Questions to Ask a Volleyball Player
Questions for a conversation with someone who plays volleyball, whether you are interviewing them for a school paper, talking to a teammate's parent at a tournament, or trying to understand the sport well enough to watch it properly. Covers position, training, the mental side and what the game costs.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What position do you play, and how did you end up in that one rather than another?
Why ask it
Position is the easiest place to start and it sets up everything else, since a setter, a libero and an outside hitter live in almost different sports. The story of how they got there is usually about height, an injury, or a coach making a call in one season.
How did you start playing?
Why ask it
Most players came in through a sibling, a school tryout or a club that happened to be nearby rather than through any grand plan. The answer also tells you how long they have been playing, which shapes how technical you can go later.
What does a normal week look like in season?
Why ask it
Ask for the actual grid: practices, lifting, film, travel, matches. People outside the sport tend to underestimate this by half, and the number of hours is the single most useful fact for understanding anything else they say.
Which skill took you longest to get right?
Why ask it
Serve receive and consistent hitting technique come up constantly, and the answer is usually a story about doing one boring thing for months. A player who says nothing was hard is either very early in their development or not being straight with you.
What are you actually thinking about in the two seconds before you serve?
Why ask it
This is the most specific mental question you can ask and it gets a real answer, often a routine, a target zone, or a rule they repeat to themselves. Vague answers about focus usually mean they have never been coached on a serve routine.
How does your team communicate during a point when the gym is loud?
Why ask it
There is a real system here, calls before the serve, one word calls in the middle of a point, hand signals from the bench, and describing it reveals how organised the team is. Silence during points is a genuine problem, not a stylistic choice.
What do your teammates need from you that someone in the stands would never notice?
Why ask it
Every position has invisible work: a libero shading two steps, a setter hiding which hitter is coming, a middle closing a block. This is where a player gets to explain the part of their job that never appears in a highlight.
How do you reset after you get blocked or shank a pass?
Why ask it
Volleyball gives you a few seconds between points, and what a player does with those seconds is a learned habit rather than a personality trait. Listen for a concrete reset, a breath, a phrase, a look at a teammate, rather than the claim that mistakes do not bother them.
What happens in a timeout when you are down five points?
Why ask it
The answer shows you whether the coach adjusts tactics, calms the team, or shouts, and whether players say anything at all. It is also one of the few moments a spectator can see but not hear, which makes it good material for an interview.
Who on your team makes the biggest difference without showing up in the stats?
Why ask it
Digs and kills get recorded, but a player who runs a good serve receive or keeps the bench alive does not. Naming someone else is also a fast read on how the player thinks about their team.
If you have played both, what changes for you between indoor and beach?
Why ask it
Two players instead of six, sand, wind and no specialists mean the beach game asks for different skills, and players who have done both are usually direct about which they prefer. If they have only played one, ask what they think they would struggle with.
What do you do when a teammate's confidence disappears mid match?
Why ask it
This one separates a player who has thought about leadership from one who has not. Useful answers are specific, giving them one simple job, going out of their way to set them again, or saying nothing at all until the set ends.
What has the sport cost your body, and what do you do to prevent it?
Why ask it
Ankles, knees, shoulders and lower backs come up often in a jumping sport, and the prevention answer tells you whether they have access to a trainer or are managing on their own. Keep this factual and let them decide how much to say.
What does your coach say most often?
Why ask it
The repeated phrase is the team's actual priority, whatever the season goals document says. It is also usually funny, which makes it a good question to place in the middle of a longer conversation.
Which match do you still replay in your head?
Why ask it
It is rarely the biggest win. Players tend to go to a fifth set they lost or a moment they were substituted, and the choice tells you what they measure themselves against.
What do people misunderstand about volleyball when they only see it on television?
Why ask it
This hands them the expert seat and usually produces something concrete about how fast the ball moves, how much of the game is defence, or how little of the rally is the spike. Good for anyone trying to learn to watch the sport.
How do you fit training around school or work?
Why ask it
The trade offs are specific: early lifts, missed classes, evening shifts, long drives to club practice. The answer tells you what sort of support they have and what they are giving up to keep playing.
Has anyone talked to you about what playing at the next level would involve?
Why ask it
Recruiting, club costs and academic requirements are handled unevenly, and the honest answer is often that nobody has explained it. Ask it plainly rather than as a compliment about their potential.
What would you tell someone tall who has never played and is thinking about trying?
Why ask it
Every tall person hears that they should play, and players have strong views on what actually matters, usually footwork and reading the ball rather than height. The advice tends to be more practical than anything they say about their own game.
What do you want to be doing in the sport in five years?
Why ask it
Answers range from playing at a higher level to coaching, refereeing, or being done with it entirely. Ending here gives them room to say the last one out loud, which players rarely get asked about.
Getting a Real Conversation Out of an Athlete
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
What Works When Interviewing a Player
Learn the positions before you sit down
Setter, outside hitter, opposite, middle blocker, libero, defensive specialist. Knowing what those six words mean is the difference between a conversation and an interview where the player has to teach you the rules first. Ten minutes of reading buys you every follow up question.
Ask about one match, not about their career
How was your season gets a summary. Take me through the fifth set on Friday gets a story with detail in it. Pick a specific match you or they can both remember and use it as the spine of the conversation.
Time it right
Straight after a loss you will get nothing usable and you will annoy them. Before a match you are in the way. The good windows are a day or two after a match, or a quiet stretch between tournaments.
Let them correct you
If you use the wrong term, say so and ask for the right one. Players enjoy explaining the mechanics of their own position and it usually opens up the most technical, most interesting part of the conversation.
Follow Ups That Get Past the First Answer
- Ask what changed. If they say they improved their passing, ask what they were doing wrong before and what the fix was.
- Ask for the number. Practices per week, hours of driving, months out with an injury. Specifics make the answer usable and stop it drifting into generalities.
- Ask who taught them. Most technical habits trace to one coach or one older teammate, and the story is better than the technique.
- Ask what they were told versus what they figured out themselves. This is where the honest coaching assessment lives.
- After a mental toughness answer, ask what it actually looks like from the outside. That converts an abstraction into something you could see from the stands.
What to Skip
- Asking a player to comment on a teammate's mistake or a coach's decision to bench someone. Even if they answer, it costs them.
- Anything that treats a woman's sport as a novelty. Ask about the game.
- Questions about a current injury beyond what they volunteer, and never ask for a diagnosis or a return date they have not offered.
- Comparing them to a professional player. It flatters nobody and produces a deflection.
- Asking about scholarships or offers in front of teammates. Save it for a one to one if you raise it at all.