Observations From China

 

(By Andy Erins, Illini Elite VBC)

 

I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to travel to Tianjin, China in September of 2003 to observe and experience international volleyball from the Chinese perspective.  A professional volleyball team in Tianjin, located a couple hours’ drive southeast of Beijing, hosted us for the week we were there and were unbelievably courteous and helpful.  One of the most difficult things for me to do is separate the cultural aspects from the volleyball we observed.  I could spend three pages discussing the cultural aspects of our China trip and the misconceptions I had before actually getting to China, but for the purposes of the observations listed below, I will attempt to limit them to volleyball related observations.  It should also be noted that the Tianjin team has since won the Chinese professional league championship in four of the past five years.

 

Let me start by saying that the players on the Tianjin team could quite possibly be the hardest working athletes I have ever seen.  It is important to note, however, that before I get to the actual skill training, practices, drills and physical training, I have to describe the actual gym that we spent the majority of our time.  The professional team practiced six days a week from 9:00 - 12:00 and then 2:00 - 5:30 (or at least that is what they told us).  There were a few occasions that we arrived at the gym and the team was already in a full sweat.  They had one court, although there was a net set up in the corner that the younger players used for blocking and setting, and all of their weight equipment was setup around and behind the court.  They hardwood floor was probably 40 years old and each day it was cleaned with a mop that was drenched in what might have been Kerosene.  It took me a while to figure out why the gym always smelled like gas.  There were windows in the gym, though many were broken, birds made the ceiling and light fixtures their homes (and the floor was marked to prove it) and there were no power outlets or drinking fountains.  None of these things seemed to affect the players or coaches and it all adds to the impressiveness of their work ethic and it was easy to see that they players were definitely not your typical pampered professional athletes. 

 

Practice Structure

 

1.     Practices were very efficient and the majority of drills were coach run.  The coaches kept the tempo of the drills very fast.

2.     For coach run defensive drills, players played their positions only.  For example, one drill was a coach on one digging drill from base positions.  OH, MH and the Libero only worked out of LB and MB.  RS and Setters worked only out of RB.  This was also true for several of the two-ball/two coach drills they ran.

3.     When we run defensive drills or passing movement drills, we often use 5-10 balls per player as the number to get to before switching groups.  As when we run drop/drive from base, we may say 15 balls and then switch.  Their drills were run in the neighborhood of 60 balls per 3-player group.  Often we could not keep track of how many they would do per player and the group would go until no balls were left in the carts.  This was also the case with their rolling drills and pursuit drills. 

4.     Hitting drills almost always included setters and more than one attack in a row.  Transitioning from attack was almost always included in the attacking drills, where MH and/or OH had to hit 3 balls in a row from a setter. 

5.     Large amounts of practice time were spent on individual defensive training such as digging drills from defensive positions, two-coach defense drills, coach-on-two pursuit drills and coach on box digging/pursuit drills.  Not a lot of time was spent on serve receive drills and the explanation was that because they spent so much time on digging the hard attacked ball, serve receive practice was not as necessary.

6.     Competition drills were designed to be very difficult and push certain players.  One drill took nearly 30 minutes to complete one rotation!  Another competition drill was a 25-point rally game in the same rotation where only the LH could score points.  This same drill was then repeated in the same rotation, but the second time, only the MH could score points.  This was done without switching players or hitters and obviously the LH and MH got quite the workout.

7.     In 4 days, I don’t recall seeing the same drill twice.  Each day, each session was something different.

8.     Coaches scored every serve receive drill and competition drill. Each coach had a few players to keep track of and scored each pass or swing depending on the drill.

 

Physical Training

 

1.     Many different physical training drills were incorporated into practice such as defensive pursuit drills, movement training (running, shuffling movement, shuttle sprints under the net, movement around the court), blocking movement, etc.

2.     Their lifting and physical training sessions were very impressive and bordering on the unbelievable.  They did their physical training 3-4 days per week and the main focus was on leg strength and explosiveness.  On day 1, the physical training session lasted nearly 2 hours.  Here is what it entailed:

• Squats (and lots of them!) two different ways, one with feet flat on the ground and one with their heels on a board.  The players go down to 90 degrees and then explode up.  One player did 20 sets.  Yes, 20 sets (we have it on tape).  Each set had no more than 5 reps. and the player had to run with high knees the length of the court and walk back in between each set.
• One leg jump ups on a box with a barbell and weights on their shoulders.
• Clean and jerk (push/press) small jumps with barbell
• Ab work on an incline bench and back hypers with weights
• Russian Leaper with tubing to failure.  A coach stood on a bench and held a ball and players jumped with the tubing resistance until they could not touch the ball anymore.
• Box Jumps from a mat to a box x 20 without stopping
• Some players did leg extensions, leg curls, military press, slow motion armswings with low weights, wrist strengthening, bench press.
• And believe it or not, they practiced the next day, with attacking and blocking.  I could not believe that some of the players could actually jump after that workout. 

 

Attacking

 

1.     At a Q&A session with the coaches, they said that the most important focus for teaching attacking to young players should be on correct armswing action early and at a very young age.  We went to a local HS one day to meet and watch the HS team and in one of their gyms, some youth players were getting ready to practice and 90% of them were doing some sort of attacking/hitting against the wall or with a teammate.

2.     Most players have their elbows bent on the backswing before jumping.  As a result, approaches are quick and efficient and arms are ready to swing at full speed very quickly.

3.     MH took very short, but fast approaches for the quick sets.  Most MH started each approach inside the 10ft. line.

4.     MH used a variety of pumps, delays and fakes when attacking.  MH used a 3-step slide approach and all MH first tempo sets were a very quick.  MH also used their body position to hit sharp angles.  For example, when running C’s or the slide, they would often run past the ball and turn their bodies on the swing to hit very sharp angles cross court.  OH also used their body position to either aid in their hitting or to misdirect the block in the direction they were hitting.

5.     Players backpedaled off the net and did not turn and run off.  Since their approaches were shorter and faster and their armswings so efficient, they were able to backpedal rather than turning to run. 

6.     Contact the ball as high as possible on every swing and in practice they all hit with full power on virtually every swing.

 

Passing/Defense

 

1.     The main focus seems to be to have the arms and hands very far in front of their bodies when passing and digging.  Feet stayed wide apart and knees stayed bent so they could get very low.  Arms far from their bodies seemed to be the key to their passing and digging.  It enables the players to dig and control any ball regardless of where it is in relation to their bodies.

2.     Coaches hit the ball very hard in several defensive drills to force the players to cushion the ball and control the hard driven attack.

3.     Many defensive drills were run from the ready position.  The players did not “drop and drive”, they would start in a “ready” position and then attack the ball.  

4.     Many of the defensive training drills are similar to ours (only run at a much higher level/speed) and the focus of many of the drills was to get as many touches and digs as possible.  Most drills involved 20-30 reps per player and if the effort was not put in by a player, then the coach would stop the drill and that player had 10-20 balls with coach-on-one.  Not easy.

5.     All but one passing drill involved quite a bit of movement and/or more than one ball.  For example, one drill involved receiving a serve and then covering a ball on the opposite side of the court.  One drill was a freeball passing drill where one player had to cover the entire court.  One drill involved players blocking at the net, dropping off to pass a freeball and then moving to cover a hitter.

 

 

The notes and observations above are by no means meant to be a complete compilation of what I observed, only an overview.  Their training methods and the basic underlying principles were very similar to ours, only done at a much higher level.  The overall experience was invaluable and nearly impossible for me to summarize in only a few pages.  Their training methods, drills, skill training, physical training and work ethic are things that I will be incorporating into our practices and programs for years to come.