Synopsis: This drill allows passers to work on receiving hard serves, and servers on serving them, but without lots of missed serves leaving passers standing around.
Age/Skill Level: This is a drill for intermediate and higher levels.
Requirements: 6+ players, 3 balls, a net.
Execution: Set up three players in serve reception on one side of the net, with a target, and 2 or more servers on the other side. The servers work in sets of three good serves. The first one is an aggressive serve to any of the three passers. The second and third serves are controlled balls to the two players who did not pass the first ball. For example, Server A serves a hard jump serve to the passer in Position 6, then Server A and Server B serve standing float servers to the passers in Position 1 and 5.
Variations:
- Passers can rotate after each trio of serves, or stay in assigned positions if working on specialized training.
- If you only have one properly aggressive/tough server, they should always serve the first ball, otherwise the first ball can be done in some kind of rotation.
- If a server misses their serve they can either go again immediately, or the next server can go.
- You can go for time, for some number of good passes, specifically for a target number of good passes off the aggressive serves, or make it a servers vs. passers game.
- If you have sufficient players, you could run this drill 2-sided with servers and passers on both sides of the court.
Additional Comments:
- This drill was introduced by Laurent Tillie at the HP Coaches Clinic.
- This is a good drill to allow for aggressive serving without the common problem seen in most serving & passing drills where there can be lots of missed serves and/or balls going largely to the same passer/zone.
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