At the start of this term my sets were not very reliable and I found it impossible to set a decent serve back up. Then Mr Wilson taught us a better way of setting which was similar to the old style except that the elbows are kept virtually straight and the power is generated with the knees and wrists. I seemed to pick this skill up very quickly and moved from the cognitive phase well into the associative phase rapidly. I now can set a well-hit serve as well as place the set into the hitting zone of a spiker regularly.
An ideal performer in volleyball must be able to despatch a well-placed set firmly over the net and into the court. To do this, timing is very important, as you must hit the ball at the highest point you can. The ideal performer is also usually tall as this improves the height above the net they can reach.
Since last years Volleyball unit I have grown six and a half inches which has changed my game dramatically. Last year I was virtually useless in the frontcourt as my fingertips could barely touch the top of the net. This made effective blocking and spiking impossible, however this year I can get close to my elbows above the net, so this term I began at the cognitive phase at both of these skills. Firstly I was not interested in power in my spike, only looking at timing my jump to intercept the ball as high as I could, but as my timing gets better I am hitting the ball harder. I think with a bit more work I will move into the associative phase for spiking, working mainly on timing.
The ideal performers in Volleyball work in pairs to block, within a ball width apart, and time their jumps to reach their peaks when the ball comes over the net, therefore having as much in front of the ball as possible.
The skill of blocking is mainly to do with timing and I believe to improve any further I would need to increase my leg power, which could not really be done in only a few weeks.
