Have you ever wondered what it REALLY takes to get better at volleyball? Well, in the end, it's all about getting "touches." LOTS of them.

In volleyball terms, "touches" would be opportunities one has to actually have the ball on your arms or in your hands. I'm always telling my students and players that the ball only does what you tell it to--but we speak with our arms and hands in this sport. Now to get those coveted touches!

They did a recent study about who was actually getting the most "touches" in a volleyball practice. Guess who it was? Hitters? Liberos? Setters?

No, it was the coach!

Amazingly enough, some coaches are so into their practices that they often start every drill with a toss or hit or serve to the girls on the other side of the net. They run their drill, then the coach reinitiates the start of the drill by entering in a ball. Over the life of a practice, the coach easily wins with the most number of touches.

So what to do about that? Well, for one, the coach needs to realize that the players need to be touching the ball more. Every coach has a different philosophy, but it's fairly obvious that the girls need to get more touches than the coach!

Recently, while attending a volleyball conference of USA professionals, I heard a story about our Junior National team's recent trip to the World Championships. We took the best seniors and juniors across the nation, put them on a team and competed in Tijuana, Mexico. In the end, we tied for 12th place. The question arose, "Why? Why did we not do better?" The U.S. has a population of around 304 million. We were defeated by Cuba (pop. 11 million), Bulgaria (pop. 8 million), Turkey (pop 73 million), Czech Republic (pop. 10 million), and China (1.2 billion). By comparison, Texas has 24 million people--more than most countries! So why didn't we do better? Do we not have better athletes? Do we not have better facilities?

The questions could go on and on, but ultimately, the speaker offered his opinion. We just don't play enough volleyball. Our kids are not getting enough touches. We start playing in middle school for a 2 month season, then rarely touch the ball again until the following year.

"Volleyball is a team sport, however, so it's not one you can practice by yourself....or can you?" he postured.

He then proceeded to give us several ideas on how we can provide more volleyball opportunities for our athletes. Whether they be alone, be with a friend or group of friends. As parents and coaches, we need to let the athletes play. If there is only one athlete, teach them games to play against the wall. If there are two, play over a net/string/rope/fence. If there are three, one girl is setter for both teams. If there are four, play queen of the court. Five? Queen of the court with one setter for both teams. Six? 3 vs 3. And so forth. However, don't play 4 vs 4, instead divide the court up, get another volleyball and play two games of Queen. When you have 12 girls, play 3 games of queen.

Whatever you do, get more volleyballs going and more games happening on one net. You'd be amazed at the number of "touches" your child is allowed at that point and the skill level skyrockets.

So get a ball. Get a game. Let's play.