The Spike Volleyball Tips: 12 Habits That Win Matches at Every Level

Tips lists are usually trivia. This one is a checklist of habits, each small enough to use in your next match and strong enough to matter in your fiftieth. Work through them in order; the early ones feed the later ones. Start from The Spike Volleyball download home whenever you need the file, the facts table or the rest of the library.

Habits one to four: the fundamentals

One: arrive early on every receive; position is the cheapest skill in the game. Two: start your approach as the set rises, never after it peaks. Three: own two attacks, not five. Four: serve at seams and weak receivers before you serve hard.

None of these need talent. They need a decision, made once, to value the boring rep over the highlight attempt until the boring rep is automatic.

Habits five to eight: the reads

Five: watch the opposing hitter, not the set, when you block. Six: change tempo after every three similar rallies, before the defence solves you. Seven: after an error, play the next rally smaller, not bigger. Eight: aim spikes at court, not at people; the open floor never digs.

Reads are where levels separate. Two players with identical hands split into divisions on what their eyes are doing between contacts.

Keep going with The Spike Volleyball Blocking and Defense Guide: Read, Jump, Dig and The Spike Volleyball Tournament Guide: Winning Bracket Runs: together they cover the ground around this topic, and each one was written from the same test sessions on real phones.

Habits nine to twelve: the close

Nine: shrink the game when a set runs away from you. Ten: spend your best patterns when the opponent is tired of guessing, late in matches. Eleven: finish sessions on a made play. Twelve: after a wall, change one thing, then play; analysis without a next rally is just worry.

Keep this list near your phone for a week. By the second week the habits stop being a list and start being your game.