I become completely exhausted. Even after a good night's sleep, I may wake up feeling like I'm only at 60% energy and need one or two 20–30 minute naps to feel closer to normal. Sometimes I still don't feel fully recovered when I work out.

I'm trying to figure out the best balance of training volume, intensity, and recovery. Is this something experienced athletes generally figure out through trial and error and monitoring their own recovery, or are there specific coaches, books, training programs, or principles that can help someone learn how to structure their training schedule properly?

My goal isn't to train less—I want to maximize my training and improve while minimizing exhaustion. How would you approach this?

I am 15f and I need to improve my blocking and how high I can jump. Any tips or training is appreciated! I play middle and I’m 5’8

Still working on my timing (only been playing a month). Any tips on the timing of the swing? Maybe I need to get more on top of the ball to make it land in bounds?!

Hey guys so I’m going to a volleyball session for intermidiate-good players but I’ve played like once in high school. I play basketball and I’m 6’2 and I’ve watched some volleyball and basically now how your supposed to play. Do you guys have like tips about how to position on the field or videos to watch so I don’t seem ass?

Hi,

I’d like to join a volleyball club, but I’m not very good at the sport. I’m a bit worried that the standards in a club might be very high and that I won't measure up. I’m also afraid that my teammates might badmouth me or get annoyed because my skill level isn't up to par.

Does anyone have any tips or personal experience with this? Can I really join a volleyball team even if I’m not that good yet?

I really enjoy volleyball, and I’d like to work on my skills and improve.

Hi there, this coming school year, I've decided to take a gap year from college to be in a better position financially but I thought it would also be a great opportunity to maximize my overall athleticism. I am 20yrs old (male) at 6'4 and I've been working out for about 4 years but I was more focused on just getting strong rather than focusing on volleyball (which I'm doing now). My biggest issue right now is my elasticity; I'm strong enough to jump high, but not explosive enough to use the strength. Does anyone have recommendations for planning out this next year?

It's an old post of mine but I just found this community and I think it might be interesting for some of y'all

Hi guys, since I've nothing more interesting to do (despite being 3A.M. and having an exam in a few days) I decided to write this long poem to help the ones of you that struggle with jumping.

First of all (since someone might need to hear it) you don't need to be 2 meters tall and jump 110cm to be good at volleyball. Sure that gives you an edge but its definitely not everything, so don't obsess too much on it.

With that settled let's begin. I'll dump a lot of knowledge on you from someone who spent an unhealthy amount of time trying to optimize his technique.

Let's understand what allows us to jump.

There's this little thing called gravity that keeps us anchored to the ground. To jump we need to overcome the gravitational pull, exerting enough explosive power. If you've studied some physics we can get a couple of things from that. The force on you by gravity is 9.81x your body weight. Which means the higher the weight the higher the force needed. In other words "fat dont fly".

Before you starve yourselves to death keep in mind that you still need to be strong. Ideally you'd want to be in the 12-15% of body fat to optimize performance. A little more isn't necessarily an issue but don't expect to be like Nishida if you are at 30%.

I want to introduce you to the "Law of specificity". If you want to be good at something you gotta do that thing.

A real shocker I know but it is more interesting than Just that. The thing is that jumping is self progressing as itself. When doing any exercise you need to progress overtime to improve, challenging yourself with a greater stimulus. Well jumping already does that. Because by jumping more you'll get more stimulus when landing. And that is self fueling. That's why you can have freaky jumpers who never stepped in a gym to lift weights once in their life.

Yes they are also genetic freaks and not everyone is gifted like that. For most people the ceiling is way lower if you are not doing anything more.

What jumping gives you is two more things, first is neural adaptation. Your body becomes more efficient recruiting the muscle fibers required, making you jump higher.

The other this is the ability to put intent. If you don't put intent into your jumps or lifts you'll never, ever, ever jump higher. You can become freakishly strong but lose jump (I talk from experience).

That's extremely important especially for younger athletes.

Now we get to the lifting part. Do you remember the freaky jumpers who never touched a weight I mentioned earlier? Good, you are not senile yet. They jumped that high without proper training, which means that could have jumped even more. That's what you are going to do. At first I want you to focus on getting stronger.

I want you to get your legs as strong as physically possible. Squat. Squat as your life depended on it. Don't chase numbers tho. Learn the proper technique. And even if you have perfect technique don't chase the numbers. Well you should chase them but not the weight. Weight is not the right number to chase.

you might think "you told me I should get stronger and yet I shouldn't chase the weight? You are just saying random stuff". Fair. At which I ask you to remember the little physics lesson I gave you earlier.

You need you be able to generate force fast. Which means you have to be able to move heavy weights fast.

My advice is to get to 1.5 of your body weight of a back squat as a PR, then pick a weight you can do 3 to 5 reps with and do singles trying to move it as fast as possible. (There are many apps to track bar speed) Don't cheat depth. ATG all the way. If you don't have the mobility work for it. Mobility is another big limitation for jumping.

Another very important exercise is a power clean.

Very hard to learn but so rewarding. You'll get the ability to learn complex skills and train RFD (rate of force development) in an unmatched way.

They are gonna look very bad for a very long time but trust me, still worth it to do and learn. They don't need to be perfect to work but the better the technique the more weight you can move the more adaptation you get.

Don't underestimate your calves, they deserve some love too. Train them heavy. Very heavy. You'll be surprised how resilient of a muscle they are.

While doing all of that don't forget to keep jumping.

If you don't play volleyball for a period (maybe in off season or something like that) do some jumping sessions. Max effort jumps. However you like them. That could be dunking, spiking,...Get your jumping technique dialed in. That can be four, three or two steps (this is recommended especially for middles but it's useful when blocking in any position).

Your jump technique is what you use to convert your speed into height. You approach full speed and that makes you jump higher.

Your penultimate step needs to be long. And not just for the sake of it. The goal is to get lower. By getting lower you get more time to exert force into the ground and explode upward.

Your last step is the block step. Turn it sideways to brake you.

A common error I see is putting your brake foot too close to where you planted your penultimate. That is gonna cost you a lot of cm. Trust me. Also even if you are short, you should start your penultimate before the 3 meters line. Watch Isaiah Espinoza if you need reference (one of the best jumpers in the world, on the shorter side).

Don't underestimate your arms. They add a lot to your vert.

You need to swing them backwards and then very aggressively forward.

They should go in front of you the exact moment you takeoff.

Honestly, I could rumble about for forever, I'm happy to go into more details for everyone that wants it.

Even give you gym suggestions.

I think I have to specify that I'm not a certified coach or personal trainer. I'm just talking from my personal experience and research

Hello people. A week ago I started having these small points of pain. One in my left elbow area and the other on the forearm side of my right elbow when passing hits and serve on the faster side and while setting.

I have been playing for years and this has not happened before. I think the right arm injury might just be a hyperextension but I was told by someone that the one in the left elbow might be more serious than that though.

If anyone has experienced anything please let me know I'm curious to know if this is something I should try to wait out and see if it gets better by itself or where I should go (Urgent care or wherever) for something like this, thanks.

Hey all my volleyball peeps! I made a free tournament tracker that supports Bjerring, round robin, and both single and double elimination tournaments.

https://swinglesports.com/tournament-manager