Beach volleyball has made the “quickest transition from an emerging sport to a championship sport in NCAA history.” Its unprecedented growth has attracted thousands of new devotees to sand courts across the country. Whether you are an elite athlete competing every weekend or a basic beginner just getting your sand legs, follow these seven tips to step up your beach game:
Tip 1: Maximize your vertical leap on the sand. In order to do this, you will want to jump straight up while playing in sand. Its a little bit of a transition to switch from hitting indoors to hitting on the sand. Your vertical leap will suffer while jumping in the sand. In order to get the most out of your vertical leap, you will need to maximize every inch of your jump vertically while minimizing your inches horizontally. Therefore, while taking your 4 step approach, make sure you finish your last 2 steps close to the ball so that you call maximize your vertical leap and not have to jump horizontally to make contact with the ball.
Tip 2: Develop a tough serve. Serving is the only closed skill in the game of volleyball. Meaning, it is the only skill that involves only yourself to perform the skill. Therefore, you have the most control of the outcome of that skill. I recommend using a jump serve as the jump allows for a more aggressive serve. Make sure you develop a float serve as well as a top spin serve. Make sure one of those serves is your primary serve. In other words, you want to be really good at one type of serve. Make sure you hit it hard and are aiming for a spot on the court. Accuracy and speed need to be developed at the same time.
Tip 3: Pass the ball to safe spots. In either serve receive or defense, most of the time, your best chance to scoring a point it to get 3 hits with the traditional pass, set, hit. Passing the ball too tight to the net will make it harder for your partner to set the ball. On defense, digging the ball can be a difficult skill if the other team is hitting it hard or in good spots. Dig the ball so that your partner can set you up. That means digging high and off the net when you can afford to do so. Give your partner their best chance to set you and make you look good.
Tip 4: Have a strategy. Targeting a player on the other team in serve receive is can be a great strategy. Target the player that will allow your team to maximize your strengths. When I was playing, my team’s strategy was often different from other team’s strategies. My strength was that I was a great blocker against someone that swung hard. Usually a team targets the weaker hitter but in my case, I would target the stronger hitter. This allowed my team to maximize our strengths. Have a strategy on defense as well. Are you blocking line and playing angle defense? Whatever is it, make sure you and your partner are on the same page.
Tip 5: Read and react. In other words, don’t guess what your opponent is going to do. As the defender, you will want to cover as much space as possible to be able to dig the ball. In order to do that, read the pass, the set, and the hitter. Pick a good spot to stand while the hitter is attacking the ball and be stopped. Being stopped will allow you to move in any direction in the most efficient way. Good hitters are able to hit the ball in a direction that is difficult to read by their body language. Be prepared for the unexpected by being stopped and balanced while the hitting makes contact with the ball.
Tip 6: Develop a hand set. Many players are scared to develop a hand set because the rules for hand setting are a little bit more strict on the beach. Don’t let the rules scare you from developing a great hand set. While you are practicing, don’t call any hand sets so that you will be able to develop those hands. The more you practice, the better you get at it. The main reason why you haven’t developed a skill yet, is because you haven’t practiced it enough yet. Therefore, do it more and as don’t miss an opportunity to practice it. Over second contact is an opportunity to get better at hand setting. Be excited for the opportunity and don’t worry about being called. It’s just practice.
Tip 7: Play the game. The best way to get good at volleyball is by playing volleyball. Give yourself every opportunity to play the game. Play, play, play. The game is fun and only gets more fun the better you get. So play and get good!
