Not getting enough power in your arm swing? Here’s a quick and easy volleyball drill for your hitters.
Drive and exchange. Have your player pump her arms three times to build muscle memory on a drive up simulating an approach. Then exchange left arm with right high elbow on the follow through.
It’s easy to break down the last part of the attack when you don’t have to worry about the whole jumping part.
Volleyball drills like this are perfect for individual workouts also.
Passing and shuffling and passing and shuffling… One of my coaches repeated over and over and over through our first week of practice (hell week, I call it). But… he had good reason.
Shuffling through your pass is very important. It’s the dismount, if you will. Hold your forearms steady and shuffle through.
In this drill, it’s just one volleyball and one friend. Pass straight, shuffle, pass angle, pass straight, shuffle back, pass angle.
Do you teach your players passing and shuffling? Or do you teach another method? Do share!
Pass to yourself, set to your partner.
Wait a minute… “pass to yourself”?
Now, I know, in a game you wouldn’t typically pass to yourself… but there will be a time when you will need to crack your platform (bending your elbows) almost that much to keep the ball from crossing the net. PLUS, this ball control drill is good for repetition during warming up. Get more of a variety of reps in a drill like this.
It’s also very simple to master. As my 7-year-old would say, “Easy peasy lemon squeezy.”
There are many combinations of hits you could apply to this type of drill, can you think of any?
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.
Limited time to practice ball control? Introducing four 60-second ball control drills! What’s more, they’re partner drills (my fave)!
(For the sake of time in this video, we only show either setting or passing but we have the girls do both.)
First, we’ll start with the easy one. As a pair, the girls must get as many passes/sets as they can in 60 seconds. This means low, first tempo passes and sets.
Second, the pair must get exactly 60 passes/sets in 60 seconds. This means low, first tempo. It should only be one second from each pass/set to the next.
Third, the pair must get exactly 30 passes/sets in 60 seconds. Higher, second and third tempo passes/sets in this one.
And fourth, the pair will pepper for 60 seconds. If they drop the ball at any time in the 60 seconds, they must spend the remainder of the time doing “partner pushups” on the volleyball (as seen in the video).
If your team cannot complete any of these tasks, it’s up to you if you want to have a punishment/reward system. Perhaps a little Court Fun’s?
