“Simple>Complex…”

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Shared by Breanne Smedley

One of the reasons I find it fun to coach beginner volleyball teams is that they are raw.

Blank canvases. Unmolded clay.

Most of them haven’t picked up any extra, weird movements while executing a skill.

Or if they have, they haven’t spent years and year cementing them into their neural pathways.

Because by the time players get to high school, it can take an entire season or more to get rid of these extra movements.

That slight bend in a platform, or extra step in a transition that has been reinforced with every practice and match over the past 5 years.

And the higher level you play, the more simple it has to be.

Seems counterintuitive.

Take passing, for example.

One of the reasons some of my 12u players start to add funky things to passing is that they have more time.

The game is slower. They get impatient.

So, why not swing my arms a few times before the ball gets to me?
Or take a few more steps in place?
Then hold my wrists and hands next to my chin (Ie. “praying”) while I wait for the ball to drop.
And then, to add some extra flare after I contact the ball, swing my arms up to the ceiling, and separate my platform like a waterfall.

There’s no time to do any of that once these players get to high school. The game is moving too fast.

The next ball is coming before the waterfall arms have a chance to finish. 
Hold your wrists and hands by your chin? Not a chance you’re getting to that hard driven ball.

By the time players get to college and beyond, even the slightest deviation from simplicity makes all the difference.

That slight bend in the platform before contact is now the difference between passing a 2.0 and a 2.4. 
That false step is now the difference between getting to the ball and having to dive to save a play.

You can’t get away with complex when the game gets faster.

Simple>Complex because Simple=Repeatable.

The higher the level, the more these complexities are exposed.

And the more they hold players back when they can’t repeat them when the game is faster and the stakes are higher.

So, we take the complex movement of passing and make it simple from the start.

Face incoming ball
Wrists and hands together
Straight, simple platform
Angle to target

Nothing more. Get rid of the extra.

Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Simple>Complex.

 

#MindfullyEvolving

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