Volleyball requires teamwork, hand-eye coordination, agility, power and speed. Each skill, whether it's passing, setting, hitting, blocking or serving requires precision in order to set up the play appropriately. Drills for school-aged volleyball players provide athletes with the opportunity to break each skill down and to practice them independently, slowly incorporating them into larger skill-set drills before combining them for game-time situations.
Warm-Up Drills
As with any sport, an active warm-up that incorporates similar movements to those required in the sport will prepare the athletes for practice. Have the athletes run around the volleyball court several times to start, then begin sport-specific warm-ups. Set up mock hitting lines on the left side of the net with mock blocking lines directly opposite the hitters. Those on the hitting side perform a hitting approach, pretending to spike the ball, while those on the blocking side pretend to block the hitter's spike. Those same two athletes immediately move to the center of the court, performing another mock hit and block, followed immediately by a third mock hit and block on the far side of the court. As soon as the first group completes its first hit and block, another group starts. The team rotates through the drill three times. Finally, each player will get a ball and spread out along the service line. Each player practices serving and shags her own ball, requiring her to run back and forth across the court.
Pepper
Instruct the athletes to get into pairs with a single volleyball. One player will toss the ball to her partner, who will bump the ball back to the tosser, who will set the ball back to the bumper, who will then hit the ball. The bump, set, spike cycle continues as long as they can keep the ball in the air. See which group can accumulate the most continuous touches without error.
Two-Person Four Square
Using the entire volleyball court, separate the court into four quadrants so that two quadrants exist on each side of the net. In each quadrant, assign teams of two. Instruct these teams to only play in their own quadrant. One player in the first quadrant starts the game by serving the ball over the net. The team that receives the serve performs a pass-set-hit and sends the ball back over to the other side of the net. Whichever team receives the ball, also performs a pass-set-hit, continuing the play back-and-forth across the net. If a team fails to perform a pass-set-hit, or makes a mistake, they rotate off the court, and the other teams move up to the next quadrant. Any waiting teams rotate onto the court. Each team's goal is to attain and remain in the fourth quadrant for as long as possible.
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