One of the most under rated “skills” or “abilities” in volleyball, and most other sports for that matter, is “eyework”. What your eyes see, and your ears hear (later) send information to your brain. The more information you can give your brain, the more problems it can solve and the more accurately it can predict situations. If you are just arbitrarily watching the ball, you are making your job significantly harder because you are missing tons of valuable information that is being given that can narrow down the number of options for the opponent to return the ball. Here is a comparison….
scenerio A – Your team has served the ball to the opponent and you are front row (blocking). The ball is passed pretty tight to the net, and you jump with the setter so she can’t dump the ball. The setter does not dump, she instead sets a 2, and you are standing right there while your hitter runs in and crushes a tightly set 2 with no blockers up at all. The right side wasn’t given the information that a hitter was coming into her zone, the middle jumped with the middle running a 1 on the other side, and the left side blocker (you) didn’t realize there even was a 3rd hitter because your eyes never identified her position before the serve, causing you to 1. guess wrong that the setter was front row, which caused you to 2. jump with a backrow setter, and 3. miss blocking YOUR HITTER hitting a 2 right in front of you because you didn’t track her approach or 4. even know she was an option. You end the play being yelled at by your coach and team for not paying attention.
scenerio B – Same situation. Your team just served, but you have already accurately identified the setter as backrow, and you know you have 3 hitters and that they are 2 stacked to the left. You have watched the setter call the play, so you know they are running an “x” play. The pass is tight, and the setter is slightly off balance so you know she can’t set the 4. You see your hitter shuffle in to hit a 2, so you scream several times to alert the right side blocker that YOUR HITTER is coming in her zone. The off balance setter sets the same tightly set 2 ball against a triple block and is housed straight down. You end the play feeling ahead of the game, well prepared, and ready for the next thing they have to send your way.
As you can only imagine this is only one of limitless scenerios where simply having advanced eye work makes the entire game easier. Its always easier to block, hit against, or defend 3 options that unlimited options. Your eyes have the power to narrow down options and make the game easier. It takes practice.
We will begin to work a lot on eye work in January. It is a part of every skill in the game, even serving. (here is a short video of coach Jim McLaughlin- head coach of University of Washington – expressing his take on eye work)
NCVC 16-1 