Volleyball Case Study

Intro
Throughout this term I have taken photos of my progress with my volleyball serve. I will be showing you in detail my strengths and weaknesses with my volleyball serve. When applying the serve I will be Correcting errors, justifying and analysis using biomechanical terms. Biomechanics applies to the science field in sport. It’s the laws and principals of mechanics about human performance in order to gain greater in-depth understanding and knowledge about specific details. It is important to have wide understanding of the applications of physics into sport, as physical principles such as motion, resistance, momentum and friction play a part in most sports. Learning about the biomechanics behind a volleyball overhand serve and why we need force, acceleration, gravity, levers and power to produce the most optimum serve. The biomechanics principles are force and motion, momentum, leverage and fluid mechanics. (http://codysbiomechanisvolleyballblog.blogspot.com.au/)

Force and motion. This principal is found mostly in the sprinting and jumping portions of the serve! When the player sprints, they exert a force against the ground in an angle. The momentum from the sprint is then transfered to the momentum of the jump (So a fast sprint will result in a high jump) Once a contact is made with the ball, the momentum of the jump is transferred to the ball. This increases the velocity of the ball, making it go over the net and far into the opposing court! Momentum is being gained through sprint. Momentum is transferred to jump then Momentum is transferred to the ball This principal also plays a vital role when the player lands from their serve.

The players must bend their legs such that they will be in contact with the ground for a longer amount of time The amount of leverage a person has is depending on their length of their body, in particular the length of their arms and legs. In our body, levers are made up of the joints and the bones that connect them to the object being moved. There is long levers and short levers. Long levers is the greater speed at the end of lever arm like a dig or a spike in volleyball, short levers can be moved with less force and at greater speed . Fluid Mechanics is forces that develop when an object moves through a fluid medium. I will be showing you a video of an olypiam serve and then my serve and I will be comparing the difference of both serve . Stand with feet shoulder width apart

This is important as it ensures if I am balanced. Being unstable impacts the angle at which you can throw the ball and the angle at which the ball is contacted. An angle of release which is too low might result in there not being enough height for the ball to get over the net. A wider base of support would also allow the athlete to apply greater force. If I had my feet apart more like the athlete on the left. I would have created more force into my jump serve.

Contacting the ball at the top of arms reach
If I did not contact the ball at the top of arms reach I would loose acceleration because the force is greater when the arm is at full reach. By contacting the ball at full arms reach you are creating a longer leaver and increasing the moment of inertia by increasing the force upon which you can accelerate the arm forward to serve the ball.If the ball contacted beyond the top of arms reaches the height of release is lower and it won’t make it over the net. If I do not have my arm stretched out to full length prior to contacting the ball I won’t be able to generate as much momentum and therefore transfer of momentum to the ball is not at its highest.. I didn’t create as much momentum in my jump for me to hit the ball softly over the net.

If I had a 2 step run up in my serve I would have created enough momentum and height When moving to hit the ball, transfer your weight fully to your front leg. This is important because it will result in transfer of momentum. When the ball is hit momentum of the body and the ball is conserved. Some of the momentum generated by the body is transferred to the ball. Stepping forward allows for a more effective transfer of momentum. Transferring your weight fully onto your front foot by stepping forward also allows greater force to be applied through the principle of force. With more force and motion for my jump. The momentum I have will strongly transfer to the ball witch will strongly make it over the net. My action to this is close to the Olympian but with more momentum I would be exact.

The drill that I will be using is to improve on my momentum in my serve, will be a jump serve and a run up serve. To improve I would need to toss the ball in front of my serving shoulder, keeping my elbow high and back, contacting the middle of the ball with the middle part of my hand and to follow through in my armswing. Doing a few of these from the serving line will help improve my momentum. I know when I’m struggling getting a solid contact on my serve, I’ll contact the ball with more of a bent elbow. I feel this gives me a little more of a window for adjusting to the height of the toss to get that solid contact.

To improve my technique of force and motion and momentum to my serve I would need to focus hitting the ball in my full arm reach and at the right angle but with speed I can get that momentum. Them I would start to do serves from the back line over the net. The movements of volleyball are a complex combination of strength, power and agility. Each of these components is comprised of intricate, small movements. Due to the many aspects related to the biomechanics of volleyball, not every strike of the ball is perfect. Many times, mistakes made by athletes are due to the impossibility of executing hundreds of tiny movements perfectly every single time.