This is an entry in my volleyball coaching log for 2014-15.
This was a two hour session. I flipped men’s and women’s trainings so I could be sure to get all of the key starting players together as planned absences will otherwise prevent that before next Wednesday’s match. My main focus was 2-fold. First, a high training intensity for the first team players. Second, a look at the starting line-up I’m thinking to use next week.
After dynamic warm-up I split the players into 4 groups. Two of them were all first team players while two were either all second team or a mix (it was a 7/5 split). I had three groups doing 3-person over the net pepper, while I hit balls at the 4th group to do some individual digging. I only hit at the two all-first-team groups, though, both for the purposes of time and to provide a higher intensity for those players.
From there we progressed into some serving, followed by a serving & passing drill. I had the first team players working amongst themselves with a fixed setter setting to me as target. Similarly, the second team worked amongst themselves with an injured player as fixed target. I just had each server do 10 good serves, then swap positions with one of the passers.
From there I moved them on to some small-sided action. The first team played 3 v 3 with a fixed setter, initially playing two games to 7, then one more wash game along the lines of 22 v 22 where the team that won the first rally received a second ball from me and had to win that rally as well to earn the point. The second team did a 5-person pepper similar in nature to the 3-person they’d done earlier (player making the 3rd contact went under to become the next setter). Both of these were done in a half court.
The last segment was a 6 v 6. I served to the first team. If the second team won the rally, they got a free ball from the injured player. If the first team won I would attack a ball at them (down ball from somewhere in the court). It ended up having a something of a second chance aspect to it as well. The one issue I had with this game/drill was it didn’t allow me to use a libero on the starting side. I had to use a couple of the first teamers (those on the fringes of starting) on the B side because of missing/injured players. That caused some defensive issues, both actually made for a more potent attack going at the starters.
Generally, I was pleased with the overall intensity and caliber of play.
6 Steps to Better Practices - Free Guide
Subscribe to my weekly newsletter today and get this free guide to making your practices the best, along with loads more coaching tips and information.
