Posted by The above quote is attributed to me. I’m probably not the first person to utter the words, and I’m definitely not the first person to have the idea, but I’ll take it for myself for the moment at least. Given my interest in the topic in general, I was most interested in the ‘Bump Board’.
Looks cool, eh? The idea is to give beginners the idea of the forearm pass in general and the platform in particular, and without the pain associated with that learning phase. I know of coaches who have used something similar with their players. I don’t know to what level of success but there is a certain amount of logic for beginners. I haven’t seen one in person, but the six and eight year old sons of The Net Live host, Kevin Barnett, are big fans.
I recently also came across this form of the bump board from Italy. You can buy it here.
At Home On The Court 
Couldnt agree more Leb. A good platform will get you out of any trouble that average footwork will get you in to. All this rubbish about getting in behind the ball with your hips and face the target in my opinion very limiting.
A player who can get their arms to the ball first, keep them straight before during and after contact can be taught how to lateral pass which for me, and I have my beach volleyball coaching hat on here, absolutely trumps anything else you can teach them about footwork. Start with the arms and the feet will follow.
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Since I started playing at 14, I’ve never uunderstood the logic behind reception technique and why my coaches always wanted to make it harder for me.
I actually don’t specify footwork anymore and there is no more lateral paasing. I keep the focus on the platform and the instruction is to ‘follow’ the platform. If you follow the platform, the body position and movement are clear.
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I always like the term ‘Lead with your arms’ but I may steal the term ‘follow’ or ‘start with’
I often am surprised how many coaches don’t realise moving your platform usually requires your torso move aswell.
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bit of a bummer but when i tried to buy the bump board from the site, it wouldn’t ship to Australia… Will have to get my cousin to bring one back from the states for me when he comes.
I’ve been converted to focusing more on platform when i coach. Can’t believe i coached so badly before (i’m sure i’ll say the same thing about how i coach now in 12 months time). I get a lot of comments relating “platform” in end-of-season thankyou cards from the kids. Glad the message gets through!
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I´m still wondering if somebody has got experiences with this one:
To me it seems to makes the passers stretch their arms more than the other two.
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starting at 5:40 … I guess this is not an exclusive training assistance for beginners level volleyball.
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