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- Improve Your Volleyball with Coach April
- High School Varsity Volleyball
- Volleyball Mental Toughness
Build Volleyball Mental Toughness Improve Skills By Training With Guys
Playing and practicing against male volleyball players helps you develop volleyball mental toughness quickly. Here's how.
When I get asked by female players how to improve your volleyball mental toughness one of my first suggestions is for female players to do their workouts and trainings with guy players whenever they can.
If there's a way to work out with the boys volleyball team or to pepper with one of the guys on the team that's an excellent way to speed up your skill development process.
This is not a suggestion I'm making up just for you.
I adopted this way of doing my workouts throughout my entire career.
Every chance I got as a high school player, a college player and a professional beach player I tried to find a way to practice or do some part of my drill training with a guys team that was in the gym or in the same city or in my neighborhood.
Here's what I did as well.
In my free time, I would go to the city park and play with the guys who would show up for the open gym for their practice sessions, for games or to do ball handling drills.
Yes, often I was the only girl, and the guys were bigger than I was, but time after time I found the best pepper partners--the best volleyball workout partners were guys who hit harder and faster which forced me to have to stay low in defense in order to dig their hard hits so my defense abilities improved at a faster rate.
- forced me to stay low in defense in order to dig their hard hits so my defense abilities and reading abilities improved at a faster rate
- forced me to read their arm swing so I could quickly look for clues that would help me anticipate where they were going to hit the ball
Best of all, playing defense against hard hitters
- helped me develop volleyball mental toughness and confidence about digging balls that were hit right at me without a block
Even before my high school volleyball workout, during recess if my other friends hadn't organized any pick up games then I would organize some and I would ask my guy friends to play first.
Why Did I Choose To Develop My Volleyball Mental Toughness By Playing With and Against Guys?
First because my motivation to improve my volleyball skills was super high.
I wanted to compete for a college scholarship, I wanted to make varsity and be on the starting team and I wanted to travel to Europe and play professionally.
I had set those goals for myself when I was a sophomore in high school and I knew in order to accomplish these goals the levels of my volleyball mental toughness had to be high.
I had to build confidence while going through some tough training in order to accomplish my goals and I was prepared to put myself in or create tough situations for myself so those "tough" situations would become normal.
I found that I was challenged more by surrounding myself with guys that were physically bigger than I was.
Practicing with them helped me develop confidence in my abilities.
When guys play volleyball they don't give you time to doubt your abilities.
Especially in high school volleyball its all about competing to get as many touches on the ball as possible.
Guys just want to compete during their workouts or practices or games or competition. They don't do a lot of self analysis like girls tend to do.
So, when I was playing with the fellas I learned to compete too. That was the best part of learning how to develop my volleyball mental toughness skills.
What I got from from working out and training with the guys wasn't necessarily a technical knowledge of the game.
But three of the most important things I did learn was
- how to have a competitive attitude
- how to fight for a point
- how to be scrappy in defense on the court
It became very important for me not to let a ball fall anywhere on the ground around me.
If a ball did drop without me going for it or making a move to try and get it up while practicing with guys, the fellas did not let me forget about the fact that I didn't try my hardest.
To avoid hearing them make fun of me for not going for a ball...I learned to go for every ball that was hit towards me general area.
That made me a better defensive player.
Varsity Girl Guide
Where To Go From Here
Where do you need to go now? Here are three options:
- Learn more about The Volleyball Girl by checking the links in Related Links section.
- Follow the suggested reading on our Sitemap page (Sitemap)
- Or visit the pages in the How To Play Volleyball section in the drop down menu at the top of the page.
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AUTHOR BIO
April Chapple is an elite private volleyball trainer, former USA National Team member, and University of Tennessee Hall of Fame inductee who has coached in Las Vegas for 15+ years, training hundreds of athletes and helping numerous players reach college volleyball, including Division I standouts.
She's also the head coach for girls and boys 18s at Squad VBC and offers coaches consulting on technical teaching and player development. Connect with April on LinkedIn or at ImproveYourVolley.com, where her eye for overlooked talent sets her apart.
From Lady Vol to Legend: Coach April Honored At UTK Champions Weekend
Lady Vol volleyball legend and record holder Coach April Chapple a University of Tennessee, Knoxville Hall of Fame Inductee, 3-time All American, 3-time SEC Champion, SEC Tournament MVP, 2-time All SEC Team is celebrated with her 1984 SEC champion teammates at Neyland Stadium during Champions Weekend on November 1-2, 2024.
- the first First Round Draft Pick for the first American pro indoor women's league
- named to the first First Team All-Pro team for Major League Volleyball in USA volleyball history
- former USA National team member
- one of the few American women players named as an Italian Pro League D-I Championship Finalist, Italian Cup Finalist and Cup of Cups Tournament Finalist
April Chapple The first First round Draft Pick For Major League Volleyball the first American Women's Pro League Honored At Athlete Unlimited Pro Volleyball Match
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TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS!
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In It To Win It Tournament
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