Category Archives: Donnie’s Team

Nov 30

What happens in Vegas… happens on the volleyball court

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My volleyball teammate just got back from a Thanksgiving in Las Vegas and it reminded me of this volleyball drill.

It’s called “Vegas” (see why it reminded me?)

1. Each side gets a free ball (just an easy toss)
2. Play 5 tosses. Keep track of your points from this round.
3. Then the side with the higher score, after those first 5 tosses, gets the “money ball.”
4. The winner of the “money ball” rally gets to put their points in a “bank.”
5. But the poor loser loses the points gained in this round (booooo).
6. Repeat steps 1-5 until one of the teams reaches 21 points or higher (we’re not that strict on our Vegas rules).

This is a good way to help your volleyball team finish a game strong and not lose luster because they are ahead. Similar to a game situation, it takes just one “money ball” to change the favor of the game.

You know what? Don’t worry if you lose; I won’t tell because what happens in Vegas…

Nov 10

Can you serve 3 volleyballs over in a row?

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That was the question I asked my team. Every player on my college volleyball team raised their hand. It sounds easy and it is. When I put them to the test, we failed over and over and over again. It’s just 3 in a row!

Here’s the volleyball drill:
1. Ask the question, can you serve 3 in a row?
2. Line up your team, each person with a ball… We have 19 players, which ends up being 57 in a row as a team.
3. Tell them the rules, each person serves one ball at a time and goes to the back of the line. I didn’t call a serving zone, I only told them they had to serve aggressive… No lollipop serves or I’d count it as a miss. We track the total on the scoreboard to increase pressure.
4. Once a player misses, the whole team runs. I make it progressive, start at 5 line touches and increase by 1 each time they have to run.
5. Start over at zero on the scoreboard and with the next person in line before the miss(players will start hiding in the back so they won’t have to serve)

My assistant approached me with this drill. I thought it would be a piece of cake. I actually had plans to modify it to make it harder once we got it the first time through, but to my amazement, my team couldn’t do it. Over and over and over again somebody missed.

The great things I loved about this drill are that it makes players serve under pressure, while they are tired and when they are in a position to let the team down. Mental skills!

It probably didn’t help my team that I kept saying to them as they were running, “Come on… It’s only 3 serves in a row…. Everybody said they could do it.”

Jun 22

1-Foot Hitting Progression 3

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Ok, so you’ve got the timing down… you’ve worked on actually hitting the different sets. Now, it’s time to start putting it all together. Stacking and running plays!

In my offense, the middle and rightside can hit anywhere by running parallel across the net. Which is a big reason I love the way my teams play… it’s unpredictable! The middle doesn’t have to always hit right in front of the setter and the right side doesn’t always hit behind the setter. The setter has the freedom to mix it up!

Ok, ok, here’s what we’re doing in this video:
We have our middle and rightside stacked at the net. The setter has called a ‘play’ by using hand signals. The first play in this video has the middle hitting a ’1′ and the rightside hitting a ‘slide’. We will rep that same play over and over again until we are ready for a new play. Then we’ll rep that play for awhile and so on… you’ll see a couple of examples of different plays.

Jun 03

Not My Volleyball Video Friday- Dork Edition

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Ok, ok. This is one of my videos…. but I think it’s so funny, I wanted to use it for a Friday video.

So here it is, caught on tape because I forgot to turn the camera off after practice… my wonderfully fun club team tearing down the nets as gracefully as they do. Or should I say, as Dorky as they do? I had a great year coaching this team and you can see why.

Enjoy: