Additional Articles

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 pressure—making it a must-have in any high-level volleyball practice!

A volleyball is a volleyball, right? WRONG! Not all volleyballs are created equally, but most people can’t tell the difference. This is why I’m going to explain the different types of volleyballs, when it is best to use each, and even include a few to avoid if possible.

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!

What ages will you have come to your camp? And when will camp be? Are the courts even available? How will you check players in? Read through this extensive list of questions to help you plan the best summer volleyball camp!

With 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!

Run 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.

The 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.

What will your team do if your setter goes down with a rolled ankle mid-match? What if your libero gets sick the night before regionals? Prepare for these scenarios before they happen so that your team remains calm during an emergency!

Do you need a crash course on the basic rules of volleyball, what skills young volleyball players need to know, and what concepts you need to teach them? Let me walk you through how to coach beginner volleyball step-by-step!

Volleyball warm-ups for young athletes do not need to be the long, complicated stretches you remember from PE. Arm circles, butt-kickers, and Frankensteins are fine for older children and adults. But what about your 4th-grade rec team? Check out a basic warm-up for your athletes, and then build your own from there!

Libero rules are confusing (and not always enforced properly). Let me give you the technical rules, a summary of those rules, and then explain how I teach my own players!

The phrases for offensive systems used in volleyball aren’t exactly beginner friendly. If you’re here because you’ve been wondering, “what the heck is a “5-1” and what does that even mean…?” you’re in the right place!

While volleyball terms can be tough to grasp for new coaches, some of the most difficult to handle are when someone asks you if you’re going to run a “5-1”, a “6-2”, or a “4-2”. Once you understand the basics of what these numbers mean, you’ll feel confident in talking shop with other coaches in your program.

One of the most popular systems is a 5-1. This system, along with a 6-2, are the most commonly used systems in intermediate to advanced middle school teams, most high school teams, and most club programs.

If you’re a new coach, you’ve probably heard the terms “6-2”, “5-1”, “6-3”, etc… And if you’re like most new coaches (and most new volleyball players), you probably thought to yourself, “ummmm…. what??”

These are all terms for offensive systems, which sounds intimidating at first but is rather simple… AFTER you understand what the terms mean.

Today I’m going to break down a 6-2 offensive system for you, which is basically a fancy way of saying what your players do when they’re standing in different spots on the court.

Think 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.

Ahhh, the classic “Sharks and Minnows” game.

If you went to volleyball camps as a child, you probably played this game at least once.

But the hard thing about playing games as a kid, is that you don’t always remember them as an adult!

Let me give you a quick refresher on this classic warm-up game as you start to prepare for summer volleyball camps.

It’s easy to tell your players to look on the other side of the net… However, if they don’t learn WHEN to look, or if they don’t PRACTICE looking, they’ll likely struggle in this process, and likely give up because they just don’t 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 they’re learning, it is very important to use 15 minutes of practice to run this drill.

Recently, I posted a question on the Instagram Story for my account for volleyball coaches, @getthepancake. I asked: 

“Players: What’s something you wish your coaches or parents knew?”

The range of answers highlights just how unique our athletes are, and I think the players provide some great insight. 

When reading this article, please keep in mind the following: “Perception is more important than reality. If someone perceives something to be true, it is more important than if it is in fact true.”

I couldn’t WAIT to start coaching volleyball when I was in school. I had helped with camps throughout high school and wanted nothing more than to just finish school so I could coach. I guess I’m obsessed.

But once I finally GOT a coaching job, a wave of incompetence seemed to rush over me.

I literally had no idea what to do. Now, as many of you know, this specific feeling is precisely what led to me writing Coaching Volleyball: A Survival Guide For Your First Season.

And while I obviously recommend my book for new coaches looking for actionable tasks and guidance in their first season as a volleyball coach, I wanted to share my thoughts on the first book I bought when I was looking for how to get started coaching a decade ago.

OK, I’m making BIG claims for this drill, but I’m ready to back those claims up!

See, I’m really big on PROGRESSIONS. Progressions start simple, add small pieces of information, and ultimately lead to BIG gains.

The best part about this drill I’m about to share with you is that it will work for ANY age group (even the littles who can’t 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.

If 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!

Let’s just cut to the chase here. You won’t have perfect attendance at every practice.

And while that can be frustrating (especially for the well-prepared coach who planned practice down to the minute, with perfectly selected drills based on numbers), it’s a reality that we need to deal with.

Basketball practice. Spring Break. Family trips….

These all tend to make planning a high-quality practice a challenge.

UNLESS! You have these six drills in your back pocket.

Packing for a one day tournament can be stressful enough, but extend that to three days and you’ve got a LOT of packing to do.

Add in crazy facility requirements, long distance travel, and bored siblings who’d rather be outside, and you’ve got quite the adventure in front of you!

I’ve had my fair share of travel tournaments, but I’ve also enlisted the help of other coaches who are a part of the Get The Pancake family to create this list of what to pack for a volleyball tournament.

No matter what our team’s normal skill level is, sometimes there are just games (or even full days!) where our athletes are just…. off.

It is probably worthwhile for you to dig into those reasons in an attempt to stop this situation from happening in the future. However, since it is usually a large, variable combination of things that may or may not have a possible solution, today I want to talk about what to do after you recognize this in your team!

I want to talk about visualization in volleyball, especially because it helped me when I was playing and still helps to this day. It’s likely that not EVERYONE will buy-in… And that’s ok!

But I want to make sure your athletes have the right tools in their toolkit to pull themselves out of a slump if possible.

You’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.

One 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!

If 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!

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!

You 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 shouldn’t be making contact with the other player. Jousting in volleyball is when a ball is in that weird gray zone of “is it coming over the net, is it not?” 

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 it’s 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.

Let’s breakdown a joust, shall we?

Normally I’m 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 that’s not WHY I like 1 touch, 2 touch, 3 touch, Columbus (sort of a “left foot, left foot, left foot, right” 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 “pass-set-hit” transition from “bump ball.” 

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.