Volleyball drills · Match play · Serving

Serve duel six on five

A drill in which the serve is the starting point of every point: five servers take a ball in turn and the receiving six try to turn it into a side-out. Because there is a different server every time, serve receive never gets two identical balls in a row. The rally is then played out in full, so a good serve also has to actually turn into a point.

11 players 9 phases ± 25 min 10 balls, full court From U17 upwards, with eleven players

Phase 1 of 9Six players in serve receive, five players serve in turn; A starts

The serving five (S = setter, M = middle blocker, P = outside hitter, D = opposite) The receiving six (P = outside hitter, D = opposite, S = setter, 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

Match drill around the serve: every rally starts with a tough serve and the receiving team tries to score.

Serving with a plan when you only get one ball per turn.
Serve receive against a different server every time, and so a different ball speed every time.
Finishing off the rally after a serve that has put the other team under pressure.

Coaching points

Every server gets eight seconds from the whistle.

That rule applies in a match too, and it is exactly the players who cannot finish their routine who put the serve in the net. Here you practice it under the same time pressure.

The server calls his zone before he tosses.

Without that call you cannot tell afterwards whether a missed serve was an execution error or a bad choice. That distinction decides what you train next.

With the server changing every ball, serve receive adjusts how deep it stands.

A float serve asks you to stand two steps further forward than a jump serve does. Passers who always stay in the same spot lose out against half the servers.

The five do not serve until everybody is on court.

In this drill the previous server is often still watching his own ball. Waiting until the team is complete is part of the serve in a match as well.

Variations

Easier: Serving is allowed from the three-meter line and the rally stops after the receiving team's first attack.
Harder: Every serve has to go at the seam between two passers or at the libero. Two easy serves in a row cost a point.
With twelve players: Six servers and six receivers. After every round of six balls the teams swap roles, so everyone serves and passes equally often.
As a game: The servers get two points for an ace and one for a rally won, the receivers one per side-out. First to 21, then swap.

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 8-second rule on the serve · hitting the float serve · teaching the jump serve