My Favorite Volleyball Drills

          Coming up with drills to do in practices is sometimes hard because they have to involve all positions, be productive, and be fun at the same time. Some of my favorite drills are Pra-ja, Columbia, George, Baseball, WIN, and Split Court. All of these drills are fun, productive, and everyone gets a lot of touches.

          Pra-ja is a game I learned at HP this year. It is definitely my favorite drill because it involves a lot of quick thinking and communication between you and your partner. Pra-ja is a 2 on 2 game with 2 balls being played at the same time. You and your partner are allowed 3 touches on each ball like normal but you can let the ball bounce in between each contact. In order to get each ball in play one partner from each side will serve one ball to the player on the other side who is not serving. After each ball is in play you play normally but you can let the ball bounce once in between each contact. If one team wins both points they stay and the other team waves through, but if both teams win one point they are both off and two new teams come on. I like this drill because it tests how well you can communicate with your teammate and it trains you to look across the net to tell your partner where he/she should attack the ball to. A hint for this drill is to never tip short. Tipping in the drill is an easy pass for the other team because the short tip will bounce up directly to a player on the other side.

          Columbia is another awesome drill. Columbia is run with 4-6 players on each side of the net. The scoring and rules of a normal game apply, the only thing that is different is that every player rotates when your team attacks the ball over the net. I like this drill because you get to experience playing every position. George is similar to Columbia with 4-6 players and regular rules/scoring applies, but if you make a mistake you are out and the next person in line on your team replaces you. I like this drill because it puts pressure on you to not make a mistake. Volleyball is a game of mistakes, every point is caused by a mistake. So everyone is going to make mistakes at some point in a game but it is the team who makes the least mistakes that will come out on top. When you are playing the game George it really makes you focus on the position you are playing because if you want to stay on the court you can’t make a mistake.

          These are just some of my favorite drills I have played. I hope this helps if you are looking for fun drills for a practice :) 

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Favorite Volleyball Related Quotes

1.    “My attitude is that if you push me towards a weakness, I will turn that weakness into a strength” -Michael Jordan

2.    “All things are difficult before they are easy”

3.    “Courage is taking those first steps to your dream even if you can’t see the path ahead”

4.    “Somewhere behind the athlete you've become and the hours of practice and the coaches who have pushed you is a little girl who fell in love with the game and never looked back... play for her.” –Mia Hamm

I like number 1 because in volleyball everyone has a skill that they can improve on and if an athlete can take the time and get the reps to improve their weakness it will eventually turn into a strength.

Number 2 I think really relates to volleyball in the sense that it takes thousands of reps to perfect a skill until it become easy. If you want to become great at a certain position you have to work hard every time you are in the gym and get as many reps as possible.

I love number 3 because I can relate to it. My biggest dream is to play D1 college volleyball and I have been working hard on improving my skills and contacting college coaches. Even though I don’t know where I am going yet and I can’t see the path ahead I know that if I keep working extra hard I can get there.

Number 4 is probably my favorite because it makes me realize that when I was younger I had the same dreams as I do now and I still love playing volleyball as much as I did when I was little.

Link to the quotes: http://www.fantasyhelp.com/offbeat/ultimate-collection-motivational-sports-quotes/

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Mississippi Valley Conference Volleyball Tournament

          Yesterday Linn Mar held the MVC Conference tournament. It lasted from 8 am until 7 pm, and we (Kennedy) played the whole day. It was a great tournament for us. We were all playing at the top of our game and we were having fun. We didn’t let 3 or 4 point runs from the other team get to our heads and I think that was a big difference from tournaments in the past. We stayed focused throughout the entire day.

          We started off strong by defeating Waterloo East and Dubuque Senior in straight sets. Our last game of pool play was against Iowa City High (ranked 8^th in class 5A). We beat them in 3 sets and came out first in our pool. In the quarter finals we faced Iowa City West, who we lost to in regular season. We really wanted revenge so we came out strong and fought hard until the end. We ended up playing a third set, one of the most intense and exciting games I’ve ever played in. At one point the score was 13-12 West and they were serving, when the down ref blew his whistle and beckoned a wrong server. While the refs figured out if West was in the wrong rotation, my team came together in the middle of the court and I told them to think about what it feels like to lose a 5^th set. I said we are not losing this game.  We battled hard and came out winning with a final score of 16-14. When the game was over I was so excited and proud of my teammates for not giving up. We had earned a spot in the semi finals.

          In the semis we played Linn Mar, who we had lost to in regular season so we were back for more revenge. We defeated Linn Mar in straight sets and earned a spot in the championship match! We played City High in the championship match, which made it the third tough match in a row we had to play. City High came out strong and we just couldn't put points together. We lost in 2 sets, it wasn't how we wanted the tournament to end but Conference runner ups isn't to bad. Overall, we had an awesome tournament and I am so proud of us for making it to the championship match.

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