After names Muhammad Al-Xorazmiy Tashkent University of Information Technology

3 REQUIREMENTS OF MODERN VOLLEYBALL FOR THE PLAYER

3.1 Psychology

Human beings have different sources of motivation and the power of them varies. Steven Reiss´ research group found out that there are 16 different motivation groups for people which are power, independent, curiosity, acceptancy, order, saving/collecting, honor, idealism, social contacts, family, status, revenge/winning, romanticism/aesthetical, eating, physical activity and calmness/peace of mind. Individual´s motivation can be measured with motivational profile tool to find out one´s order and intensity of motivation. (Reiss 2009.) In sport, at least winning, power, order, social contacts, acceptancy, status, physical activity, honor, peace of mind and aesthetical aspects may be involved.

Motivational elements can also be divided according to “push-pull” -theory, where the person is “pushed” to do something because he has inner motivational power for that. If the action itself it is not rewarding, person can still be “pulled” by rewards or penalties, which come from the outside. (Pervin 2003.)

It is useful for a volleyball player to have an inner motivation, because it pushes person to make effort to get better also during that time, when there is no one supervising the training. Player with inner motivation can be more independent and interested in one´s own development. Liukkonen etc. have concluded, that the best performance cannot be reached, if player doesn´t have inner motivation, because when the action itself is rewarding, player can really push himself to the limits. Money or some other reward from outside can maintain the professional level and behavior of the player, but then the best performance is not as likely as it is by inner-motivated player. Inner motivated player is also all the time hungry to learn more. (Liukkonen etc. 2006.)

Volleyball players´ capability to play every rally mentally separately is the key to have steady performance during the set. Every rally should be played as there is no history or future. Negative plays should be forgotten and learnt from and even after the positive plays players should be able to think a bit before the next rally – for example things like serving tactic or eye-work in the next rally - rather than going only with the feelings. Still it is very important to notice that during the rallies players mostly use learned motor programs and there is very little or none time for analytical thinking. That´s why short time between the rallies should be spent emptying the head from previous play and planning the next one.

One concrete thing helping to maintain the focus during the game is, that players gather together after every point whether it was won or lost. It emphasizes forgetting the previous rally and it is the symbol of new fresh start. (Liukkonen etc. 2006)

In different volleyball roles there are a bit different psychological requirements. It is important for the setters to have good leadership, social, communicational, tolerance (for example towards the foreign players), adaptability, justice and perceptual skills. For the opposite player, it is crucial to be good at handling the pressure and to have a high self-confidence – being brave, aggressive and having capability to improve one´s performance towards the end of the set are also welcome. For the outside hitters, it is beneficial to have mental skills like communication and co-operation specially in reception. Libero needs to be good in leading and organizing the back court. Middle blocker´s role requires tactical thinking, specially ability to read the decisions of opponent´s setter, aggressiveness in attack and maintaining the vitality while being on the bench during the back court rotations. (Liukkonen etc. 2006)