When I first started coaching, I scoured the internet for the best volleyball drills – the drills that would make my team great. I also purchased AVCA’s 101 Winning Drills, Mary Wise’s Volleyball Drills for Champions, and the like. Then I was fortunate to witness practices run by some of the great coaches, Mike Hebert, Mary Jo Peppler, Bill Neville, and Beth Launiere. To my surprise (and maybe dismay), they all ran similar drills! I came to realize there are only so many ways to teach a particular skill. Ultimately, its not the drills that makes a team great, its how the drills are applied by the coach and executed by the players.
The best advice I have taken is: Teach the game, by playing the game. AND USA Volleyball preaches drill structure as Pass, Set, Hit, Pass, Set, Hit. I believe this drill philosophy came down from Carl McGown and his research of motor learning.
With that preface, volleyball coaches need drills to run a practice. Following is a list of websites I have found useful over the years that offer drills:
Volleyball Drills Archive – http://www.usca.edu/volleyball/
I believe this was put together by Will Condin, ex-Head Coach at USC Aiken, and current Head Coach at Armstrong Atlantic State University (Division II in Savannah, GA)
AVCA Volleyball Drills Index – http://www.avca.org/education-resources/coaching-education/volleyball-drills/
Many of these drills are from their 101 Winning Drills book.
Jes-Soft – http://www.jes-volleyball.com/plays.html
This is not only a nice drill website, but offers a free software to watch the X’s and O’s of drills in action and create your own drills. I’ve used this software and found it helpful.
Kudda – http://video.kudda.com/sports/volleyball
A website that includes video to view drills in action.
Volleyball Seek – http://www.volleyballseek.com/drills.cfm
eTeamz – http://www.eteamz.com/volleyball/instruction/tips/
Y-Coach – http://www.y-coach.com/CD/Volleyball_Drills.htm
Sportplan – http://www.sportplan.net/drills/Volleyball/index.jsp
Many of these are very basic drills, but be creative with your volleyball drills. I hope this helps to cut down your surfing time for drills online and increase your coaching productivity!
January 26th, 2012 at 12:21 pm
Actually, the pass, set, hit, pass, set, hit or “letting the game teach the game” can be more broadly attributed to BOTH Carl McGown and Marv Dunphy.
After coaching awhile, you realize that those who pursue the collection of drills to fix problems is the pursuit of novelty. Real coaches understand the game and use very few drills – choosing instead to vary each drill in small ways to accommodate their instructional needs. I believe it has been phrased “subtle variations on familiar themes” by Carl, Marv, Hugh – roughly anyone who has been involved with the USA Men’s program for the last 3 decades.