Serve-receive passing to target

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Volleyball drill · Age 10 and up

Serve 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.

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Time
15 minutes
Players
A full six and a server, or three passers, a setter and a line of servers
Equipment
  • A ball cart or 10 balls for the servers
  • A cone or a hoop on the target, a metre off the net and 6 metres from the left sideline

Setup

  1. Set up in the serve-receive formation with the setter in zone 1. The setter (S) stands 8.4 metres from the left sideline and 7.6 metres from the net, tucked behind the right passer.
  2. The three passers share the court: the back-row outside hitter (OH1) on the left, 1.8 metres in and 5.8 metres back, the libero (L) in the middle, and the front-row outside hitter (OH2) on the right, 7.2 metres in.
  3. The opposite (OPP) and the middle blocker (MB) stand 1.2 metres off the net, out of the passers' way.
  4. Their server (SV) serves from their end line. In the animation the serve goes to OH1, who passes to the target.
  5. On the serve, the setter runs to the target, the OPP and MB open up to their attack spots, and the server steps into court.

Coaching points

  • Passers: feet first. Move to the ball and stop, then pass, rather than reaching for it.
  • Angle the platform to the target, and keep it still. The arms aim the ball, they do not swing at it.
  • Call the ball early, loudly, and only once: mine. The seams go to whoever called first.
  • Setter: leave on the server's contact, not before, and get to the target before the pass does.

On the run sheet: Feet to the ball, platform angled to the target, and pass it high to the setter. The setter goes on the serve, not before

Progressions

  1. Score every pass from 0 to 3, and play until the passing line averages 2.
  2. Serve at the seams between passers.
  3. Add a hitter, so a good pass becomes an attack.

How it runs

Our six start in serve receive with the setter (S) in zone 1, exactly as the serve-receive template draws it. Their server (SV) serves from their end line, drawn on the line because the court ends there. The serve crosses the net and comes to our back-row outside hitter (OH1). As soon as the serve is struck, the setter runs round the right passer to the target, the opposite (OPP) and the middle (MB) open off the net to where they will start their approach, and their server walks into court to defend. OH1 passes it to the target, and the animation ends as the pass reaches the setter.

The libero (L) and the right passer (OH2) do not touch the ball, and that is part of the drill. They have to see the serve go elsewhere, stay out of OH1's way, and still be ready if it had come to them.

The rule it is practising

The overlap rule. At the moment of the serve each front-row player must be nearer the net than the back-row player behind them, and each player must be on the correct side of the players next to them in their row (FIVB rule 7.4). Get it wrong and the referee calls a positional fault and gives the point away. That is why the setter starts behind the right passer and only runs once the serve is struck, and why OPP and MB wait at the net until then. Every pair in this formation is at least half a metre clear, so a player who drifts a step is still legal.

Mini-volleyball and 4 v 4 formats have fewer players and simpler rotations, and some youth leagues let a coach call the line-up from the bench, so check your federation's or league's rules.

The mistakes to watch for

A setter who leaves before the serve and gives away the point. Passers who reach for the ball with their arms instead of moving their feet. Two passers both going for a seam serve, or both leaving it. And a pass that goes to the setter at the net with no height, which leaves them nothing to set.

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