Practice Makes Perfect: Volleyball Drills for Novice to Advanced Players

Whether you’re a young, novice player or an experienced athlete, serving, passing, setting, spiking, blocking and digging are the six techniques that all male and female volleyball players must strive to perfect. Yet how you practice these vital techniques will have a lot to do with your athletic experience. For instance, advanced players will perform different volleyball drills than novice ones.

With that being said, here’s a look at some volleyball drills for every skill level:

Volleyball Drills for Advanced Players

At an advanced state, the six techniques are likely understood and already executed fairly well. However, that doesn’t mean an advanced player still can’t work on his/her game:

• Strategy: Court awareness and knowledge of the situation is crucial in volleyball. While you have a coach to help direct from the sidelines, it always helps to recognize and understand the particular scenarios. How can you improve your volleyball IQ and strategy? Watch lots of game film of your team and your opponents and look for tendencies and patterns in order to gain better insight.
• Mental toughness: The pressure is on when playing a live volleyball game. One drill to help prepare players for the elements of an actual game environment is to run plays and sets with half of the team, with the other half standing on the sidelines screaming and making noise. It helps to emulate a game-type environment. This way, players will learn how to focus during unpredictable distractions.
• Fundamentals: At an advanced level, the fundamentals are likely already there, but that doesn’t mean they can be improved. One way to improve is with proper form. For instance, have a teammate, coach or parent film you during a serve. Then, critique your posture. Is your elbow high and back? Are you contacting the ball in the middle of the hand? Are you following through properly? Watching film can help you work out any kinks in your game.

Volleyball Drills for Intermediate Players

Intermediate players are likely still grasping the basics and learning how to best execute fundamental techniques. Hence the drills that are performed should address this:

• Fundamentals: Honing the fundamentals are important. Take blocking for example: This team-first line of defense involves preventing the opposition from returning or spiking the ball over your net. Hence, technique is important. One drill is for a coach to hold the ball on one side of the net and the player jump up the other, while placing the hands in the proper position. The coach can then move the ball to help the player with different types of hitters and positions.
• Mentality: Volleyball players of all levels make mistakes — it’s how you play after them that’s important. At the intermediate level, it’s important for coaches to help players learn from the mistake, while encouraging positivity.

Volleyball Drills for Beginners

When one is just starting to play volleyball, it's all about getting a feel for the game and the fundamentals. With that being said, these drills should be simple and straightforward, focusing on the six aforementioned techniques. For instance:

• Find a partner and practice bumping the volleyball back and forth. Once this is mastered, you can add a third person to set the ball.
• Find a partner, stand on opposite sides of the net, and practice serving and returning.

Volleyball is a great game, but like any sport, you have to invest the time in order to excel.