Watching Video
Watching Video can seem like the most boring aspect of game preparation but like most things you just know how to MAKE it work for you -
Yesterday, Friday, Vladia and I watched video at Mark's. We watched beach tapes of the AVP Tour guys and girls finals. I'd say those are great examples of players doing the right thing.
It's easy to get lost in the moment of the game but if what I wanted to do was watch the best players serve receive. That's the part of the game I'm working on right now so I watch how people are passing the ball.
What are they doing , how are they standing while the server has the ball still, do they have a stutter step or jump as the ball is crossing the net? Which foot is forward? Where is their upper body facing? Are they straight legged or are they in a squat position.
What happens when I'm watching video...
If Im watching someone serve receive well. I see this player execute the right technique over and over and over again. I want to take that "scene" and take that "visual" with me so I start playing that scene repeatedly in my head. I start visualizing that player doing the same thing in my mind after I've stopped watching. When I go home, when I go to bed, when I'm washing dishes, before practice I get used to seeing this player do the serve receive correctly.
Then... I start hearing my coach's words on how to do this skill correctly. So I hear my coach, I hear my coach say step to ball, present my platform, use my legs, and I keep hearing my coach's words over and over like a tape recorder in my mind. (This is actually kind of easy because when you aren't performing a skill correctly THAT is when your coach starts yelling at you anyway, right? so what they are yelling at the top of their lungs already exists in your mind so you just start playing that tape, over and over.)
Then little by little both what I SEE in my mind and what I hear in my head start meshing together. When I re-play this continuously in my mind these two things start coming together where I form a mental movie of my own. When this mental movie starts playing then after awhile my body starts to respond to the mental voice I hear and the mental picture I've been playing.
My body starts doing the things that I have been rehearsing over an over again in your mind. I start seeing myself -take the place of that player and in my mind I see myself performing the pass correctly over and over.
And the aspects of the game that I am playing over and over start to become automatic and I start doing thses things physically- not just mentally- in real life.
That's how I make video watching work for me.
Now its Saturday I did bike (cardio) and legs- lots of leg curls. Now Im watching video of AVP finals now too. Extra tapes that Mark gave me for homework! Damn Him! Just kidding.
It's great when you can hear someone who has played for years commentate on the game. Right now Singin Smith is commentating with Chris Marlowe. Soem say Singin is the greatest player in the history of the AVP while Chris Marlowe is an Olympic Gold Medalist for Volleyball Indoor. Listening to them talk about the game is like going to volleyball school.
tags:
girls volleyball club volleyballvolleyball+camp video sports psychology singin smith chris marlowe avp tour
beach volleyball