To see a video on the volleyball team’s peculiar practice tactics, click here.
LSU players use an unusual practice rule to prepare themselves to dive for a volleyball during a game.Any time they make a mistake in practice, they are required to roll on the floor.”Instead of making them run a sprint because they didn’t make the effort, they have to make the move that they didn’t make,” said LSU coach Fran Flory.The rule is designed to teach players to chase the volleyball on their side of the net no matter the situation.”That’s the game of volleyball,” said junior setter Sam Dabbs. “The ball hits the ground, you see it and it should’ve been yours, you hit that ground immediately because it gets you mentally prepared and know that you should’ve been hitting that ground making some kind of effort.”Players routinely hit the hardwood floor during practice. The only protection players have from the floor is knee pads.NCAA rules prohibit players from wearing headgear except for “medical identifications.””You get bruises, you hit your elbow, hit your hip, you get scrapes, you get burns on that wood floor,” Dabbs said. “It’s not fun.”Volleyball players aren’t the only athletes to notice the drill’s difficulty.Flory said other LSU athletes have told her how rough her volleyball practices appear.”I’ve had football people walk in the gym and go ‘Oh my God, you hit the floor and you’re hitting hardwood more times in practice than we do on a football field — how do they do that?'” she said.Flory said she has had few players during her 23-year coaching career get injured because of the drill.”They’re trained how to go to the floor,” Flory said. “They’re taught at a very young age how to extend for the ball and go to the floor and not get hurt.”Flory said the drill is standard practice in most college programs and was in place when she played at Texas from 1980-1983.Freshman defensive specialist Lauren Waclawczyk said the rule wasn’t in place at her high school in San Antonio.”That was something I learned in the summer,” Waclawczyk said. “I came here not expecting as many bruises.”Senior libero Elena Martinez said she rarely had to roll on the court in high school.”Some days we would do that, and some days we wouldn’t,” Martinez said. “But here it’s every day.”Dabbs, who transferred to LSU from Louisville, said the rule was in place on her old squad.”I’ve been on a different collegiate team in a different conference,” she said. “There I saw different schools, and they were doing it.”The drill helps defensive players pick up a statistic known as a dig, where they prevent the ball from hitting the ground when it’s close to the floor.And the drill seems to work, as the Tigers have collected more digs than their opponents in five of the past seven seasons.LSU averaged more than 1,675 digs per season those seven years.Martinez, a defensive specialist who is sixth on LSU’s career digs list, is expected to dive for balls more than a front-row or net player.She said rolling in practice makes rolling in a game seem like “second nature.””I know people on the team that normally didn’t hit the ground now are actually really efficient at it,” Martinez said.Dabbs said adrenaline rushes during a game or practice help her ignore the pain of hitting the floor.”You don’t feel the pain until after practice, which is when we really start hurting and we’re feeling the scrapes and the bruises,” she said.Flory said she has never had any dizziness complaints about the drill.Waclawczyk, on the other hand, said she has encountered some balance problems as a result of the routine.”If we have to do like 10 in a row or so, then you’ll get up and you won’t be able to walk,” Waclawczyk said.While the drill teaches players how to fall in a game, Dabbs said it doesn’t necessarily apply to real-life situations.”I can’t say that I’ve never really fallen and been like, ‘Oh let me just do a roll and get out of it,'” Dabbs said. “It’s not like because I play volleyball I can make an athletic fall if I fall on accident.”Flory said she uses the drill to teach her players the mentality of “no ball can hit the floor.””It’s a heart and desire type of attitude that we’re trying to engage them in and have them develop,” she said. “[The rule] is the first step of learning that attitude.”the floor,” Flory said. “They’re taught at a very young age how to extend for the ball and go to the floor and not get hurt.”Flory said the drill is standard practice in most college programs and was in place when she played at Texas from 1980-1983.Freshman defensive specialist Lauren Waclawczyk said the rule wasn’t in place at her high school in San Antonio.”That was something I learned in the summer,” Waclawczyk said. “I came here not expecting as many bruises.”Senior libero Elena Martinez said she rarely had to roll on the court in high school.”Some days we would do that, and some days we wouldn’t,” Martinez said. “But here it’s every day.”Dabbs, who transferred to LSU from Louisville, said the rule was in place on her old squad.”I’ve been on a different collegiate team in a different conference,” she said. “There I saw different schools, and they were doing it.”The drill helps defensive players pick up a statistic known as a dig, where they prevent the ball from hitting the ground when it’s close to the floor.And the drill seems to work, as the Tigers have collected more digs than their opponents in five of the past seven seasons.LSU averaged more than 1,675 digs per season those seven years.Martinez, a defensive specialist who is sixth on LSU’s career digs list, is expected to dive for balls more than a front-row or net player.She said rolling in practice makes rolling in a game seem like “second nature.””I know people on the team that normally didn’t hit the ground now are actually really efficient at it,” Martinez said.Dabbs said adrenaline rushes during a game or practice help her ignore the pain of hitting the floor.”You don’t feel the pain until after practice, which is when we really start hurting and we’re feeling the scrapes and the bruises,” she said.Flory said she has never had any dizziness complaints about the drill.Waclawczyk, on the other hand, said she has encountered some balance problems as a result of the routine.”If we have to do like 10 in a row or so, then you’ll get up and you won’t be able to walk,” Waclawczyk said.While the drill teaches players how to fall in a game, Dabbs said it doesn’t necessarily apply to real-life situations.”I can’t say that I’ve never really fallen and been like, ‘Oh let me just do a roll and get out of it,'” Dabbs said. “It’s not like because I play volleyball I can make an athletic fall if I fall on accident.”Flory said she uses the drill to teach her players the mentality of “no ball can hit the floor.””It’s a heart and desire type of attitude that we’re trying to engage them in and have them develop,” she said. “[The rule] is the first step of learning that attitude.”—-Contact Robert Stewart at [email protected]