Mini volleyball drills by level: from catching to spiking

You know which level a child plays at. What you do with that on a Tuesday evening is written down nowhere: the levels describe the game, not the drills underneath it. And meanwhile you have a group in which one child still catches the ball and another already wants to hit it into the floor — with one ball per two children and nobody there to help you.

The four rungs underneath the levels

Every mini volleyball programme cuts the game into levels, but the names and the number of them differ per federation — so check with your own what is allowed at each level. Underneath all those programmes lies the same learning line of four rungs: the order in which a child learns to handle a ball in flight.

• Rung 1 — catching and throwing. The child learns where the ball is going to land and how to be there in time. Technique is parked for the moment.
• Rung 2 — the bounce and the self-toss. The ball gets played instead of caught, but with half a second of thinking time added back in.
• Rung 3 — playing it straight away, three times. No more training wheels: pass, set, ball across the net.
• Rung 4 — attacking from above. The ball goes down instead of back in an arc, and for the first time there are hands above the net.

What each level involves is in the mini volleyball levels explained; court sizes, net heights and scoring per level are in the mini volleyball rules. This article is about what you do in the gym. One thing matters throughout: you train a skill, not a child. The same child can be on rung 3 for passing and rung 1 for serving — so leave the right training wheel on per skill. If you are looking for stand-alone games, they are in twelve volleyball games for children; how to build a complete hour is in structuring a youth practice. Here it is about the order.

Rung 1: catching and throwing

What a child has to learn here is one thing: leaving earlier. Nearly every failed ball on the later rungs traces back to this — too late in the right spot, then repairing it with the arms. Catching is the most honest test, because you can't get away with a fingertip touch.

• High over the line. Pairs, three metres apart, one ball, a line on the floor between them. Throw two-handed from above the forehead in a high arc, catch above the forehead and freeze until you have seen it. Ten balls, then both take half a metre back. Trains: reading the flight of the ball, plus the hand shape that later becomes the overhead contact. Harder: the thrower aims a metre to the side of the catcher.
• Stand still before you catch. Groups of three: one thrower, two catchers at two metres. The thrower keeps throwing one to two metres to the side of a catcher. The rule: both feet are still at the moment of the catch, otherwise the ball doesn't count. Eight balls per child, then the thrower rotates. Trains: leaving earlier instead of drifting along with the ball. Harder: the thrower only says who he is throwing to after he lets go.
• Two-on-two catch ball. Small court, net at mini volleyball height. Every ball gets caught and thrown on within three seconds, and has to go across the team once before it crosses the net. Whoever wants it calls "mine" before the catch. Trains: playing together and playing out loud, in a game format. Harder: the second ball may not be thrown but has to be played.

The step up: a child is ready for rung 2 when it catches eight out of ten high balls above the forehead without stumbling backwards, and calls for the ball unprompted in the game. Not when it has had a birthday.

Rung 2: the bounce as a training wheel

Between catching and playing straight away sits a gap of roughly half a second: exactly the thinking time the catch used to give. Take it away in one go and you get children who bring their hands up too late and swat the ball away. Give that half second back with two training wheels: the self-toss and the bounce.

• Bounce-and-play. Two-on-two on the small court. Catching is out, but every ball may bounce once before it is played. Trains: separating the decision ("where is it landing") from the execution, without the game stopping. Harder: the bounce is only allowed on the first ball after the net.
• Toss-and-place. Pairs at four metres, one ball. The child tosses to itself about a metre above the head, plays overhead to the partner, who catches above the forehead. Two points if the catcher stays put, one for a single step, nothing for two. First pair to twelve points. Trains: direction instead of height — up they'll manage, towards someone they won't. Harder: the catcher plays it back. If fingers are hurting, go back to the build-up in teaching children to set first.
• Six out of ten. Everyone serves, but not from the same spot: start three metres from the net. Anyone who gets six out of ten over the net and inside the court moves back a metre; anyone who drops below four moves forward a metre. Trains: serving from a distance where it still works, instead of missing ten times from the end line. Harder: mark out a three-by-three-metre target zone.

The step up: rung 3 starts when the child plays more balls without a bounce than with one in a game, and gets the ball higher than the net doing it. If it stays low and hard, it is too early.

Rung 3: playing it three times

This is where volleyball appears: the ball doesn't go straight back, it gets improved by the team first. Two things have to work at once: standing still under the ball, and playing the ball to a place instead of upwards.

• The fixed setting spot. Groups of four: a thrower at the net, one child on the setting spot (about a metre from the net, slightly right of centre) and two children at the back. The thrower throws high to the back, the ball is passed to the setting spot, and whoever is there catches above the forehead, calls "got it" and throws it back. Eight balls, then everyone rotates a role. Trains: passing to a place, and the habit that someone is actually standing on that place. Harder: the setter no longer catches but plays it back high.
• Still at contact. Three-on-three, free play, with one rule: both feet are still at every ball contact. Play while moving and the point goes to the opponent — and the children call that themselves. Trains: getting under the ball in time, which pays off more here than any technical correction. Harder: the rule only applies to the second and third ball, so digging is allowed again.
• Three names. Three-on-three, three contacts compulsory, and whoever plays the ball calls the name of the child it is meant for before contact. If the ball crosses the net in two touches, the point doesn't count. Trains: the third ball and the calling, without you having to ask for it from the sideline. Harder: the third ball has to come from the setting spot.

The step up: when the team plays three contacts unprompted in well over half the rallies, the group is ready for rung 4. If they only do it when you call for it, it is your habit and not theirs.

Rung 4: attacking from above

Attacking consists of two things you teach separately: the hitting action and the rhythm of the approach. Put them together too early and you get children who jump and hit and do both by halves.

• Hitting without an approach. Pairs either side of the net at about two metres, one ball. The child tosses to itself above the hitting shoulder and hits down over the net with an open hand; the partner catches after one bounce. Watch for contact above and slightly in front of the shoulder, and for the wrist snapping over the ball. Ten balls, then swap. Trains: the hitting action, without timing getting in the way. Harder: a target zone on the floor that has to be hit.
• Hop-two. No ball, everyone at once on a line — no queue. Right-handed children put the last two steps down right-left and land on two feet; the arms go back on the second-to-last step and up on the jump. Count out loud: "hop-two". Two sets of eight. Trains: the rhythm of the approach, which later carries the whole attack. Harder: someone throws a ball high and the child starts its approach as the ball passes its highest point.
• Attacking allowed, blocking not yet. Three-on-three with one rule: the third ball has to be played from above — hitting hard or tipping are both fine. On the other side one child stands at the net with hands above it, but is not allowed to jump. Trains: daring to attack and aiming, because for the first time there are hands in the way. Harder: the block may jump.

Two things you don't do here: attacking off a bench or a box (the landing is the risk), and reaching for a heavier ball because they are hitting hard now.

One ball per two children, and no assistant

Most mini coaches have half a gym, a bag with eight balls and nobody watching the other half. So do this bit of arithmetic first. Twelve children, fifteen minutes of technique, one queue with you as the feeder: a ball takes about five seconds, so a child gets a turn once a minute and ends up with fifteen contacts at most. Those same fifteen minutes in pairs with six balls: every pair plays a ball every four seconds, and each child ends up well over a hundred contacts. That difference decides whether a season delivers anything — see also more ball contacts per practice.

1. No queue longer than three. If you can't organise the drill in pairs or threes, pick a different drill. All the drills above work in groups of two to four.
2. The feeder is a child, not you. Any drill in which you do the feeding stops the moment you explain something or tie a shoelace. Have at most one group at a time that needs you.
3. Serve back and forth. Two lines facing each other across the net, each with half the balls: everyone serves to the other side and the other side serves back. That way nobody has to collect.
4. Set the courts out before the first ball rolls into the gym. Moving cones with ten children around you costs four minutes and their attention.

Work in blocks of six to eight minutes: after that, quality drops faster than the number of repetitions rises. What else changes in your session design per age group is in coaching youth volleyball by age.

Three rungs in one group

The group where everyone is on the same rung doesn't exist: you have children still catching, children who have just started playing the ball directly and one or two who already want to hit. The temptation then is to run three drills on three courts. Don't: you can't watch three places at once, and the weakest group is the one that goes longest without you.

Instead, put three rules on one drill. With Bounce-and-play that looks like this: the rung 1 children may still catch the ball, the rung 2 children may bounce it once, the rung 3 children play it directly — in the same game, on the same court, in mixed pairs. Change the requirement, not the drill. That works for almost everything above.

Three more things that help. In mixed pairs, give the stronger child the feeding or setting role: that role makes him better and the other child faster. Let a rally won by the weaker child count double, so his team genuinely wants him involved. And never park the weakest child as the permanent ball collector — that is the child who needs the contacts most. More on big differences within one group is in coaching a team with big ability gaps.

When a child moves up a rung

Moving up nearly always happens too early or too late, because coaches look at the drill instead of the game. In a drill the ball arrives as agreed; in a game it doesn't. So use this measure: eight out of ten balls good in a game format, on two consecutive practices. If that works, you take the training wheel off. If it works one practice and not the week after, it was luck.

Move up per skill, not per child: a player who plays the ball directly just fine but can't get the serve over is on rung 3 for passing and rung 2 for serving. And don't wait for the group: if you only move on once the last child is ready, half of them are bored for six months. Putting a child back a rung after an injury or the summer break isn't a demotion but maintenance; say that out loud, because children hear something else otherwise.

Keep it simple: per child, per skill, which rung and when you saw it. Put that in the player notes in Koach and in February you can see which child has been on the same rung for three months — exactly the child you would otherwise miss, because it never complains.

Frequently asked questions