There are few skills in the sport of volleyball as much fun as volleyball spiking. In this series of videos Andor Gyulai will explain what it takes to have perfect technique and form when hitting a volleyball. This series of videos on the subject are the most popular videos in the world on learning volleyball spiking and hitting technique.
Hi, I am Andor Gyulai, I was an NCAA National champion at UCLA and I am originally from South Africa. I was never the best jumper in college but one thing I could do better than anyone is hit the ball hard! On top of this I always felt I had good range of shots because I was taught great hitting technique by a Japanese coach (Yusushi Ishede) one summer who was interning at UCLA. To give you an idea of what is possible, at my peak I could spike a ball over the net on a back red set, it would bounce once down the line, hit a wall 10 feet behind the court and would return over the net over the service line on our side without bouncing again. Now keep in mind these were the old Molten volleyballs 🙂 but still.
In the next six short videos I will show you stuff that will forever make you smile! Why, because there is nothing more fun than hammering a volleyball at someone and watching them cower!
Form
When learning how to spike a volleyball harder the first thing you need to learn is good form! In this video you will learn critical, not taught aspects of great form!
Speed
The second component of spiking a volleyball with power is speed. In this video I will show you the four ways to generate speed and power through contact. I will also show you drills and exercises that are guaranteed to help you spike harder.
Flexibility
Being flexible will help your volleyball spike by maximizing your contact point, which will help increase the speed of the volleyball. Having shoulder flexibility will help with your shoulder stability, which will ensure that you will have less of a chance of getting injured. You will want to properly stretch your shoulder by doing rotations, lateral roles and arm stretches. Being flexible is critical to playing any sport especially volleyball, any player will tell you that properly stretching will allow you to play better, work harder, and hit faster.
Here’s a picture of me back in the day getting ready to hit a ball! I am about 38 inches out the sand in this pic and have perfect form for this jump serve.
Power
In volleyball when you jump and spike down the volleyball, it is very important that you have strength behind your hit. Strengthening your arms, chest, and lat will give you maximum power behind your hit. I recommend doing drills such as push-ups, sit-ups, and any other core strengthening drills that work for you. Making sure your triceps are strong will ensure that the power behind your hit will give the volleyball the momentum it needs to gain you and your team a win.
Shoulder Health
When learning how to spike a volleyball harder I recommend using the gym and focusing on keeping your arm and shoulder muscles healthy. When in the gym devote about 30 to 45 minutes to use the free weights. Some great exercises that I recommend is using medicine balls and holding them in your hand while doing both shoulder and arm rotations. Also doing arm lifts and shoulder lifts will help to increase the speed of your hit and the strength of your body. For further information and more detail refer to Video 5- Shoulder Health which will go in detail as well as step by step.
Visualize
There are many steps in learning how to spike a volleyball harder. Visualizing slamming the ball into the ground helps you to picture the exact techniques that you must do to perfect the spike. Practice your movements in front of a mirror to see what you are doing right and what needs improvement. This helps to ensure that when you are in game mode and you jump up in mid air and are about to slam the ball down your form is perfect.
Having the ability to spike a volleyball harder then anyone else on the court will allow you more game time and the opportunity to say that your spike is one of the best. Practice your hits, go out and win the game! Happy volleyball spiking!
You can get all my videos on volleyball spiking plus more by being a member of volleyball1on1.com.
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Video 5
Video 6
Just for fun! An old Andor getting back in shape from 2014…
“That’s the drill! Bad Bounce!” 🙂
