This is an entry in my volleyball coaching log.

In Monday’s training I did a team serve receive drill during which I collected passing stats. There was a lot of over-passing going on, so I incorporated a run-through drill into the warm-up part of Wednesday’s training. I also had a blocking movement and communication drill in there to continue building up that area of things. After passing quads to get in some quick reps, I had the team do their serving warm-up. I then had them do a little bit of pressure serving, which went well. This team is quite solid in the serving department, so I shouldn’t have to spend a lot of time on that moving forward.

I had told the team we were going to try out having the OH play defense in 6 rather than 5, and also that we were going to really focus on getting the quick attack going consistently in game-play. I ran Bingo-Bango-Bongo to get a lot of transition work in since that was where the those two elements would most be put to use.

I then did a straight 6 v 6, but with each team serving three times in a row to get a bit more serve receive action involved.

Although the energy during training was good, there was a fair bit of frustration built up during the game play because of the new positional and quick attack work being done. This was to be expected, but I wanted to finish with something a bit simpler, so I had them do winners 4s for the last 10-15 minutes. That kept them using all their skills, but in a less complex fashion.

We obviously still need work on the defense and quick offense. A number of balls dropped with insufficient effort, so the unacceptable nature of those sorts of things needs to continue to be reinforced. With matches coming on Sunday, Wednesday, and next Saturday, the main focus will be on team play. For the A team that’s about continuing to encourage a more aggressive mindset. For the B team there’s still a lot of positional understanding which needs to come along.

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John Forman
John Forman

John is currently the Talent Strategy Manager (oversees the national teams) and Indoor Performance Director for Volleyball England, as well as Global Director for Volleyball for Nation Academy. His volleyball coaching experience includes all three NCAA divisions, plus Junior College, in the US; university and club teams in the UK; professional coaching in Sweden; and both coaching and club management at the Juniors level. He's also been a visiting coach at national team, professional club, and juniors programs in several countries. Learn more on his bio page.

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