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When playing volleyball in highschool I was the libero on the Varsity team all 4 years, so you could imagine starting on the varsity team as a freshman was a little scary. Because of this, I needed to figure out a way to make myself less anxious before the games began, or else my performance wouldn't be as good. In order to start preparing for my volleyball games in high school, I would begin by visualizing the things needed to do in order to win. This would include going over scenarios in my head of possible plays in the game, imagining drills we did in practice, or even just practicing my serve in my mind. This way I felt more prepared to begin the game.

Research on the use of mental practice in aiding performance prep is actually very controversial as of right now. A study performed by Martin et al. concluded that there are a few types of imagery that athletes use in order to prepare for a few different reasons. Among these reasons are: arousal-level regulation, attention focus, and the maintenance of positive and confident feelings. Personally, I used mental practice in order to regulate my arousal level and maintain positive and confident feelings about the way my performance would be.

The same study dome by Martin et al. indicates that researchers have been reported sufficient evidence to provide "tentative support" for the benefits of the use of imagery as an effective competition prep strategy. But, emerging technology may allow for researchers to solidify the evidence on this research. Personally though, this strategy worked for me when I played high school volleyball.

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Anticipation in volleyball is very, very important. Especially as a libero, but also for all other positions as well. In order to be able to effective defend a well hit ball, the passer needs to be able to anticipate where the setter is going to set the ball.

According to the lecture notes, anticipation is a fundamental way that athletes can cope with delays in reaction time. This helps because the athlete is able to predict what is going to happen in the environment and when it is going to occur. The most important type of anticipation on volleyball is spatial anticipation. The timing of the hit is not nearly as important as where the hit is going to go. When looking at the video attached below, the coach talks about anticipated which hitter is going to hit the ball because that ultimately decides where you need to position your body in order to be able to get a decent enough pass up for the setter to be able to set a hitter. When I played volleyball as a libero, I was taught to look at the shoulder of the hitter being set in order to anticipate where the ball was going to be hit. This helped me tremendously once we got to playing really good teams that were able to hit the ball hard and fast. Being able to read where the player was going to hit the ball limited the amount of error that could've happened because of my reaction time, therefore giving me a better chance to get a good pass up.

According to the lecture notes, there are many benefits of anticipation. The most important benefit mentioned in the notes in terms of volleyball is that it is beneficial to know what will occur because then the performer is able to organize a response instead of rely solely on reaction time.

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Volleyball Defensive Positioning : Nick Castello

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Aside from anticipation, reaction time is the next important ability to have when playing the sport of volleyball. Especially being a libero, it is very important to be able to react to a hard hit ball if you were not able to anticipate it.

According to the lecture notes, reaction time is the ability to respond rapidly to a signal when it appears. This is especially important in terms of the libero. Typically, the libero plays left back and is responsible for most of the passing during the game.  They must have a good reaction time in order to be a good libero. This is because they have to be ready for all sorts of hits. For example, the libero has to be ready incase the setter dumps the ball, the hitter tips the ball, the hitter hits the ball, or the hitter free balls the ball over to the deep part of the court. Therefore, they always have to be on their feet and ready to react no matter the circumstance.

Long story short, if the libero is not ready to react as soon as possible the video shows what will happen to them! This is not a very fun thing to have happen to you!

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Volleyball Spike to the face "Dome Shot"

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As the libero, I am also considered the second setter. When the setter passes the first ball, the libero is responsible for setting up a hitter. Therefore, setting is another important skill of a libero.

According to the lecture notes, there are two types of bimanual coordination. The one being demonstrated here is symmetric coordination. Symmetric coordination is when out two hands/arms are doing the same thing at the same time. This is demonstrated when a person is setting. The two arms and hand are raised and are pushing the ball out to a hitter at the same time. If they are not coordinated and something goes wrong where they do not hit the ball at the same time, then a violation called a double happens. This is shown in the video below.

There is also another type of bimanual coordination, although this really isn't demonstrated in volleyball. This type is called asymmetric coordination. This is when tow limbs perform different tasks at the same time. Many research studies have taken place about this type of coordination. There seems to always be interference between limbs during this type of coordination movements. Although, it is important to remember that you can learn to dissociate your hands, so that you can perform asymmetric tasks with little to no interference. (Lecture Notes, 2018)

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Speed and accuracy are two important aspects in the world of volleyball. When a hitter goes up for an attack, it is important to be both fast and accurate, although many times there is a trade-off between the two.

According to the lecture notes, the study of this trade off has been going on for more than 100 years. A psychologist named R.S. Woodworth found that accuracy decreased with the increase of movement speed.

When hitting in volleyball it is important to realize that accuracy is a lot more important than speed. Many times, hitters try to hit it as hard as the can and it ends out of bounds because they trade accuracy for speed. This is not helpful when trying to win games. Most times, liberos are able to pass a hard hit ball, but because of reaction time the have a hard time getting to strategically placed balls. Therefore, accuracy is a lot more important than speed in this sport.

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An important component of playing competitive volleyball is being able to pay attention to the game even when there are interferences. For example, many times student sections are chanting things while you are playing to try to distract you and make you make an error. This is when it is important to be able to keep your attention on the game.

According to the lecture notes, there are two types of tasks that can result in interference for two reasons: Structural or capacity limitations. The kind that happen in volleyball games are structural limitations. These occur when physical or neurological structures are the source of the decrement. The chanting of the student section creates a neurological limitation that does not allow you to keep your full attention on the game.

In conclusion, people have a limited capacity of attentional resources to direct towards all the activities that they might like to attend to or that may involuntarily draw there attention. This is what makes playing volleyball with a chanting student section, such as the one in the video so difficult.

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Heelan Student Section vs West in Volleyball

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Feedback is so very important in any sport, including volleyball. Augmented feedback is "a generic term used to describe information about a performance that supplements sensory feedback and comes from a source external to the performer.

Feedback about your performance is key to winning a match in volleyball. Whether the feedback is coming from your coach or a teammate it can make a huge difference in the level of play. As a libero in volleyball, I always talked to my players before and after each point. Since I am never hitting, I am always surveying the court in order to see where the holes in the other teams defense fall. I then communicate this to my hitters in order for them to change their hitting to hit the holes. This usually results in easy points. Also, feedback from coaches is very instrumental in a good performance. I always asked my coaches to give me constructive criticism in order for me to better my game. For example, my coach could provide me knowledge of performance by telling me I need to angle my body more towards the center of the court in order to better my passing.

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Many times in sports, athletes tend to choke under pressure. This means that an athlete who has the capabilities to win the match for their team suddenly has a drop in performance because they cannot handle the pressure. This happens because instead of relying on procedural memory, they tend to rely on declarative memory.

For example, in the video below, the defensive team was one point away from winning the final 4 game for D1 volleyball. All the offensive team had to do was get the serve in bounds to keep that team from winning. As you can see in the video, this did not happen. The server could not handle the pressure and could not rely on his procedural memory in order to make his serve in. He choked under the pressure to make the serve in and therefore, the other team won the game.

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NCAA D1 Volleyball Final 4 Missed Serve on Match Point