Speed, Agility and Womens Volleyball
I watched 2 days of Volleyball at the AVF womens finals in Sydney, following the fortunes of the UNI BLUES team. I closely watched warm ups and running techniques on court.
I read the study below by Katic and not being a Volleyball Coach or having played I was interested in the emphasis on agility. As explained before , change of direction is a physical ability whilst agility involves the ability to read the game coupled with the ability to change direction. ( strength/power/technique etc)
But having read the study and then observing a few games, I would do heaps of running technique, small sprints and change of direction training with female players, so they can cover the court more efficiently.
Women are not as tall, can’t jump as high , so the ability to cover the court may be a bit more important.
Often underpinning the ability to change direction and take off is the balanced strength and power of each leg. Unilateral strength.
Also running drills to get the feet under the centre of gravity and to get in a low ( pre-stretched) position are important. One criticism I had was watching some warm ups and girls did heaps of things like high knees sitting back on their butts. Ok to warm up but the last thing one would want to ingrain into techniques. They should always have their body over their centre of gravity and work through the hips.
Below is the conclusion from this study and one sees the emphasis on agility ( and skill!).
Motor Structures in Female Volleyball Players Aged 14–17 According to Technique Quality and Performance. Ratko Katic Coll. Antropol. 30 (2006) 1: 103–112
ACTUAL CONCLUSIONS FROM THE STUDY
*at age 9, selection should be based on psychomotor speed and coordination on solving complex motor problems. These motor abilities will ultimately limit
elite game performance: psychomotor speed by facilitating technique performance, and coordination and/or motor intelligence through faster motor learning and efficient solution of game situations;
*at age 11, selection should be based on coordination in terms of agility and explosive strength facilitating performance of basic technique elements, e.g., service and serve receipt;
*at age 13, selection should be based on explosive strength and agility that facilitate performance of techniques, e.g., block and spike;
*at age 15, selection should be based on specific motor abilities that are primarily related to body height, strength and spike precision, i.e. specific explosive strength and specific agility-mobility; and
*at age 17, selection should be done by evaluation of all specific motor abilities, especially specific speed and specific agility-mobility, enabling elite female volleyballers to efficiently manage all possible game situations and facilitate their technique performance, especially those in field defens
BRISBANE LIONS AGE versus KANGAROOS
This word doc below has a profile of the RD 18 Lions team.
The Lions beat the Kangas and have won 5 in a row. That is a real form line. As I said in another article, last year they had a “boob” distribution with young players of 19 to 22 and older players of 27 and above and not many in between. And remember that I have found a trend towards a “Bell Curve” for champion teams skewed slightly to the left. IE More young coming in but balanced around 25.
So when I did the Lions age and experience for RD 18 2007 , they were young. 23.8. But a redeeming feature was that there is some form of bulk in the 21 to 23 age group and the older players are up and running. Also there is a semblance of a proper curve where one can see that the bulk will be in the middle with the only problem being how long can Lappin and Black keep producing. ( if they have to?).
Obviously they have Bradshaw coming back so that next year their curve would look OK and their age and experience would be OK.
If they get in the finals and do well with this distribution curve then that is a real pat on the back for their development programs especially when they lacked draft power.
They have hit their peak now so the cynical ones may suggest that a few “youngies” will drop off soon OR a few oldies might lose form and expose the “youngies ?
All subjective assessments based on some data but worth an analysis.
loris bertolacci 