Set-and-hit from position 4

A simple drill for a big group: the coach feeds the ball in, the setter sets outside and the player at the front of the line hits. The return here is in the number of balls per player, so anything that holds the line up — hunting for balls, talking, waiting — costs you repetitions straight away.

9 players 6 phases ± 15 min 8 balls, a ball cart, half a court with net From U15 upwards

Phase 1 of 6The coach stands across the net with the balls; three hitters in line, the rest wait

Your own team (S = setter, P = outside hitter, M = middle) Coach 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

Attack build-up: the setter sets outside and three hitters take turns attacking from position 4; the line keeps rotating.

Volume: as many complete approaches per player as possible in a short time.
The same set every time, so the hitter only has to find their own timing.
Rotating through without gaps between two balls.

Coaching points

The next player is ready while the last ball is still in the air.

Otherwise you halve the number of balls per player. Mark one starting spot and agree that somebody is always standing on it.

The same set, every single time.

In this drill the setter is not a participant but a tool. If they set high and wide to the same meter every time, every deviation in the attack is down to the hitter — and that is exactly what you want to be able to see.

Do not start your approach until the ball leaves the setter's hands.

Leaving too early is the standard mistake in youth volleyball, and in a line it reinforces itself: everybody copies the rhythm of the player who went before them.

Swap the setter out in time.

A hundred sets back to back is heavy on shoulders and fingers. Somebody else after ten or fifteen balls, or step in and set a while yourself.

Variations

Easier: The coach throws high to the outside, with no setter involved.
Harder: The hitter calls line or cross before the approach, and has to hit it that way.
With six players: Two lines, at position 4 and position 2, fed alternately; that means the setter has to back-set as well.
As a game: The line plays together: ten attacks in a row in the court without a mistake. One mistake and you start over.

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: drills for the outside hitter · learning to spike in five steps · building your practice in blocks