First Kill: A Serve Receive Drill Focused on Strong Attacks
In our coaching careers, we tend to use things from our past playing experience that we really enjoyed. For me, the idea of “first kill” is one of those!
During the coin toss, most teams prefer to win the serve. I always enjoyed the coin toss whether we won or lost, because my coach would always be excited about the outcome. If we got the serve, he’d raise his hands up in victory and say, “Alright! First serve!”
And if we did not get the first serve? “Alright! First kill!”
This attitude rubbed off on all of us, and regardless of the outcome in the coin toss, we’d head into the match thinking we had the upper hand.
There’s something dangerous about a team that gets excited about serve receive (and especially one who chooses serve receive). This drill is designed to give your team confidence in executing an aggressive attack in serve receive, with a little mindset work thrown in for good measure.
PURPOSE OF THE DRILL
To practice high-quality attacks from serve receive.
DRILL SETUP
Have your starting line-up on one side of the net in serve receive.
Additional players will line up to serve on the opposite side (reference drill diagram).
RUN THE DRILL
Servers will attempt aggressive and purposeful serves to challenge the line-up.
The receiving side must get three hits over and in from an attack in each rotation.
After three successful attacks are made, rotate, and make any necessary substitutions.
Continue until you have gone through all six rotations. If your team is able to do this quickly, go around again or switch line-ups.
ADD PRESSURE
Time the drill. Knowing they’re working against a deadline makes each attempt more important.
Time each rotation. This adds pressure and helps you track the rotations you have trouble in.
Add requirements to the attack. Examples could be:
The hitter must jump and swing (no downballs!)
The ball may not touch the tape of the net after the attack (we want a clean hit that is less likely to be blocked).
The three hits must be in a row. This will make the drill last a lot longer but puts a higher level of pressure on all players.
NOTES ON “FAILURE” IN THIS DRILL
This can be a tough drill, especially for younger teams who have not developed mental toughness. I like to offer time-outs to the line-up if they need to regroup and strategize amongst themselves. This allows leaders to step-up, and you let them practice the skill of motivating each other.
If servers are not doing their job well (i.e., missing a lot of serves, always serving to the same spot), have them step closer to improve their serve. In the past, I’ve made teams do push-ups for every three missed serves. Now I think that detracts from the drill. If you’re not watching, some players will probably even skip this punishment, anyway.
By making them step closer, their serves will improve and they will be motivated to get back to the service line like everyone else (if they get three serves in a row over and in from this closer service area, they can go back).
If your team is really struggling to get out of a rotation, you can give them a time limit to get out of it. Allowing them 2 more minutes, for example, lets the drill progress without suffering repeated failures in the rotation. Make a note to identify issues and possibly make changes to that rotation if necessary.
MENTAL BENEFITS
As your team gets more comfortable in this drill (I like to end practices with this one fairly often), your team will feel more confident in their ability to get the “first kill” in a game regardless of what rotation you start them in.
This way, when you come back from the coin toss and say, “we got first kill, ladies!” they’ll be excited too because they know they can actually get it.