Volleyball team Russia lost to team Poland yesterday during the European championship. It lost in three sets, with real fight in only one of them. Congratulations to team Poland, a well-deserved victory. What are the reasons for the Russian team loss? Not always good team play? Likely. Insufficient individual mastery? Probably. I would like to pay attention to one segment of the game that suffered evidently to spectators: the service. Vast number of services were into the net or out of bounds. I have no doubts that the tournament finalists would have a better power service hit rate. Many times during the game a new player came into play just to serve because he supposedly had a strong power service. In most cases they served to the net.
The team defenders would say: yes, but the players had to take risks and serve the power service. Otherwise the service would become an easy prey for the opponent team and would lead to the likely successful attack. That’s true, but only likely. If you miss the majority of your services, you’d better serve a simple but reliable service and seek luck in blocking rather than simply give a point to the opponent.
What are the conclusions? Guys from the team, you have to train better. If the modern volleyball requires having a power service because otherwise there is nothing to catch, you have to master it to be able to serve successfully nine services out of 10, not three out of 10, as it happens now. Go and train. Work the service off. Don’t leave the volleyball court until you show a steady progress. This is your work. Tens of thousands of fans look at you. Have respect to them and to yourself.
What if a basketball player hits just three free throws out of ten? He would not be a part of the team. In response he would throw 1000 throws during a workout until he reached an excellent hit rate. During the real match, under the stress, the hit rate inevitably decreases. In order to keep the hit rate very good during a match, it has to be excellent during the training.
Consider how volleyball would look like in 10 years. I am certain that stable power service would become a norm, so just a few of current team players would qualify to the team of the future. Why wait for 10 years? You are a strong team. Enhance this element of the game now and get the advantage over other teams for the sake of your fans and yourself.