There are many philosophies and opinions out there about what makes practices efficient and effective, but in this instance, let’s focus on removing the coaches from running the drill. That might sound crazy to some because the person running the drill, in many ways, controls its efficiency and effectiveness; but by placing the responsibility of controlling the pace, energy level, and the amount of effort on your players, you are accomplishing many things.

  1. You have to teach your players the pace, energy, and effort level that is expected.
    When you first start to take yourself out of drills, you’ll find you spend a fair amount of time coaching the tossers/servers/initiators rather than the players performing the skill. That’s OK. Through teaching the team how the drill should be run, you’re also teaching them your overall expectations.
  2. The initiators get extra contacts.
    Even if you’re just having players toss the ball, it doesn’t hurt to have them learn how to do it. Players can use all the repetitions they can get overhead throwing, down balling, and serving.
  3. The players in the drill get extra contacts.
    If coaches are running a drill, you’re limited to — at most — two groups of kids who are in the drill at one time. And if both of you are running the drill, no one is coaching the drill. If the players run the drill, you have less players standing around and waiting in a line, and more players engaged and moving.
  4. It makes the drill more game-like. When you design a drill so players can run it, it tends to shift from one that starts with you off the court, to one that starts with them on the court. Players see more balls from angles that they’ll see during a game. Also, because it’s coming from someone who likely does not control the ball as well as you do, there will be more game-like variety to the drill.
  5. My favorite — it frees you up to coach.
    It’s really, really hard to run a drill well and coach well at the same time. Running the drill limits both what you’re able to look at and the length and type of feedback you can give. If you’re stopping the drill to talk to a kid, you’re killing the other players’ chances to get reps. If you’re looking at the ball you’re serving, down balling, etc., you can’t see what your players are doing in that moment. If you’re tossing to a setter, you’ll probably spend more time looking at the setter than where the hitters are transitioning to, what your defense is doing on the other side, etc. Letting the girls run the drills lets you focus your mental energy in places where it’s needed more.

Here are a few ways to structure your drills so you can take yourself out of them:

1.  Self-reps.
This isn’t something to spend a lot of time on in practice, because if you have a net, use it, but it is absolutely worthwhile to teach kids how to just play around with a volleyball. Pass to yourself, set to yourself, set off the wall, one-handed set off the wall, attack off the wall and see how many in a row you can get, serve against the wall, serve against a backboard, serve against a backboard and try to pass it into the hoop…It’s a great way to teach ball control, get a lot of reps and it’s even better when you make it competitive to get the practice started.

2.  Partners/Small Groups.
Almost any skill concept can be introduced in partners or small groups rather than single lines of kids. See if you can take any of your “kids in lines” drills that you use to introduce concepts and turn them into small group drills.

3.  If it starts with a coach “chipping,” turn it into an “off” player tossing in to a player on the court who then free-balls it over. If it starts with a coach “hitting,” turn it into a player on same or opposite side entering a down ball or tossing a high ball and attacking with an approach.
Coaches chipping to start drills is both unrealistic and inefficient when you only have two coaches. Get the players on the “giving” side the extra work at sending tough free balls, and the players on the “receiving” side the extra reps at getting into free ball position quickly and reading the player making a volleyball play rather than a “chipper” who is doing nothing you will ever see on a real volleyball court.

4.  Start more rallies with a serve.
It’s very tempting to initiate drills with a free ball because it goes a lot faster and you get more reps. The reality is, though, serving and passing wins the game at every level. The more we can start drills with a serve, the more we can work on both of those skills, and the more competitive we’ll be in the long run.

For related artices on coaching and running a practice, click here. To view all JVA Members Education, click here.

About the Author

Kim Fletcher is a former Program Director and Recruiting Coordinator for Cobb Atlanta Juniors in Marietta, Georgia. She is also the former Assistant Coach for Kennesaw State University Women’s Volleyball. Kim was a middle blocker for the University of Notre Dame, followed by a year of professional volleyball in Austria.