Coaching Girls Volleyball 101 – Practices and Drills
April 23, 2007 at 11:39 am 9 comments
Over the weekend I spent 10 hours in a volleyball clinic – a 3 hour session for coaches, and two 3.5 hour sessions for players (I went to the two sessions for 7th grade through High School players). I decided I would do a brain dump of all the things I remember – both for myself and for any other coaches who might benefit. This information is free – take it for what it’s worth.
This post is about designing Practices and Drills.
- Every Practice should have an over all purpose. There are a couple of ways a coach can choose what to practice that day. The first is to rotate practices. For our 7th graders, I am going to break out each practice by the major skills (forearm passing, overhead passing, hitting, serving, and defense). The other way to choose a focus for the practice is by observing the team and seeing where they have weaknesses.
- Teach/Emphasize no more than 3 things a day. These will usually be keys within the various skills. For instance, hitting involves footwork, arm position, hitting technique, etc. Although the girls will complete the entire hit during a drill, maybe you only emphasize their footwork that day and don’t try to coach for hitting technique.
- Identify the purpose of each drill. Each drill should be designed to work on something specific – and it should be communicated to the players.
- Figure out whether you want a drill to be individual, grouped (more than one player but less than six), or team (all six players on a side). Working each of these three aspects during drills is important.
- Have a way to measure the drill. What is a good way to track if they are meeting the objectives of the drill? How will the drill end? The players will tend to stay more focused if they know someone is keeping track or they can “win”. The measurement doesn’t have to be “scoring” in the traditional sense of volleyball- it could be number of times hit without hitting the floor, score a point for passing to the setter off of serve, or setting to a target. There are many ways to measure the success of a drill.
- Measure in your team’s emotional currency. If you have a highly competitive group of secure players, then have them keep score against each other with a clear winner and loser. If they are not as motivated by individual competition, then have a team goal that ends the drill. Each team will be different and the measurements have to work for your team.
- Have a lot of opportunities for contact. This doesn’t mean only touching the ball – any movement counts. The players should be doing something about every 8 seconds (even if it’s just moving forward in a line awaiting their turn).
- Have opportunity for feedback. Let the players know when they are doing it well. State everything in a positive manner – instead of telling them what they did wrong, tell them what they should do next time.
- Have a really cool name. Nothing captures people’s imagination like a really cool name for the drills. It also picks up the pace of practice, because the players will know what to do when they hear you call out a particular drill.
Entry filed under: Coaching, father daughter, Girls Volleyball, volleyball.
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Fitness Over Forty 
1.
Will | August 3, 2007 at 6:45 pm
Hello. I have just been asked to coach 7/8th grace girls. It has been 20 years since I coached. I am unfamiliar with the coaching of girls of this age. Help. Does anyone have drills… I can use? Any help would be appreciated by me and the girls.
thanks. will
2.
Nancy Menges | August 27, 2008 at 9:38 pm
I am coaching 6th, 7th and 8th grade girl’s volleyball and I read your comments and appreciated knowing these points for practices. Do you know of a book or website for beginning drills that can progress over the season as they improve? Also I need to brush up on how to teach the skills better. Is there a coach’s clinic or camp your could suggest for me to attend next summer? Thanks, Nancy
3.
Michelle | September 15, 2008 at 8:18 pm
I am coaching senior high girls and it has been a few years since i have been involved in coaching anything… and i am wondering if anyone has any pointers for a senior team involing grade 10,11,12 thanks, Michelle
4.
Sarah | October 14, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Hello- I have coached 7th grade for 4 years now. A great drill I like to use is to get some poly spot markers. Pair the girls off, and have them stand about 10 feet apart, facing each other. Have one girl underhand toss the ball to the other girl (who is standing in her ready position). Have the girl passing put the poly spot on her back. This will teach them to keep the shoulders over their knees, but their eye on the ball, and how to move in a controlled motion- this is because they cannot let the poly spot fall of their back. For however many times the marker falls off their back, that’s how many sprints they have.
5.
Nicole Hofacker | September 30, 2009 at 11:57 am
I have been coaching 8th grade volleyball for the past 2 years and I find that the hardest thing for the is to communacate with one another I not sure if it is a shyness or coming out of a confert zone. I will say that I’m very proud of my girls the are undeted 7-0
6.
Amber | February 28, 2011 at 1:29 pm
At this age, the girls can become frustrated with themselves or each other rather quickly. Some girls at this age are also very emotional. Therefore, what I have found to be the best for coaching is patience and fun. If the girls are not having fun, it isn’t worth playing the game. So for practicing serving I thought of a game, “Fish Ball” it is like Go Fish. It helps girls with their serving and it makes it fun. All the girls start serving and whoever misses their serve, they have to run to the other side of the net and lay flat on their stomachs or back. They cannot sit, stand, or move. Their teammates have to aim for the girls and if a serve touches them, they are free to come back and serve again to try to save their teammates. You can also make it a race to see how many girls they can save in 10-15min etc. My girls LOVE this game!
Amber
7.
Chas | September 19, 2011 at 6:09 am
I’m going to be teaching 6-7th grade volleyball for the very first time and would like some input on what to start with and the drills that they should learn. I have a 9 girls. Getting some advice on how to start and what to do with the girls at practice. It is something new for me and something I have always wanted to do since my girls have been in it.
8.
Tina | May 20, 2014 at 1:01 pm
Hi there! I know this is kind of off topic but I was wondering if
you knew where I could find a captcha plugin for my comment form?
I’m using the same blog platform as yours and I’m having difficulty finding one?
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9.
triciamoore78 | July 23, 2015 at 2:50 pm
Reblogged this on trimoore78 and commented:
All you volleyball coaches out there.