Creating a competitive environment when training serve and serve receive skills really helps to keep these drills interesting for your athletes. This drill has the servers and passers compete against each other for points and encourages aggressive, consistent serving and passing.
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…
This is a simple and fun game often used as part of the warm-up phase at the beginning of practice to get players motivated and improve player's competency with the overhead pass skill.
"Short Court" is a widely-used and very fun warm-up game that is also very good for introducing and stabilizing three contact play. The extremely small court means the ball moves slowly which aids novice players in controlling each contact so they can more easily learn the rhythms and timings of the game as well as reading and responding to ball…
"Small sided games" are a great way to get players lots of quality repetitions in a fun and competitive environment. Fewer players means each athlete gets almost twice the ball contacts when compared to 6 vs 6 play. This particular game challenges the side with fewer players to "overcome the odds" and the team with more players to effectively utilize…
This drill works to expand the court space your passers are able to cover while providing plenty of additional attacking, setting, and blocking reps to other players in an efficient way.
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…
Narrow court, small-sided games are a great way to get attackers comfortable facing, hitting the ball off the block, and just develop general ball control. With simple adjustments, the game can be adapted to work on double block coordination, simple defense, attacking of the block, and/or spike coverage. It's also a great warm-up game to use as a substitute for…
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…
Being able to successfully defend against extremely hard-driven attacks can create those much desired momentum swings that can change the outcome of a set or even a match. Most often this capacity is trained with feeders hitting hard attacks of of an elevated box at defenders. However, the cues related to digging an attack from a feeder on a box…
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…
"Pepper" is the classic skill warm-up drill used by almost all players around the world and it's great, players get to use many skills and get a lot of contacts in a short period of time. However, it also has some limitations. It doesn't incorporate the net, include much player movement, or require the ball to be redirected anywhere except…
"Pepper" is the classic skill warm-up drill used by almost all players around the world and it's great, players get to use many skills and get a lot of contacts in a short period of time. However, it also has some limitations. It doesn't incorporate the net, include much player movement, or require the ball to be redirected anywhere except…
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.
The "pipe" attack has become a very important part of modern volleyball - especially in the men's game. Becoming efficient with this type of attack is often essential to keeping your offense running at full capacity. This simple 4 vs 4 game is a great way to begin to integrate the attacks from the "pipe" zone into your offensive systems…
Learning how to successfully and consistently hit good angle shots is a skill that every player needs to develop as an hitting option. This small-sided game adjusts the court dimensions to encourage more angle attacking to help players integrate the cross-court attack into their game play.
"Pepper" is the classic skill warm-up drill used by almost all players around the world and it's great, players get to use many skills and get a lot of contacts in a short period of time. However, it also has some limitations. It doesn't incorporate the net, include much player movement, or require the ball to be redirected anywhere except…
This small-sided game focuses on training the back row attack, defending against the back row attack, and encourages setters to utilize a first tempo attack on well-passed balls.
This small-sided game focuses on training the outside attack in out-of-system situations, improving out-of-system setting, and defending against the outside attack in one-on-one blocking situations
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.
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.
This game is played on a shorter than normal court which really helps players (especially outside hitters) to integrate a sharp angle attack option and attacks off the block into their offensive tactics. It also encourages players to cover their hitters aggressively as the blockers have a greater advantage than usual in this game.
"Pepper" is the classic skill warm-up drill used by almost all players around the world and it's great, players get to use many skills and get a lot of contacts in a short period of time. However, it also has some limitations. It doesn't incorporate the net, include much player movement, or require the ball to be redirected anywhere except…
This fours game puts players into a variety of different situations to improve their overall game play and ball control. In particular, defending against medium paced attacks, attacking "out-of-system," and in trouble situations.
This fun game adds a baseball theme to your scrimmage time. It will encourage your players to work to sideout consistently and be efficient scoring when easy (free) ball scenarios present themselves.
This game adds a basketball theme to your scrimmage time. It focuses on your team's attack combinations - especially the back row options - and encourages aggressive serving.
Once players have acquired the abilities to pass-set-hit with some consistency in simple situations, this warm-up game becomes a very fun way to start practices. It gets the players excited, motivated, and encourages ball pursuit. It can help novice players learn some of the rhythms, timings, and general ball movements of the game, and reduces a key "rally breaker" to…
Being effective in out-of-system situations is fundamental to success in the modern game. This 6 vs 6 mini game helps train the scenario where a bump-set is used to set-up an attacker. This is a good drill to improve your team's transition in a common out-of-system situation and gain confidence with their bump-setting skills in a game situation.
This competitive serving and passing drill trains servers to take advantage of a finite number of service-line opportunities they have in matches and passers to focus on sideout efficiency.
To optimize learning while scrimmaging, it is helpful to manipulate scrimmage conditions to focus on more specific elements of team play. This particular "scenario game" trains a simple two-option attack combination in a highly game-like situation. This improves learning as the defensive side gets to see the the same attack combination multiple times and work to improve their collective effectiveness…
Teams that are able to successfully defend against powerful attacks have a great competitive advantage over opponents. It's not an easy skill to develop. Often we see coaches hit ball after ball across the net off a box to train this skill. However, the experience of digging a coach on a box is very different from digging an actual attacker.…
Teams with defenders who are efficient at defending hard attacks have more success. Often to train this skill we hit a lot of balls at our players off of boxes. The problem however is that digging a ball hit off a box is not the same as digging a real hitter. It's great for helping the player learn how to…
"Head-to-Head" attacking drills are fun drills that are highly effective in teaching athletes to effectively transition off the net to attack as the ball comes to their side of the court as well as helping them to increase their tempo of play. These fast moving drills are very adaptable and put players under a lot of pressure to move quickly,…
"Head-to-Head" attacking drills are fun drills that are highly effective in teaching athletes to effectively transition off the net to attack as the ball comes to their side of the court as well as helping them to increase their tempo of play. These fast moving drills are very adaptable and put players under a lot of pressure to move quickly,…
"Head-to-Head" attacking drills are fun drills that are highly effective in teaching athletes to effectively transition off the net to attack as the ball comes to their side of the court as well as helping them to increase their tempo of play. These fast moving drills are very adaptable and put players under a lot of pressure to move quickly,…
"Head-to-Head" attacking drills are fun drills that are highly effective in teaching athletes to effectively transition off the net to attack as the ball comes to their side of the court as well as helping them to increase their tempo of play. These fast moving drills are very adaptable and put players under a lot of pressure to move quickly,…
"Head-to-Head" attacking drills are fun drills that are highly effective in teaching athletes to effectively transition off the net to attack as the ball comes to their side of the court as well as helping them to increase their tempo of play. These fast moving drills are very adaptable and put players under a lot of pressure to move quickly,…
"Head-to-Head" attacking drills are fun drills that are highly effective in teaching athletes to effectively transition off the net to attack as the ball comes to their side of the court as well as helping them to increase their tempo of play. These fast moving drills are very adaptable and put players under a lot of pressure to move quickly,…
"Head-to-Head" attacking drills are fun drills that are highly effective in teaching athletes to effectively transition off the net to attack as the ball comes to their side of the court as well as helping them to increase their tempo of play. These fast moving drills are very adaptable and put players under a lot of pressure to move quickly,…
"Head-to-Head" attacking drills are fun drills that are highly effective in teaching athletes to effectively transition off the net to attack as the ball comes to their side of the court as well as helping them to increase their tempo of play. These fast moving drills are very adaptable and put players under a lot of pressure to move quickly,…
Being able to score against a solid double block is a skill that every attacker wants to have in their tool kit. This fun and difficult drill challenges hitters to do just that while simultaneously teaching defenders and blockers how to work together to control hitters. This is a great drill to add to the end of a practice.
This 2 vs 6 drill is a fun challenge for players that helps them to learn what their best scoring options are in difficult circumstances and how to fight for points, while simultaneously teaching players how to control hitters in out-of-system situations and create opportunities to aggressively counter-attack.
This drill helps to improve the attackers' abilities to successfully score off the block while simultaneously allowing you to train serve reception skills and blocking skills (especially managing wipe off errors). In the modern game, being able to successfully utilize the block to score points as well as learning how to use the block to "recycle" a weak attack opportunity…
This drill helps to improve the attackers' abilities to successfully score off the block while simultaneously allowing you to train serve reception skills and blocking skills (especially managing wipe off errors). In the modern game, being able to successfully utilize the block to score points as well as learning how to use the block to "recycle" a weak attack opportunity…
The capacity to identify and form an effective triple block in out-of-system situations is becoming a more and more vital skill of the modern game. This simple drill helps blockers to develop the decision-making skills needed to identify and react to simple triple block opportunities, improve the needed movement patterns and their abilities to coordinate those movements with the other…
The capacity to form an effective triple block in out-of-system situations is becoming a more and more vital skill of the modern game. This simple drill helps to introduce some of the needed movement patterns and improves the blockers' abilities to coordinate those movements with each other. It's a good drill to use with players just starting to learn this…
Middle hitters and setters need to spend some uninterrupted time working together if they are ever to become efficient. This drill trains a couple situations middle attackers face, gives them practice hitting to key locations, helps them improve their connection with their setters, and gives them some basic blocking practice.
Middle hitters and setters need to spend some uninterrupted time working together if they are ever to become efficient. This drill trains a couple situations middle attackers face, gives them practice hitting to key locations, improves their hitting direction decision-making, and improves their connection with their setters.
Teams whose middle attackers are very efficient in transitioning from blocking to hitting have an advantage over other teams. This simple drill helps hitters develop the required footwork, speed, and balance need to complete this challenging transition attack.
This one vs one mini game is a great change-up from pepper-type drills at the start of practice. It will get your players moving at the start of practice, warm-up/improve their basic skills, and help them to learn to employ simple scoring tactics.
A team's ability to frequently form solid double-blocks greatly increases their defensive ability. Getting middle blockers comfortable moving quickly side to side to form blocks near the antennae is an important component of this skill. This drill helps get blockers efficient at lateral movement and closing with other blockers at speed.
Outside hitters need to learn to score when facing a solid double or triple block. This competitive drill helps hitters to improve their effectiveness in these types of situations.
Not everything goes as planned in volleyball. Sometimes digs do not go where intended so teams need to learn to "scramble" or "scrap" to try to apply some offensive pressure in less than optimal situations. This fun game gives players lots of situations where they need to recover from a weak 1st contact dig and try to find ways to…
Back row attacking is becoming more and more important as the game evolves. This scrimmage game limits some attack options for the setter and creates scenarios where they are encouraged to utilize more of their back row attack/set options. More practice with these situations in a game like scenario should improve their execution and efficiency in actual match situations.
Adding some competition to your serve and pass training not only adds bit of excitement to the drill, it also helps to simulate the type of pressure the players face in competition. This simple serve and pass drill has a competitive element that encourages the servers, the passers, and the setters to focus more effectively on skill execution.
Adding some competition to your serve and pass training not only adds bit of excitement to the drill, it also can simulate the type of pressure the players face in actual competition. This simple serve and pass drill has a unique scoring system that puts the servers and the passers in competition with each other and encourages players to work…
Finding creative ways to train serve and serve reception and maintaining player focus on these activities to optimize learning is always a challenge. This drill focusses on improving individual serve and serve receptions skills, improves player focus by creating a competitive environment, and regularly gives players different "looks" by changing up the server they face, the direction they receive the…
Creating a competitive environment in serve and serve receive drills really helps to keep these types of activities interesting and motivating for your athletes. This competitive serve and serve receive drill improves the server's ability to aggressively serve to specific locations on the court, while simultaneously providing quality repetitions for passers in a competitive environment.
Teams need to be able to "sideout" consistently and efficiently in all rotations. This game gives the receiving team a numerical player advantage and the unique scoring system of this game creates the need to not only sideout consistently, but also the need to sideout on their first sequence of contacts by attacking aggressively and getting those aggressive attacks around…
Offensive efficiency is highly important to a team's success - especially in two situations: (1) when receiving serve and (2) when an easy (free) ball is received from the opponent. This game focuses on these two scenarios in particular to help a team's offence become more proficient.
"Pepper" is the classic skill warm-up drill used by almost all players around the world and it's great. Players get to use many skills and get a lot of contacts in a short period of time. This two-ball variant is the pepper drill on steroids and significantly increases the number of contacts acquired and the amount of concentration required over…
