Speedball 6-6

Speedball takes the serve out of the game: the coach feeds the balls in, and the moment a rally dies the next ball is already on the court. In fifteen minutes you play almost twice as many rallies as in a normal scrimmage. The first thing that breaks down is not the technique but the organization — players are still watching where the last ball landed.

9 players 8 phases ± 20 min Ball cart with at least fifteen balls, full court, two ball shaggers From U17 upwards

Phase 1 of 8No serve: the coach is ready with the first ball beside the court

Your own team (S = setter) The opposition 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

No serve; the coach feeds balls in continuously so there is hardly any dead time. Transition and organization.

Switching from defense to attack with nothing in between.
Finding your base position again while the next ball is already on its way.
Holding up physically: a lot of rallies back to back, with almost no dead time.

Coaching points

After a point the coach never waits longer than three counts.

Wait any longer and it turns into an ordinary scrimmage. The entire value of the drill lies in the absence of recovery moments.

Nobody shags balls while play is going on.

Put two players or parents on the sideline as shaggers. Otherwise you end up with someone bending down halfway through, right where the attack is about to land.

Call who takes the first ball before the coach feeds it in.

At this tempo there is no time to sort it out during the ball. Teams that call it beforehand last twice as long.

Play five-minute blocks and count the points out loud.

Without a score the tempo drops off within two minutes. With a short block everyone knows that going full out is doable.

Variations

Easier: The coach feeds high, easy balls with four counts between them. That leaves time to get back to base.
Harder: The coach alternates feeding left and right, and sometimes puts it straight in as a down ball on the three-meter line. Two balls per rally are allowed: if the first one dies, the second comes immediately.
With eight players: Four against four on a narrower court with one ball shagger per side. The tempo stays the same, the distances players have to cover get bigger.
As a game: Two five-minute blocks, switch sides halfway. The team with the most points across both blocks wins; a ball the coach feeds in badly does not count.

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: switching from defense to attack · getting more ball contacts per player · conditioning for volleyball players