Tag Archives: Serve

Dec 20

Serving and Passing Volleyball Drills: simple… but necessary

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I tell my club and high school volleyball teams all the time, “Nobody wants to put in the time, but the ones that do are the best.”

What am I talking about? Serving and passing volleyball drills. Over and over and over and over…. There’s not a lot of flash in passing, but it takes reps to make great habits.

This volleyball drill is very simple. But there’s a lot going too. 3 passers on each side, a setter on each side getting reps and servers on each end. Servers have carts full of volleyballs to make sure they can keep serving at a rapid rate. Passers pass to the setter and the setter sets the ball to a location.

We usually switch spots every couple of minutes to help keep it fresh. This is a great volleyball drill that we will usually do the day after a long night of matches to clear our heads and find a good passing rhythm.

Sep 12

Ace to replace

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Ace to replace! I was gonna come up with a catchy title for this article but I think the title of the drill is already awesome, so why mess with a good thing?

In this drill, you have 3 passers and one setter on one side and the rest of the team on the other side serving.

The servers have to ace a passer to take her place. Simple as that! (But we made a video for your viewing pleasure.)

We made the girls get a “3″ pass (perfect) or they’re out! Change the game depending on the level of your team.

Bring out the competitive spirit among your players with this head-to-head volleyball drill.

Aug 09

Butterflies in volleyball. Not in your stomach.

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If you’re a coach like me, your team is majoring in ball control before your first match. Here’s a simple drill (with a lovely name) that combines serving and passing in one repetitive ball control volleyball drill.

Butterfly Continuous Passing

You may be asking:
How many players do I need? 6+

Where do they go? Split 3 on each side. A passer in left back, a target in zone 3-4 at the net, and a server in right back.

They’re all standing in the positions listed above. Now what?

1. The servers (on both sides of the net) serve mini floaters (aren’t they cute?) to zone 5 where the passers are standing.
2. The passer passes (naturally) to the target.
3. Now, rotate… Tell the girls: “follow your volleyball.” i.e. The server runs under the net and becomes the passer. The passer runs toward the net and becomes the target. The target shuffles back to zone 1 and becomes the server.
4. Repeat steps 1-4 to coach’s satisfaction.

You may also wonder:
Why is this called “butterfly”?If you were to draw a line each time a girl rotates to a new position, it makes the shape of a butterfly.

Isn’t this a girl drill? No way. We all need more ball control volleyball drills in our lives. Besides. Does the name Michael Phelps ring a bell? He did just win the 100m butterfly (to tally up 50 US titles)! And he’s no girl.