Whistle = Focus

Volleyball: Pre-Service Reception Routine Reduces Player Fatigue

Pat Aitken

If your players' concentration lags near the end of a game, they may have been concentrating too much! Fortunately, a good pre-service routine can delay fatigue by reducing the time your players must focus when on defense.

Defenders' Routine
This routine is simply a matter of timing while your players are waiting for a serve. Volleyball players have an advantage in this respect, because they know exactly when the serve is coming.

This means they can be very exact about when to focus and assume the ready position, and when to stay relaxed. Your players can use a standardized

Toss = Down

pre-service routine to get them focused when—and not before—they have to be. Here's the routine:

When the whistle sounds for the next serve, your players eliminate all distractions and focus on the upcoming serve.
When the toss goes up, they get down into their ready position.

To summarize:

whistle=focus, toss=down

This routine not only reduces mental fatigue, it decreases the physical fatigue that can result from maintaining a bent-knee ready position for long periods of time.

References:
1. Lois M. Mueller, “Effective serve receive techniques.” Coaching Volleyball, Dec/Jan 1992
2. Pete Waite, Aggressive Volleyball, Human Kinetics, 2009.
http://www.human kinetics.com

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