Something I’ve seen coaches use to train ball contact, especially around serving, is wall traps. That’s basically where a player is standing near a wall, tosses the ball up, and attempts to trap the ball against the wall with their serve.
The video below is an example of doing something similar for spiking, just with the player’s hand in place of the wall.
If you’ve read what I (or others) have written/said about how practicing a serve toss without actually hitting the ball is different from tossing when you plan to hit it, you may have an idea of what I’m going to say next. 😉
Serving or spiking with the intent to trap the ball is different than doing so to actually hit it. You’re likely not swinging as hard, for one. The toss may not be the same as a live serve toss (and definitely won’t look like an incoming set). And the way you contact the ball to have it stop in place is probably another. So you’re not replicating the kind of thing that will happen with a real hit or serve.
Do I think there could be value in trap work?
Only possibly at the very, very beginning. And only if a player is having real timing issues. Traps could help them with that, perhaps. But I’d only have them do one successful rep before I moved on. That tells me they can time it, so now they should try to do it for real.
I definitely wouldn’t do it repeatedly like the players in the video are doing. That strikes me as completely pointless. They aren’t even properly swinging at the ball!
Honestly, I’d prefer to do wall spikes over traps, and I’m not a massive fan of them.
See my post on teaching beginners to serve for how I’d progress them in that skill.
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