What are some suggestions for drills that are quick and can be run through in a few minutes consistently to keep them moving and pumped during practices?
Coaches wonder about this quite often from a couple of different perspectives. One is in terms of warming up. Another is in terms of keeping the training tempo high and players engaged. Let me address things from both perspectives.
Warm-up
For me, the main thought process behind picking a warm-up activity is getting the players’ heart rates up and muscles warm, and also executing some lower intensity volleyball skills. An example of this is what I call Brazilian volleytennis. I like this one because it involves so many elements. There’s lots of movement and relatively quick rotations, keeping players switching in and out of the play. On top of that, it requires good player communication and coordination along with a lot of reading. Oh, and it’s competitive, which the players like.
A different type of warm-up activity which is more ball-handling oriented is over-the-net pepper. The version that has the most player movement and highest touch frequency is probably the 3-player version. There are lots of different pepper variations, so you have loads of options in this regard.
Depending on your age group, you might even want to jump straight in to more full game play, like doubles. Younger players, after all, don’t need the same physical warm-up as older ones.
High Tempo/Maximum Engagement
Once you get into the meat of a practice, keeping players moving tends to be more focused on player engagement, though it could also have a conditioning element. Basically, what we’re talking about here is activities where things happen quickly and changes are frequent. A popular example of this is Winners, also known as Queen or King of the Court, and variations on it like Speedball or the Belly Drill.
The main feature of Winners and games like it is the way players wave on and off the court. It keeps them moving, and possibly facing different challenges.
Another way to think about keeping players moving is to increase the tempo of your games and drills. Generally, this means finding ways to shorten the length of time between one repetition and the next. That tends to be a feature of wash type games and drills.
Make sure it’s not just about movement
It’s easy to come up with ways to make players move around a lot. That’s not really what we should be thinking about here. Most of us have limited time with our teams, and we can’t afford to waste any of that on activities that don’t involve volleyball. If you’re thinking that this movement could be part of player conditioning, I’d argue there are better ways to actually get in proper volleyball conditioning through the structure of your practice. And always keep in mind that lots of movement (and noise) doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a productive practice.
Those are my thoughts on the subject. I’d love to hear your own ideas. Feel free to share them via a comment below.
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