10 Common Mistakes to Avoid as Beginner Volleyball Players During a Match

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It’s important to just kind of get away from your sport until you miss it. It’s about taking time to enjoy other aspects of life or learn new things. It helps rejuvenate.

Misty May-Treanor

Source: Flow volleyball.

You are really passionate about volleyball. You just got started playing the sport. You want to be one of the best players of your team. Hats off for your thought process!

But here’s the thing.

Do you have any idea of the common mistakes to avoid as beginner volleyball players during a match?

No worries if you didn’t think about this.

We are going to discuss about them specifically today in detail, and let’s get started!

Did you know? A libero of a volleyball team must wear a different colored jersey than the other players. This is to differentiate him/her from other playing members of a team.

Common Mistakes to Avoid as Beginner Volleyball Players

Getting into a Negative Frame of Mind Before Performing a Serve During the Match

One of the very common mistakes beginner volleyball players make is getting into a negative frame of mind right before their turn to serve. Here are some things that’ll be running around in their head.

I shouldn’t miss my serve.
Don’t hit the ball out of play/outbound.
Just get the ball over the net and into the opponent court.
I want to impress the audience through my serve.

The main problem with these thoughts is that the exact opposite thing happens from what you are expecting. Let’s take one of the points above for example. I shouldn’t miss my serve.

You toss the ball up and you swing to hit it. Since you have the internal pressure that you shouldn’t miss your serve, it’s what precisely happens unfortunately. You miss to hit the ball.

In most situations, you miss the serve with a tame effort.

So how do you avoid getting into a negative frame of mind before serving?

Go to serve without having any thought in your mind. Forget about the audience, the external expectations and fully focus on performing your best serve. This isn’t easy, but like anything in your life, practice makes you better at it.

Not Backing up the Player Who is Going for the Ball

Just because some player in your team has the ball covered and going for it doesn’t mean that you can bail out and watch them make the play. You must either go behind or alongside the player for their backup.

What it means is that if they happen to miss the ball for any reason, you can retrieve it and make a play. This also creates trust among the players that you’ll be there as a backup for them and that makes them go for the ball with more confidence.

It won’t be applicable in all situations. Assess it and react accordingly.

Remember. Volleyball is a sport where you have to make quick decisions most of the times.

Not Communicating with Your Hitter Consistently If You are In a Coverage Position

The easiest thing you can do when you are in a coverage position for the hitter is to watch them hit the ball. This isn’t going to be helpful for anybody. In fact, you might lose focus momentarily and that can prove fatal for your team.

Your laps in concentration will result in giving a point to your opponents.

So instead of doing that, what you can do is to look for the uncovered/open area in the court and tell it to your hitter as they are about to swing/tip at the ball.

You can also look at the opponent block and that’ll aid you to respond to the blocked ball swiftly.

Letting the Pressure Off of an Opponent Player

This is very common among beginner volleyball players.

Let’s imagine this scenario.

You just served an ace targeting a particular player in the opponent team. When you perform the next serve, you target another player in their team. By doing that, you are letting the pressure off of a player that’s just been aced and giving them breathing space.

What you can do instead is to never let the pressure off of that player and serve the ball to them again.

You’ll never know what the outcome is. Who knows, you’d ace that player again!

Making Your Approach to the Ball Too Quickly

You are excited that you are playing the sport of your dream and you are all pumped about it. You’ll be exuberant throughout the match and at some point in time, you’ll approach the ball way too quickly than usual. What happens when you do that is you won’t be able to pass the ball effectively to another player in your team.

If you are playing in the team as a hitter, you won’t be able to hit the ball as cleanly as you want most of the times.

You may be slightly nervous and this increases the chances of you committing a mistake just because you approached too quickly to the ball.

To avoid this, the first thing you can do is to watch the game pretty carefully. Second, you have to consider at what speed the ball is coming from the opponent court. If the ball is moving quickly, then you have to get to it fast and make the play.

If the ball is moving slowly, then it makes sense to wait for few seconds and approach to the ball. This allows you to perform the hit harder and precise.

Being Too Relaxed When Receiving a Serve from Your Opponent Team

When I say too relaxed, having hands on your knees and standing in a relaxed position. It is a big mistake and let me explain why.

If you choose to stand in this position, it’ll be challenging to react to your opponent’s plays and move on the court quickly to thwart them.

It doesn’t mean that you should never relax during a volleyball match. Rather, selecting the appropriate moment to relax is the right way forward.

Instead of standing in the relaxed position during a serve receive, what you can do is to relax in-between points. This helps you to rejuvenate your energy, effectively receive and return the serve and move on the court swiftly.

Diving for the Ball Before Getting Closer to It

This is also one of the common mistakes beginner players make when they start playing volleyball. This mistake particularly happens when you try to dig a ball.

Often times, you dive for the ball before getting closer to it. This means that the ball falls just short of your hand and that results in a point to your opponents.

Hence, it’s important that you decide when to dive for the ball after actually getting closer to it.

If the ball is quickly landing on the side of your court, then there is no chance but run to the ball and dive for it.

Practicing regular digging drills will make you a better digger overtime.

Not Communicating with Your Teammates

This is the most important thing you need in order to be a good volleyball player. Most of the time, beginner players doesn’t communicate among their teammates. The major reasons for this is that one, they don’t know the value of communicating among players during a match or they don’t even know that it’s essential to communicate on the court.

It has been proven again and again that communication on the volleyball court is pretty important for the success of the team. You won’t be able to do a good job if you neglect communicating with your teammates.

You won’t be able to communicate super effective from the get go as a beginner volleyball player. Watch several levels of volleyball matches, understand how others communicate with their teammates, talk to your coach about it and improve the overall communication step-by-step.

Using Your Palm to Set the Ball

This particular mistake is prominent with beginner players who are playing as setters in their team. They usually set the ball with their palm. It won’t be an ideal setting method as it sometimes go straight up in the air or wobble around before reaching to the hitter.

When you set the ball with your fingers, what happens is that you have more chances of controlling it accurately and setting it to the right hitter.

One thing you can do to avoid the ball from slipping through your hand when setting is to keep your fingers of both your hands nicely folded and stiff. Also try to keep your elbows wide apart from each other. This’ll reduce the impact of the high passed ball and you’ll be able to set it further in front.

Not Giving Enough Room when Jumping

This is the most common mistake you’ll make if you play as a spiker in your team. By not giving enough room, you’ll jump too close to the net leading to net-touch error. It’ll allow your opponents to get an easy point and arrest the momentum from your team.

To rectify this, you can give yourself enough room when jumping to spike the ball.

Another mistake beginner players make is not jumping towards the ball and trying to hit it from underneath. When you give enough room, you’ll be able to generate sufficient forward momentum to the ball.

It’ll help you spike precisely and send the ball where you want it to go. Also, you can make adjustments to your jump before swinging your arm to hit it.

FAQs on Common Mistakes to Avoid as Beginner Volleyball Players

What is a Typical Mistake in Volleyball?

There are several typical mistakes beginner volleyball players make. But the most typical of them is passing-related mistakes.

Here are some of the common mistakes you’ll see from beginner volleyball players while passing.

Bending their elbows when they are about to pass the ball.
Not getting into the right position.
Passing the ball too light or too heavy.
Not having a strong platform.
Not focusing on the match.

What Happens After a Fault in Volleyball?

If a fault is committed by a player/team, then the gameplay will be stopped and the referee awards a point to the opposition team.

How Many Changes are Allowed in Volleyball?

In a volleyball match, 15 substitutions are allowed per set and a particular player can make as many entries and exits depending on the coach’s instructions.

Conclusion

No matter what level of player you are, you’ll make mistakes. It is part of being a volleyball player.

So the main reason for me writing this post is that I wanted to document 10 common mistakes to avoid as beginner volleyball players.

I hope you’ve learned some critical methods to avoid these mistakes and shine in your volleyball team.

Want to share your thoughts?

Put them in the comments section below!

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