Focused, engaging volleyball drills can help young players develop good habits and consistent skills. Children might find repetitive, overly simple drills boring, so look for drills that resemble games more than chores. Fill your practices with these kinds of drills or use them to reward your team after a hard practice.
Queen of the Court
Divide your players into teams of two, three or four children. This drill requires players to cover more of the court than they would ordinarily be responsible for on a six-person team. Start the drill with two teams on the court and the remaining teams waiting in line off the court. Designate one side of the court as the serving side and one as the receiving side. When a team wins a rally from the serving side, it gains a point. When a team wins a rally from the receiving side, it gets to move to the serving side. Whenever a team loses a rally, it must leave the court so that a new team can enter the drill. Teams must keep track of their own points. Play until one team reaches a previously decided upon number of points to win. Reward the winning team by letting its players skip round of sprints.
Dead Fish
The dead fish serving drill, also known as target practice, helps players develop serving accuracy. Divide the players into two teams and have each team spread themselves out along the end line on one side of the court. Give each child a ball and provide carts of spare balls near each end line. When you blow the whistle, all players must serve at once. Players who hit a serve into the net or out of bounds become dead fish. They must sprint to the opposite side of the court to sit or lie down. Dead fish must wait until a teammate serves a ball directly to them to rescue them, and then the dead fish can return to their team and continue serving. The team with the fewest dead fish at the end of the drill wins.
Off the Floor
This defensive recovery drill, also known as gopher ball, helps players learn to recover quickly from the floor in order to save balls before they hit the ground. Have all the players form a line behind one end line. The first person in line must lie on his stomach and wait for you to toss a ball toward him. When you toss the ball, he must jump up and pass it to a target.
You can also run this drill with teams of two. Have two teams on the court, with all players lying on their stomachs. When you toss a ball onto the court, the players must jump up and play out the point.
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