The "W" formation is often the first serve receive formation players learn when they start to play 6 vs 6 volleyball. This simple drill helps the players learn and practice how to set-up the "W" formation in all six rotations, while simultaneously getting some serve receive and hitting practice.
Teams paying attention to the details establish "success indicators" for various game situations. For example, a team may determine for their level of play they need to be able to score from a "free ball" situation 70% of the time, from a "service reception" situation 60% of the time, and perhaps from an "out of system" situation (when a player…
Being able to "close out" sets is a vital skill if you want to be a top team. It's often stated that a set doesn't really start until after 20. Teams should regularly practice simulating “end of game” situations and the pressure they can create. This game focuses on the final three points of a set (where many sets are…
Learning to be creative in transition can really help a team to become effective in out-of-system situations. The rapid play in volleyball means players regularly find themselves out of position and need to learn to adapt to a wide variety of different situations and circumstances. This small sided-game creates unusual transition situations that will challenge the players' capacities to communicate…
The quality of a team's out of system play directly impacts how successful they become at winning sets. This drill trains out of system play having a feeder direct where the second contact is made at the start of a rally and then using a modified scoring system to encourage aggressive and efficient out of system attacking.
Learning to rally effectively, as well as keep a rally going, is one of the primary objectives of volleyball. In this simple drill players on both sides of the net cooperate to control the ball and keep the ball in play - using a pass (dig), set, spike sequence for as long as possible. It helps players to focus on…
Being able to consistently receive serve and "side out" effectively is vital to every successful team. This drill helps to train teams to "side out" effectively in every rotation, helps identify whether a team has any weak service reception rotations, and also gives extra training in those weaker rotations.
This simple game is great for developing the setting skills of non-setters and gives both teams plenty of opportunities to attack out-of-system as well as defend against hard driven attacks. It's a great game for developing these skills in a competitive and game-like situation.
This small-sided game focuses on training the back row attack in the pipe zone, especially the coordination between the middle quick ball hitter and the back row pipe ball hitter, and trains the setter's decision-making skills to utilize this two set combination efficiently.
This cooperative "pepper" type progressive exercise helps players to improve their basic ball handling skills in several ways. It gives defenders plenty of medium paced ball contacts and helps them learn the angles needed to redirect a medium paced attack to a setter. It also helps setters improve their front and back setting skills. Sequence 2 builds on the initial…
Consistently winning 5th sets is vital to being a successful team, but the pressure of playing in this deciding set makes it very easy for a team to let the set get away. teams need to learn to stay aggressive, play with confidence and most importantly, limit errors. This difficult game really helps players to learn to manage execution pressure…
This fun game helps to improve a team's out-of-system play and challenges players to "fight" to win points under difficult circumstances where they face a significant disadvantage. It's played "doghouse" style, but with a bit of a unique scoring system.
