Volleyball spiking drills: from a toss to attacking under pressure
The coach on a box beside position 3, a cart of balls and a line of six players taking turns to hit as hard as they can: that is what attacking practice looks like at an awful lot of clubs. Everyone works hard, everyone laughs, and on Saturday the first spike is back in the net. This piece shows how to build that same hour as five steps, so that what works on Thursday also exists in the match.
The hour almost every team runs
A tossed ball is a fine starting point. The trouble is that most teams never move on from it. In a match the ball never comes out of the coach's hands, there is always someone on the other side of the net, and it is rarely the hardest swing that wins the rally but the swing that fits the moment. A drill in which those three things are missing trains exactly one thing: the contact itself.
There is a second, more mundane reason that hour returns so little. In a line of six at one net, a player hits ten or twelve balls in twenty minutes. That is too few to change anything, and against it stand ten minutes of queueing in which nobody does a thing. Volume and realism are the two dials you turn, and in the classic toss-and-hit drill both are set low.
The fix is not a new drill but an order. Below is a ladder of five steps. Each step takes away one piece of predictability, and you only move up once the step you are on is running.
The ladder: five steps from toss to pressure
- Step 1 — the contact. Hitting from standing or off your own toss. No approach, no opponent. You train the hand on the ball.
- Step 2 — the approach. A full approach on a predictable ball from the coach. You train timing and the jump.
- Step 3 — a real set. The ball comes from your own setter, with all the irregularity that brings with it.
- Step 4 — opposition. There is a blocker and a defender. The hitter has to choose instead of execute.
- Step 5 — pressure. A score, consequences and tired legs. This is where you find out what is really there.
The rule for moving up is simple and works at any level: if more than seventy per cent comes off well, the step is too easy and you go up. If it drops below forty per cent, you go back a step — not because the players cannot do it, but because below that line there is nothing left to learn and it only frustrates.
More important than the steps themselves is this: touch at least three steps in every attacking practice, and never finish on step 1 or 2. A team that hits off a toss all season becomes good at hitting off a toss.
Steps 1 and 2: the swing and the approach on a ball that does nothing
Drill: swing control from the three-metre line (8 min). Two lines facing each other on either side of the net, everyone on the three-metre line, one ball per pair. From standing, off your own toss, hitting over the net with a straight arm. The demand is not power but placement: the ball has to land in front of the three-metre line on the other side. Twenty swings per player, and that fits into eight minutes because nobody is waiting. What you correct is the wrist: a ball that flies flat over the net and lands out at the back was hit with a stiff hand. Exactly what should happen is set out in learning to spike in 5 steps.
Drill: approach without a ball (5 min). Eight approaches along the sideline, with a full arm swing and a landing on two feet. It feels childish and it is the cheapest gain available: nine out of ten attacking problems at club level are approach problems. Watch the last two steps — they should be long and low, not short and skippy. The build-up is in the three-step approach.
Drill: toss with a zone (10 min). Now the complete attack on a high ball from the coach, but with one demand added: the ball has to land in the back half of the court. Ten balls per player, counting out loud how many fall in the zone. That zone demand is the difference between hitting and hitting somewhere, and it costs you nothing.
Step 3: the first real set
The moment the ball comes from a human being, everything changes. A setter never puts up two balls exactly alike, and that is not a problem to be polished away — that is the skill.
Drill: fixed pairs, twelve balls (15 min). Put the setter at position 3 and work with fixed setter-hitter pairs instead of a line that keeps rotating. Twelve balls in a row per hitter, and only then swap. Two mats or cones on the floor: one deep down the line, one short cross-court. The score: a mat is two points, a ball in the court one, an error nothing. First to fifteen and you are done.
Why fixed pairs. Timing is not a general skill but an agreement between two people. A hitter who gets a different setter every three balls learns nothing about the moment he has to leave. Count on ten to fifteen balls in a row before it starts to settle — and accept that the first four of those are ugly.
Variation for advanced groups: the setter deliberately alternates high and low without announcing it. The hitter has to adjust his approach instead of hoping the ball is right. This is the hardest form on this step and immediately the most useful.
Step 4: there is someone on the other side
One blocker changes an attacking drill completely, because the hitter suddenly has to play towards something instead of away from something.
Drill: choosing against half a block (15 min). One blocker at position 2 who closes the line or the cross-court at random on each ball, and one defender in the back court. The hitter gets a set from the setter and has to play into the open space. Score: a point in the open corner two, a ball in the court one, blocked or out minus one. First to ten.
What you will see happening here. Half your players choose during the approach, look at the ball and not at the block, and so hit well by accident or wrong by accident. The correction is one sentence: look up in the air, not down at the floor. That takes weeks, not one practice.
Phase 2: add the tip. The hitter may also drop the ball just behind the block, which is worth two points if it lands within three metres of the net and the defender does not get to it. As soon as the tip counts, the blocker stands differently and the whole thing becomes more real at once. The techniques themselves are in tips and roll shots.
Step 5: attacking under pressure
On this step you add no more technique. You add consequences — and fatigue, because the attack that fails on Saturday is rarely the first of the set.
Drill: the series of three (15 min). One hitter plays three balls in a row without a break: first an attack out of a normal set, then an emergency ball that the setter deliberately puts too far off the net, then an attack after he has dug a ball from the coach himself. All three have to land in the court; one error and the series starts again. Four attempts at most, then the next player is up. Count on one or two players per practice getting through it — that is part of the point.
Drill: attacking game three against three (18 min). A fixed setter on both sides, two hitters and a blocker per side, and only attacking points count. A service error or a rally lost on the pass is worth nothing; a scored attack counts double. That way all the attention is on the third ball while a real game is being played.
What both forms do is turn the consequences dial. That is the cheapest way to make a drill resemble a match, and the reason it works is set out at more length in game-like drills.
Never let a hitter swing out of the cart when he is tired. The last ten balls of an attacking block are the balls in which the technique collapses and the risk of a shoulder or knee complaint goes up. Finish your attacking hour with a game form, not with one more line.
Twelve players, one net and no queue
The best attacking drill is worthless if eight people are watching it. With a normal group and one court you therefore work in stations rather than in lines:
- Station 1 (net, 5 players): the drill of the day, with setter, blocker and defender.
- Station 2 (side, 4 players): swing control in pairs over a stretched line or against the wall — this is step 1 and it can always run.
- Station 3 (back court, 3 players): approach without a ball, jump series or defending the balls coming out of station 1.
Rotate every six minutes and keep the cart at the net filled with at least twelve balls, with one player doing nothing but feeding. Two rules keep it standing: no more than three people in a queue, and the coach talks between balls, not while someone is hitting. More ways of taking the standing still out of your practice are in stop standing in line.
Count on forty to sixty swings per hitter in an attacking practice. Below forty, too little happens to teach anything; far above sixty, the quality goes down and the load goes up.
What you measure, and how much is enough
Inside the drill itself, count nothing more complicated than hit, court or error — a player who has just rotated out can keep that on his fingers. The number that says something over a period of weeks is the hitting percentage from the match: kills minus errors, divided by the total. Write it down for a three-week block and again afterwards. If it goes up in practice but not in the match, you know you stayed on step 2 or 3 too long.
Watch the load as well. Jumping and hitting is the heaviest combination in the game for knees and shoulders, and two hard attacking practices back to back is too much for a growing player. Alternate an attacking hour with a practice that leans on passing, serving or defence, and spend five minutes on how players land — see learning to land safely. If a player keeps having pain in the shoulder, the knee or the back, have it assessed by a doctor or physiotherapist rather than sitting it out; an overloaded tendon is not helped by hitting a bit softer for a while.
Frequently asked questions
How many spikes should a player hit in one practice?
Forty to sixty full attacking swings is a good range for a club practice. Below that there are too few to teach anything; above it the technique sags and the load on shoulder and knee rises. With youth players in a growth spurt you stay at the lower end and spread the volume over two practices.
Can I run spiking drills without a good setter?
Yes, but not by skipping the setter. Let the coach or a player with good hands deliver the set from a box beside position 3, so the ball at least sits consistently. As soon as your own setter can put up twelve balls in a row, he takes over — the irregularity he adds is part of the drill.
From what age can you start with real spiking drills?
Children pick up the swing and the rhythm of the approach through play from about eight, on a lower net and with a lighter ball. The full attack at match height, out of a set and against a block, only comes as strength and coordination grow with them. Always start with placement as the demand and only much later with power.
What do I do with a player who hits every ball out?
Change the score rather than the player. As long as a hard ball that lands in is worth the same as a placed ball, he will keep hitting hard. Make a mat or a zone count double and let a ball hit out cost a point; within two practices you will see the hand on the ball change, because now he needs topspin to score.
How do I train attacking with only six players?
Fix one setter, two hitters at the net, one blocker on the other side and two players who feed and defend. Rotate in blocks of four minutes. With six players you do not need stations: the waiting time is short anyway, as long as there are enough balls not to have to collect them.
Should I split attacking drills by position?
Not at the base — the ladder above applies to everyone. Once players have a fixed position it pays to split for the last twenty minutes, because an outside hitter mostly gets high balls out of a mediocre pass and a middle mostly gets fast ones. Position-specific forms are in drills for the outside hitter.
