Five Mental Adjustments Freshmen Must Make To Play Women’s College Volleyball

1. In women’s college volleyball learning to optimize Time Management skills is the most important mental adjustment incoming freshmen need to learn according to college coaches interviewed by Volleyball Magazine.

For freshmen women’s college volleyball players learning to manage how to get to practice on time, decide and manage how much time to dedicate to homework studies, what time to go to bed, and how much time to dedicate to much needed sleep is a huge NEW responsibility. This is the first time a student athlete makes all these decisions completely by themselves. Learning to balance new responsibilities into daily life activities without getting irresponsible or overwhelmed is a huge mental adjustment all freshmen make when choosing to play women’s college volleyball.

2. In women’s college volleyball the playing season is a lot longer, there are longer travel periods and more games are played outside of the college hometown.

Freshmen college volleyball players are required to make the mental adjustment needed to play 3,4,5+ times a week after a long bus or train ride at their maximum physical and mental capacity. As a freshman at the University of Tennessee Knoxville there were only three players from Tennessee everybody else was from all over the United States so my first year we traveled all over the United States my coach making sure that we played against college teams located in the hometowns of each player. We literally traveled all over the country, traveling almost every week in a 3 month period. As Freshmen we were learning how to maintain that mental concentration and focus in order to play – comfortably-on the road in the same way we played at home.

3. In women’s college volleyball incoming freshmen are required to mentally process what’s going on in a game at a much faster rate.

Imagine you are a participant in a movie or music video and someone has fast forwarded the speed of action all around you but you are still operating at the same pace you always have. This is what it can seem like to an incoming freshmen during their first year of women’s college volleyball. Everybody does everything at a faster pace and you feel like you are 2 or 3 steps behind with a lot of catching up to do. The beautiful thing about this is everybody has gone through it. For some people it takes longer and for some shorter times to adapt but everybody goes through this phase. Anytime you try something new it takes training to “get up to speed” with everyone else.

4. In women’s college volleyball it usually takes an increased maturity level to adapt to living away from home and meeting and living with new people.

Playing women’s college volleyball is a whole new world for most incoming freshmen who in a very short time meet new roommates, new teammates, new coaches, register for new classes, learn the fastest way to get to the gym, get new homework assignments, basically learn a whole new way of life PLUS learn to play a new upgraded form of volleyball. Here’s the secret to success according to Russ Rose Head Coach of Women’s Volleyball at Penn State in an interview with Volleyball Magazine “Players who develop good habits early won’t be surprised by anything that’s thrown at them in college.”

5. Incoming high school volleyball seniors must adjust to higher standards in college volleyball practices.

The standards that athletes must meet in women’s college volleyball are much higher than they are in high school or club teams. Why? In order to play at a better and faster level every volleyball fundamental performed has to be more precise. In order to be more precise student athletes have to be more disciplined.

So a lot of things you got away with in high school practices usually won’t fly in college practices because frankly it just may not be good enough or it will definitely have to be improved upon.

In girl’s high school volleyball a “good” acceptable pass may be one that’s on the ten foot line but in women’s college volleyball that’s unacceptable. In girl’s high school volleyball a “good” defensive dig is one a player got there hands on and managed to dig up high in the middle of the court. In women’s college volleyball a “good” defensive dig is a hard hit ball or a tip that’s been dug up right to the setter’s hands without her having to move off the net to chase it.

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