Volleyball drills · Match play · Defense · Attack

Rally marathon 4v4

This drill is deliberately long: the rally goes on until the ball is really on the floor, block, defense and a second attack included. Four against four means everybody is involved in every phase, so after ten minutes you can tell from the movement who is running out of gas. That is not a side effect but the point.

8 players 12 phases ± 30 min 6 balls, a full court From U19 upwards or seniors

Phase 1 of 12Line-up four on four; A serves from the right back

Team A (P = passer, S = setter, M = middle) Team B (P = passer, S = setter, M = middle, L = libero) 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

Long continuous 4v4 match drill: serve, serve receive, attack, block, defense and second attack — the complete rally from start to finish.

Finishing the rally instead of surviving it: the third and fourth attack have to land too.
Keeping switching between block, defense and attack when the legs get heavy.
Staying precise in the last seconds of a long rally.

Coaching points

Play sets of five rallies without a break and then rest for a minute.

Playing on without a rhythm only gives you fatigue. With fixed blocks you build a load that looks like a match set, where the hard points also come in clusters.

Use the landing after the block to turn straight away.

A player who first checks whether he got a touch is too late for the counterattack. Turning back into the court belongs to the blocking move, not after it.

Call again on every second attack who is coming in.

In a long rally players go onto autopilot and two of them arrive at once. Naming every attack again costs nothing and saves you a handful of collisions.

Mistakes in the last two contacts are not laughed off.

The tired mistake at the end of a rally is exactly the mistake that costs you a set. Name it just as loudly as a mistake on the first ball.

Variations

Easier: Rallies start with a free ball and there are fifteen seconds of rest after every point. Play on a narrower court so there is less ground to cover.
Harder: The coach throws in a new ball straight after a dead point, so the rally effectively runs on. A rally only counts once it has had at least three attacks.
With ten players: Four on court per side and one substitute per team who replaces the hitter who just finished the rally.
As a game: A point from a rally with more than two attacks counts double. Play to 21, switching sides at 11.

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: defensive drills low and early · scoring when the pass is not perfect · training fitness and jumping power