Skills – Page 2 – RoundNet HQ

Spikeball, also called roundnet, is a sport invented by Jeff Knurek, in the late 1980s. Although the game is just a couple of decades old, it has certainly become a very popular sport across some countries in the world, especially the USA. Furthermore, the Spikeball game offers tons of physical and health benefits to its players, such as helping to burn calories from the body. Most people consider Spikeball to be a hard game to play. The game requires athleticism, flexibility, coordination, fast reflexes, and depth-perception skills - which are hard skills to acquire if one has not played a lot of sports in the past. Is Spikeball a physical sport? What exactly makes the Spikeball game so hard? How do you make Spikeball easier? You'll find answers to these frequently asked questions and more as you read through the rest of this article. So, without wasting any time, let's dive right in. Is Spikeball a physical sport? Spikeball or roundnet is a type of sport that combines the elements of two sports; Four Square and Volleyball. It utilizes two pieces of equipment; a ball and a net just like Volleyball. The differences, however, include the positioning of the net and how the two sports are played. Spikeball is a physical sport and that's so because it offers tons of workouts for its players. Furthermore, the physical aspect of the game lies in the defensive nature of players during the game. For you to get a clearer understanding of why Spikeball is a physical sport, let's have a quick look at how the game is played below. I'm sure you know that the standard Spikeball game is a 2v2 game. That is, it requires two different teams with two players each. First, two different teams line up across from each other, with a roundnet positioned in between them.The game starts with a point start, which usually requires a server (from Team 1) to serve and hit the ball against the net in a way that allows it to bounce to the opposing team.Furthermore, during the point serve, only a returner or receiver (from team 2) is allowed to stand in any position relative to the net.Other players are only allowed to stand at least 6 feet away from where the net is located. This goes on until after the ball has been served.After the ball has been served, the receiver will have to defend the hit by touching the ball up to three times (without holding it) and striking it back against the net.The game continues back and forth between the two teams until one of them fails to defend the ball. Here's where the physical aspect of the game comes into the scene; the returners are required to defend the strike or they lose a point to their opposing team. In a way to avoid losing a point, the defensive approach requires a lot of effort from the players, such as diving to save the ball, acceleration, deceleration, etc. The players have to accelerate and cover certain areas in the court to defend and strike the ball back against the net - that's acceleration. Deceleration involves the player returning to the net as soon as possible to make an offensive play. Bottom line: the Spikeball game is a physical sport that offers players a lot of workouts. Why is Spikeball so hard? A lot of factors make the game of Spikeball so hard for people to play. As earlier mentioned, the primary aim of Roundnet is to make it harder for the opposing team to defend and strike the ball into the net. Once this happens, the opposing team will lose a point. However, making the ball hard for the opposing team to defend also comes with a lot of effort. This is so because Spikeball doesn't allow holding the ball before hitting it. That's not all; the game also doesn't allow the use of both hands. Meaning you can only use a hand and are only allowed to make touches on the ball at most three times before hitting the net. If a team ends up hitting the ball against the net, the opposing team is required to defend the game, which involves a lot of acceleration and hand-eye coordination. That's another reason why the game is a lot difficult to play for some people. How do you make Spikeball easier? As you already know, playing the Spikeball game requires a lot of physical work. Since that's the case, most beginners often conclude that the game is hard to play. However, you need to understand that there are tons of ways that you can choose to make the game a lot easier for you to play and enjoy. The first thing you need to do is get familiar with and understand the rules of the game. This is so important, as without it you won't find the game easy to play. In addition to understanding the rules of Spikeball, another thing you need to do to make playing the game a lot easier for you is to "practice". When it comes to practicing to play Spikeball, there are lots of things that you need to train for. Some of them include lateral shuffles, agility drilling, squatting, push up to burpee, lateral push up to hand tap, lateral half kneel to sprint burpee, and many more. In addition to that, you also need to continuously train using both tight and loose nets. The more practice you do, the better you become and the easier the game of Spikeball becomes for you.