Before I talk about this specific video, I want to say something about individual training. By that I mean things a player does by themselves rather than a 1:1 session with a coach.
For the most part, you cannot create the same contextual environment by yourself. That means anything to do with reading, timing, decision-making, and the like is very hard to incorporate in a realistic fashion. As a result, you’re left with mainly very technical work that can only take you so far.
This isn’t a bad thing. It’s just very limited. You can spike a ball or set against the wall all you want, but it won’t take long before your gains drop to basically zero. That’s because it lacks any representation of reality.
The video below provides a very clear example of why that is the case. The stated intention is to work on reading the serve and picking a side to pass it on if it’s not going to be center-line.
There’s no reading here, however. The player knows exactly where and how they’re throwing the ball against the wall. As a result, they know how it’s going to come back at them. Yes, you could have someone else toss to take that knowledge away. Even then, though, reading the bounce off the wall is quite a bit different than reading an actual serve. And, of course, it lacks the context of passing when you have someone next to you, and/or when you have to then transition to hit.
Could a player use this to work on platform manipulation when taking the ball outside their midline? Absolutely! At least up to a point. Let’s not make it out to be more than that, though.
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