I want to be quicker to the ball!

Question
Hello. My name is Kelsey and I play school and club volleyball. I am a ds/libero and  I need to improve my quickness on getting to the ball. I would like to know if you knew of any drills that could improve my speed so no balls drop when I am in the back row.
thanks!
Kelsey

Answer
Hey Kelsey!

It's great to hear from you!

I'm think I'm expert on volleyball, but not so much on conditioning.

But I can tell you a few things.  (a) You will never be so quick that "no balls drop".  You can get quicker so that "fewer" balls drop.  But if you judge yourself on not making any errors, then you'll be pretty upset with yourself for the rest of your volleyball career.

(b) You will get quicker by working on your quickness.  I'm not an expert on this, but you have a number of options.  
--> Talk to friends who are basketball player or tennis players.  I'm sure they have a lot of quickness drills.
--> Talk to friends who are getting private instructions from athletic trainers.  What are they doing?
--> Talk to the coaches at your school.  What do they recommend.
--> Keep playing volleyball.  When you read the hitters better and anticipate what's going to happen, then you'll start to just feel quicker b/c you're getting to everything sooner.

You may be saying, "Coach Houser, how can you be an expert in volleyball, and not have drills to make my quicker?"  It's because my team just finished 2nd in the state by serve receiving, serving, setting, playing defense with all our heart, and being a bonded team.  Yes, we condition, and yes we become quicker.  But while other coaches (who spend A LOT more time conditioning) here in my city finished 7th, 5th, 10th and 14th at that same tournament, we finished 2nd.   

I'm sorry that I couldn't give you more specific answers to your question.  However, I have told you that conditioning is not the key to winning volleyball matches and there are a TON of resources at your fingertips to help you with this!

I hope you'll have a chance to visit my team at www.coachhouser.com.  Our season just ended, and for our final team activity, we took formal pictures at a really expensive hotel.  Now that was awesome!  

Coach Houser