Have you received a few questions and comments about players just not “getting it” when it comes to rotations? It would be nice if there were a magic bullet, but the truth is, it’s something that probably won’t stick until after you spend several scrimmages doing little but putting kids in the right spots. That said, there are some ways to help the process along.

  1. Give the players a colored wrist band to denote who their opposite is in the lineup. With the wristbands, they should be able to easily look around and get a general idea of where they’re supposed to be on the court.
  2. Teach them the logic underlying your serve receive patterns. You can explain that you’re trying to do four things, in this order:
    1. Be legal
    2. Get our best three passers in the pattern.
    3. Get our left side outside hitter the easiest route possible to her spot.
    4. Get our setters as close to target as possible.

Then, explain to the players that in order to do those things, they have to:

    1. Know the overlap rule. The overlap rule is one of the most mis-understood and mis-applied rules in volleyball, so it’s important that you know it and that your kids know it.  At Cobb Atlanta we call it the “T and L rule.” Before the serve is contacted, you are not allowed to cross over the players who you make an L with if you’re on the sideline, or a T with if you’re in the middle.” Here’s a video that explains the rule.

2. Try to come up with serve receive patterns that follow the four principles of — being legal, putting the best passers in the pattern, getting the left side outside the easiest route possible to their spots, and getting the setters as close to target as possible.

It’s still a process, and it still takes kids a while to catch on, but I think you’ll find that once they get it, they never forget it. AND, as long as the kids know the principles behind why you’re doing what you’re doing, if you ever put the lineup in wrong (hey, it happens!), it won’t be quite as catastrophic as it would be if they just memorized spots to stand on the floor.

For more education for coaching junior volleyball click here.

About the Author

Kim Fletcher is a coach at Tsunami Volleyball in Kennesaw, Georgia. She is the former Assistant Coach for Kennesaw State University Women’s Volleyball, and was a middle blocker for the University of Notre Dame, followed by a year of professional volleyball in Austria.