How to Play Beach Volleyball - A great hit beats good defense

[Austeenob]

Mannn, does sand build you calfs for when you play on an indoor court.

[UofBeachVBall]

@Austeenob - my humble opinion is... ;>) playing beach volleyball the way it is 'supposed' to be played is more physically demanding than playing indoors - you can not help but increase functional explosive strength and movement when you practice the correct movements of beach volleyball.

All the best!

[Austeenob]

title is true

[UofBeachVBall]

@Austeenob - thanks - true is what we aim for! - happy Monday!

[beachvolleyballinc]

Hi UofB, Its great to be talking about beach volleyball, thats for sure and an open discussion is always good. From my perspective as I have seen the typical player who is bigger, stronger, harder hitting and since moving to smaller court the training of the hard hit and outright pounding is more common place. than when I learnt to craft the ball on the larger court. Thats where my original comments about being in place early are now coming from. Good to talk keep up the good work UNW....

[UofBeachVBall]

Thanks again for your comments - all the best to you!

[beachvolleyballinc]

with little enough time to react i'd advocate being fractionally earlier into def' pos', being in the def' angle allows a def' to see the adjustments or slowing down of an armswing and chase the hits down, i have played it both ways depends on the type of hitter and their general tendancies and as you say the context of the game too! What the def' is learning about the player that day as well & vise versa. When being read & def' is picking shots up then take a hard angle hard swing I agree.

[UofBeachVBall]

And I sometimes get tired of pointing out too many negatives! Re hit vs shot first-I agree you line up for the good hit (not perfect hit) but think shot so you are on your toes/ready to move and are not dug in for the big hit only-this comes from old school beach vball when they didnt block-it works extremely well with or without a block and is what made Von Hagen, Menges, Sinjin, Karch etc such fantastic defenders thanks again, your feedback and opinions are greatly appreciated!

[beachvolleyballinc]

Your right i didnt see the whole game just received your Monday morning email and took a look.

I love to study defence and can interpret the one play you have discussed differently. Difficult to say when you are talking about one play then bring up the context of the whole match in your reply.

Maybe putting into context might be useful.

To debate the position of a world class def'er, I argue the hard hit 1st and the shot 2nd ..cont

[UofBeachVBall]

Don't u just love the 500 character count!...o well - thanks for the email - i sort of think we are saying the same thing but using different words in general on a random play with little to no context, I very much agree about lining up with the hitter to directly see their arm swing, approach etc the purpose of this specific video was more about the mental part of the game/allowing the other team to make a great play and moving on to the next play. The defense was good but not great, cont...

[UofBeachVBall]

That video was great.

It's the other team's job to score. I do my job to stop them and if they do their job well, that is ok.

Thanks for the great reminder. I get so caught up in trying to dig or block everything and start getting down on myself for letting a great shot get by me. In reality, I should be able to acknowledge the other team for doing something great, and just side out.

Thanks again,

Love the videos and blogs, keep 'em coming!

Jason N

[beachvolleyballinc]

The defender isn't reading the play, she is holding the middle to not give her final defense position away, moving into the def' pos' too and not ready to take a hard driven ball, she isn't reading the play as the block moves to take the line, cross was always going to be her final pos'. Get there slightly earlier with better visual position on the arm swing of the player and tweak your final position for the power hit, she was late getting there and not really able to read the hit properly..IMO

[UofBeachVBall]

From looking at one play I can understand your opinion - although I'm not sure if you saw the entire match - fortunately I was able to watch the entire 3 game set and my strong opinion is that the defender is reading the play. There is a fine line between not giving away your position too soon and moving into position too late, and for the way this attacker was playing, the defender did a very good job on this play. If the defender was in the position you recommend, she would have to.. continued

[UofBeachVBall]

...forget about digging most of the less than perfect hits or shots that the attacker was already making in that game. Defense is about making the other team pay for a less than perfect play (perfect being relative to the level of play). Defense is thinking dig the shot first, hard hit second its much easier to dig a hard hit right at you than to be in the best position to run down shots and dig the less than perfect hit. I'm glad you have an opinion - good luck with your defense!