If you have a ball in your hand, you can use it to block other balls away! Successful blocking is made up of teaching pointers around two areas: Protection & Direction.
Protection pointers are all about helping players learn to stay in and not be eliminated. Tips include:
- Protecting your legs by ducking down or tuck-jumping when attacked so your body has a smaller surface area to block
- Holding the ball in two hands to prevent losses of control (which result in elimination unless the ball is recovered before it touches another dead object such as the floor)
- Holding the ball far out in front of the body so that skims don’t hit your body afterwards
Direction pointers get players thinking about where they are deflecting the ball. This involves purposefully pushing the ball in a desired direction or using the angle of the ball to deflect the ball in a specific way.
Task:
Can you identify which of the following pointers are about protection or direction?
