Tip chase

From the box the coach makes a full swinging motion and then tips the ball just behind the three-meter line. So the defender has to react to the arm and not to the ball. What makes this drill special: the save is not the end — a support player is standing ready and the ball has to go back over the net.

2 players 6 phases ± 15 min 6 balls, a sturdy box, full court with a net From U17 upwards

Phase 1 of 6Coach on the box with the ball; defender in base, helper in zone 1

1 = the defender chasing the tip, 2 = the support player in zone 1 Coach 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

Tip chase: the coach fakes a swing and tips short; the defender sprints, saves it with a pancake and a second player makes the ball playable.

Reacting to the attacker's arm swing instead of to the ball.
The pancake under time pressure, out of a full sprint forward.
Playing the save out into a real counter-attack.

Coaching points

Watch the elbow and the hand, not the ball.

A tip gives itself away just before contact: the elbow drops and the hand opens instead of closing. A player who waits for the ball only sees it once the ball is already dropping.

Be stopped at the moment of contact, even when you expect a tip.

Leaning forward for a tip leaves you no chance on the hard-driven ball, and every attacker works that out within two balls. Defending means choosing without leaning in advance.

The last meter goes low, and the hand hits the floor before the body does.

On a pancake the hand decides whether the ball comes up. A player who dives first and reaches out afterwards ends up with the back of the hand under the ball and sends it into the stands.

Every tip you save turns into an attack.

Players celebrate the save and stay on the floor. In a match a saved tip only pays off once the ball goes back over the net — which is why the support player is there, and why the player who made the save keeps moving.

Variations

Easier: The coach announces the tip and places it closer to the defender; the save may go up with two hands and does not have to be played out.
Harder: The coach chooses freely between a tip and a hard-driven ball, and the player who made the save has to hit the third ball themselves instead of letting the support player set.
With six players: Three pairs rotating; whoever saves the tip becomes the support player next, and the support player joins the back of the line. That way everyone gets both roles.
As a game: Ten tips per player: one point if the ball comes up, two points if the counter-attack goes over the net. Anyone who gets past twelve has won.

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: the tip, the dink and the roll shot · reading the attacker's hitting arm · covering the short balls