Volleyball Ball Handling Begins With Ball Control and Faster Footwork

Improve your passing skills with great ball control and volleyball ball handling skills along with faster footwork when moving to a served ball on your court.  

Fast footwork helps improve volleyball ball handling skills which you need to be able to control the ball and deliver it to your intended target to improve the accuracy of your forearm pass. 

How well you handle the ball and control it to your intended target insures that you become a good passer that enjoys alot of playing time because you are the player who can neutralize a tough serve and get the ball to your setter in serve receive.  

Here are two habits that you should adopt 

• get positioned early behind the ball
• use faster footwork

in order to get a higher percentage of better volleyball passing reps to your setter or intended target. 

If you are late in getting positioned behind the ball then you have to do a better job of moving your feet and quickly moving to get stopped behind the ball, so you have a greater chance of controlling the ball to the target.

For beginner and intermediate level players when you are not positioned behind the ball, in many cases you have to swing your platform outside of your body to pass it.

For those beginner players who are working on getting better volleyball passing technique and haven't yet developed great body control or ball control skills, this usually means

• either your body will be off balance or 
• you will end up using too much of your upper body and arms

to try and get the ball to the target.

The lesson here is to avoid trying to do two things at once.

Volleyball Ball Handling Don'ts

• You don't want to swing you arms when you pass the ball.
• Don't run and pass at the same time

Volleyball Ball Handling Do's

What you DO want to do is

• anticipate faster where the ball is going to land once it crosses the net to your side 
• then to move your feet faster to beat the ball to that spot. 

What happens when you run and and pass at the same time?

Your forearm pass becomes less accurate and it'll be harder to get the ball to your target, which is usually your setter.

In most cases, because you're moving towards the net your forward motion will help deflect the ball immediately back over the net, which gives an easy free ball to your opposing team.

Something you don't want to happen. 

Players should anticipate where the ball is going to land and move quickly to get to that spot first.

The passing action should be performed from a balanced position with both feet on the ground whenever possible. 

• Wherever it looks like the ball is going to cross the net and land in your area, which may be only a side step or two steps away from you, you want to beat the ball to THAT spot.

• Then you want to try to be stopped so your momentum is not moving you forward.  

Ideally, you want to stop moving by the time the ball contacts your platform.

You'll experience better volleyball ball handling and passing accuracy when you pass the ball making two separate and distinct movements.

A quick review..

• when you pass you want to stay very focused and concentrated on the ball starting when it's in the opposing team's server's hands and ending when it's bounced off of your platform and is heading to your setter's hands.

• Stay light on your feet so that you can run, shuffle or side step to get quickly to where you anticipate the ball is about to land.

• Then your feet should be stopped, planted and balanced underneath you with your shoulders and body squared and parallel to the net.

• Quickly clasp your hands together, keeping your elbows and wrists pressed together and your thumbs pointing to the ground in order to form your platform.

• Remember, to pass a volleyball, you want to get to your spot quickly, beat the ball there, get stopped, form your platform, then make the pass.

Where do you need to go now? 

Your three options are: 

1. You can learn more about Passing in volleyball by visiting the Related Links below.  
2. Follow the suggested reading on our Sitemap page   Learning How To Play (Sitemap)
3. Or visit the pages in the How to Play Volleyball section in the drop down menu at the top of the page to get started. 
4. Before leaving this page Say "Hi" to  Ms. Resee the Kangaroo, wearing the #11 jersey below. She's a left side hitter with precision passing and a member of the VolleyBragSwag All Beast Third team. 

Meet Resee the Kangaroo and Passing Specialist on VolleyBragSwag's All Beast Team

Follow me on Instagram @coach_apchap to improve your game even faster!