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Practicing and competing as much as possible on a volleyball team is considered very important when it comes to beginners. If you are a novice player, then you might be wondering how to make the volleyball team with no experience, and how beneficial this could be.
How to Make the Volleyball Team With No Experience
Joining the volleyball team in your elementary or high school could be difficult depending on how many students are applying for it. Therefore, you must be prepared both mentally and physically before showing up for the tryouts.
For this, you need to undergo training that will allow you to have a better understanding of the game. This is the first time that you, as a volleyball player, will be learning about the game, which is why you should be as consistent as possible while doing this.
Step 1: Learn the Aptitudes and Characteristics
Before you begin practicing for volleyball tryouts, you must first prepare your mind and acquire the proper mentality. This will assist you to boost your stamina as well as your motivation when training.
Additionally, a good volleyball player needs to have certain aptitudes and characteristics to perform well inside of the court. It doesn’t matter how great you are as a player, if you don’t have the right aptitudes, you won’t be picked. Here are the most important aptitudes.
- Capable of making quick and wise decisions
- Excellent communication abilities
- High energy
- Good leader
- Constant and dedicated
- Capable of receiving constructive criticism
- Self-confident. If you can’t trust yourself, your team can’t either
- Capable of moving quickly
- Fast learner of the mechanics of the game
Step 2: Exercise Your Body
| Body Part | Exercise |
|---|---|
| Legs | Squats |
| Biceps | Dumbbell curls |
| Chest and Triceps | Push-ups |
| Abdomen | Curl-ups |
| Calves | Calf raises |
One of the first things you need to take care of is your physical condition. Volleyball is an intense aerobic sport that demands a lot from players, after all, they run and jump uncountable times during a match. This can be very tiring if your body is not used to this level of intensity.
Additionally, you need to make yourself more flexible to move much more freely as well as to avoid injuries.
It is common for volleyball players to injure their muscles when playing; training your flexibility will prevent this from happening.
Strength Training
For this, you could use a gym and start working out to increase the size of your muscles. Though, if you are below seventeen years old, you might want to start training on your own first. This is called calisthenics and it helps you to improve your strength by using your body weight.
It is also considered a safe way for teenagers (and even some adults too) to start working out and getting in shape. Additionally, since it uses your body weight, you can do it anywhere, your room, a park, and even your school.
When it comes to which muscles you should target to improve at volleyball, you need to focus on your legs and abdominals. Improving your leg strength will allow you to jump higher and more, while your abdominals will give you more stability and endurance.
Exercise Recommendations
To improve your leg strength, you need to follow a good routine of exercises. If you are a starter, you should begin with squats, calf raises box jumps and lunges. On the other hand, to improve your abdominal strength, you should start with crunches and Russian twists.
You should always keep in mind that, when it comes to strength training, the slower you do an exercise, the better the results. For example, doing slow squats will demand much more from the muscle than doing quick squats. This applies to all exercises.
Lastly, you should always cover the full range of motion of the exercise, this means that you should go all the way and fully extend and contract your muscle. When it comes to squats, you should slowly go all the way down, then fully stand up. This will fully engage your muscles.
Stamina Training
To increase your stamina, you should start jogging or running for about ten to fifteen minutes a day. Then you should gradually increase in overtime, for example, run for sixteen minutes instead of fifteen, then, the next week, run for seventeen minutes instead of sixteen.
You can do this on a running mill, by yourself in the park, or even by running up and down some stairs.
All of this will condition your body to have more energy, which will help you to endure the high intensity of volleyball.
Flexibility Training
Flexibility is often overlooked when it comes to training your body, however, it is one of the most important things to improve. Without flexibility, you won’t have good mobility, no matter how strong and fast you are.
To improve your flexibility, you can do some stretches before and after every workout. Additionally, some players benefit a lot from doing yoga, which stretches your muscles and reduces soreness in your body.
Step 3: Learn the Basics
Knowing how to perform a volley, a bump, and a serve is essential if you want to excel in the volleyball tryouts.
To start mastering these movements, you will need to practice them every day and be constant about it. If you aren’t, you won’t be able to build a good technique.
Volley
To volley, you need to flex your elbows, position your hands right above your forehead and keep your fingers strong (not stiff). Then, you need to push the volleyball with your fingers, nothing else.
You can practice this by standing in front of a wall and volleying the ball at it several times.
Bump
To bump, you need to fully stretch your arms, position them in front of you, make a fist with one hand, and wrap it with the other.
The final position should have both thumbs parallel to each other and pointing to the ground. You can practice this by bumping the ball against a wall.
Serve
Serving is an important technique that could be a game-changer. Since you are a beginner, you should not start by learning a jump serve, instead, you should do an underhand serve.
To do it, you should take the ball with one hand and put it in front of you.
The final position should have your knees slightly bent, your torso pushed a little bit forward, and your feet at a shoulder-width distance; only then can you strike the ball with your other hand.
When practicing this, draw a line on the floor and try not to step on it during the serve.
You can also practice this by standing in front of a wall and performing a serve to different spots on it.
Step 4: Learn the Volleyball Terms
To communicate effectively and understand your teammates, you need to learn the terms that are commonly used in volleyball. For example, you need to learn words such as stuff (blocking an attack and scoring a point) and dig (saving a very difficult ball).
Step 5: Learn the Rules
Lastly, you should familiarize yourself with the rules of the game. For example, each team is only allowed to touch the ball three times, if they do more than that, their opponent will get a point. Similarly, if any player touches the ball twice in a row, it is considered an illegal move.
Step 6: Watch Professionals
It is no lie that, after watching professionals, most people feel they can perform the same way they do. Of course, you won’t be able to do it yet, however, it will allow you to learn from them and improve your movements.
Related Questions
Here are some frequently asked questions about making the volleyball team.
What Is the Best Age to Enter a Volleyball Team?
The best age to enter a volleyball team is between eight and ten years old. However, there are some children that start learning about volleyball between five and six years old.
What Do Volleyball Coaches Look For?
Volleyball coaches look for a combination of a communicative player and a very motivated and ambitious person. On top of that, they value respect and discipline a lot.
This means that they don’t just pick players out of pure talent. After all, they need athletes with a good mentality.
What Should You Not Do in Volleyball Tryouts?
You should never look at your phone during a volleyball tryout. On top of that, you should never give up any balls, stop trying, or do things halfway. This would only show the coach that you are not mentally prepared.
Also, never interrupt your coach, try to always listen to them and receive all of the information they are giving. Lastly, never complain about your teammates or your coach.
Conclusion
Joining the volleyball team can be a hard task to achieve, especially if you are a novice player. However, there are a lot of ways to improve your game and your mentality before the tryouts. Just remember, practice makes perfect.
