Incredible Volleyball Lead-Up Games and Drills by Wally Dyba is basically a volleyball drills and games manual. There’s a bit more to the book. When you boil things down, though, it’s a pretty straightforward compilation of ideas for things volleyball coaches can incorporate into their training sessions.
Structure
The book actually starts off with a pair of chapters which look like contributed essays from a second author. They are listed as “Parts”, but effectively they act as chapters. The first is Effective Coaching Methods which focuses on teaching and learning. The second is The Coach as Motivator, which has a pretty obvious focus. Both chapters are relatively short – as I say, more like essays.
Part III is an interesting feature of the book. It takes the form of a chapter which looks at the very foundational elements of volleyball in some detail. This is not a common inclusion in most coaching books. They tend to assume a certain minimal level of play and/or understanding. The addition of this section makes this book particularly useful for those working with beginners.
The next couple sections (IV and V) are where the games and drills really come thick and fast. All major skills are covered, along with various types of game situations. There’s even a section on circuit training for those after some conditioning ideas.
Observations
One thing which stood out to me was some different terminology than what I’ve seen/heard before. An example that really jumped out at me was “volley pass”. This is what I have most often heard referred to as an overhead pass – taking a first-ball contact with your hands. The author is a Canadian, so perhaps this reflects common phraseology there. The book does have a bit of an “old school” vibe to it, however, despite only being published in 2005.
There is some discussion of the technical execution of individual skills, though it’s not a major focus. I disagreed with things here or there in that respect. That is often the case when coaches get to talking technique, though. The reader should take from it what makes sense to them – as always recommended.
I won’t put Incredible Volleyball Lead-Up Games and Drills at the top of my recommended reading list. For a volleyball coach looking for some drill and/or game ideas, however – or one looking for help teaching the very basics of the game – it could come in handy.
