Mix It Up: A Volleyball Hitting Drill
Hit More Effectively In Matches
Watching your 8th grade middle blocker go up and blast her third attack in a row way out-of-bounds isn’t just happening on your volleyball team. This is something that practically every coach can relate to! Don’t get me wrong… I love a strong swing at the ball. But only if it’s the right ball. It can be challenging for young volleyball players (and even high schoolers) to adapt to a bad set or to see the opening on your opponent’s court. Fortunately, with this easy hitting drill, you can teach your volleyball team how to hit better and make better hitting decisions before your next match or tournament!
What This Drill Teaches
Teach your players how to use different attacking techniques to find the open spots on the court (and score more points)! In this drill, players will get a ton of repetitions as they learn how to:
Tip to open spots
Chip/roll-shot around the bock
Attack the ball by swinging hard on the best sets
*If you’d like a breakdown of these volleyball terms, scroll to the bottom of the page*
Running This As A Fun Drill For Beginners
Any time you’re working with new volleyball players, you’ll need to take a few moments to teach the basics. Although we want to keep our jabbering to a minimum, explaining why and when they would use each attack is critical to their understanding of the concepts you’re teaching. I suggest you plan to spend about 25-30 minutes running this drill. This gives the players a lot of repetitions and gives you a few breaks in the action to break down the different attack styles.
Running This As A Refresher Drill For Middle School and High School-Aged Teams
If you coach an advanced middle school team or in high school, chances are your team has learned all of these attack styles in the past. What they probably don’t do, is get to practice them often.
Think about it… when’s the last time you really worked on tipping with your team?
Running this drill is a great reminder that players have different attack options at the net. A point from tipping is the same as a point from a kill. And while you may argue that there are some emotional/motivational benefits to slamming the ball down, I would counter that argument by saying that picking apart your opponent’s defense gives you an even greater advantage. If you hit the ball where they’re not and mix up your shots, how can they possibly come up with a strategy to defend against that?
FOR ALL AGES/SKILL LEVELS
Regardless of age or skill level of our players, we want to keep a certain amount of control over the drill while we’re teaching different techniques in the beginning. For this reason, we’ll use a method similar to what I discussed in episode 33 of the Get The Pancake Podcast. Although I encourage you to go and listen to the full episode, it basically talks about teaching your players a skill in a controlled environment and progressing into “chaos” or gameplay situations.
To run this drill, we’re going to use two other drills found here on Get The Pancake and combine them into one. Let’s get started!
Drill Overview
This drill is going to be broken down into 5 segments:
1. Only tipping: about 5 minutes
2. Only chipping/roll-shots: about 5 minutes
3. Only swinging: about 5 minutes
4. Use any shot: about 5 minutes
5. Team challenge: about 10 minutes
2 Drills used to form this “mega-drill”
As always, we’re going to do this progression style, where we learn the basics and build up from there. Ultimately we want to use these skills in a gamelike setting so it “cements” the skills in player’s minds. To do this, we’re going to combine two drills into what I’ll call a “Mega-Drill!” The two drills we’ll be using are:
PROGRESSIONS
Progression #1: Tipping Only
If working with beginner players, quickly explain what tipping is (see the end of the article if you need an explanation, too) and when/why you’d use it. Keep it short and sweet though, they learn more by doing than by listening.
Setup defense on one side of the court.
Have all remaining players get into basic hitting lines on the other.
The only type of “hit” allowed is a tip. If the set is far off the net, allow players to “push” (aka, set) the ball over instead of trying to tip.
Have an extra libero who isn’t playing defense? Have them “push” the ball over for this round, too.
Encourage players to try and fake out the defense with a strong approach and full armswing, until the last second when they tip. Tips are often most effective when the defense is on their heels expecting a swing.
Defense should be yelling “tip” just before every attack to make sure everyone is ready for the tip.
After a few minutes switch front row and back row for defense so everyone gets a chance to practice both tipping and defending against tips.
Progression #2: Chipping/Roll-Shots Only
It’s time to progress! Moving on to our next focus, players are only allowed to chip or roll-shot the ball. This is a great way to increase accuracy while keeping up the pace of your attack or to adjust to a set that’s off the net while still getting a swing in.
Go back to your original defensive lineup, with hitters on the other side.
The only type of “hit” allowed is a chip/roll-shot.
Encourage players to continue to fake a full swing. Deception is the name of the game!
Talk about what spots are open (usually deep line and just over the blockers in the middle of the court) and have players experiment with placement.
Defense should be yelling “roll-shot” or “watch chip” just before every attack to make sure everyone is ready.
After a few minutes switch front row and back row for defense and repeat.
Progression #3: Full Swings Only
This can be challenging (but also a good learning experience). Require that your players swing at everything, even if they feel like a tip or chip would be better. You might have some players who surprise you in a good way, and most players will realize that swinging all out isn’t always the best option (even though that’s the decision they make in games).
Again setup hitting lines vs defense.
Only allow full swings.
If they have enough control, players can try to tool their hit off the block (when you hit into the block on purpose but the ball goes out, giving you the point), hit sharp line or cross-court, or even try to swing through the block if your blockers are late.
Defense should be yelling “outside outside” or “watch middle” like they would for a normal set in a match. No special call means it’s most likely going to be a swing.
After a few minutes switch front row and back row for defense and repeat.
Progression #4: Mix It Up
This is when things start to get fun. We’re going to switch gears from our Hitting Lines vs Defense drill setup and get into two teams. This is when we start to use the offensive (and defensive) techniques we learned in the first three progressions. This is just a quick warm-up, so there is no special objective in this progression other than to get ready to compete!
Create two lineups. If necessary, a coach or two can jump on to fill open spots.
Alternate tossing freeballs to each side after a dead ball.
Players can use any attack style they want, but should be comfortable using them all because they’re about to try to win points from using each!
Remind your defense to call out the attack they see coming “tip!” “watch roll-shot!” “outside outside outside.”
Switch front row back row if you have enough players or need to, or change individual players to get everybody warmed up.
Progression #5: Mix It Up For Points!
Now that your players have gotten to practice each type of attack in a controlled environment and have a little practice in a game-like setting, it’s time to put the pressure on them! You’ll be running the Freeball/Downball Game, with a focus on mixing up their shots.
Objective: Use different attack styles to get a kill.
Each side can only score a “little point” by getting a kill.
One kill must be from a tip, one must be from a chip/roll-shot, and one must be from a full swing.
After a team has three “little points” they earn a “big point” and you switch up front row and back row, or move players around.
The first team to earn three “big points” is the winner.
This drill gets fun when one team already gotten a kill from a full swing and a tip, so now the pressure is on to score from a roll-shot! The defense will step it up because they know what’s coming, and your offense will need to communicate to hit the open spots.
Quick note: If you have not tried the Freeball/Downball Game with your team before, I recommend you run it at least once without these objectives. So if you want to run the Mix It Up drill, I suggest you try the Freeball/Downball Game at least one practice before. It’s confusing to get started, but once you understand, it’ll be one of your favorite drills to end volleyball practice with.
Benefits 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.
Volleyball Terms Used In This Article
Tip: Using just the fingertips to direct the ball. Often used when the ball is set too close to the net, but tips can be used during any front row attack.
Chip/Roll-Shot: These two words can be used interchangeably, but one may be used more commonly in your area. This style of attack is sort of like a “half-swing” on the ball. Players will do their approach footwork and may or may not jump in the air to hit (this is frequently used in emergencies if the ball is set too far behind your hitter).
More emphasis is placed on generating topspin on the ball, and less on power. Typically the objective of this attack is to go around a block, but then have the ball quickly drop to the ground. This is accomplished by swinging hard but limiting follow-through.
Attack: Uses your approach footwork (3-Step Approach: Left, Right-Left for a right-handed player, and 4-Step Approach: Right, Left, Right-Left also for a right-handed player) and attack armswing. This includes whipping the arms back as you are planting your final two steps, and then quickly raising them up into what is commonly referred to as “bow and arrow” with the right hand back from a right-handed hitter, and the left hand up in the air.
Players will then tuck their left elbow into their side to start their swing, make contact with the ball as if they were giving it a high-five, and then continue to follow through with their swinging arm for power.