Volleyball Coaching Log

This is an entry in my volleyball coaching log for 2014-15.

Alas, Wednesday’s match didn’t see the team follow-up on last week’s victory. I wasn’t able to go on the trip because of my PhD work. Nor was the team captain able to make the trip because she had her own PhD commitment (presenting at a conference). To make matters worse, the starting OH1 was feeling ill (didn’t play well and sat out the second set), and they had just watched the men’s team lose 0-3 (albeit competitively). The first set was a blow out, but it was better after that from what I was told.

I only had 9 for this training due to an array of factors. Even though two starters and one fringe first teamer were among those absent, it still ended up being a pretty good session. The focus was there and the intensity level, while not super high, was reasonable given the mixture of talent levels.

After dynamic warm-up I had them do 3-person over-the-net pepper with one person acting as fixed setter on a rotating basis (about 2 minute cycles). From there I had them do serving & passing triads with each player going for 10 good passes, only counting if they called the ball, minus one for an overpass. I followed that up with serving – first 10-in-a-row good (apparently serving was an issue in the match the other day), then a few minutes to let them play around with jump serves for fun.

I then moved on to a variation on player winners. I had them play triples rather than doubles, but had it run on a half court to facilitate more rallies. That worked quite well as there were a number of good exchanges. I finished up with the Belly Drill playing full-court.