Body Awareness
Before you want to reach your potential on your volleyball skills, you must first get to know your body.
Motor learning will take you long enough to develop a certain skill level, but at some point, you must beware how certain parts of your body (your biomechanics) function so that you can know why you can perform a certain skill and why you’re struggling at others.
Footwork such as ladders and hand-eye coordination exercises are a great way to get to know your body better.
Court Awareness
Volleyball is a game of adjustments. The best way to beware of where and when you need to be on the court is by playing in real competitions. The more you play the more you learn how to move on the court. In the higher levels, the more you expose yourself to stronger teams and players, the faster you learn how to adjust on the court.
Self Awareness
The last and deeper level of awareness has to do with your thoughts, believes, feelings and attitudes. As I mentioned in my previous post, the game is about 80% mental. The more you’re aware of your inner world, the more chances you have to channel your thoughts, feelings, and attitudes.
Are all this levels important to be a successful volleyball player?
Depending on the level you’re playing they might or not.
If you play just for fun, to make friends or as a hobby, you’ll probably don’t need to beware much of how your thoughts will affect your game (I’ll actually advise you not to think much…). Having a lower skill level and vague ideas of how the game works should be enough for you to have fun with your friends.
Instead, if you’re playing high level – whether pro, internationally, college, Varsity, or Club Open, then you need to have high levels of all of the three levels of awareness.
