Volleyball Drills Advanced - Teaching Volleyball Strategies and Tactics

Volleyball drills advanced - section presents simple ideas for more advanced players to develop their game.

This section provides volleyball practice drills, which utilize already learned basic skills to learn a deeper understanding of the game.

Goal 1 - Learning Volleyball in Game-like Situations
In this section the volleyball skills, which we have been introduced already will be used in game-like situations.

Goal 2 - Tactical Understanding
Another goal is to develop tactical understanding of the game.

Volleyball Drills Advanced - How to Teach Players to Be Good at the Game of Volleyball, Not in Drills?

There has been lots of talk in the volleyball community about importance of letting players play, instead of running drills, which are not taken place in the game context.  

For example traditional two-man peppering have been one of the drills which have been criticized.

How the Volleyball Drills Should Look Like?

1. The volleyball should be flying over the net.

2. The opponent should be playing in the other side of the net. 

3. Use Game-like sequences.  Work on cooperation with teammates.

I.e. in the hitting drills, the volleyball should be set to the spiker, not tossed - just like in the game. In the blocking drills, the block should be practiced against the setter and approaching hitter. In the digging drills, make sure the opponent hits the ball to defender over the net, etc.

Let's see a couple of simple examples how we could replace the traditional two-men peppering.

Volleyball Drills Advanced Examples:

Volleyball Drills Advanced Warm Up - Over the Net

Instead of doing a tradional two man ball peppering off the net, players should move to perform this warm up over the net and hitting the ball over the net.  

Three Man Pass, Set, Spike, Dig

The players should form three-man groups in the both sides of the net.

One player being passer, one setter and one hitter.

Each court side could have even three of those groups next to each other, which means even 18 players could be warming up on the one court.  12 players, if the court is divided into two halves.

Start by serving the ball over.  The other team passes, sets and hits the ball over.  Set or bump the ball over for few minutes until you get warm. Players rotate clockwise after the ball is delivered over the net.

Players start approaching and hitting the ball over the net to the defender when they are warm enough.

These attacks could be performed behind the 10-feet line to make sure the rallies will be longer.

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Volleyball Drills Advanced Passing Warm Up - Two Man Serve, Pass, Set

Form two-man groups, one being the passer and other one the target/setter. A group starts by serving the volleyball over the net.

The serve receiver passes the volleyball to the target who catches or performs a set.

Next receiving team switches and the target/setter runs to the back court and serves the volleyball to the other side. (Players get warm really quick since players have to move a lot when changing the positions.) The cycle continues.

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Two Man - Pass, Set, Spike, Dig

Two-men teams could also perform a similar serve-pass-set-spike warm up than above.

The receiver approaches and hits the ball over the net to the defender who digs the ball up to the setter who sets, etc. Players can switch positions in the own side after delivering the ball over.

Do the same behind 10 feet.

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Volleyball Drills Advanced Hitting Drills

Other drills being criticised have been i.e. volleyball hitting drills in which the coach tosses the volleyball to the spikers - or "warm up swings" in which the spiker tosses the ball to the setter before approaching and spiking.

Volleyball Drills Advanced - How to Set Up Volleyball Spiking Drill?

1. The setter should be setting the ball to the hitter, not tossing.

2. The ball should be served or tossed over the net. The serve receiver should pass the ball to the setter. (If not possible to use both sides, at least have somebody tossing a "pass-like" toss to the setter who sets the ball.)

3. The spiker should have blockers to block the ball - and defenders to dig the spike.

Volleyball Drills Advanced - Mini Games on the Small Court

Learning volleyball by playing is certainly not a new idea. 

As one example many junior or mini volleyball coaches in the leading volleyball nations have been using 2 vs. 2, 3 vs. 3, or 4 vs. 4 games on the small court to teach volleyball to the beginnning volleyball players.

Volleyball Drills Advanced Games - Mini-Games for Skills Development

The court has to be small. It makes the rallies longer and players get as many contacts as possible. The main purpose of these drills is the skill development, but there is also another aspect there.

Volleyball Drills Advanced Games - Learning to Play Against the Opponent

There is hardly any big court volleyball strategies involved in these games, but players learn to play against the opponent.

Reading the Game and Learning to Anticipate in Volleyball

Players learn to read the game. They learn to anticipate and make faster decisions on the court.  

Players who play a lot eventually learn to know where the ball goes before it actually happens. These players always seem to be on the right spot at the right time. This makes them look a whole lot of quicker on the court, even if physically they could be slower than the other players. 

1 on 1 Volleyball Drills - Volleyball Tennis by Passing

A fun game for the beginning volleyball players is 1 on 1 volleyball tennis, which could also by used as a warm up. 

This particular drill is not a game-like since it has only 1 player in each team, but it is fun for sure.

• Each team has one player only.

• Each team has only one contact to deliver the ball to the other side.

• The court could as small as 10 by 10 feet (3 by 3 meters) - or 20 by 7 feet, if you want more movement front and back. This court size depends on the skill level.  It is important to keep the court so small that the volleyball keeps flying. Players shouldn't be able to win a rally very easily. 

• The players should focus on the
  
• footwork (no crossing over, players shuffle) and
  
  
• contacting the ball with various techniques - not only in front of the hips, but on the sides also. If the court is made a little bit longer, it gives the coach a good opportunity to work on the three point serve receive (the other knee on the ground).
  

Volleyball Drills Advanced - Teaching Volleyball Strategies and Tactics to Players

It is important for coaches to start teaching the game strategies and tactics from the very beginning alongside the skills development.

Volleyball Coach: Remember "Why?"

When players' skill level grows and they are engaged in more complex drills, it is very important to explain them why the coach asks them to perform specific things on the court. This will help players to gain tactical knowledge of the game. 

Coach should always be teaching volleyball strategies and tactics to the players when running drills.



Good Example: Explaining Volleyball Tactics and Teaching "Why"

For example when beginning volleyball players start practice spiking the volleyball over the net, they should be always taught which directions they should be hitting, where is the best spot for the tip etc.

More importantly they should be told "why are they are performing those shots".


Bad Example: No Goals, No Targets in Volleyball Drills - i.e Swings at the Net without a Block

Just hitting the ball over the net without any suggested direction or without block or defenders is probably not the best way to get players succeed in the match in which they have to face the opponents.

And certainly the players don't learn anything about the tactics, if the players are not told "why".

Volleyball Drills Advanced - How to form a Game Plan for the Volleyball Team?

When the coach prepares a team for the game, s/he uses two methods to form the tactic. Or the combination of the two methods.

A tactic is often build against the opponent – the coach has been trying to figure out which way is the best to beat the opponent.

The other method is to build the tactic on the strengths and weaknesses of the own team.

Volleyball Drills Advanced - Building Teamwork

Earlier we talked about unnoticed offensive strategy, which is an important part of offense with the top level teams. This offensive strategy requires seamless teamwork between all the players.

We added a fun volleyball offensive drill which helps to build teamwork and unity. Click below to go to the page:

Fun Volleyball Practice Drills

Volleyball Drills Advanced - Scale from 5 to 1

Most of the drills in volleyball drills advanced -section require more skilled players. The skill-level of beginner volleyball players may not be high enough for these drills. 

Scale - 5 stars for complex drills, 1 star for easy drills

To help to judge the difficulty of the drill we will scale them – we give 5 stars for the drills that are very complex and require years of training and 1 star if they are considered beginner drills. Naturally other stars have difficulty between those two examples.

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Related Pages for Volleyball Drills Advanced 

Volleyball Hitting Drills
Examples of drills which help you to play quick offense. How to improve timing between the hitters and setters?


Volleyball Setting Drills - How to Play Fast Game?
Volleyball has become faster. You find tips how setters, passers and hitters learn to play faster game.

To find more pages, go to Volleyball Drills page below.