Drills

Transition Drill: 3 Ball Game There are three basic components to effective transition: How you move well, how you see well and how you communicate well. In the video below University of Washington head coach Keegan Cook demonstrates his 3 Ball Game designed to enhance your understanding of the transition game and to improve your offense’s success during rally play. Coach Cook ...

Developing Relentless Defenders Defense is a skill that every coach and team can take pride in. A great defensive team can counter a height differential if one exists with your opponent. In this video from Iowa State University head coach Christy Johnson-Lynch shares how she teaches her players to stay on their feet and pursue the ball. She does not ...

High Tempo Warm-up: Movement Prep Here is a High Tempo & minute warm-up that you can use with your team prior to your workouts. This warm-up was provided by my friends at ONEighty Athletics Time and situations are crucial in coaching and for implementing a high quality warm-up. ****KEY POINTS**** 1.) EFFORT is contagious! Meaning if you the coach demands effort you better make sure you ...

Hit the Deck Drill Getting your middle’s involved is critical to producing a versatile and effective attack. But how can you emphasize this so that it occurs more often in match play? In the video below Bobbi Petersen, University of Northern Iowa Head Coach; 2018 AVCA Midwest Region Coach of the Year; 2006 AVCA National Coach of the Year; demonstrates a ...

Pepper Variations This article is republished with permission. The original article appears at Coaching Volleyball. By John Forman – Founder of Coaching Volleyball. Coach Forman is the Technical Director for Charleston Academy. He has served as DI college coach as well as a professional coach in Sweden Pepper is a volleyball drill or exercise you can see in just ...

Volleyball Games: Scoring Alternatives This article is republished with permission. The original article appears at Coaching Volleyball. By John Forman – Founder of Coaching Volleyball. Coach Forman is the Technical Director for Charleston Academy. He has served as DI college coach as well as a professional coach in Sweden Obviously, these days volleyball is almost exclusively played using rally score. Depending ...

Passing Drills to Eliminate Bad Habits This article was provided by The Junior Volleyball Association The first contact in volleyball, the pass, is by far the most critical if a team is striving to play at a high level. Even at the beginner level, it’s important for coaches to give their players many repetitions practicing proper technique. There are 3 common bad ...

14-Player Serve-Pass-Hit This post was provided by Coaching Volleyball By John Foreman Coach Forman is currently the assistant volleyball coach at Midwestern State University. Before that he was the Head Coach of the professional women’s team at Svedala Volleybollklubb in Sweden Synopsis: This drill gets a lot of players active on one court working on serving, passing, setting and hitting – ...

Columbus Drill: Ball Control The Columbus Drill is a cooperative drill that requires ball control and communication In the video clip below Craig Skinner, University of Kentucky Head Coach; 2017 SEC Co-Coach of the Year – 2x SEC Coach of the Year; explains and demonstrates a cooperative ball control drill that he calls the Columbus Drill The Columbus drill is played 6v6 and ...

Hitter Tournament This post was provided by Coaching Volleyball By John Forman Coach Forman is currently the assistant volleyball coach at Midwestern State University. Before that he was the Head Coach of the professional women’s team at Svedala Volleybollklubb in Sweden This is a drill which can be used to put hitters into a competitive situation for the purposes of ...

Setting Form Setting is one of the most important skills in volleyball. Take a look inside a D1 practice to see how it is drilled and taught. In the video clip below  Dan Fisher, University of Pittsburgh Head Coach; 2017 ACC Coach of the Year, gives you a chance to take a look into a live practice. In this ...

Doubles: A Pass, Set, Spike Drill Here is a drill that incorporates three skills: Passing, Setting and Hitting In the clip below from Krossover, you will see a simple drill that your players will love to do. This is a very good warm-up drill that could be done every practice. Here are the basics of the drill called Doubles: The setter begins by ...

Serving Game: Around the World Here is a fun competitive serving game that requires players to serve into all 6 zones. In the video clip below Anne Kordes, former University of Louisville Head Coach and past President of the American Volleyball Coaches Association, demonstrates a competitive serving game called Around the World. In this drill teams attempt to serve a ball to a ...

One Hit Drill Here is a great fun game/drill to add to some variety to your practices. The clip below is taken from a live University of Pittsburgh practice. The One Hit Drill is being conducted by oach Dan Fisher (University of Pittsburgh Head Coach; 2017 ACC Coach of the Year; 2017 ACC Champions; former Concordia -Irvine University Head ...

Transition Hitting Drill Here is a drill that will give you the opportunity to work on Transition Hitting into specific zones. This post was provided by Coaching Volleyball By John Forman Coach Forman is currently the assistant volleyball coach at Midwestern State University. Before that he was the Head Coach of the professional women’s team at Svedala Volleybollklubb in Sweden Synopsis: This is ...

Brazilian 2-Ball Warm-up Game This drill was provided by Coaching Volleyball  By John Forman Coach Forman is currently the assistant volleyball coach at Midwestern State University. Before that he was the Head Coach of the professional women’s team at Svedala Volleybollklubb in Sweden This is a great warm-up type game that gets players moving and competing while also working on communication and ...

Speedball Winners Here is an extremely versatile and competitive drill that maximizes each player’s contacts by cutting down transition time. This drill was provided by Coaching Volleyball By John Forman Coach Forman is currently the assistant volleyball coach at Midwestern State University. Before that he was the Head Coach of the professional women’s team at Svedala Volleybollklubb in Sweden. Synopsis: This variation on Winners looks ...

Simple Volleyball Passing Drill Here is a very simple volleyball passing drill that can serve as an alternative to Butterfly Drill. In the video below Nabil Mardini,Director of Operations with Los Angeles Volleyball Academy and Pierce College Head Coach demonstrates a drill he uses in place of the popular Butterfly Drill. Coach Mardini is a 3x CCCAA California State Champion ...

Serve Receive Drill and Game Serve receive is an absolutely critical component of your teams success. Here is a drill and a competitive game that you can use to practice this crucial skill. In the video clips below Kirsten Bernthal Booth, Creighton University Head Coach; 2016 VolleyballMag.com National Coach of the Year – 3x National Coach of the Year; Back-to-Back-to-Back Big ...

Tweaking Your Setter The first line of defense for setter improvement is learning how to identify problems. What if the outside set is consistently high? Here is a simple tweak to fix. In the video clip below Courtney DeBolt Slinko, All American setter and a four-year letterwinner at Michigan State, discusses a simple tweak that will improve the outside ...

Triangle Dig and Set Drill Here is a digging and setting drill that can be used to get your players multiple repetitions and reinforce critical fundamentals. In the video clip below you will get a look at a live practice drill from Dan Fisher,University of Pittsburgh Head Coach;2017 ACC Coach of the Year;2017 ACC Champions; former Concordia -Irvine University Head Coach,2012 ...

3 v 3 All-Touch Transition & Attack This post was provided by Coaching Volleyball By John Forman Coach Forman is currently the assistant volleyball coach at Midwestern State University. Before that he was the Head Coach of the professional women’s team at Svedala Volleybollklubb in Sweden. Here is a good game-play exercise that gets every player lots of touches and works especially on transition hitting. Age/Skill ...

Shadow Drill Here is a great drill to help teach your players how and where to move depending on the type of block. In the clip below Nebraska Coach John Cook, instructs his team during a live practice. The drill he is teaching is the Shadow Drill. In this drill players are required to get to base position, ...

One Hour Practice Plan This post was provided by Coaching Volleyball By John Forman Coach Forman is the assistant volleyball coach at Midwestern State University. Before that he was the Head Coach of the professional women’s team at Svedala Volleybollklubb in Sweden One Spring day at MSU we had the last of the off-season practice sessions with the team before they went on Spring Break. ...

Digging Drill Here is a great digging drill for getting your players multiple repetitions diving to dig a ball. This drill allows for every player to get multiple reps in a very short period of time In the video clip below you will get a look at a live practice drill from Dan Fisher,University of Pittsburgh Head Coach;2017 ...

Volleyball Agility Drills Agility is important in every sport and volleyball is not any different. The ability of your players to quickly change directions while maintaining their balance will allow them to be more effective on the court. Here are 10 Volleyball Agility Drills that you can incorporate into your daily practices and/or your offseason training program. In th ...

Get Everyone Involved in 6v6 Here is a 6v6 volleyball drill that can involves more that just 12 players. The drill can easily be re-designed to meet a variety of objectives. This drill was provided by Coaching Volleyball By John Forman Coach Forman is currently the assistant volleyball coach at Midwestern State University. Before that he was the Head Coach of the professional women’s ...

Blocking Drill and Mental Toughness Drill Do you want to be better defensively? Would you like your players to be more mentally tough? Here is a two ball blocking and mental toughness drill that will improve your blocking skills and can be used to help develop mental toughness in your players. In the clip below Susie Johnson, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Head Women’s ...

Directional Hitting Because of active defenders, hitting the ball in different directions is imperative for middle hitters. Here is a tip from Bond Shymansky, University of Iowa Head Coach to help your middle hitter be more effective. In the video clip below Coach Shymansky breaks down the fundamental aspects of executing  a powerful directional three meter hit. This ...

Volleyball Defense: Digging Does your libero do what the best libero’s do when they are digging a volleyball. Where do you teach your defenders to hold their hands when preparing to dig? How can you train your libero to dig more balls? In the video clip below Coach Griff Joyce, owner of Ment 2 Acheive, discusses some teaching points ...