Volleyball drills

8 drills coaches already run every week, each written out with the setup, the coaching points and how to make it harder — and each one animated, so your players can see it before they do it.

Add any drill to a practice plan in one tap and it prints on your run sheet with its time and its coaching cue. Free, and it does not use up a saved play. Plan a practice now, no account needed

• Age 9 and upPepper: pass, set, hitPepper is the warm-up every volleyball team runs, and for good reason: two players and one ball practise all three contacts, the dig, the set and the hit, in the order a rally uses them. Done well, it is a hundred controlled touches in five minutes. Done lazily, it is two players catching and throwing, so the drill is worth doing properly. 10 min Pairs, one ball per pair
• Age 10 and upServe-receive passing to targetServe receive decides more youth volleyball matches than any other skill: a team that cannot pass the serve cannot set, and a team that cannot set cannot attack. This drill passes live serves from the real formation, so passers learn their lanes, the seams between them, and where the target is, while the setter learns to leave on the serve and not before it. 15 min A full six and a server, or three passers, a setter and a line of servers
• Age 10 and upSetter footwork: setting to 4 and 2A setter who arrives late sets on the run, and a set made on the run goes anywhere. This drill trains the part of setting nobody sees: the release from the back row, the run to the target, and the stop with the right foot forward and the shoulders square to the left antenna, so the front set to zone 4 and the back set to zone 2 come from the same position and the block cannot read which is coming. 15 min A setter, a coach or a tosser, and a hitter or a catcher in zones 4 and 2
• Age 11 and upApproach and hitting linesYoung hitters hit the ball where their run is taking them, which is usually into the block or the net. A good approach fixes that: start outside the court, curve in, and arrive behind the ball with the whole court in front of you. This drill builds the four-step approach and then gives the hitter two lines to aim at, the line and the cross court, with a blocker who takes one away. 15 min A line of hitters, a setter, a coach to toss, a blocker and a digger
• Age 12 and upBlock footwork at the netMost blocks are lost by the feet, not the hands. A middle blocker who shuffles across the net arrives late and leaves a gap between their hands and their partner's, and the hitter hits straight through it. This drill teaches the crossover step that gets the middle from the centre of the net to the antenna in time, and the habit of closing the block against a partner who has already set the edge. 15 min Three front-row blockers and a coach on a box, in groups of four
• Age 10 and upDigging a down ballA down ball is an attack hit from a standing position, from behind the attack line, and it is the attack youth teams face most. It is also the most diggable ball in volleyball, if the defenders are in the right place before it is hit. This drill teaches the down-ball call, the drop to the digging spots, and a dig that goes high to the target instead of back over the net. 15 min Three back-row defenders, a setter and a coach, in groups of five
• Age 9 and upServing to zonesEvery rally starts with a serve, and a youth team that serves in wins a lot of points without doing anything else. A team that serves to a chosen spot wins more. This drill turns serving into a game with targets: the coach names a zone, the server aims for it, and the server gets into the court the moment the ball has gone, because in a match the rally is only just starting. 15 min Servers in a line, and three passers and a setter on the other side
• Age 11 and upFree-ball transitionWhen the other team sends the ball over with a pass instead of an attack, that free ball is the best chance a team gets to run its offence. Youth teams waste it, because nobody moves: the blockers stay at the net, the setter stays in the back row, and the ball is passed to nobody. This drill teaches all six to move on one call, so the free ball turns into a set and an attack every time. 20 min A full six on one side and a coach across the net, or 6 v 6 as a wash