We’ve had a lot of people recently asking us to post how to teach defense in volleyball. Without making a 30 minute video, I made these diagrams that will hopefully teach you the basics of where to go when playing defense in volleyball.

This defense is a “perimeter read” volleyball defense, which basically means your defense is covering from the outside edge and reading angles. We run several different volleyball defenses, but this defense is our primary defense. (I’ll diagram some other defenses later on)

Check out these diagrams(the red team is our defense, the blue team is the attacking team):

This is “Base”. Base is where you go when the other team is passing the volleyball and right up to the point of when they set the ball. Notice middle back is all the way on the back line, the LB/RB are about a step behind the 10′ line and a step inside the sideline. This helps them take away a quick dump by the setter. For the front row players, I have them go to certain areas to take away quick attacks. My OH is where their setter is to block a tight pass/dumpover, my middle is where the other middle is set up and my RH is in the “3″ spot to take away fast, inside set by the opposite team.

This diagram shows where our defense shifts for an outside attack. I drew arrows for the back row defenders because these are the angles they need to be focused on. The RB shifts straight to the side line taking away a line shot. The MB shifts one step to the right to get into the “seam”. The seam is the space between the MF and the RH’s block. The LB shifts to an angle right off the MF’s left shoulder into the cross attack. The OH pulls off the net and has all tips.

This diagram shows where to shift for a middle set. I like to have my RF block with my Middle because the RF can take away the cross body swing of the middle attacker. The OH pulls off for tips. In the back row, The LB and RB move into the angles off the outside shoulders of the block. The MB comes up a bit and stays in the seam reading for deep tips or digging a hard attack through the seam of the block.

This diagram shows where to shift for a right side attack/back-set. RB shifts into a position off of the MF right shoulder into the angle where a cross attack happens. MB shift one step to the left into the seam of the block. LB shifts straight over the sideline taking away the line shot. RF pulls off the net taking all tips.

I hope this helps people understand the basics of a volleyball perimeter defense. We run this defense most of the time. The most important concept to get volleyball players to understand is reading the angles. There really isn’t a ‘spot’ to go to. You have to be in the attack angles, off the shoulders of blockers, not in angles behind blockers. Hitters won’t usually hit a volleyball through a block but around the blockers and you need defenders to be in those areas.