Battleship serving

Three hoops are three ships, and a serve that lands in one sinks it. On the other side stands one player who guards his fleet and rolls the balls back, nothing more. The drill is small enough for a handful of players and still gives every ball an outcome.

3 players 7 phases ± 15 min 3 hoops, 6 balls, full court with net From U13 upwards

Phase 1 of 7The hoops are ships; b1 guards his court and a1 aims at h1

Servers The player who guards the ships and rolls the balls back 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

Battleship: the hoops are ships; serve them to the bottom, first to sink all ships wins.

Accuracy on a small, fixed target instead of on a whole zone.
Two servers dividing up their targets instead of doubling up on one.
Seeing what a narrow miss is worth: just next to the hoop is still an excellent serve in a match.

Coaching points

Divide up the ships before the first ball goes over.

If both servers aim at the same hoop you sink one and the other two stay afloat. Agreeing who takes which ship is the entire tactic here.

Call a ball that touches the hoop but does not land in it a near miss.

Otherwise it sounds just as wrong as a ball three meters wide. Players have to feel that they are heading in the right direction, otherwise they throw out a technique that is actually sound.

Put the hoops in places that matter in a match.

Three hoops in the deep corners and on the short middle spot train something completely different from three in a row. Choose them the way you would serve in a match.

The guard moves, the hoops do not.

He makes the target area visually busier without changing the task. That resembles a match, where there is always somebody standing near your target too.

Variations

Easier: Two hoops close together in the back court, and a ball that touches the rim counts. Servers who cannot make the distance start at the three-meter line.
Harder: Five ships per side, and a ship may only be sunk once the ship next to it is already gone. That forces an order.
With four players: Two against two: three hoops and a guard on each side. Both sides serve at the same time, so you hear the opponents' balls landing.
As a game: Both sides lay out their own three hoops while the opponents look away. The first side to sink all the ships across the net wins.

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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: why a drill has to be game-realistic · training with six players or fewer · serving drills zone by zone