Find drills for your next practice, fun games for volleyball camp, and articles covering topics like visualization and playing time philosophy!
When we see the ball heading for the net, our first emotion is worry. But we can turn this into a situation that our players handle with ease and confidence! It just takes a little practice.
With this quick and easy drill, you’ll have your players not only passing out of the net, but attacking the ball back over!
Read MoreDoes your volleyball team only have 1 hour for practice? Use this full plan as a guide for a fun, high-energy practice session! Bonus: all drills can be adapted to any age with just a few changes!
Read MoreWith the constant threat of being captured, “Prisoner” is a volleyball drill that challenges players to step up and perform under pressure. And because players on the court can rescue their teammates, anyone who’s on the sidelines stays engaged in the drill, cheering loudly!
Read MoreStart any match out strong with the “first kill” mentality! Confidence in serve receive comes from high-quality reps, which your volleyball team will get plenty of in this drill!
Read MoreRun this advanced volleyball drill with high school and club teams who need to work on their block coverage! Players will get a ton of reps working on covering the block and will feel confident handling a block in a match.
Read MoreServe receive is one of the most critical elements of volleyball. Without a decent pass in serve receive, many teams will struggle to send an aggressive attack back to their opponent. But by developing one simple skill, your players can better predict where the serve will go. This will dramatically improve your odds of passing up a playable ball. That skill?
Eye-sequencing.
Read MoreAlthough peppering is fun and incorporates the basic skills of passing, setting, and hitting, some coaches are strongly opposed to the use of this classic volleyball warm-up.
In this article, I’m going to explain the pros and cons of peppering so you can better decide if this is a warm-up you want to use with your players.
Read MoreThe libero position can be confusing, even for experienced coaches! Learn about libero basics, some of the more complex rules, and get explanations on the most challenging aspects of using a libero.
Read MoreBenefits Of Running This Attacking Drill:
Beginner volleyball players develop multiple attack options.
Intermediate and experienced players start to attack more strategically.
Your defense gets better at recognizing different attacks.
Your team becomes more well-rounded because they’re playing against better players in practice once they all understand these concepts.
No matter what age you coach, you’ve probably seen it happen. Maybe it was in the middle of a long rally, or happened on the first attack. It could have been due to a deceptive jump set, or just a misread of your opponents attack.
What am I talking about?
When the middle goes up to block with the setter/middle, and the set goes somewhere else.
In other words… your defense becomes a lot less effective.
Run this drill to practice your team’s reaction to this common mistake.
Read MoreCoaches of young or new volleyball players might benefit from review this passing concept with their team: Face the hitter, angle your platform to target.
Too often this is something that we as coaches tend to overlook. Between getting them to not bend their elbows when they pass, making sure they’re standing in the right place, or sometimes even just paying attention at practice, it can be easy to forget about small things.
In this case, it’s a small thing that makes a HUGE difference.
Read MoreThink back to the first time you were learning a new position. One of the most challenging aspects of learning this new position was probably where to go for defense. Not only do you need to know WHERE to go, you need to learn WHEN to go and how much area you cover!
Players can easily get overwhelmed in this stage of their development, but it doesn’t need to be frustrating! By using this quick and easy drill, I’ve taught players as young as 6th grade how to transition into defense.
Read MoreAccording to Coach Karch Kiraly, (U.S. Women's National Volleyball Team Head Coach) the most important skill in volleyball is to learn to read the ball.
This is one of those answers which is simple in theory, but very, very challenging in practice. You can’t just TELL players to read the ball. Heck, half of them probably wouldn’t even know what you meant (and of course, they’d just nod their head and go with it until you called them out).
In order to play volleyball well, you need to anticipate where the ball will go. This has recently become a point of pride for coaches who yell at their teams for diving (they wouldn’t need to dive if they read the ball correctly). Which… they’re not wrong! But we need to make sure we teach players to read and anticipate before we expect them to eliminate any dives or rolls.
This drill teaches players how to read the hitter through simple, repetitive plays that draw attention to movement patterns, helping players learn faster.
Read MoreIn today’s drill, I’m going to share the first “Butterfly Drill” I learned as a player, and explain how you can change it using variations (my favorite thing to do).
The butterfly drill is named after the shape of the action. That one took me a long time to figure out, but it is now glaringly obvious.
Essentially, butterfly drills are meant to keep the action rolling, with player-initiated contacts, constant movement, high energy, and LOTS of running (so fyi, this is a great conditioning drill that still incorporates a lot of volleyball).
Read MoreIf there’s one volleyball drill that just about EVERY volleyball player will play throughout their career, it’s Queen of the Court (or King of the Court/Monarch of the Court depending on who you’re coaching).
Queen of the court is a top volleyball drill because it…
is fast-paced
is FUN
is competitive
is good as a warm-up drill or to end practice with
can be played with as few as 8 players, and up to 16 (or more) per court
If this sounds like a must-have for your coaching binder, I’d have to agree with you. Not only is this a good volleyball drill for practice, you can use it at open gyms and volleyball camps!
Read MoreOnce we start to get towards the middle/end of the season, it can feel like you’ve been running the same drills over and over again!
Add a fresh new drill to the end of your practice! This is one of my FAVORITE drills to end practice with, because it is high intensity, competitive, fast moving, and mentally challenging for the players.
This drill works best for 6 vs 6 situations (either against your own team or with a similar team you would normally scrimmage against), but can be modified to 5 vs 5 if needed.
Read MoreYou’ve put in HOURS of practice, have gone over every rotation at least two dozen times, and think you’ve worked out the best lineup for your first tournament.
You make sure everyone knows where to go, when to be there, and what is (and isn’t!) allowed in the facility.
Everyone gets to the court relatively on time, and the girls start passing the ball around until it’s time to get started. And suddenly you realize… You don’t have a warmup planned.
This warm-up gets everyone moving and working primarily on the skills they’ll need in their main position, and I’ve liked how well it has worked with a few of the teams I’ve coached in the past.
Read MoreOne of the worst feelings as a coach is when you watch your team struggle with something you FORGOT TO TEACH THEM.
“Setter out” is one of those things. Most coaches think they can just say “Setter out!” and then their players will get it. While the concept is simple, players will need to practice this skill before they fully understand what you mean.
The best part is… this is one of those * CLICK * skills that, once players understand, they’ll be unstoppable!
Read More“Stay low!” “You’re standing up!” “Use your legs!” “Shrug your shoulders!” “Get down!”
You know you’ve said one (or all!) of these phrases before. But if you find yourself saying it over, and over, and over again, maybe verbal feedback isn’t working?
That’s why I like to run the drill “Feel the Burn!” Players get immediate feedback that signals they are standing while passing the ball AS IT HAPPENS.
Read MoreIf I had to name my top three favorite aspects of coaching volleyball, it would be:
1) Helping young players develop into volleyball athletes with confidence and self esteem;
2) Constantly being challenged to out-strategize our opponents; and
3) Creating new volleyball drills.
I guess number three, creating new drills, is BECAUSE of my top two. I like to get creative at practice and create drills specific to my team’s age, level of play, potential, strengths, and weaknesses.
There’s an ART to creating a good volleyball drill!
Read More
