serving

Does 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!

Volleyball relies on quick bursts of speed. Sprinting, jumping, diving, reacting… but conditioning is important, too! Use this fun and easy volleyball game to work on serving accuracy under pressure while conditioning your athletes.

This serving game is a great way to spend 15 minutes laughing, cheering, and bonding with your team. Use this game with your young players to keep them engaged at practice, or play it with an older group as a reward for hard work.

Whether you’re using this as a drill for volleyball camp or during team practice, you’re sure to share a ton of laughs with your athletes.

In 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).

After your players have developed their serving accuracy, it’s time to put their skills to work!

Depending on your team’s age and skill level, there are plenty of serving strategies to consider. We’ll review a few basic strategies, plus consider a few more to get your brain muscles flexing!

When players are learning to how serve a volleyball, their main focus is usually this…

JUST GET IT OVER!

But there’s more to it than that!

We can split the court into six main zones, which are simple to identify and teach. The most confusing part is remembering their order!

If you are a new volleyball coach, you’re in for a treat! Whether you’re getting ready for your first volleyball practice or are in the middle of your first season, I’ve got a fun and easy volleyball drill which your team will LOVE!

OK, so…. Let’s just get this out of the way real quick...

Yes: The drill really IS named “Dead Fish.”

Although I’m big on creating drills to suit my team and their specific needs each season, there’s 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, it’s pretty simple!

Last 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. 

Learning how to serve to zones on a volleyball court can be intimidating for young players. In youth volleyball and middle school volleyball, often times the girls are working on just getting the ball over with lots of power! They might not feel ready to start working on serving to zones yet, but that is why we have fun games! To make it less intimidating!

Hit The Spot is a fun team drill, meaning there’s less overall pressure on the individual, but at the same time, there’s motivation to get their serve to the right spot. Players who have are ready to start serving to zones will enjoy this game as well, because they will often carry their team and feel a sense of pride in their serving.

How many times have you gotten STUCK in a bad serve receive rotation? Either one of your players is having an off-day, or the server on the other team is just picking you apart. No matter what the reason, it stinks to be stuck there. Waiting, praying that the other team will just miss their serve and let you move on! Instead of trying the tactic of "wait and see," switch to being proactive!

This high rep serve receive drill will help your team understand the options they have when they can't get out of a certain serve receive rotation. Even better, if you coach them through it correctly, they'll often times make the change before you even realize it's time to switch things up!

Teach your volleyball team how to serve a volleyball underhand. Perfect form for young players and beginner players. Recommended for 1st-6th grade!

Spend 5 minutes at practice breaking down the underhand serve using these 4 steps, and you'll be on your way to a season full of successful serving! (Prefer to watch and learn? Skip to the Video Guide at the bottom!)

One element of game time that we often struggle to replicate in practice is PRESSURE. The pressure to get the first serve of the game in, the pressure to make the serve after a teammate has missed, and especially the pressure of serving accurately and aggressively on game point! Few "punishments" can mimic the feeling of having all eyes on you and the pressure you feel to get the ball in. Likewise, few punishments actually feel as bad as missing during a critical time in the match.

Do you need a quick game to run at your next volleyball practice? This easy serving game will challenge your players to serve to zones without them even realizing that they're learning! Just print out this drill and save it for your next practice. Keep it in your binder as a reminder when you need inspiration! You can make this more competitive by splitting your players up into teams and having them try to go around faster than the other team, going in reverse order, or even giving them a certain order they need to serve in!

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).

Two fun volleyball serving drills that will have your team LAUGHING together while COMPETING against each other!

Two volleyball serving drills that are great for rewarding good behavior, or for picking your team up when they're down.