Tips and roll shots only

The hard spike is banned. There is a blocker at the antenna and two hoops lying in the back corners, and that is where the ball has to go: short behind the block or over it in an arc. Hitters who can only swing hard discover here how many balls they normally leave unplayed.

3 players 8 phases ± 15 min 2 hoops, 6 balls, full court with net From U15 upwards

Phase 1 of 8The setter has the ball, the blocker is ready and the coach collects deep by the hoops

Your own team (S = setter) Blocker 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

No hard spikes; score with tips behind the block and roll shots into the hoops in the back corners.

The tip: dropping the ball short behind the block with an extended arm.
The roll shot: over the block with topspin, all the way deep.
Both shots off the same approach, so the block can read nothing from it.

Coaching points

You tip with stiff fingers, not with a soft hand.

A loose hand gives way and the ball drops straight down, often still on your own side. Stiff fingers actually steer it over the block.

A roll shot gets the same arm swing as a spike, you just come further over the ball.

The topspin pulls it down inside the lines. Without that rotation it becomes a high lob handed straight to the defense.

Watch the hands of the block, not the ball.

Tipping straight over the block does not work; beside it or behind it does. See the blocker's fingers and you know which of the two is open.

Hitting softer is allowed, approaching slower is not.

The defense reads your approach. The moment a player announces his tip by easing off, the ball is picked up before it even lands.

Variations

Easier: Take the block away and leave only the hoops; the flight of the ball first, the pressure later.
Harder: The block randomly jumps or does not. If it does not jump, the hitter still has to swing hard — so the choice is only made in the air.
With six players: Two blockers and a defender in the back court. The hoops stay where they are but only count if the defender cannot get to the ball.
As a game: A ball in the hoop is three points, a successful tip behind the block is two, any other ball in the court is one. First to fifteen.

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: tips, pokes and roll shots · what a block does with its hands · scoring smart without a hard spike