Tag Archives: Setting

Aug 04

Serve, free ball, free ball volleyball drill

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OMG, this guy just lost his leg to a Tiger Shark! Ok I’ll peel my eyes away from Shark Week for a few minutes to share this new volleyball drill. In a way, this new drill is like a shark attack in that, you feel like you’ve lost your legs after this much running and jumping.

Donnie filmed this drill in the heat of the summer. And if you live in the Midwest, we’ve been enjoying record highs this month. With Donnie behind the camera, the players are running the drill (Maybe not as quickly and effectively as a coach would-but the slow pace will also help you follow the video).

6 starters on one side of the court. Then put a cart of volleyballs and a tosser in about left back and an aggressive server with her own cart of volleyballs in the serving position.

The server puts a hard-driven floater on the court, the starters must pass and make a play. Then transition immediately to play defense for free ball #1 and run a play, then transition again for free ball #2 and run a play and finally transition one more time for free ball #3.

How do you move on in the drill?
Once coach is satisfied with the success of all 4 plays, he will call for rotation.

Good luck keeping your legs in this drill, but I think you have a better chance than Craig Ferguson (who is swimming with great white sharks tonight!).

PS. The title is a quote from a famous comedian. Do you know? Post your guesses!

Jul 07

Multitask your hitter/setter warm-up

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As a coach, you must know how difficult it is to convince teenagers to workout in the summer, let alone in a gym with no A/C. But we managed to corral a few die hards. For this drill, our libero is the setter, our defensive specialist is playing middle hitter and our outside is eh-hem playing outside. Due to the lack of players in this gym, our girls are getting reps in positions they don’t usually play. That definitely makes for a well rounded team!

This is a skills focus volleyball drill similar to Box Approaches with Setter.The setter is practicing several different sets noted in the video. Watch as she uses the hitters’ hands as targets for her sets (not bad for a libero, huh?). The hitters are warming up their arm swing and practicing attack selection. Pick a zone for the hitters and have them aim there for a few sets and then switch it up. Both the hitters and the setter are working on ball placement.

I love to multitask. So why not apply that to volleyball? Simple drills like this leave plenty of room for modification. And of course, it’s always good to get more players doing more stuff in warmup drills – multitasking. For example, if you’re warming up your setter, instead of tossing to her, toss to a passer who can pass the volleyball to her. Then, instead of a target, put a hitter out there who can get some arm swings. Or maybe add a server who can mini-serve to the passer. See what I mean? The options are endless. Adding and taking away players can change how the drill is played.

How do you multitask you warmups?

Jun 21

Season your volleyball skills with basic Pepper

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Pepper is one of the most basic fundamental volleyball drills out there. I know what you’re thinking, “Danielle, why are you just now telling us about this fundamental volleyball drill?” Good question. Now, let’s talk about the greatest, most effective volleyball drill ever invented.

All you need is one partner and one ball and it’s simply: Pass, set, hit, pass, set, hit. To point out the obvious, there are only 2 of you and 3 types of hits. Which means, you’ll both get equal reps on all hits. i.e. perfect warmup drill.

Here are 4 reasons you should start “peppering” at your next practice (or even right after you’ve finished reading this post).

  1. Warm-up – This is the most common form of warmup in volleyball. You’re working all the movements necessary to play the game.
  2. Overall ball control – Hitting, setting and digging directly to your partner requires great skill, concentration and constant communication.
  3. Improve communication – Constant talking creates the most effective Pepper session and good communication among 6 players is an underrated quality in a volleyball team.
  4. Repetition – Back and forth, back and forth. You’d think it’d get boring but your partner is always there to challenge you.

It’s obvious I LOVE the game of Pepper. But what do you think? Can anything top Pepper as being the most effective volleyball drill ever invented?