Back to Beginners - Week 6

Attacking & 3 Ball Game

The beginners are back after their midterm break and we're in the last three sessions. So to welcome them back, we're gonna focus on attacking. We've got a few warm-up exercises for their shoulders, and to get them back in the swing of things, and then some back row attacking work to encourage them to stay off the net, and also be comfortable hitting a ball from deeper in the court. When we move onto the other drills, there's an element of sequencing that the players will have to follow, and I expect it to be messy, especially with this group, but that's OK because they should learn a lot from the mess.

For the finale and three ball game, they'll be encouraged to get lots of repetitions and we can adjust the constraints on the game to encourage certain actions and behaviors, or accommodate certain limitations in ability. We're going to keep score and also have some other rewards, like steal the coconuts, to drive a bit of fun and competition.

In the “Steal the Coconuts” version of the game you put candy or something small and of value at the post and when a team wins the point they get to take one. When the sweets run out, that’s when it gets vicious, because you’re allowed to steal from the other teams’ pile.

Coachr Update

A little word from our sponsor (me). I’ve shipped the latest version of Coachr, my stats app for the iPad (and phone, if you really are stuck). I use it for my teams, from the youth up to the international and adult teams I coach. My main goal with the app is to be able to bring some objective data to the players, so they have an idea what they need to improve on, or what they did that worked well. It also helps me design training sessions to focus on deficiencies, especially when I have stats from the match in which we played our upcoming opponent before.

You can start three matches for free and view as many as you like, which makes it handy for players because I can send them the stats file and they can look at all the gory details, and not just the PDFs I can export for a handy match summary. Try it out and let me know what you think!

And now to the session for this week:

Week 6: Attacking & 3 Ball Game

Timing: 90 minutes

Setup: Mid net (220 - 224), mix of Mikasa Lites and regular volleyballs, add the two Mikasa tapes between two badminton posts, so we have tape stretched across the court, dividing it lengthwise down the court.

Intro of Session Topic - Attacking

• Questions about last week:

  • What were the keys to locating a ball?

    • Attacking: Feet to the ball, reach high, contact point on the ball (thumb down/wrist away, cross/cup around the ball/thumb up, north-south)

    • Serving: Locate target and work it back (rectangle over the net to shorten the distance), zones on the court, strong hand

• Set up expectations for the session

  • Attacking… strategies for getting in a position to attack

  • Moving on from the last contact and sequencing

Warmup (15 minutes)

• Handball

  • Partners, a ball, and a wall, set a ‘court’ region

  • Partners take turns spiking the ball off the floor to bounce up off the wall

  • Scoring:

    • +1 when opponent can’t return your attack

    • +1 when an opponent’s attack lands out of bounds

• Arm swing warm-up

  • Partners with a ball

    • Player 1 hits to partner, partner 2 overhand digs to themselves, catch, hit back, nice and easy x 5

    • Player 1 hits to Partner 2 harder, partner 2 platform digs back to attacker x 5, switch

    • Player 1 hits to Partner 2 hardest, partner 2 platform digs back to attacker x 5, switch

  • Variation: Add in over the net, if not starting with it

Attacking technique

Keys: 4-step approach, “prowl, prowl, step-close!”

Demo: Show footwork, varying speeds

Also explain the role of the 3m line, terminology for different regions. We’ll focus on ‘pipe’, ‘A’, and ‘D’

Back row Hitting Lines Progression

• Lined up at 4m line, attempt with differing speeds for prowl steps

• Keys: Max jump, feet opening up the body as they step-close to jump

  • Questions: Why open up? What does this footwork help us with?

• Set up in three lines (‘A’, ‘Pipe’, and ‘D’)

• Designate 3 setters to start

• Rotate the setters between A, D, and pipe every 2 minutes

• After 6 minutes, switch in 3 new setters, repeat

• Keys: Attackers focus on footwork, getting to the ball with the prowl step if they can, setters getting to the ball, squaring up, and putting it in the right location

Modified ‘Baby’ Butterfly Drill

• With two players passing and one setting on one side of the court and one serving with an optional blocker on the other side, play half court-length-wise

• Server serves to the passers, who pass to the setter, and the left-most one attacks on the left side

• The rally is played out, and then players rotate

• The attacking passer becomes the setter, the setter joins the serving line, the server becomes the blocker, if you have enough players (or want to put up a block), the blocker joins the passing line, and the right-most passer becomes the left-most passer.

• Variations:

  • Flip the side of the court they’re on, so the right-most attacker is the one being set

  • Omit the blocker

  • Rotate in traditional butterfly style, where the setter goes to the serving line on their side of the net after setting

• Keys: Where do you go next? What is your job there? What do you forget when you’re focused on where to go? (Technical stuff… what technical stuff can you remember?)

3 Ball Game

• 4 on 4, 2 coaches, one on either side

• 1st ball: Player serve

• 2nd ball: Coach 1 tosses ball over the net to the receiving team

• 3rd ball: Coach 2 tosses ball over the net to the serving team

• After 3 rallies, receiving team rotates and serves, repeat

• Keys:

  • Give players time to reset after each rally

  • You can toss directly to the player in 6 (middle back), from closer to the net, with no spin, to make it easier to get rallies and more contacts

  • Encourage forearm passing on the first contact

  • Encourage good approaches from the two outside hitters and good footwork getting to the ball by the setters

  • Keep score (https://apple.co/3WXEoHL for a free scorekeeping app)

    

    • Each rally won is a point

  • Add constraints like:

    • each side must get 3 touches to score a point

    • each touch must be a pass, set, attack

    • middle front player (aka the setter) must take the second contact

    • &c…

Session Wrap

You can purchase this whole plan as an ebook on the Book Store:

or on Amazon: https://a.co/d/issTpqL

You can, of course, read the whole thing here for free, too…