Sitting Volleyball And Skill Transfer

John Kessel's blog post from September 22, 2014, Top Ten Reasons for a Club to do Sitting Volleybal Training,  showed up in my social media feed today. If you're unfamiliar, sitting volleyball is a variation of volleyball for players with physical impairments. Unlike other sports variants, sitting volleyball is not played from a wheel chair. There are videos of it on YouTube worth watching.

In the blog post, Kessel gives these reasons to break out sitting volleyball for your team:

1. Fun

2. A break from jumping

3. Empathy/awareness for them for disabled/Paralympic sport

4. Get them to be talent scouts for any possible future Paralympians

5. Gets you to use your overhead skills well

6. A way to keep lower limb injury teammates bonded/playing with the team at times

7. Practice arm movement for blocking but no need for a "box"

8. Speed up reading of opponent's upper body - net at 1.15m and court half the length of regular makes for FAST ball net crossing/arrival

9. A great leveler for tall to short - and parents can play too

10. Fun

I can't speak to 1 and 10, but I can't find fault with it. I imagine it would be a lot of fun. 3 is valuable for us as human beings. 4 just seems unlikely to be a reality. I think these are reasons to play sitting volleyball that are outside of immediate concerns and goals of the players and coaches.

2 and 6 are interesting. Overuse injuries are a real concern for coaches and players. Too much jumping can lead to patellar tendonitis and every time you land is another chance for a rolled ankle or worse. This isn't unique to volleyball, but leg and shoulder overuse injuries are a significant concern for front row players. These are closer to immediate concerns and goals of players and coaches. Similar to 2 and 6, using it as a leveler for short, tall, and even parents (number 9 on the list) would be a fun way to include everyone in the sport.

That leaves 5, 7, and 8 as reasons to play sitting volleyball in our practices that more closely approach addressing concerns and goals of players and coaches. It would get you to rely on overhead skills more, arm work would be much more important at the net in blocking (and hitting), and you would need to be faster reading your opponent's upper body. These are all worthwhile and desirable outcomes. The problem is do they transfer?

Skill transfer is greatest when the practice is specific to performance in competition. Basketball players commonly can shoot 10 free throws in a row, but hitting that one or two in a close game situation are elusive. How many times does a basketball player need to hit 10 free throws in a row? How many times in a game is that player going to shoot free throws in such a favorable environment (thinking mainly about the pressure of the situation here and not crowd noise or other external factors)? Our athletes need to develop the basic mechanics of the skill (lots of reps) and also they need to develop the ability to execute that skill in competition. Overhead skills are going to be developed, but the demands of sitting volleyball will best train those abilities in ways that will make little impact on the traditional game. A typical overhead pass in sitting volleyball will probably not get the ball high enough to let a standing teammate then use an overhead pass or hit a down ball. Any improvement in arm movement in blocking will still not address any footwork or eyework at the net. The visual cues the player reads in sitting volleyball will be only a small portion of the overall skill to read hitters in traditional volleyball, if they are the same at all. In some players at least, I'm sure the visual cues a hitter displays in sitting volleyball will be different. Sitting volleyball is going to be fun, it is going to be inclusive, and it will be a nice break from standard training, but I think it is a disservice to think of it as an effective training method.

Should you use sitting volleyball with your team? That is entirely up to you. It probably will be fun and appropriately represent the 7 of 10 reasons in the list that are independent of skill development. If you are doing it for those 3 reasons related to skills, you are probably better served doing something else much more specific to the game you will be playing in competitions. Those three reasons are really what bothers me about suggestions like this, especially when it comes from a respected coach and teacher. This kind of approach is why a lot of ineffective training methods persist. It's why a lot of teams do a lot of silly drills and then under-perform in competitions. It is hard to elevate the game when these ideas stick around. Play sitting volleyball to have fun. Just don't expect your team to get better because of it.