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Throughout the volleyball and biomechanics unit, I have begun developing and refining my skills in strategizing and decision-making in volleyball. I have also gathered a basic understanding of the biomechanical principles behind my performance in volleyball. I have also begun applying biomechanics to my skills to better understand how to improve them.
In this presentation, I will be focusing on the volleyball skill known as the jump serve, how to successfully complete one, and how gaining insight into the principles of biomechanics and applying them has helped me fix the errors with my jump serve.
What is the purpose of a serve and how do you complete one? The purpose of the volleyball serve is to distract the opponent's offense. A player distracts the offense by serving the ball over the net to a specific location on the court using underhand serve, top-spin serve, float serve, jump float, or jump serve.
To complete a jump serve you need a basic understanding of the six stages comprised of; the preparation phase, the ball toss, the approach, the Jump, the Flight, and finally the point of contact.
My first error was made early in the preparation and jump phases of the serve. You can see in the video that I don’t have a set location on the opposition side of the court that I am aiming for until later in the serve.
Because I don’t have a direct idea of where I want to place the ball before I initiate the serve or jump, I am constantly trying to adjust and readjust my position in the air before hitting the ball. This makes it very hard for me to judge the power needed from both the approach and the jump. Furthermore, not having an aim effects where my Centre of Gravity Is positioned coming into the jump phase.
The Centre of gravity is “the single point at which all parts of an object are equally balanced”. The center of gravity is determined by your balance and stability. These two related errors are pre requisites to having a center or center, Center of Gravity. Having errors in the base of support i.e. the stability of the jump can then go on to create more errors later like in my balance during the jump. These factors drastically affect my center of gravity and if done wrong it can lower the maximum amount of power available to transfer through the ball and the path the ball follows
Fixing this error is not a hard task as all I have to do is make some minor adjustments to my preparation phases and to the jump phases. An adjustment that could be made to the preparation phase is, looking for an opening in the opposition court and focusing my aim there. This would fix the problem of my aim and provide an idea of how much power I will need from my approach and jump. Furthermore, I could also improve accuracy by learning how to use the use of the Magnus effect. The force that is responsible for the swerving of balls when hit or thrown with spin. Doing this would drastically improve both my accuracy and consistency. Also, I believe that if I start with a location in mind for the ball then my Centre of Gravity will become more centered as I will not be making as many micro adjustments leading to the point of contact.
1. The second error in my jump serve
My second error was made throughout the approach phase in my run-up. As the video of my serve shows I take fewer steps than I could have, and as a result of this I do not jump as far or high as possible. Whereas the athlete in the earlier slide uses sir Isaac Newton’s third law of motion which states, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”. He uses a four-step run-up as it gathers more power and momentum and transfers it into vertical momentum coming into the jump for a higher and further jump.
Because I do not take these steps my serves are not as powerful, and I serve from further back. However, my run-up isn’t so much caused by poor aim but more so by poor judgment i.e. I do not judge well where the ball toss will come into the sweet spot. The sweet spot is a term that refers to the point or area at which the impact will make the most effective contact with the ball or an optimum point or combination of factors or qualities. And so, I sacrifice steps and my balance to watch the ball to gauge where it will pass through the sweet spot at the last possible second.
If I don’t hit the ball at this point my serve will become far less accurate and if I take a shorter run up and jump then my serve will lack power. For example, in my jump serve I only take a three-step approach and I am constantly watching the ball through the run up causing my jump for the sweet spot to be very vertically and lack momentum. Whereas, in the other video the athlete takes four very large steps in his approach to build up momentum and uses his momentum to jump almost a meter over the line while hitting the ball in the sweet spot. Similar to the first error in with my accuracy I don’t have a centered, Center of gravity as I’m focusing too much on the ball, this causes my steps to lose power and momentum making my serve weak.
The obvious long-term fix for this is practice but the steps to perfecting the approach and ball toss that I could follow are. One, learning to better picture when the ball will reach the sweet spot rather than following it the whole way there. And Two, carry my momentum through bigger steps and jump on both feet from the take-off to maximize power output. If I apply these two changes to my jump serve is should fix the issues with my center of gravity, balance, a base of support through the take of
By using some of the many biomechanical rules like gravity and motion I have been able to gauge my errors and provide myself with solutions on how I can fix them. This unit has taught me all about the sport of volleyball and all the different areas of attention needed to succeed in the many skills it has to offer. It has helped me gain valuable insight into how analyzing the errors in my own abilities in sports like volleyball and skills like the jump serve can help me apply myself to improving my overall performance in all sports.
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