Teams attending Nationals in June have the month of May and much of June to prepare for a championship event. However, the girls’ indoor season can take a toll on both the mind and body, making May a great time to give teams a week or two of downtime.

Consider building in fun opportunities such as training in the sand or low-key team bonding activities. The end of April through mid-May and into early June is filled with school activities, including prom, end-of-year celebrations, award ceremonies, concerts, and performances. This makes it an ideal time to incorporate a few weeks of a more relaxed mindset and lower physical intensity before beginning the final push toward Nationals.

The second half of the boys’ season has started, or continued, for teams that never took a break. Both the girls’ and boys’ programs will compete in a few tournaments or scrimmages before concluding their seasons at AAU or USAV Nationals in late June or early July.

Below is a club training model that outlines key concepts to focus on at the end of the season, along with drills to train those concepts and a sample practice plan.

Concepts:
  • Serve and pass is still important to build into the training plan consistently at each practice.
  • Fine tune offensive systems and setter/hitter connections.
  • Focus on specific defensive concepts and strategy against certain teams you could potentially face at nationals. Utilize video from earlier in the season or on YouTube to scout opponents and work on how to beat your team’s top competition.
  • Train specific scenarios such as running out of subs, running a 5-1 if you usually run a 6-2, etc. all designed around competitive drills.
  • Compete a lot. To see some different competition across the net, set up scrimmages with nearby clubs or bring in college players that are home for the summer to come scrimmage your team.
  • Keep players engaged and keep things fresh by flipping setters from teams or switching coaches for part of practice to bring a different dynamic.
  • Probably the most important thing is to keep your players healthy. Limit their jumps to avoid burnout and be fresh before nationals. Incorporate yoga and injury preventative strength training.
What to Train and How Much Time to Allocate to Each Practice

Ball Control Warm-Up – 5%. Integrate collaborative drills and competition.

Sample Drills:

Serve/Pass – 10-15% of practice. Have your primary passers receiving ample reps in the serve receive rotations you need to improve the most.

Sample Drills:

Offensive and Defensive Systems, Offense to Base Defense. 30-40%

Sample Drills

Positional Training: 10-15%. Can combine positions: ie setters with the middles, setters with pin hitters to work on tempo, etc. Can keep positions separate as well.

Sample Drills:

Competition: 40-50%. 5v5 and 6v6. Create drills that focus on situational and intentional competition. Does not need to include long rallies.

Sample Drills:

View additional drills here.

Sample Practice Plan (2 1/2 hours)

0-0:10  Ball Control or Competitive Warm Up

0:10-0:20  Coach or Captain Lead Isolated Passing or Digging Drill, Setters Set off Live Pass

0:20-0:30  Serve and Receive with Setters

0:30-0:45  Positional Training – can vary to add positions in combo drills and focusing on certain sets

0:45-1:05  Offensive Systems off a dig

1:05-1:25  Serve and Receive  – add cover ball back to base read.

1:25-1:50 1st Ball Side-Out and Competitive Wash Drills

1:50-2:00  Serving – being intentional about the serve location and difficulty

2:00-2:30  Stretch, Yoga or Injury Preventative Strength Training

This series (Part 3) was developed from the JVA Webinar: What to Train and When and How to Train It. View the webinar here.

View additional practice management resources here.