Koach · Volleyball practice plans
A 24-week youth volleyball practice plan in six phases
Sessions one to sixteen teach a youth player the skills. Sessions seventeen to twenty-four hand the same skills back as a job the team has to do together. Session thirteen makes the setter set; session seventeen makes everybody set, including the back row. Session two builds a platform; session eighteen makes three passers responsible for the seams between them. Session five gives each player a serve they can repeat; session nineteen asks them to keep it while somebody reads the score out loud.
That second pass is what separates this length from the sixteen-week version. The closing four evenings are game sense: free balls treated as chances instead of a breather, short-court games with three times the touches, attacking from position four, three and the back row, and a last night played under a scoreboard. What the plan never asks for is six rotations.
What your team will learn
- Move to the ball early and stop before every contact
- Serve overhand with a routine they repeat every time
- Approach left-right-left and choose to hit, tip or roll
- Defend low, fall safely and block with hands over the net
- Call every ball before they touch it, and play three contacts
- Pass serve as a unit and keep talking under pressure
How the plan is built
Ball in hand
Ball control, the forearm pass and overhead passing
Over the net
Serving, the approach and the arm swing
Off the floor
Defensive posture, falling safely and blocking
Playing together
Setting, calling, transition and the full game
Sharper skills
Setting from anywhere, team serve receive and reading the game
Game sense
Free balls, small-sided games and playing under a score
The sessions
One line per session: the focus and what you work on that evening. The full session, with timings and every drill, is in the PDF.
-
1
Everybody on the ball
Ball contact and court feel
Game: Triples tournament 3v3 -
2
The platform
The forearm pass
Game: Queen of the court -
3
Hands like a basket
Overhead passing
Game: Four-on-four complete -
4
Moving to the ball
Getting to the ball early
Game: King's game rotation -
5
A serve you can repeat
A serve that works every time
Game: Serve + free ball wash game -
6
Serving to a zone
Serving with a target and under pressure
Game: Serve duel six on five -
7
Left-right-left
The attack approach
Game: Five-on-five full rally -
8
Hit it above you
The arm swing
Game: Bonus-point game -
9
Low and ready
Defensive posture and reading
Game: Neville's pepper (3v3) -
10
Falling without hurting
Falling technique
Game: Six-on-three — overload complete game -
11
Hands over the net
Blocking
Game: Match format with rotating serve -
12
Block and defense together
Block and court defense as one unit
Game: King's game over three zones -
13
The second ball
Setting
Game: Bingo-Bango-Bongo -
14
Call and cover
Communication and coverage
Game: USA drill -
15
From defense to attack
Transition
Game: Speedball 6-6 -
16
Playing it all together
The complete rally
Game: Match with rotation -
17
Everybody can set
Setting from anywhere on court
Game: Three-on-three with subs at the net -
18
Serve receive as a team
Passing as a unit
Game: Side-out per rotation -
19
Serving that hurts
Serving with intent and under score pressure
Game: 22 all -
20
Reading the game
Watching the setter and the hitter
Game: Double decker -
21
Free ball and down ball
Converting the easy ball
Game: Serve + free ball wash game -
22
Small games, big learning
Small-sided play
Game: Short court 2v2 -
23
Attacking from anywhere
Attacking outside, middle and back row
Game: Five-on-four — attacking with overload -
24
Under the scoreboard
Playing under pressure
Game: Bingo-Bango-Bongo
Where this block fits in a season
Plan this one backwards. Sessions twenty-one to twenty-four only pay for themselves while there are still matches left to win, so count back twenty-four evenings from the last fixture that matters and start there — usually the first week of the season, sometimes the second or third. Everything before phase five will survive a lost evening; the game-sense block will not. One thing this length does not have is a closing night: session twenty-four is a working session, so a last evening with parents and cake is yours to add.
What you see at the end
The clearest test is a substitution. By session twenty-four nobody on your bench is a liability in a position they have not played: every player has set from all three back-row spots and attacked from four, three and behind the attack line. Free balls get finished rather than returned — the plan asks for ten in a row. Defenders say out loud where they think the attack is going, and are wrong out loud, which is the point. Serve receive has a number attached: eight passes in ten into the setter zone.
The drills in this plan
Every drill has its own page with an animation you can play phase by phase.
Questions coaches ask
We play six-a-side league. Where do rotations come from?
Not from this plan — it stops before the rotations phase. That is less of a hole than it sounds: rotations are learned in matches and fixed in five minutes at the start of a session, not taught in ninety. Draw the six base positions on a board, walk them before the warm-up, and spend the evening on the plan. If you want them trained properly, the twenty-eight-session version does it.
Our numbers drop after Christmas. Does the back half still work?
The first sixteen sessions run fine on eight players. The last eight are hungrier: free-ball formation wants six on court, session twenty-three is five against four, and the side-out game needs a rotation to move. With seven or eight, keep the drills and shrink the court — session twenty-two is built on short-court two-on-two and works with whatever turns up.
Some players fall apart when the score matters. Is that block worth it?
That is the reason it is in there, and the reason it comes twenty-first rather than sixth. The pressure sessions are deliberately low-stakes: both teams start at 22 all, so a lost point costs nothing real, and the rule that decides the small point is whether the team went quiet, not whether it won. Players who tighten up have something to practise; they do not have something to lose.
Put this plan in the app
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