Serve and Pass
The serve and pass aspects of the game are critical to success
New Videos
Before diving into Serve and Pass - please note two interesting additions to our Nuggets of Wisdom:
Blocking: Planning and Reading with Hugh McCutcheon (from Coaches Insider). This is a compelling video as Hugh discusses a number of key factors in blocking. He reviews planning (scouting the opponent’s hitting tendencies) so your blockers have this knowledge prior to the match. Next, a review of reading and vision during a play, and he concludes with the various swing block footwork options given the type of hitter you are defending.
Digging: Reduce False Movements with Brian Gimmillaro (from Coaches Insider). Brian discusses proper body position and footwork for passing with a focus on eliminating any false steps - a must see for coaching any level of volleyball.
The focus on serve and pass
As you learn about our sport, you will find that a significant amount of time is spent focused on serve receive and the serve. How well your team can side out, along with how aggressive they can serve, will be directly related to the team’s success. Because of this, you must incorporate these skills into practice every day.
Given that these skills need training time, how are you tracking your team’s performance? For serving, it should not be just aces and errors. Are your players able to hit zones or attack a specific passer? In serve receive, which rotations are performing well/poorly and why? You should track individual passes and also review your scoring by rotation. For rotations, be sure to consider both your team’s and the opponent’s scoring.
Keep these statistics in mind when planning your practices. Design drills - or find them in our Nuggets of Wisdom - that will focus development on your team’s weaknesses.
Serving
There are a number of drills linked through Volleyball Wisdom that will provide focused repetitions on your players’ ability to serve effectively.
All serving drills should include a target: a zone, a person, cones, etc. From Art of Coaching - Craig Skinner demonstrates a number of target serving options. John Dunning describes the goal of avoiding area 6 while serving, so the focus of Run for 21 is to hit sides or deep court.
Though repetitive serving is used by most coaches for serving drills, we all know that it is rare for a player to serve multiple serves in a row during a set. To include a more game like situation, when your team is working through 6-on-6 serve receive drills, be sure to include serving with a coach calling areas for the server. Ideally these will be the areas that you are planning to attack in your upcoming match.
Keys for your serving drills: make sure the drills promote aggressive serving, pressure to execute, and accuracy (aim for a target). Reinforce to your players that the ability to hit a target with good pace is far more beneficial to the team than someone who just serves as hard as possible .
Serve receive passing
After you review your serve receive performance from the last match, pinpoint any key issues that are causing specific rotations to underperform. Is it a ball control issue caused by certain players or an offensive system problem caused by the setter or hitters?
Increase the practice time dedicated to these rotational issues. If it is a passing weakness, focus repetitions for those passers. Have them pass in the same formation as that rotation. Ideally, have a server who can challenge the group with the type of serves that are causing the problem.
If you happen to have a younger team and the actual weakness has more to do with the basic passing fundamentals, then spend some time on those fundamentals before your work on the serve receive repetitions.
Other considerations
As you collect additional statistics on your serving and serve receive performance, take the time to consider substitution options for servers or serve receive pattern adjustments. For any changes to be beneficial, you must practice them before trying to implement them. You always want your team to be comfortable with the adjustments.
For serving, if a starter performs well in most skills but struggles with their serve, who could sub in for her in a key match situation where you need an accurate/aggressive serve?
For serve receive, how can you make a simple adjustment to the serve receive pattern without having to call a time out. If you run a 3-person serve receive, which player could move into the group if you need to protect someone or how can you adjust the court space between the three passers? For instance, if your outside hitter passes area 5 and she starts to struggle, you could move her closer to the sideline, reducing the court area she passes.
Next time
Later this week, as we move into mid-season, I will outline training suggestions for you to consider.