Volleyball drills · Match play · Attack · Defense

Six-on-five with a rotator

A full six receives against a five, and that one player of difference shapes the entire game. The five have to choose which zone they give away; the six have to actually find that zone instead of defaulting to the outside. It is the drill you end up with anyway when eleven players turn up to practice.

11 players 9 phases ± 25 min 6 balls, full court From U17 upwards, with eleven players

Phase 1 of 9Six players in serve receive against a group of five; B serves from the right back

The receiving six (P = outside hitter, M = middle blocker, D = opposite, S = setter, L = libero) The five 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: six players in serve receive against a group of five, a full rally from serve to counterattack.

Going after the open zone instead of playing the attack out of habit.
With five players, deliberately giving away part of the court and sticking to it.
Playing a full rally right through the counter-attack, despite the difference in numbers.

Coaching points

Rotate the extra player through the five after every rally.

Otherwise the same player is the spare one and the same player is the missing one for half an hour. Rotate and everybody plays both sides of the difference.

The five leave the middle of the back court open, not the corners.

Four defenders cover the corners better than the middle, and hitters aim for the corners anyway. Give away the middle and you lose fewer balls than if you give away a corner.

The six call the open zone out loud during the build-up.

The advantage only exists if the setter sees it. A back-row player calling out where nobody is standing is worth more in this drill than the hitter is.

Points for the five count double.

Without a handicap the result is known in advance and the resistance drains away. With double points the five keep fighting and the six really have to play sharp.

Variations

Easier: The five are handed the rally once they have played the ball three times and got it over the net. The serve comes from the three-meter line.
Harder: Six against four, or: the six can only score with a back-row attack.
With twelve players: Six against six, with one team sending a different player to the sideline for every rally and going back to full strength after the point. The uneven numbers stay, but the player sitting out keeps changing.
As a game: Play to 21 with the five starting 5-0 up. The six have to make up that deficit inside the set.

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: playing with fewer than six players · the job of the front-row player who is not blocking · serve receive with three, four or five players