Arm swing against the wall

No net, no setter, no line to wait in: just a wall and a ball. The player tosses for himself and hits off the floor into the wall, so that in ten minutes he gets in more arm swings than in a whole practice built around hitting lines.

2 players 5 phases ± 10 min 1 ball per player, a free stretch of wall From U13 upwards

Phase 1 of 5Ball in two hands, ready for the arm swing against the wall

Players, each at their own stretch of wall Equipment Ball

This animation comes straight out of the Koach app. In the app you play it at your own pace and the positions carry your players' real names.

Open in the app

How the drill runs

What you are training

Wall spikes: toss the ball, elbow high, wrist over the ball off the floor into the wall, catch and repeat.

The wrist snapping over the ball, so that it turns downward instead of flying away flat.
A high elbow: the elbow goes forward first, only then the hand.
A toss that arrives in the same spot above the hitting shoulder every single time.

Coaching points

Toss above your hitting shoulder, not above your head.

A ball hanging above the head forces the player to lean back and the swing turns into a push upward. Above the shoulder he can actually get on top of it.

Elbow first, hand after.

The arm swing works like a whip: shoulder, elbow, wrist. Swing with a straight arm and you hit with your shoulder alone, giving up half your speed.

The ball has to hit the floor first and the wall second.

That forces a downward path. If it goes straight into the wall, the swing was flat — exactly the mistake that finds the net in the gym.

The non-hitting arm points at the ball and then pulls down.

That arm does the aiming and keeps the trunk square. Players who let it hang turn away during the swing and lose their direction.

Variations

Easier: Have the player hit the ball into the floor straight out of the hand, with no toss; only the wrist action, no timing.
Harder: Keep swinging without catching the ball: hit every rebound straight away, ten in a row.
With six players: In pairs at one stretch of wall. One hits five balls, the other watches nothing but the elbow and then gives a single cue. Then switch.
As a game: Who gets the most consecutive swings without losing the ball? A swing only counts if the ball hits the floor first.

Volleyball drills

4 players · 6 phases SafeVolley base round Warm-up 3 players · 5 phases Shoulder activation with band Warm-up 2 players · 6 phases Dynamic movement patterns Warm-up 5 players · 5 phases Core plank with rotation Warm-up

Read on in the knowledge base: the arm swing step by step · why the spike ends up in the net · training on your own against a wall