Volleyball coaching resources: free drills, plans and rotations
The short answer
Look for free volleyball coaching resources by task: drills, a practice plan, your rotations, and answers on rules and technique. Koach puts 200 animated drills, 10 practice plans as PDFs and a rotation generator online for free, with no account. The app itself is free to try for 14 days.
There are plenty of free volleyball coaching resources out there, but they are scattered: a PDF here, a video there, a binder at your club. This page goes task by task through what you can get for free, what to watch for and what you can use on our site without an account. And where free stops.
Which volleyball coaching resources do you actually need?
Coaches rarely go looking for resources in general. You look for something for a specific job: a drill for Tuesday, a plan for the season, a lineup for Saturday or the answer to a rules question. Whether a free resource really helps comes down to four things:
- Can you use it right away? A drill with a diagram or an animation is quicker to explain than a paragraph of text, and a plan with times for each block goes straight into the gym with you.
- Does it fit your group? The number of players and their level decide whether a drill works. Resources you can filter by group size save you a lot of searching.
- What do you give in return? Free sometimes means your email address, an account or a newsletter. Check what sits next to the download button.
- Can you pass it on? A clear explanation is easier to share with your players, and with the parents of your youth team.
Below you will find what is free for each task. We make Koach, so most of this is about what we put on our site for free, but it also covers what your federation and your club have to offer.
Free volleyball drills with animation
The volleyball drills on our site are all 200 drills from the Koach app, free to view with no account. Every drill has an animation you play phase by phase, a short description of each phase, coaching points and variations for when it turns out too easy or too hard. You can filter by category, from warm-up and passing to blocking and match play, and by group size: 1 to 2 players, 3 to 5, 6 to 8, or 9 players or more.
Would you rather download a bundle? Then first read why a volleyball drills PDF usually ends up in a drawer. In short: a long list does not help when you need five drills on Tuesday that fit your group and a single theme.
14 days free, no credit card. Add your team to the app and, at your next practice, pull up the drills that fit the number of players who actually showed up.
Try Koach with your teamFree volleyball practice plans as PDFs
If you don't want to build a practice from scratch every week, use one of the ten free practice plans. They come in five lengths: 8, 12, 16, 24 and 28 weeks, each in a youth version and an adult version. The youth plans are for teams still learning the game, with lots of ball contacts and lots of play. The adult plans are for teams that can already play, with more pace and more pressure. Both include a game-like drill in every practice.
Each plan has one 90-minute practice per week. On the site you see the theme of each practice; the PDF has the full practice with times and every drill. You download the PDF without giving an email address, and it is ready to print. Every drill in a plan has its own page on the site with an animation, so what you read on paper you can also show your players.
A plan solves a different problem than a single drill: the order. If you train passing first and the approach weeks later, you build on what is already there. Pick the length that matches the number of weeks you really have, not the longest one because it looks the most complete.
Free rotations and a lineup sheet
For your lineup there is the free rotation generator. Choose a 5-1, 4-2 or 6-2, enter names or jersey numbers and you see all six rotations straight away: who serves, who is in the front row and where the libero comes in. The print button gives you the rotations together with a blank lineup sheet for five sets, and if you want a PDF, choose Save as PDF in the print dialog. What you enter stays in your own browser; you don't need an account.
Looking for a free app as well, for keeping score, a whiteboard or the team calendar? Then see free volleyball apps for coaches. It shows, for each type of app, what is really free and where the bill shows up.
Coaching knowledge, rules and your first season
For know-how there is the Koach knowledge base, free and in six languages: English, Dutch, German, Spanish, Italian and Polish. It has hundreds of articles on technique, tactics, practice planning, youth coaching and the rules. New to coaching? Read getting started as a volleyball coach, which walks you through your first season step by step. Unsure about a rule? Check the overview of volleyball rules.
Also look at the website of your national or regional volleyball federation: that is often where you find the rules that apply at your level and the coaching courses on offer. Ask your club, too, whether there is a technical director or a shared folder of drills. That material fits how the game is played in your country and at your club. Koach is not affiliated with any federation and does not replace that material.
Volleyball coaching tools by task at a glance
| Task | Free, no account | What the app adds |
|---|---|---|
| Choosing drills | 200 drills with animation, filter by category and group size | The same drills, sorted by the number of players at tonight's practice, plus drawing your own drills |
| Planning a practice | 10 practice plans as PDFs, 90 minutes per practice | A program in blocks with minutes, saved as a template |
| Rotations and lineup | Rotation generator with a blank lineup sheet | Your own players, all six rotations and a lineup that rotates live |
| Know-how and rules | Knowledge base in six languages | In-app support searches the same articles |
| Attendance and scoring | A paper list you keep yourself | Attendance per practice and live scoring per player |
What does the Koach app do beyond free resources?
Free resources help you prepare a practice or a match. They stop at your own team: a PDF doesn't know who is coming tonight, and a printed rotation sheet is out of date after the first substitution. In the app you work with your own players: the same drills, your own practices and a lineup that goes with you to the match.
- The drills. All 200 drills are in the app's drill library, with the same animation. Sort by present players shows which drills fit the number of players at tonight's practice. With Make variation you create your own version of a drill, with Assign as homework you give players a drill to do at home, and with New exercise you draw a drill of your own, phase by phase.
- The practice. You lay out your program in blocks, each with a name and a number of minutes, and add your drills. Keep a good practice with Save as template, and use Copy plan to add the blocks from a template or an earlier practice to the date you choose. For every practice you track who was there.
- The lineup. In the Lineup view you put your own players in their spots, assign your setter and libero, and use View all 6 rotations to see how your team rotates through. You take that lineup to the live screen, where it rotates along when your team wins back the serve and where you score per player.
When are free resources all you need?
Free is enough if you are mostly preparing:
- You want ideas for your next practice. The drills on the site are made for exactly that.
- You want a whole season on paper in one go. Print a practice plan and work through it week by week.
- You want your rotations on a cheat sheet. The rotation generator asks for no account and no money.
The app pays off when you want more than preparation: knowing who has been at practice in recent weeks, scoring live per player, or sharing the same program and the same lineup with an assistant coach.
Koach is not for everyone. If you coach beach volleyball, Koach is not a fit: the app is built for indoor volleyball. The lineup and live scoring also assume six players on court, so in mini volleyball or other formats with fewer players on court, those two parts won't do much for you. Koach does not build a practice for you; you choose the drills yourself. And if you want everything on paper, use the PDFs on the site, because the app does not export PDFs.
What does the app cost when free isn't enough?
The resources on the site are free to use, with or without the app. You can try the app free for 14 days, with every feature and no credit card. After that you choose Coach for €2.99 per month (one team, two coaches) or Club for €9.99 per month (unlimited teams and coaches); on a yearly plan you pay €2.49 or €8.33 per month. Subscribe through the App Store or Google Play and you see the price in your own currency. Players and parents use their own account for free. All prices are on the pricing page. How to set up your team in the app the first time is covered in getting started with Koach, and what to look for when you choose an app in the volleyball app checklist.
Start with one plan and see what you miss. Print an 8-week practice plan and run it with your team. If you catch yourself counting heads every week, or reworking a drill again and again for the number of players who showed up, you know what an app would give you.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I find free volleyball drills?
The Koach website has 200 volleyball drills, free and with no account. Every drill has an animation for each phase, coaching points and variations to make it easier or harder. You can filter by category, such as passing, serving, attack or defense, and by number of players. The same drills are in the Koach app, where you add them to your own practice.
Is there a free volleyball practice plan PDF?
Yes. Koach has ten free practice plans: five lengths from 8 to 28 weeks, each for youth and for adults. Every plan has one 90-minute practice per week, with the theme, the times and every drill. You download the PDF without giving an email address, and every drill in the plan has its own page on the site with an animation.
Do I need an account to use these free coaching resources?
No. You use the drills, the practice plans, the rotation generator and the knowledge base without an account and without an email address. What you enter in the rotation generator stays in your own browser. You only need an account once you start using the Koach app for your own team.
Is the Koach app free?
You can try the app free for 14 days, with every feature and no credit card. After that Coach costs €2.99 per month for one team and two coaches, and Club €9.99 per month for unlimited teams. There is no free coach version after the trial. Players and parents do use their own account for free, and you can use the resources on the site without the app.
Can I use the drills from the website in the app?
Yes. The 200 drills on the site are the same as in the app, with the same animation. In the app you add them to your practice program, sort them by the number of players present, make your own variation or assign a drill to your players as homework. You can also draw your own drills.
Plan your first practice in Koach
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Get started with KoachOr read first what the volleyball coaching app does.