DD is sooooo bad at volleyball

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First time trying a rec team. She’s the worst on her team by far. She cannot serve to get it over the net. She just stands there when the ball comes near her. I think she’s embarrassed of messing up, but she’s not even trying. I’m embarrassed for her. What do I do to help her?

Gurl, puhlease you know you sucked at that age/the first time you tried volleyball, too. Pshhhh.

[Anonymous]

She will need some strength to play volleyball, even though the amount of strength you use decreases as you develop proper technique. Unfortunately, there are not many shortcuts and most kids need to practice a lot. Here are a few drills that she can practice without a net.

Start close to a wall and ask her to count how many times she can set without dropping the ball. Try to improve that number every day. Eventually you can make it more difficult for her by increasing the distance and / or marking an area on the wall that she needs to hit every time. You can do a similar exercise to practice bumping. Hopefully she learned how to form a platform with her hands: she can start close to the wall and move back as her ball control improves. The pain due to the contact with the ball will increase as she moves back, but it becomes manageable with enough practice. Another important aspect is the serve - you can ask her to throw the ball at the wall and catch it as it comes back. As with the previous drills, keep increasing the distance to the wall. Finally ask her to hold a hula loop with two hands. Throw the ball somewhere close to where she is and ask her to move and make sure that the ball goes through the center of the hula loop. Ask her to imagine that the ball would bounce back from the hula hoop and predict where the ball would go.

[Anonymous]

Since you said your DD is doing it with her BFF , im guessing there's a social element at play. Since the bff is a much better player, then consider a different thing the girls can do together - an art class, a kids hip hop class, whatever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First time trying a rec team. She’s the worst on her team by far. She cannot serve to get it over the net. She just stands there when the ball comes near her. I think she’s embarrassed of messing up, but she’s not even trying. I’m embarrassed for her. What do I do to help her?

Gurl, puhlease you know you sucked at that age/the first time you tried volleyball, too. Pshhhh.

I never ever played. Not even in PE.
-OP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She will need some strength to play volleyball, even though the amount of strength you use decreases as you develop proper technique. Unfortunately, there are not many shortcuts and most kids need to practice a lot. Here are a few drills that she can practice without a net.

Start close to a wall and ask her to count how many times she can set without dropping the ball. Try to improve that number every day. Eventually you can make it more difficult for her by increasing the distance and / or marking an area on the wall that she needs to hit every time. You can do a similar exercise to practice bumping. Hopefully she learned how to form a platform with her hands: she can start close to the wall and move back as her ball control improves. The pain due to the contact with the ball will increase as she moves back, but it becomes manageable with enough practice. Another important aspect is the serve - you can ask her to throw the ball at the wall and catch it as it comes back. As with the previous drills, keep increasing the distance to the wall. Finally ask her to hold a hula loop with two hands. Throw the ball somewhere close to where she is and ask her to move and make sure that the ball goes through the center of the hula loop. Ask her to imagine that the ball would bounce back from the hula hoop and predict where the ball would go.

Are you looking for this type of advice or for a way to remove volleyball from her life?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She will need some strength to play volleyball, even though the amount of strength you use decreases as you develop proper technique. Unfortunately, there are not many shortcuts and most kids need to practice a lot. Here are a few drills that she can practice without a net.

Start close to a wall and ask her to count how many times she can set without dropping the ball. Try to improve that number every day. Eventually you can make it more difficult for her by increasing the distance and / or marking an area on the wall that she needs to hit every time. You can do a similar exercise to practice bumping. Hopefully she learned how to form a platform with her hands: she can start close to the wall and move back as her ball control improves. The pain due to the contact with the ball will increase as she moves back, but it becomes manageable with enough practice. Another important aspect is the serve - you can ask her to throw the ball at the wall and catch it as it comes back. As with the previous drills, keep increasing the distance to the wall. Finally ask her to hold a hula loop with two hands. Throw the ball somewhere close to where she is and ask her to move and make sure that the ball goes through the center of the hula loop. Ask her to imagine that the ball would bounce back from the hula hoop and predict where the ball would go.

No, this will make her hate volleyball. Don’t do any of this. When my daughter was starting out, she got together with friends and they hit the ball around a lot for fun. Some of them improved and continued and went to more advanced teams, some stayed in rec, others dropped the sport.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She will need some strength to play volleyball, even though the amount of strength you use decreases as you develop proper technique. Unfortunately, there are not many shortcuts and most kids need to practice a lot. Here are a few drills that she can practice without a net.

Start close to a wall and ask her to count how many times she can set without dropping the ball. Try to improve that number every day. Eventually you can make it more difficult for her by increasing the distance and / or marking an area on the wall that she needs to hit every time. You can do a similar exercise to practice bumping. Hopefully she learned how to form a platform with her hands: she can start close to the wall and move back as her ball control improves. The pain due to the contact with the ball will increase as she moves back, but it becomes manageable with enough practice. Another important aspect is the serve - you can ask her to throw the ball at the wall and catch it as it comes back. As with the previous drills, keep increasing the distance to the wall. Finally ask her to hold a hula loop with two hands. Throw the ball somewhere close to where she is and ask her to move and make sure that the ball goes through the center of the hula loop. Ask her to imagine that the ball would bounce back from the hula hoop and predict where the ball would go.

No, this will make her hate volleyball. Don’t do any of this. When my daughter was starting out, she got together with friends and they hit the ball around a lot for fun. Some of them improved and continued and went to more advanced teams, some stayed in rec, others dropped the sport.

I am the person who PP who provided the advice. I was surprised to see this reply, so I asked my daughter what she thinks about this set of drills. My daughter said that you need to like volleyball BEFORE you are willing to do this kind of drills. It's a vicious cycle: you don't like the sport, you are not willing to put in the work. You are not willing to put in the work, you are not improving your skills. As long as you are not good at it, it is unlikely that you will start liking it. This poster is likely correct: she needs to hit the ball around for fun until she decides that it is worth putting the work in.

[Anonymous]

I would hate to play volleyball because the ball is so hard. Why is it so hard?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would hate to play volleyball because the ball is so hard. Why is it so hard?

A lot of people have this reaction when they start if they've only played with the kinds of plastic balls used for rec volleyball, PE class, or casual games at the beach. Once you have access to leather balls, it's so much better. I remember the day our middle school team budget was finally approved (this was way back in the early 90s when you could start in middle school and make the team) and we got our order of leather balls. It made an instant difference and we spent the rest of the season hiding the old balls in the storage room so our coach wouldn't put them into the bin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would hate to play volleyball because the ball is so hard. Why is it so hard?

A lot of people have this reaction when they start if they've only played with the kinds of plastic balls used for rec volleyball, PE class, or casual games at the beach. Once you have access to leather balls, it's so much better. I remember the day our middle school team budget was finally approved (this was way back in the early 90s when you could start in middle school and make the team) and we got our order of leather balls. It made an instant difference and we spent the rest of the season hiding the old balls in the storage room so our coach wouldn't put them into the bin.

I played in gym class and I’m sure they used the cheap balls.

[Anonymous]

I have PTSD from volleyball in gym all winter every year. The worst. Everything mentioned above. Horrendous.

[Anonymous]

You can watch volleyball for beginners on YouTube and practice with her.

[Anonymous]

My daughter tried volleyball for the first time at 11. While she wasn’t completely afraid of the ball, she didn’t really go after it either. One way she got better was to lie on the floor and set a slightly deflated ball to herself. She’d listen to music or have a show on in the background. I’d also toss it to her and have her try to bump it back to me. Simple drills that did not take much effort.

She also didn’t have the upper body strength at the beginning to get a serve over, but worked at it all season and by the end was getting her serve in.

Give it time and if she’s interested, try to practice with her. If she’s not, it’s a rec season so it should be short!

[Anonymous]

Does your DD care? Does she want to go to practices and games? If she isn't enjoying it I might just cut your losses and stop going. Presumably it didn't cost that much if it's rec? If she doesn't hate it and is saying she wants to get better, then I would look up some drills she can practice at home. It doesn't sound like practicing with the friend who's really good would be very helpful for making her feel better about herself.

I hated volleyball in PE. Serving was about all I could do properly. Funny thing is I apparently look like a volleyball player (tall and athletic build, but not super muscular). I still get asked in middle age if I played!

[Anonymous]

I coach volleyball for CYO girls. It is a lot of fun and most girls come into it without any previous experience.
We spend a lot of time on serving. It really doesn’t take much strength to serve with an underhand. Overhead is another story. Most of my 3rd graders can manage it > 50% of the time after mid-season.

Just encourage her to have fun and make contact with the ball. Any contact. Agree practice at home can be helpful. Even though you don’t play you can help her by just tossing the ball to her.