Attack-counter king's game

Queen of the Court five on five: the winning team stays on and the next ball follows immediately. There is no serve to catch your breath behind, so win a rally and you are attacking again straight away. Attacking and transition run into one another, exactly the way they do late in a long set.

10 players 12 phases ± 25 min 8 balls, full court From U19 upwards

Phase 1 of 12Two teams of five; the winner stays on — A opens the rally

Team A (P = outside hitter, S = setter, M = middle blocker, D = opposite, L = libero) The challengers 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

Match: 5v5 where the winning team stays on and the rally continues right away. Constant attacking and switching.

Attacking and switching straight into defense afterwards.
Winning two or three rallies in a row without sagging.
Choosing where to hit off what the block does instead of out of habit.

Coaching points

The winning team stays on, the losers rotate out.

That is the whole engine of this drill. Leave everybody on court and it turns into an ordinary scrimmage, and the reason to empty the tank on every rally disappears.

The hitter picks line or cross off what the block does.

Choose your direction during the approach and you will keep hitting into the block of a team that has worked out where you go after two rallies.

After your attack, half a step back, not forward.

The counter-attack in this drill arrives within two seconds. Drifting forward is exactly why a team that has just scored loses the next rally.

No pause between rallies; the next ball is already waiting.

The non-stop character is precisely why this drill is heavier than it looks. Put spare balls behind both end lines and there is nothing left to wait for.

Variations

Easier: The rally starts with a free ball instead of an attack, and the winning team stays on for three rallies at most.
Harder: Only points off the counter-attack count. Or: the team on court has to win three rallies in a row for one point.
With fifteen players: Three teams of five: two play, one waits. The losing team comes off and the waiting team goes straight on.
As a game: Every team counts its rallies won in a row. The longest streak of the session wins, not the highest total.

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 rules of Queen of the Court · hitting line or cross · switching from defense to attack