Find drills for your next practice, fun games for volleyball camp, and articles covering topics like visualization and playing time philosophy!
Want your team to finish matches strong and battle back when behind? The "Keep the Lead" drill forces players to close out games, fight through adversity, and execute under pressureāmaking it a must-have in any high-level volleyball practice!
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, āPrisonerā 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 whoās on the sidelines stays engaged in the drill, cheering loudly!
Read MoreStart any match out strong with the āfirst killā mentality! Confidence in serve receive comes from high-quality reps, which your volleyball team will get plenty of in this drill!
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 theyāre playing against better players in practice once they all understand these concepts.
Stop sending over freeballs! This volleyball drill is easy to run and will have your players hitting downballs and back row attack in no time! This is a fun volleyball drill to run with youth and middle school volleyball teams, at volleyball camps, and clinics! Perfect for coaches who like a more aggressive style of play.
Read MoreItās easy to tell your players to look on the other side of the netā¦ However, if they donāt learn WHEN to look, or if they donāt PRACTICE looking, theyāll likely struggle in this process, and likely give up because they just donāt get it.
The beauty of this drill is that you only need to run it once to teach the concept. So although it may go slow while theyāre learning, it is very important to use 15 minutes of practice to run this drill.
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 canāt just TELL players to read the ball. Heck, half of them probably wouldnāt even know what you meant (and of course, theyād 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 wouldnāt need to dive if they read the ball correctly). Whichā¦ theyāre 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 MoreOK, Iām making BIG claims for this drill, but Iām ready to back those claims up!
See, Iām really big on PROGRESSIONS. Progressions start simple, add small pieces of information, and ultimately lead to BIG gains.
The best part about this drill Iām about to share with you is that it will work for ANY age group (even the littles who canāt get their fingers above the net) and your players will LOVE it.
This is also a great volleyball camp drill, for those reasons and more.
Read MoreIf thereās one volleyball drill that just about EVERY volleyball player will play throughout their career, itās Queen of the Court (or King of the Court/Monarch of the Court depending on who youāre coaching).
Queen of the court is a top volleyball drill because itā¦
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, Iād 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 youāve 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 MoreYouāve put in HOURS of practice, have gone over every rotation at least two dozen times, and think youāve 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 isnāt!) allowed in the facility.
Everyone gets to the court relatively on time, and the girls start passing the ball around until itās time to get started. And suddenly you realizeā¦ You donāt have a warmup planned.
This warm-up gets everyone moving and working primarily on the skills theyāll need in their main position, and Iāve liked how well it has worked with a few of the teams Iāve coached in the past.
Read MoreAlthough Iām big on creating drills to suit my team and their specific needs each season, thereās a classic drill that I always make time for!
Running a half-court round robin with your team is a simple way to let your players lighten up a little and enjoy competing against one another. Best of all, itās pretty simple!
Read MoreYou know when those guys on horses are charging at each other with those big sticks and try to knock the other one off the horse first? Well, we do that in volleyball too!
Of course, there are no horses involved, and we really shouldnāt be making contact with the other player. Jousting in volleyball is when a ball is in that weird gray zone of āis it coming over the net, is it not?ā
Ideally in his situation, your player will jump up to hit/block the ball instead of just stand there are and watch it drop (even if itās on the other side of the net! We still want to be ready).
And I pity the fool who stands and watches while the opposing team goes up to smack it, almost certainly winning the point unchallenged.
Letās breakdown a joust, shall we?
Read MoreNormally Iām all for keeping drill names short and sweet, but sometimes a long descriptive name helps players remember a drill better (and it makes me laugh hearing them repeat it).
But thatās not WHY I like 1 touch, 2 touch, 3 touch, Columbus (sort of a āleft foot, left foot, left foot, rightā ring to it, no?). I like this drill because it gets my players MOVING, and it helps players who are new to the concept of āpass-set-hitā transition from ābump ball.ā
For you new coaches, bump ball is an affectionate name for teams who pass the ball back and forth over the net without trying to do anything other than pass it back over. This is NOT what we want! We want to (despite losses and frustration with the learning process) teach our teams to use all three hits as early as they can successfully do so.
Read MoreFor many of you, the middle of the season is upon on (or fast approaching), and with that, boredom can start to set in. The number of new drills and concepts which youāre teaching your team has probably dropped, and not only is your team feeling a lack of fresh energy, but youāre feeling it too!
This part of the season is my least and most favorite. When the monotony kicks in, it can feel like thereās nothing you can do! BUT! When you finally think of a fresh take on a drill or come to practice set on pepping things up, thatās when the magic happens.
Read MoreLast night I had practice and thought it went.... great! Going into it though, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. See, I had run a practice with this team last week, and my plan didn't go as I expected. I was expecting a group of players who didn't know each other very well, and that was NOT what I got. Here's what caught me off guard:
All loud and friendly (except two quiet players),
Already established friend group (again, except for the two),
Fundamental skills were decent, but in a game setting, everything went out the window, and
A lack of understanding of how to use all three hits. It was like watching tennis!
I think this is something you'll see in a school setting more often than a club setting, just because in a school they all see each other every day, and in club, they usually come from different schools.
Read MoreAre you sick of watching your defense react to the ball late? Are they constantly misjudging where your opponent is going to hit? And do your hitters seem to hit the ball directly to the other team?
You need to try Hitting āSurvivor!ā This fun volleyball drill is pretty simple, yet effective for all ages! The best part? They learn the advanced skill of āreadingā in volleyball without even realizing it!
Read MoreSummer is officially underway and I've just finished up the second week of my volleyball club's camps! This last week we had a pretty young group (3rd through 6th grade) and I saw a LOT of hitting errors over and over again. There are a few simple solutions to some of the most common errors, and I wanted to share them with you!
Read MoreHey coaches! Iāve been advertising this drill a ton because not ONLY did I make a video describing the different ways to set it up, I also made a printable version for you! This drill, Hitting Lines vs. Defense, is one of the most versatile drills Iāve covered for you so far. The setup is easy and the concepts are pretty basic, but itās SO useful! Just because itās not complicated doesnāt mean itās not for high-level teams either. Teams at all skill levels can use this drill and it will benefit them. Want the short version?
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