Category Archives: Team Drills

Dec 08

New volleyball drill: 1-foot hitting progression 4

Posted on by

Remember this volleyball video? Donnie finally got around to doing the 4th part of this hitting progression (YEA!).

This is the fourth and final progression to teaching your players to hit off one foot. They should be pros by now (just kidding, that’s why we practice volleyball drills). The girls in the video below are 14 and 15… and just started learning this offense.

This step involves actually putting the 1 foot hitting offense into play. You’ll be running through all your hitting rotations, so everyone will get a chance to show off their one-footed skills.

1. Setter calls the play (make sure all hitters know what they are hitting)
2. Coach throws 3 balls in one at a time (obviously)
3. Team runs the same play for each of the tosses. Each set must go to a different hitter. And each hit must be a clean swing (in other words… no errors).
4. If you get all 3, rotate. If you don’t get all 3 successfully, the setter has 5 seconds to call a new play and then repeat steps 2 and 3 until this set of girls get it right… Then rotate.

Good luck trying out your new offense! And let me know if you have any questions.

Nov 30

What happens in Vegas… happens on the volleyball court

Posted on by

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?

Posted on by

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.”

Oct 19

Can you handle Extreme Volleyball?

Posted on by

Remember a couple Fridays ago when we showed those awesome chicks playing Extreme Volleyball?

Well, Donnie decided to turn this into a fun, challenging high school volleyball drill for his team.

In case you forgot the rules, here they are:
1. Four 2-minute rounds of 3 on 3.
2. You can double any ball.
3. You have 3 seconds to get your butt behind the end line and serve.
4. No roll shots if the set is above the net.

Then they end (just like the sand volleyball pros did) with Spike-off.

In Spike-off, stick with 3 on 3. Alternate serving. Team A takes the first one, team B takes the second one, team A takes the third one and so on for 10 total serves. Each serve number = that many points. For example: the first serve=1 point; second serve= 2 points; etc…

What a workout! The girls were breathing pretty heavily after this one. Can your team hang in this lung-buster?

Sep 30

Are you the queen of the volleyball court?

Posted on by

If you ask your boyfriend or husband, I’m sure he’ll say you are the queen of the court. But what would your volleyball team say?

Prove your skills in this game situation volleyball drill, Queen of the Court.

This is a fun, competitive, conditioning-type drill for teams of all ages. In Donnie’s video below, he chose to have his girls play doubles. Typically queen of the court is played with triples but vary the teams depending on your skill level. “Fast fours” is a version of Queen of the Court for younger, less experienced players.

Enough chatter, on to the drill!

Object: To win rallies on the queen side of the court to earn the goal points first.

So, here’s how it goes.

1. Set a goal number of points. We’ll say 10. The teams only earn points on the queen side.
2. One side of court is named the “winner (queen) side” and the other is the “challenger side.”
3. Put one team on each side (I usually make them race to earn the court).
4. The challenger side always serves the ball. 
a. If the challengers win the rally, they move to the queen side and start earning points.
b. If the queens win, they get a point and the challengers step off the court; a new challenging team will take their place.
5. The game continues until a team reaches the 10 points.

BEWARE: After the first time you do this drill, be prepared for your team to ask for it at every practice. Yeah… it’s that fun.