In order to become the type of player your coach trusts and relies upon, you will need to show him or her that you have an understanding of the game worthy of attention. You must show your ability to competently play offense and defense and move seamlessly between them.To help you do this, I’ve broken the game down into three equally important parts, which cover everything you do on the volleyball court. An understanding of these components will help you stay ahead of the game and anticipate what your opponent is doing. They are:1. Preparation2. Execution3. Transition
Preparation is exactly what it sounds like; preparing yourself for the up-coming play. If you are on defense, preparation is seeing what the opponent is doing, analyzing their strategy and preparing for what’s coming. If you happen to be on offense, it’s getting yourself into the optimum position to help your team put the ball away.
If you don’t stay ahead of the play it’s impossible to prepare in time to be viable for your team. That’s why a good coach spends a great deal of time teaching preparation. He/she sets up scenarios that help the young player anticipate what the opponent is doing and to make the appropriate adjustments.
Execution is the doing of what you’ve prepared for, whether it be setting, hitting, passing, or any other job on the volleyball court. If you’re the hitter, execution is the actual hit, which if you made proper preparation you will get a good contact on the ball, even if it doesn’t score a point. If you are playing defense, your execution is receiving the ball that’s hit and putting it up to your own setter in a playable manner.
Transition is what you do between your execution and your preparation, which is to get back into the most strategic position to help your team. For example, if you’ve just hit the ball, and the other team dug it up, your transition will be to move back into position to block the ball your opponent is about to bring back to you.
Some coaches don’t teach transition, believing it to be part of preparation, but I find it to be a very helpful component when teaching volleyball to inexperienced player. I try to get the young player to visualize their job on the court in these three steps, preparation, execution and transition. To get themselves prepared, in advance, of what is happening, to competently do their job and then quickly move into the position that best serves the team.
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