Jump Serving

Last week a 4^th grader emailed me and asked if I could answer a few questions for her project on jump serving. I thought it was really cool that she chose that as her topic, and I was so happy to help. This is what I sent back to her, answering her questions and giving her some advice for her future volleyball career.

I think it's awesome that you are doing your project on jump serving. Here are my answers to your questions :)

1. There are 2 different kind of jump serves, the jump float and the jump top spin. I will explain how to do both.

Jump Float:

This is the serve that I use in games. It is really effective, but it takes a lot of practice. The most important thing about this serve is your contact. You want to contact the ball with a strong hand and solid wrist. You want to make sure you contact the ball with mostly just your palm so you can get it to float. You don't want to follow through on this serve, you want to stop your hand once you contact the ball. This serve is meant to make the ball move or float back and forth, so the other teams’ defenders have a hard time passing it. It is tricky to get this serve right away, it takes a lot of reps. So right now, since you are so young if you just practice the toss, footwork and jump you can worry about getting the ball to float once you have the other stuff down. It is awesome that you are thinking about jump serving right now. I don't think I started to jump serve until 8th grade!

Jump Top spin:

This serve requires a toss that is out in front of you so you can have a big approach and attack the ball. People who use this serve usually toss it with the same hand that they are going to be serving it with. While tossing you want to have some spin on the ball that will carry over into the serve. You want to contact the ball high and follow through with your arm, creating a spin on the ball. This one takes a lot of practice and I still haven't perfected it yet. 

2. The steps to do a jump serve are just like doing your approach for attacking. If you are right handed its left, right, left. If you are left handed its right, left, right.

3. In practice to get better and more consistent with my jump serve I focus on my technique and take my time on each serve.

4. For a jump top spin you should throw the ball pretty high so you have time to do your approach and still contact the ball high. For a float you will toss it lower because you are not jumping as high. I will attach some videos of each serve so you can see what the tosses are like.

5. If you step over the service line before you contact the ball then the other team gets the point. When you are jump serving you can jump over the line and contact the ball as long as you don't land before contact. 

6. Some advice for you would be never give up. I had a dream of playing Division 1 volleyball since I was your age and I never gave up and the hard worked paid off. I just recently committed to Loyola University in Chicago to play volleyball. Just always believe in yourself and keep working hard. Play whenever you can, even if it's just passing or setting the ball against your house, if it's ok with your parents :) Just getting extra touches on the ball will improve your skills.

Hope this helps and good luck with your project!

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Iowa Teams Competing in Nationals

Iowa has very good competition when it comes to volleyball, and this shows by the amount of teams that have qualified for Nationals in New Orleans. There are 4 different divisions at Nationals, Open, National, USA and American. To qualify for open you have to win a national qualifier in the open division. To qualify for a National bid you have to win regionals (all teams in your state). To get a USA bid you have win (sometimes 2nd and 3rd places receive one too) a National Qualifier in the USA division. To receive an American bid you have to get 2nd in your region, or you can also earn one in a National Qualifier in the American Division. 

There are a few exceptions to these rules. Let's say if your team is really good and have competed in the gold bracket in NQ's but you came up short of a bid there is still a chance that you can get one. This is called an at large bid. Also let's say you get third at regionals and the team that gets first receives an Open bid after they won regionals. That team can decide if they want the bid to go back to the region, so therefore the 3rd place team would have a bid now. My team (CIA 17 Black) got 2nd at regionals, so originally we had an American bid. We just got offered a National bid and we accepted. 

12s	Attack 121	National
	CIS 12M	American
	Rapid Spikers 12 Black	American
13s	Six Pack 13	National
	Iowa Rockets 13 Black	American
14s	Six Pack 14	National
	Iowa Rockets 14R	American
15s	CIA 15 Black	National
	All Iowa Attack 15 Red	American
16s	Iowa Rockets 16R	National
	CIA 16 Black	American
	All Iowa Attack 16 Red	Open
17s	IPVA 17 Black	National
	CIA 17 Black	American
	Iowa Rockets 17R	USA
18s	All Iowa Attack 18 Red	National
	Six Pack 18	American
	CIA 18 Black	Open
	IPVA 18 Black	American
Boys
14s	Johnston 14u Boys	Open

All Iowa teams that have qualified

All teams that have qualified

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Kennedy Volleyball Poster and Fun Shirt Ideas

Every year we have a poster with a fun saying or a quote on it and seniors and returning letter winners get to be on it. It is going to be my senior year this season (which is crazy) so I wanted it to be an awesome poster. A couple days ago all of the seniors had a meeting and we thought of some ideas for the poster and our fun shirts. Fun shirts are usually what we wear to school on game days, or we wear them over our jerseys to warm up in. They are usually a bright color and have Kennedy Volleyball on them. After discussing about a million options for the poster we decided on a pretty sweet one.

On the bottom of the poster will be our schedule and the freshman, sophomore, and jv teams’ pictures. Right above that we are going to have a picture of all of our forearms in a circle with a volleyball in the center. We are going to each pick a word to write on our arms that represents us, or is important to us. Above that picture is going to be a full body picture of us. We are going to wear dark skinny jeans, a black shirt and black heels. The picture is going to be taken downtown in front of a brick building. On the very top of the poster we are going to have the saying “Inhale confidence, exhale doubt”. I am really excited about the outcome of this poster, I think it will turn out really cool.

For our fun shirts we decided on a black shirt with neon blue writing. It is going to say “Bring ‘Em Out” on the front and have a faded out volleyball behind the text. On the back it is going to say “Don’t worry we are just wearing our warm ups”. I can’t wait to see how this turns out, because it should be sweet. We were also thinking about making a spirit jersey to wear as warm ups this year, just to have something special for our senior season. This is what a spirit jersey looks like. 

I am really excited for this season, our goal is to make it to state and I think we can definitely do that this year. We have worked really hard the past couple years, and have just come up a little short. This year we are coming into this season strong and determined to get that state qualifying banner, and possibly win a state championship. 

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Beach Volleyball

Since beach is starting soon, I thought I might as well go over some of the main concepts and rules of playing in the sand. Beach volleyball is totally different than indoor. Different rules, different strategies, and different skills to learn. Although there are different rules you have to have the same mindset to compete in either sport. In order to be successful in beach volleyball you need to know the important rules and learn some of the strategies.

The rules involved in beach are very different from indoor. The main difference is the rule about setting. In beach you are not allowed to set the ball unless it has absolutely no spin (which is pretty much impossible). So when you are setting your partner your best option is to forearm pass it. It takes some time to get used to controlling the ball that way but you will get the hang of it after a while. You also can not open hand tip the ball like you can in indoor. The other main rule is that if you are blocking and you touch the ball you and your partner only have 2 contacts to get it back over the net, where in indoor you would have 3 contacts.

Obviously in beach volleyball you are playing in the sand and usually you are playing doubles with a partner. This leads to some strategies that can help you succeed in this awesome sport. The first tip is to either serve/ hit to the player that can’t pass or the player that is the least offensive threat. This will give you a better opportunity to score on that rally. Serving and attacking to the person who is not as good at passing will most likely make their side become out of system, giving you a free ball. Serving and hitting to the person who is the least offensive threat will give you a better chance at digging their attack. If you are playing a team where both players can attack and pass decently then you can try serving in between them and that will usually get them out of system. Other strategies include blocking, going over on the second ball, and using smart shots. In beach blocking can be a little tricky and it takes a lot of practice to get used to it, but it is really fun when you stuff block someone in beach. If you and your partner decide to block, the person blocking tells the defender what part of the court he/ she is going to be blocking. The defender is then responsible for the other part of the court. For example if I was blocking the cross court shots for both hitters I would hold up 2 fingers on each hand (1 finger on each hand means I am blocking the line shots) and my partner would defend the line shots. Some smart shots in beach are a short pokey (tipping it with your knuckles) or a high roll shot to the deep corners. These shots will cause the other team to scramble for the ball and give you an easy ball back over.

Beach is such a fun sport, I can’t wait for practices to start so we can get back out in the sand!

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Iowa High Performance 2015

It’s almost summer and you know what that means… High Performance time! Tryouts are over and results are going to be posted this week. Every year it amazes me how much volleyball talent we have in Iowa, both girls and guys. I think a little over 400 athletes tried out for HP camp this year. It was really cool to see a lot of guys at the tryouts I went to, men's volleyball is growing as a sport and that is exciting! The next step is to get it at the high school level. I’m getting off topic but it is always awesome to see that more guys are trying this awesome sport. Anyway HP this year is going to be a blast, we are hosting the tournament for the second time in 4 years in Des Moines, Iowa. Last year it was in Tulsa, Oklahoma and the year before that Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

The first year I made an HP team the HPC’s (High Performance Championships) were in Des Moines. It was an incredible experience. Teams from all over the world, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Brazil, and Hawaii came and competed in both women's and men's. Being surrounded with people from all over that share the same love for volleyball as you is an indescribable feeling. My favorite part about that year was a picnic we held that all of the teams came to and we got to talk to each team, learning some things about where they came from and if they had liked there stay in Iowa so far. We learned a dance from some girls in Hawaii and got a group picture with all of us in front of the Old Capital.

                

This year if I make a team and get the privilege to play in Des Moines again I will be pumped. Last year my team won a silver medal in Oklahoma, so I really want to win gold this year. It will also be a chance to meet new people and since it is only 2 hours away from home my family and friends can come watch. 

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Kennedy Volleyball Senior Year

Senior year is a big deal, especially senior volleyball season. I am super excited and I have already been coming up with ideas for the poster, jerseys, warm ups, shoes, etc. Jerseys are probably the most important thing because that is what we wear while competing. This year for club season we have Nike jerseys and they are really comfortable. 

For our warm ups we want to all look the same and be comfy at the same time so sweats and a sweatshirt or zip up jacket is what we usually do. This year since it is my senior year I thought we could have some cool long sleeve spirit jerseys, which a lot of teams seem to be getting right now. We could wear these to school, over our jerseys or just whenever. I think they look pretty sweet if everyone on a team is wearing them. 

Finally the poster and the fun shirt are other important factors in vball season. Last year the saying on the poster was “Rise as One” and that saying was on the fun shirt too. This year I have thought of a couple of ideas that I think would be cool for the poster and our shirt. My first idea was saying “Bring out the best in each other” and have “Bring em out” on the shirt. Every year in the locker room before games we warm up to the song Bring Em Out. So if our shirt said this I think that would be sweet. The color of the shirt is a hard decision too, last year it was light green. This year I think if we did a magenta color that would look good if we got green or black jerseys.

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Committing to Loyola

My biggest dream has come true. A goal that I have had since I started playing. A dream that has been looked over by many people. A goal that I have never gave up on. Playing Division 1 volleyball. About a month ago I committed to play the sport I love at Loyola University in Chicago. After going there on a visit a little over 3 months ago I knew that Loyola was the right fit for me. 

It is an awesome school, with a great biology program. I want to be a pre-med major so picking a school with good academic opportunities was important in my decision. Loyola also has a brand new campus and it is right on the lake. They have the coolest library I have ever seen, it is all glass and 1 of the floors is all computers. The best view of the lake is out the library window and it is amazing. I got to see where they play and it is the perfect size. It is so sweet and I can’t wait to play there. I met some of the team and they were all extremely nice and seemed to really like it at Loyola. I watched them practice and I could see myself practicing with them. I just got an awesome feeling watching it and being in that environment. The coaching was very 1 on 1 and I liked all of the positive feedback the players were getting. The coaches are awesome and I love their coaching style. That was really important in my decision too. I think this is really something that only you can know if it is the right fit for you.

Loyola also has the #1 men's volleyball team in the Nation. Men's volleyball is so much different than Women’s and if you have never watched guys play, you should. It is so fun to watch and the coaches at Loyola said that the men's and women's teams are very supportive of each other and sometimes will even practice with each other. So I am looking forward to that, having a men's team that is representing the same school as me will be sweet. Another plus about going to LU is that Michigan Ave. is 20 minutes from campus, so whenever I have time outside of volleyball I can shop at all of my favorite stores. Beach volleyball is something I wanted to be able to continue in college, and at LU some of the girls either play in beach leagues or coach club teams which would both be awesome opportunities. I am so pumped to go to Loyola I can’t even contain my excitement.

The recruiting process for me was fun because I met a lot of awesome people but it was a great feeling when I committed, I still can’t believe I accomplished that dream that I have had for so long. Hard work really does pay off. The biggest thing I would say to younger athletes is never give up on your dreams. If you truly believe that you can reach your goals and you don’t have any doubts in your abilities, you will get there. Just know that you will have to work really hard until you get there.

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