Confessions of a VolleyNut Musings, observations and opinionations on the sport of volleyball

Power vs Finesse

Men's volleyball. A power game. Thundering spikes hitting the ground at lightning speed. High jumpers, strong blockers, quick attackers. This is what people first notice about the men's game as compared to the women's game.

Speak to any high school or lower level male volleyball player. They have the most fun hitting, and always swing as hard as they can trying to hit the ball straight down. There's nothing more impressive to the uneducated eye than a completely undiggable ball hit straight down.

But ask any experienced player - power is a necessity in the men's game for sure, but if it is all you know how to do you become predictable. Defenses can shift their blocking and back row players to adjust to your hitting style. This is where changing it up with the finesse game comes into play.

Often times the most over-rated juniors players are those who just hit the ball very hard. They seem so impressive at their age level because they seem to dominate the court. What you have to keep in consideration is the fact that they are dominating lesser competition. More experienced blockers will adjust to their hitting lines and read the hits better.

Many lower level power hitters are essentially the same. They try to hit the ball hard and straight down every swing, and hit the ball essentially only at their body line.

Doing this requires that they wait for the set to drop down lower so that their arm angle allows for the ball to travel straight down. What this also does is lower their contact point. They lose the advantage of a high contact point which can allow you to hit the ball over and around smaller blockers.

In general, as a hitter, you want to improve your repertoire of offensive shots. Changing contact point, direction, pace, and type of swing can all keep the defense guessing and off balance.

Establish the power game early to make the defense dig in for the hard hit, and you can take advantage of the open spots on the court for a well placed tip or roll. If a blocker is overly aggressive you can take advantage of their arms by tooling from a swing or a wipe. (We will discuss the different types of attacks in a future post on Advanced Hitting Technique and Off-speed Attacks).

Learn to change it up, and you will increase your kill % greatly and impress more experienced players with your "smarts" rather than just your power.