TEACHING THE GAME
Training juniors: Dos & don’ts
Whether you’re a juniors’ coach or a developing player, doing the right drills are key to maximum improvement. Many of the most common volleyball drills don’t prepare players as well as they should for game-like situations. Here are some drills to eliminate and drills to add.
By John Kessel USA Volleyball’s Managing Director, Region Services Programs
DON’T DO THIS: Toss to the setter or toss to the hitter. When coaches toss to the setter, it steals the key reading that is done in a match when the ball goes from the passer to the setter. The same is true if you toss to the hitter; the game-like reading vanishes.
INSTEAD, DO THIS:
The ideal “drill” is always pass/dig, set, hit – all done by players, not coaches. To quote U.S. Women’s National Team Coach Hugh Mc- Cutcheon, drills like this can get “a bit squirrely,” but they’re a better way to prepare players to perform well in volleyball matches.
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DON’T DO THIS: Toss balls for serve-receive
practice.
If you train serve-receive with tosses, players learn to pass a toss, which they nev- er have to do in a match.
INSTEAD, DO THIS: Let the players serve, even if they miss often. This prepares them better for the unpredictability of serve- receive. And they play, not you.
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DON’T DO THIS: Toss low and diffi cult balls from the net for “defense.”
I did this for a few years, teaching the way I was taught – and my players never got a tipped ball. They expected the tip to come over the net to about waist height and then shoot into the corners. In reality, every tip goes over and drops to the fl oor vertically. Sure, some balls go deep off a block – even off the court. But that happens from above the top of the net, and those balls often shoot at a high speed off the court. Players need to determine whether there is a touch or not.
22 | VOLLEYBALLUSA INSTEAD, DO THIS:
Incorporate a controlled scrimmage into a defensive tip drill. Start with a pass/set and inform your offensive players to emphasize tipping – but not to tip exclusively. Hitters need to have the option of swinging away. You don’t want your defenders to know when a tip is coming. Defenders must learn to read the attacker’s arm swing so they can differen- tiate between a tip and a hit.
——————————————— DON’T DO THIS: Slap a ball (or bounce it on the fl oor) as
a cue for blockers to move off the net for a free ball.
This simply teaches your players to be late. Slapping or bouncing never happens, and when you do this, it eliminates a player’s need to read the second contact to the third contact. (i.e., is it free, down, blockable, etc.?) That’s the point when you really read what the third contact will be.
INSTEAD, DO THIS: You want to make your players – not you – great at sending over mean free balls as well as reading and receiv- ing them. Toss a ball to a player on the court. Inform that player that he or she will be sending the third contact to the other side of the net. The result should be realistic underhand free balls to all corners of the court.
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DON’T DO THIS:: Box hitting at players.
Here is what Coach McCutch- eon said in the 2011 USA Vol- leyball High Performance Coaches’ Clinic on this subject: “Box hitting is not effi cient or very transferable.”
Using your practice time effi ciently to teach “reading” is extremely important. You can’t effectively learn how to read hitters from dig- ging a coach or teammate who is hitting from the top of a box.
INSTEAD, DO THIS:
Again, incorporate live player hitting in a controlled scrimmage environment. Your de- fenders should be blocking or digging players hitting shots at the same speed and from the same angles that opposing players are going to hit in matches.
ILLUSTRATION: MATT GARTHOFF
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