Dive-and-roll mat circuit

Two mats side by side, each with its own line beside it, and a coach feeding them in turn. Because you roll through after your dive and walk back around the outside, the drill keeps running with no waiting. Meant as floor work at the start of practice, while shoulders and hips are still fresh.

10 players 9 phases ± 15 min 4 balls, two crash mats, half court From U13 upwards

Phase 1 of 9Two mats with a line beside each; the coach has the ball

Two lines of players; the letters are simply their normal court role (L = libero, D = opposite, P = outside hitter, M = middle blocker, S = setter) and play no further part here Coach 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

Defense: players dive over the mat to the ball and roll on to the next station. Training falling technique and range.

A lot of diving repetitions in a short time, thanks to two mats and two lines.
Rolling through and getting up as part of the movement, not as a separate action.
Getting shoulders, hips and back warm and loose before the real defensive work.

Coaching points

Roll through after you land and get up in the same movement.

Stay down on the floor and you are practicing falling. Roll through and you are practicing defense — because in a match the rally is still going after your dig.

Switch diving side every round.

Everybody has a favorite side and drifts to it by themselves. Without a rule a player spends half a season training only his strong side and keeps standing still on the other one.

Keep the tempo high, but stop the line the moment the technique slips.

In a continuous drill like this the quality goes first and the enthusiasm goes last. Ten clean dives are worth more than thirty sloppy ones.

Run this after a proper warm-up, never as a finisher.

Floor work with cold or tired players is exactly how wrists and shoulders give way. Mats make the landing soft, they do not make the muscles strong.

Variations

Easier: The coach places the ball straight above the mat and the player starts from a squat; the roll-through may be practiced without a ball first.
Harder: The ball comes down just past the mat so a real lunge is needed, and the coach feeds two balls in quick succession to the same line.
With six players: One mat and one line, but with two balls in circulation: while one player is getting up, the next ball is already on its way.
As a game: Four minutes, line against line. One point for every dig that comes back to the coach playable; landing on your knees costs you a point.

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 RAMP method for your warm-up · rolling and getting up after a dive · protecting shoulders and wrists