Volleyball drills · Match play · Serving

Serving pressure 4 on 4

Four against four with the serve as the subject: the serving side may and must take risks, the receiving side still has to turn it into an attack. Because the rally is simply played out, you see straight away what a tough serve costs — not in aces, but in attacks that no longer come from outside.

8 players 9 phases ± 25 min 8 balls, a full court, marker cones to mark out the serving zones From U17 upwards

Phase 1 of 9B float serves from the right back; A is in serve receive

Receiving team (P = passer, S = setter, L = libero) Serving team 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 with the serve in focus: B serves tough on purpose, A has to handle serve receive perfectly and set up the attack right away.

Serving with risk: hard and at a zone, not just in.
Serve receive under pressure, with the job of keeping the setter reachable anyway.
Attacking off a pass that is not perfect.

Coaching points

Every serve has a target the server calls out loud.

Serving without a target gives you a ball down the middle, and that is the easiest ball there is. Call your zone and afterwards you can also see whether you hit it.

A service error costs the serving side a point, but so do two easy serves in a row.

Without a counterweight, servers start playing safe the moment they miss one. This rule keeps the pressure on without turning the drill into a miss-fest.

The passer moves towards the ball, not backwards with it.

On a float serve, backing up is the most common mistake: the ball then drops in behind the platform. A step forward turns an awkward ball into a normal one.

On a bad pass the setter calls outside immediately.

The team has to know the ball is going high to position 4 before the hitter starts his approach. Otherwise it becomes a set out of necessity to a hitter standing still.

Variations

Easier: Serve from the attack line and only at the big zones. The pass only has to get above the attack line to count.
Harder: Every serve has to hit the seam between two passers or land in zone 1. A serve at the free player counts as a fault.
With ten players: Four on court per side and two players behind the end line who only serve; after five balls they switch with the passers.
As a game: The serving side gets two points for an ace and one point for a rally won, the receiving side one point per successful side-out. Play to 21.

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: where you serve and why · passing a float serve · measuring aces and serving pressure