Do you remember playing musical chairs as a kid? How everyone was nice and getting along walking around a circle of chairs until someone cut the music and you raced to grab a seat? It was fun, right? Got your competitive juices flowing? Well that was the inspiration for the most recent drill I created for my team’s practice to work on ball control as well as their competitive nature.

Teaching middle school players how to set a volleyball can be challenging. Often times, there are only one or two players who show a natural inclination towards setting, and the rest are, more or less, hopeless. Or at least that’s how you feel at tryouts!

Training setters can be very time consuming, and when you are coaching by yourself it can be hard to justify spending practice time running a drill which is designed for only one or two players. But setters make or break a team! Spending time during practice working on their skills will only help you in the long run. Even better, you will likely see dramatic improvements right away.

Team rules can make or break a season. There are two important factors in whether or not team rules make an impact on your team:

1) Everyone has to know the rules, and

2) You have to enforce them.

While I can only encourage you to hold your players accountable and cheer you on for sticking to your guns, I CAN provide you with a list of broadly applicable team rules which any coach can implement.

This weekend I was working with young players (7th graders) during club volleyball tryouts. At this age, there are going to be a few players who stand out that have played club before or are just naturally athletic. There are also going to be a few people who have never played before and are just mimicking what they see others doing, even though they’ve had no formal training. My court was no different, and there were plenty of times I saw the opportunity to tweak a player’s movements or form to improve their performance. While this takes some one on one time with a player, it is definitely worth it to step aside for a minute or two and help them (read more at the bottom on why this can work to your benefit, even during tryouts).

While I love creating my own drills, sometimes you just need to peruse the internet and find some new inspiration. Two weeks ago I was looking for high-intensity drills and found “Vegas.” While the title was intriguing, it didn’t really explain what the drill focused on. Strictly out of curiosity, I watched.

My initial reaction was that it looked fun, but was nothing too special. It had competitive elements to it that was something I felt my girls needed a big dose of, so I added it to our practice plan with 20 minutes dedicated to learning and finishing the drill.

Is your team struggling to communicate, cover, or celebrate? Read how I run the 3 C's Drill (presented by Judy Green, video in article) and try it out for yourself! It seriously impacted my girls and we have been a different team ever since!

"You're not ready for that yet." Have you caught yourself saying this to your team when they ask about more advanced skills? Plays, jump serving, swing blocking, etc? I heard myself say this exact phrase, and then had a small meltdown that I was not looking out for my girls.

I realized something this weekend; I have not written a post which discusses my blog's namesake! So without further ado, here is how to teach your players to pancake a volleyball!

A pancake is one of the greatest game-changing moves which can be found in the sport of volleyball. When a team is able to execute this skill properly, a great deal of excitement is usually generated. Especially if you are able to sideout or win the point, your team's energy will spike, guaranteed!

Thinking about coaching club volleyball? Get a better understanding of what you'll encounter by reading this article which compares and contrasts coaching school volleyball and club volleyball.

For many of us, the school season has just begun and we have only a few matches under our belts. We've finally gotten into a groove and are seeing our players grow and progress from those first hectic days of practice. Even though the end of the season seems ages away, it will be here before you know it. And that brings a scary realization: It's almost time to start coaching club volleyball!

Looking for a way to measure progress over the season? Stat sheets are the perfect way to measure not only strengths and weaknesses, but growth too!

The season has started! This means two things. 1) We're all scrambling to figure out what our teams' strengths and weaknesses are, and 2) I will have a lot of practice plans that I'll share with you! The beginning of the year is the best time to review basics with your team (although they should constantly be enforced throughout the season).

I recommend ALWAYS beginning with passing and serving, as these are the two most fundamental skills one needs to play volleyball. This plan is for our second practice of the year, so we've progressed to setting and attacking.

Once tryouts are over, it's time to set strategic goals based on your team's strengths and weaknesses. Learn how to reverse engineer your season by defining key focus areas, setting measurable objectives, and creating a structured plan for skill development, team chemistry, and game performance. Don’t leave your season to chance—build a winning strategy from day one!

Are you a new volleyball coach who doesn't know where to start? Instead of looking through more drill books, check out "Coaching Volleyball: A Survival Guide for Your First Season." I explain all of the ACTUAL work you have to do! There's more to volleyball than just running a good butterfly drill.

HOW you teach passing is just as important as the mechanics! This post addresses both, so you know your young players are learning how to pass correctly and to appreciate the foundation of the sport.

If a player knows you will support them through the learning process and their failures, they will reward your trust by exceeding expectations. All volleyball coaches should read this! It will help you develop your coaching philosophy.

No mater how much volleyball experience you have, there's no learning curve steeper than your first year of coaching volleyball. Read about my experience and the three "pearls of wisdom" I share, then add your own to the discussion!

While I "coached" at most of my high school's volleyball youth camps over the summers as a player, my first real coaching experience didn't happen until I was 21. I was given the opportunity to coach a 14 and under team in my hometown for a club that had only just started two years before.

Prior to this club, there were a few sporadic club teams which would pop-up over the years, but players would typically have to drive 45 minutes to an hour away for the closest club team (my 12 year old self included).

Setting can be a difficult task to teach to your entire team. I know when I played, if we were all going to learn to set, we just all found a spot on the wall and did wall sets for 15 minutes, or until we complained too much about our arms hurting. Wall sets are not fun. I'm sure you know this as well as I do.

Keeping drills fun, especially when you are coaching younger teams, is very important. But the drills also need to be game-like and incorporate skills they will actually use in a match. Sometimes combining these two elements can be a challenge, especially with a skill that very few people are naturally gifted at.

While a few of you are just now wrapping up your season (hello, Nationals!), many of us are enjoying our summer break from coaching, either by simply relaxing, watching the AVP tour, or playing in summer volleyball leagues for some much-needed me time. But as we all know, this break ends sooner than we expect, and open gyms and tryouts will soon be upon us!

Even though I know you are probably enjoying your break from the gym, the excitement of a new season is sure to hit you soon. So while you're daydreaming about a fresh start, here are a few tips to save for August.