It is great when your team is  in system; however, the opposition will always be able to get you out of system. The question is are you doing out of system drills that improves your teams ability to attack in those situations.

In the video clip below Ryan Manning, Associate Head Volleyball Coach Western Michigan University demonstrates a series of  out of system drills that are designed to improve your attack. These drills are just a few that are contained in the 50 minute course offered by CoachTube called  Out of System Drills and Organization by Jim Merit. In this course you will see several out of system drills from some of the nations top volleyball coaches. For more information about that course click the link above.

Coach Manning begins his sequence of out of system drills by placing a defender in the back row with a hitter at the net.  A ball is tossed to the defender and she will the set the ball to the hitter. Coach Manning prefers to have the ball set 5 feet in and 5 feet off the net. The hitters job is to get back even with the defense and then wait to attack until the ball is set. The hitters are taught to hit the ball deep cross court or down the line.

In the next drill the defenders are told to set the ball to themselves a random number of times before setting the hitter. This will teach the hitter to wait until the ball is set before the begin their approach.

The third variation in the sequence is to have the hitters attack the defenders and force them to dig the ball. The defender will pass to themselves and then set themselves a random number of times before setting the hitter.

The final version of this out of system attack includes two hitters and two defenders. One of the outside hitters will attack one of the defenders. The defender will dig and pass to the second defender. The second defender then sets one of the two outside hitters.

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CoachTube | Coaching and Instructional Videos on Demand – Ryan Manning Out of System Offense from coachtube.com 

In the video clip below Max Miller, demonstrates a simple yet effective transition drill that can be easily adjusted to accommodate different skill levels . Coach Miller is the Club Director and Owner of Mintonette Sports; Back-to-Back 2013 and 2014 USAV National Champions (2013-14); University of Northwestern Ohio Head Coach; former Bishop Hartley (OH) High School Head Coach, 2011 Ohio State Champions.

The transition drill is called the Wittenberg Drill. The drill is played 6 v 6 and is initiated when a coach tosses the ball to a front row player. The player will catch the ball and hold it above her head.

The nearest front row teammate will slide over next to the girl that has the ball.

They are pretending to be forming a double block. The rest of their teammates move into position as if they were defending an attack from the other side of net at the position of the double block.

The girl with the ball will simply toss the ball backwards over her head. Her teammates must react to the ball, execute a pass and transition out of it.

He begins the transition drill as a cooperative one. In this scenario he his just looking for a pass, set and attack from both sides and then catch the ball and start over. To make this competitive teams are told to terminate as soon as possible. The team that wins the point will start the next point with a throw over their shoulder.

This transition drill is on just on of several that Coach Miller shares in his DVD. For more information about the DVD that the Wittenberg Drill was taken from, click the link Transition Training Drills

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There are multiple versions of ball control pepper games that are very useful and can be incorporated into a training session. In the clip below Tara Cross-Battle, 2x NCAA Division I Player of the Year at Long Beach State and a bronze medalist for Team USA in 1992, demonstrates a drill she uses called Nine Person Pepper.

This is a cooperative drill that works on movement control, ball control and communication. The drill is set up as follows. A setter, middle back and left back are placed on each side of the net. One side will begin with three hitters at the net.

The three hitters will move from one side of the net to the other each time the ball passes over the net. They will, in effect, be playing the front row for each team. In other words, they will always be on the same side of the net as the ball.

The back row will stay in their position for the entirety of the drill. The setters may set whoever the want.

The nine pepper person drill, which can also serve as a conditioning drill, is either played for time or you may require the players to make a specific number of  plays in a row without an error.

Tips to help make the drill more successful include have the two hitters not playing the ball move to the other side the ball is hit and having a setter that recognizes which hitter is less prone to error and playing a higher percentage of ball to that player’

For more information about the DVD that this clip was taken from click the link Ball Control Drills & Tips for Reading and Reacting

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You hear it all the time “Defense wins Championships”.  While it is true that in all sports defense is critically important, it is even more important in volleyball. In our sport your offense starts with your defense. In the clip below former Louisville coach Anne Kordes demonstrates a digging drill she calls Double Decker Defense.

In this digging drill the players are simulating defending against a pin attack. The drill begins with a either a left or right back row player in base position. On coaches signal she will move to her read position down the line for an attack by a pin player.  The coach will a ball down the line to the defensive player and she must angle her platform to the target. The players will face into the court to receive a cross court attack by a pin player. A second coach will hit a ball at the player from cross court. The defensive player must angle her platform to the middle and make a quality pass so that the offense can be set.

If the players begin to swing their platform simply slow the ball down. Players should angle the platform to the target as opposed to swinging. The drill should be completed from both sides and from the middle back.

This digging drill is taken from Coach Kordes’ DVD entitled Individual Defense Fundamentals for Volleyball.

In the DVD she show you  how to put your athletes through a progression of drills including: Platform Series; Dig & Chase Run Through; ; Competitive Defense; Survivor Game and Bring It Baby! in addition to the Double Decker Defense Digging Drill. For more information about the DVD click the link above or on the image below the video.

The YouTube video below has audio, so please make sure that your sound is turned on and that you have access to the site. Please note that some schools block access to YouTube

 

 

Here is a link to Coach Kordes DVD:  Individual Defense Fundamentals for Volleyball

In the video clip below  Todd Dagenais,  Head Women’s Volleyball Coach at University of Central Florida demonstrates a serve receive drill that he uses to train his libero. The drill is called the Goalie Drill.

The drill is relatively simple and is designed to maximize reps and test the mental toughness of your libero as well as other players in serve receive. To set this drill up you will need three boxes on one side of the net. Servers will serve from atop the boxes to three back row defenders.  The servers will serve in order ( for example left to right) with very little time elapsing between serves. The defensive players will receive and attempt to make a perfect pass to the setter.

The drill can be varied. One can demand a certain number of perfect passes before switching groups or you can simply switch after a certain number of balls. Coach Dagenais has his defensive players switch positions in the back row after every 6 balls ( two from each server)

This drill is from Coach Dagenais  Libero Training DVD. If you are interested in learning more about his 3 disc training program click the link  Libero: The Definitive Guide!

The YouTube video below has audio, so please make sure that your sound is turned on. Click the arrow to play the video. Please note that some schools block access to YouTube.

This drill is from Coach Dagenais  Libero Training DVD. If you are interested in learning more about his 3 disc training program click the link  Libero: The Definitive Guide!