Editor's Note:

We are very happy to welcome to Steve Stout
to our Gold Member Staff.  Steve is a Club
Coach in North Carolina, who has been writing
periodically for About.com.  Welcome Aboard,
Steve!

Switch Hitting — A Valuable Attack Weapon

-By Steve Stout

It didn’t take me long in playing and coaching
volleyball to realize attackers don’t (usually/often/
ever: check one) get the perfect set to attack.
Quite often, the ball is set beyond the hitting
shoulder, and younger players in particular
collapse in contorted agony trying to reach
across the body in a vain effort to flail away at
the ball. The results are predictable: even if
the ball is contacted, it generally flutters out
of bounds or drops to your court like a wounded
duck, and then your attacker glares angrily at
your poor setter for daring to launch such a
lousy set. Since this presents a choice teaching
moment, the coach explains that a good hitter
adjusts to a bad set, all the time muttering to
oneself, nobody could ever hit that ball. 

Yet a good coach should be convinced by UCLA Coach
Al Scate’s maxim that a ball is always playable as
long as it’s in air, so in a rare stroke of
genius, it dawned on me that all players I
have coached have two arms, so why not train them
to hit with either hand? That way, if a ball
sails past the hitting shoulder, there is always
another arm ready to make a controlled contact
with the ball.

Well, you know the objection: “I can’t use my
left/right arm. Look how dead it is,” as they
swing clumsily to prove how inept they are and
always will be.

Personal experience robbed me of that excuse,
when in the 5th grade, I fractured my dominant
right arm (embarrassingly, it happened while
playing kickball with my girlfriend). The next
day, I was learning to write with my useless left
hand. It wasn’t pretty, but it was functional,
and to the present, I can still scratch out
legible letters as a lefty.

Wondering if switch-hitting would work, I
started tipping with my left arm, then taking
full attack swings, and I can now serve with
reasonable success with an otherwise useless arm.
Since I am no specimen of athleticism, I figure
my players can duplicate my success, so I added
ambidextrious hitting to my coaching agenda
several seasons ago, and it’s usually been worth
several points in every match since then.

Here are some drills I’ve developed, for your
practice pleasure:

1] Start easy, while practicing hitting lines,
explain, we are going to work on tips (most
teams don’t, much to their detriment) and then
after a few rounds, announce, “I’m now going to
toss a high ball across your shoulders, and I
want you to dink it with your other hand.”  After
several miffed attempts and great complaining,
each one will successfully land a ball over the
net, and you will have a very delighted team:
Yes, Virginia: there is a useless arm that works!
Reinforce the drill with the verbal direction,
“whenever a ball drifts across your hitting
shoulder, play it with your other arm.” Mix up
your tosses inside/outside, so the players will
learn to make snap decisions. At the least, you
will find this gives the player the confidence
they can in fact tip with either arm.

2] Next, introduce the idea of attack hitting
with both arms. A good time to practice this is
during warm ups for serving, when I pair up my
team on opposite attack lines and
toss/pepper/down ball to each other while moving
back toward the serving line. Insist on alternate
swings using both left and right hands. It will
be ugly, but work on the same good hitting
technique for both arms (elbow back and high,
extend reach, good hand to ball contact, etc).
Some of your players will develop enough success
in serving with either hand that the skill could
come in handy if they can’t serve regularly due
to a jammed finger or thumb. It won’t be
powerful, but at least you won’t have to use up a
substitution just for a serve.     

3] When your players are practicing regular 3-4
step attack approaches, explain, “I’m going to
toss the ball across your hitting shoulder so you
can adjust to an attack hit with the off-hand”
(sure, the footwork will be goofy, but hopefully
the ball is hit solidly). You might be amazed how
well some of them will make good contact. When
they have confidence they can do it in practice,
they will do it in a game situation.

4] The weakest attack point for most offenses is
from the front right (Zone 2), because
right-handed hitters hate to hit from that side,
and few teams are blessed with powerful lefties.
Also, the setting area is tight anyway, and sets
often end up way too far outside or too close to
the antenna to be of much use. How much easier it
will be for the setter to place the ball to the
left side of the Zone 2 attacker where the ball
can be attacked with the left hand? Drag your
attackers over to that side and work on it every
couple of practices, and it will pay off.

5] It will be beneficial to drill your right
handed front row setters to jump-tip and attack
left handed, especially on passes tight to the
net.

6] You can adapt this to blocking drills as well,
for you will find that use of the both arms in
hitting will help with blocking as well, as your
blockers will gain confidence in reaching with
either arm to swat down an attack.

Ambidextrous hitting takes persistent insistence
by the coach, but you will find it to be well
worth the effort. For motivation, remind your
team that baseball players regularly bat from
either side, and we all know volleyball players
are far more intelligent! Besides, what’s better:
a cross-shoulder whiff with the dominant hitting
arm that nets the net, or a nice little tip–or
even a solid swing—with a “useless” arm that at
the least, keeps the ball in play, or at the
best, catches the opposing defense napping and
drops in for a kill?

Steve Stout
Lake Norman VB Club
North Carolina