Short-serve game

The short serve is the ball that hardly ever gets trained and that puts two players in trouble at once in a match: the passer who has to come forward and the setter who wants to get away. Here only what lands in front of the three-meter line counts, so serving deep is wrong by definition. Five short serves on target is the win.

2 players 5 phases ± 12 min 3 mats, 6 balls, full court with net From U17 upwards, once the float serve is solid

Phase 1 of 5Only serves in front of the three-meter line count; the catcher stands behind mat 1

Server and catcher; the catcher stands behind the mat that is up next 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

Only serves in front of the three-meter line count; trains the tactical short float.

Keeping a serve short without hitting it softly.
Steering the flight path with the toss instead of with less power.
Feeling how small the margin is: too short is the net, too deep does not count.

Coaching points

Toss lower and contact the ball earlier.

Taking the power off is the reflex, but that gives a high arc that anyone can calmly step under. A lower toss makes the flight path flat as well as short.

Aim at the passer's shoulders, not at the floor.

A short ball arriving at knee height is simply passed. A ball that drops in at chest height in front of someone has to be played with the hands or with a step forward.

Look at where the setter is coming from.

In a match the short ball is awkward mainly because it lands in the setter's path to the net. On the mat you train the technique; the point of it lies in that spot.

Two balls into the net in a row: take half a meter more height.

Serving short goes wrong faster than serving deep. Better a ball that lands just behind the three-meter line than a run of balls in the net, because nobody learns anything from those.

Variations

Easier: Put the boundary halfway into the back court instead of at the three-meter line: everything landing in front of it counts. Serving is allowed from the three-meter line.
Harder: Only balls that actually hit a mat count, and the server has to keep a fixed order: mat 1, mat 2, mat 3 and back again.
With ten players: Five servers per side, three mats per half of the court and two catchers rolling the balls on. Every server gets three balls per turn.
As a game: Five short serves on target in a row is the win. A deep ball that does land in the court is not an error but does not count; a ball in the net puts the counter back to zero.

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: why the ball floats and how to hit it · the causes of a serve into the net · when serving short pays off and when to go deep