By Milton Volleyball Research Team
For girls and boys, puberty is the developing stage of oneself; changing from an adolescent to an adult. It is a vital occurrence due to it resulting in the maturation of the brain. Everyone’s bodies are different therefore puberty can happen at random times. You may get it four years later than they do which is perfectly normal. Everyone goes through this at a different pace and time. Puberty can have effects on your brain that you may not recognize, therefore it is important for a volleyball player to be aware of these things so that they can be successful.
There are many mental changes and hygiene practices that can be learned. In this article, you will learn about mental changes and hygiene practices and how they have to do/affect volleyball. After learning these, you may feel better about yourself and will know what to watch out for. Overall, you will feel If you want to learn more, continue reading.
Mental Changes
There are a couple of mental changes boys and girls go through. For example mood swings. These mostly happen during puberty, but it’s a part of growing up. At one moment you may feel very cheerful, but at the next something annoys you and you get frustrated. This happens to the best of us! For volleyball, it is important to keep your head up high and not get off task. Basically, during these times, don’t lose sight of your goal in mind. For example, if you want to be a better setter, don’t let a couple missed sets throw your mood off. Work diligently until you can do it to the best of your abilities.
Good Hygiene Habits
Hygiene is making sure to maintain good health to prevent germs from spreading to others. It is also crucial to have good hygiene so your smell isn’t carried (removes body odour) around therefore you won’t be embarrassed at social areas. You may already include parts of maintaining good hygiene in your daily schedule without realizing. For example, do you brush everyday? If you do, that is already one part of having good hygiene since your mouth is clean and you won’t have a smelly mouth while talking to others.
There are several other hygiene practices you can do on the daily to make sure you are clean so let’s get into a couple. Firstly, washing your hands with soap and water often. This is so the spread of germs doesn’t occur around you resulting in people getting sick. At the moment, there is a global pandemic going on (Coronavirus) so washing your hands is a must. Many forget how many places your hands have been so this is a vital step.
In volleyball, there are about twelve other individuals who have touched the ball. Also if you have touched the floor by accidentally slipping or are just feeling lethargic; the amount of people who have walked over the floor is a lot. Obviously, you can’t be going to wash your hands every five minutes since the time you are in the gym is meant for training. That said, you should do it at least once during practice and definitely after you come home.
Secondly, washing your hair with shampoo or conditioner every week so bacterias from your hair are washed out. Lice in hair is very common so washing your hair is essential; also for looking presentable. Now you may be thinking, what does washing your hair have to do with volleyball?
Not much actually, except for the fact that hair can get very greasy over time which can cause problems with your skin and hair. This also has to do with being healthy. If you aren’t healthy, you may not be able to attend practice resulting in your personal growth declining. We should always want to be at our very best at all times.
Thirdly, changing your undergarments everyday. After coming home from a long day of school, it wouldn’t be wise to wear the same pair of underwear and under shirt because a lot of seat build-up occurs. If you wear the same undergarments everyday, they can begin to smell and there is a high chance of you getting some sort of infection.
Another thing you can do is wear deodorant. This is probably the most important one to a volleyball player. Since a lot of build up occurs in your armpits while you play volleyball, keeping them clean is a prerequisite. You may get distracted yourself if you don’t smell the best.
Thank you so much for reading this article. We hope that learning these stances and places of contact will help you improve in your volleyball journey. Remember that each part should feel right to you. Best of luck!