Sunday 19 June 2011

Fun Volleyball Drills

One challenge that every sports coach eventually must face is making practices fun. While repetitive drills are necessary for building skill and muscle memory, when players become accustomed to certain drills they are more inclined to turn their minds off and go through the motions. Instead, coaches must continually rotate drills and add fun and exciting new ones to their practice line up to keep players focused and sharp. Feel free to use one of the following fun volleyball drills at your next practice to break up the routine and challenge your players in new ways.


Bingo Volleyball

For the first of these fun volleyball drills you will need a large sheet of white paper and a black marker. Begin by brainstorming a list of some of the crucial skills and moves that your players need help with such as perfect dig, block, spike, etc. Once you've come up with at least 25 draw a bingo card on the sheet of paper, filling each of the squares with one of the skills and post it next to the court.

Now divide your team into groups of six for scrimmage. The teams play against each other as if it were a regular match with one key difference: each time they successfully execute one of the aforementioned moves, they earn that spot on the bingo card. Players must call the move before the execute it to earn the spot on the card.

The goal is to make a line of 5, at which point all members of the team must yell "Bingo". This game causes players to come up with a game plan that successfully incorporates the necessary moves to make a line of 5, which can often be radically different from their normal game plan.

Hit the Deck!

When searching for fun volleyball drills remember that the emphasis does not always have to be on hitting the ball. Volleyball requires many other skills that are often less recognized, such as the ability to drop and hit the floor without fear or hesitation. The following drill, which we call "Hit the Deck", will help your players overcome that hesitation.

Begin by having your players jog on the spot. Either at the sound of your whistle or when you yell the words "Hit the Deck", all players must drop to the floor instantly. If you'd like to up the competitive spirit of the drill, you can enforce a rule where the last player to hit the floor is out.

Building Defensive Toughness

The third of the fun volleyball drills I like to use to change up my practice routines is a simple variation on 2-on-6. For this drill, one team has 6 players and the other has only 2. To begin with, have the strongest players on your team as the outnumbered ones.

The 6-player team begins by serving the ball within two steps of a member of the 2-player team. The goal is not to try and humiliate the 2-player team; rather the goal is to have them get down and play defense. You'll really begin to notice your players develop their defensive toughness after running the fun drill at a couple of your practices.

Larry Reid has been coaching volleyball for well over a decade. You can get instant access to his championship volleyball practice plans by visiting his website:

http://www.volleyballpracticeplans.com/

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Beginning Volleyball Drills

Volleyball coaches often face certain hurdles that are common to all coaches. How do you take a bunch of players who have never played before and teach them the skills necessary to become an effective force? How do you create volleyball drills to erase the bad habits learned from elsewhere and have your players perform the way you expect them to? The good news is that both of these questions can be answered in the same way. You create good beginner volleyball drills. This is not to imply that you have only beginning players on the team, this is more in the realm of the beginning technical drills in the new season. Using these drills will correct bad habits or teach new players just the same.

One of the first beginning volleyball drills you may want to work on will be for passing. A good way to get the concept down is to have the team divided into pairs of players. The first player tosses an easy ball to the second, who then correctly passes the ball back to the first. You will want to set up a set number of correct passes, then the players change out their rolls. This ensures a good rotation, and allows both players in each pair to learn the correct method. Once the basic passing drill is mastered, add some difficulty by having the players pass it back and forth to each other. You can even have contests to see which pair can keep the ball going with correct passes the longest. These volleyball drills will condition the player on the correct form to follow when passing a ball that is coming in a steady and known trajectory.

Volleyball drills that work on setting the ball are crucial to successful game play. Setting is important for players to correctly perform as they can work as a pass and also set up critical kill shots. In order to drill on the correct form required for a good set, have pairs of players stand on opposite sides of the net. The players will then volley the ball back and forth, using only sets. This will reinforce the mechanics of the set, so the performance will become an automatic thing during play. Once the players are proficient with this, you can add a challenge by having the players move around to the court into different zones while continuing to set the ball. Adding these types of variations in your volleyball drills will help ready your players for real game situations.

Serving volleyball drills can be some of the most difficult drills to implement successfully. A good beginner drill is to have pairs of players stand on each side of the net. They will then take turns serving to each other. To start out, they will be standing on the baseline, close to the net. As they get the form and distance down, they will move backwards a small amount, until they can routinely serve from behind the court. Once they show that they have the skills needed to serve, you will have the "receiving" partner move around the court, so the server must hit different areas with their serve. This is one of those volleyball drills that will teach good form as well as precision.

These beginner volleyball drills can be used to help new players and returning players alike. They are simple to run yet have key basic components that can be built on for more difficult plays. They are part of the basic building blocks that are necessary for any player to have in their arsenal. Never underestimate the effectiveness of a good set of beginning volleyball drills.

Hayley Merrett, Author and Volleyball Coach Start winning more games now! Put the thrill and excitement of consistently winning back into your teams life. Sign up for 20 free drills at Volleyball Drills.
Good Team Spirit.

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Setting Volleyball Drills

A good coach knows that in all likelihood, every player on his team is going to have to have the ability to set the ball. Running good volleyball drills for setting will benefit the entire team, not just the normal setters. Because setting the ball is often the best way to recover a broken play, it is important to have the entire team work on their setting skills. These are some volleyball drills that will help everyone hone their skills to be beneficial to the entire team.


One of the volleyball drills that is a good jumping off point is known as the "Set to Box". In this drill, have a player standing on a chair, or on a wooden box with their hands in the air. The coach will then toss the ball to the setter, who will then set it to the hands of the player on the box. The object of this drill is for the setter to work on their form, and be able to visualize the play with a stationary target. This is much easier to see than when working with a moving target. To add this to your collection of advanced volleyball drills, you can rapidly toss ten balls in a row to the setter so that she gets into a good rhythm.

The next example of volleyball drills designed to help setters will help the setter watch the blocker with her peripheral vision. Have a blocker stand opposite the setter, on the other side of the net. The coach will then toss the ball to the setter. While the ball is in the air, the blocker will take one step either left or right. The setter should then set the ball in the opposite direction. Once the setter has the basics down for this set of volleyball drills, make it just a little bit harder. Toss ten balls in a row to the setter, having the blocker move with each ball. This gives the setter much less time to be ready to set, so she is forced to use her peripheral vision rather than just turning her head.

The final drill in this set of volleyball drills expands upon the blocker drill. This time, the coach stands in place of the blocker. A player will toss the ball to the setter. While the ball is in the air, the coach holds up 1, 2 or 3 fingers, indicating the direction that the setter should set the ball, either left, right or center. As with the other volleyball drills, you can expand this one by rapidly tossing ten balls in a row. Again, this causes the setter to use their peripheral vision more, while causing them to have to concentrate on smaller targets. To take it to an even higher level, the coach should change the height and position of his hands with each ball.

All good volleyball drills should be designed to help the entire team. These drills have been established to help both players who will only set the ball once or twice in a game as well as those who regularly set almost every play. This helps the players each build their own self-confidence, while building the team's confidence in each player. The team knows that any player will be able to set the ball where it needs to be when the time comes. Each of these volleyball drills will ultimately help build your team to be the best that it can be.

Hayley Merrett, Author and Volleyball Coach Start winning more games now! Put the thrill and excitement of consistently winning back into your teams life. Sign up for 20 free drills at Volleyball Drills.
Good Team Spirit.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Hayley_Merrett

World-Class Volleyball Players: Natalia MaLaga - An Unauthorized Biography!

Natalia Málaga is a former volleyball player and current coach of the Peruvian Youth Volleyball squad (19s), which will compete in the 2011 World Championships at Lima. She wants to make Peru one of the most successful and respected national sides in the Western Hemisphere. Twenty years ago, in October 1982, Miss Málaga became one of the youngest medalists in the FIVB World Cup history after winning the silver medal in her homeland. Previously, by 1981, she was member of a side of young up-and-coming athletes who came close to winning the Under-19 World Championship. She was four-time of the Peruvian Olympic Volleyball Team (Moscow '80, Los Angeles '84, Seoul '88, Sydney '2000). Because of her achievement and personality, she is a role model for many Peruvian and Latino athletes.


Málaga was born into a sporting family on January 26, 1964, in Lima, Peru's largest city and capital. Despite her short height, she (who stands 170m-tall) was regarded as one of the most important and popular players on the South American mainland between 1984 and 1993. During her sporting career, she was famous for her competitive spirit, discipline and Olympic ambition.

She, an expert in reception and defense, made her major debut on the senior team at the 1984 Summer Games at Los Angeles (CA), where she was a key-member of the national team that finished fourth in the Olympic Tournament (ahead of South Korea, Brazil, the Federal Republic of Germany/FGR and Canada). With the support of Man Bok Park, head of the women's Olympic squad, she was one of the leading players on the Peruvian national team until 2003.

By the mid-1980s, the South Korean Federation (with the backing of Man Bok Park) gave her a special invitation to play in the Korean League. Five years ago, she, at the age of 16, had competed as a rookie in the Games of the 22nd Olympiad in the Soviet Union (present-day Russia), together with Carmen Pimentel, Cecilia Tait, Denisse Fajardo, Gina Torrealba, and other Peruvian stars. They went to the USSR after winning the Under-19 South American Tournament in Santiago de Chile. Following beating Brazil, Málaga and her colleagues made history as they became the first Peruvian side to win the Junior SA title. At that year, they also gained the Under-17 SA trophy by defeating the side from Brazil (host country). In the next year, 1981, she and her team-mates improved their previous World Cup performance (Rio'77) when the squad was runner-up at the Junior WC in the United Mexican States, the first Latino team to win a silver medal.

With her accumulated experience in the 1980 Moscow Olympics and tours on Far East, Cuba, Eastern Europe, and Colorado Springs, she won her second consecutive continental title at the II South American Games in Argentina in 1982. Here she was named as one of the Most Valuable Players.

After being member of the team that surprisingly won the silver in the FIVB Women's Senior World Championship 1982 (held in Peru), she picked up a total of five South American titles (Sao Paulo '83, Caracas '85, Maldonado'87, Curitiba'89 and Cuzco'93) and two silvers ( Santo Andre '81 and Sao Paulo '91). In addition to these international trophies, she amassed three Pan American medals (2 bronze and 1 silver) from 1983 to 1991.

Without a doubt, her Olympic career reached her peak in the late 1980s when she and the Peruvian sportswomen finished second in women's volleyball at the Seoul Olympic Games. Upon winning the silver in the Republic of Korea, they captured the hearts of the Peruvians, becoming national heroes along with other famous individuals from Peru such as Javier Pérez de Cuéllar (UN secretary), Mario Vargas Llosa (author), and Teófilo Cubillas (former soccer player).

Before winning the Olympic silver, she won her third world-class medal as the national contingent became one of the three most outstanding teams on the Planet, after losing to Cuba (2-3) at Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic since 1993) in 1986. In that same year, she helped her squad to a second place at the First Goodwill Games in Moscow, behind the Soviet Union/USSR. Due to her excellent performance at Seoul'88, she moved to Western Europe to play in the Italian League (called one of the "best in the world"), alongside other names like Denisse Fajardo, Gina Torrealba and Gabriela Pérez del Solar.

Aside from winning several official tournaments, she obtained a number of non-officials events in West Germany (Bremen Cup), Japan (pre-Cup World), South Korea (Korean Cup), Switzerland (Samaranch Cup), and United Kingdom (UK Cup).

Peruvian-born Olympian athlete Málaga retired from volleyball in the early 2000s. Later on, she was named head coach of the Peruvian National Junior squad. She is well-known for her discipline, dedication and passion. Due her hard-working and perseverance, Peru claimed bronze medal in women's volleyball at the First Young Games Summer Olympics at Singapore City (Far East). She also guided the Peruvian squad to the Under-20 South American Tournament in Colombia, where Peru was runner-up (behind Brazil). However her goal is to lead Peru to the semi-finals of the Under-20 World Championships, which will be in Peru in July 2011. Among Málaga's most notable pupils re Gina López (1,86m-tall; a big talent in Peru's volleyball), Rafaella Camet (1,80m-tall), Daniela Uribe (1,83m), and Clarivet Illescas (1,82m).

Alejandro Guevara Onofre: Freelance writer. Alejandro is author of a host of articles/essays about over 220 countries and dependencies (and American States as well), from ecology, history, tourism and national heroes to Olympic sports, foreign relations, and wildlife. In addition, he has published some books on women's rights, among them "History of the Women of the United States" and "Famous Americans".

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Volleyball Training - A Great Way to Improve Your Skills

People these days are busy with volleyball training so that they can enjoy the summer sun. Volleyball is indeed a popular sport especially during the summer season. Summer is marked by the hot sizzling sun, the pristine beaches and of course people enjoying the season under beach umbrellas or playing volleyball. If you have tried to spend your summer season at the beach then you will readily understand what I am saying. Summer would not be as fun without the waves splashing in your face and the sun tickling your skin and making you tan. If you enjoy the waves and the beach, other than swimming, would you miss to learn how to jump higher and dunk that ball?


Summer is indeed a great time of the year wherein everyone appears to have a great time and spending the last happy moments of their lives. Summer would be more fun if you spend it along with friends who have been you through the years or spending with acquaintances you have just met. Summer would also be fun if you spare some time in having some volleyball training with the kids. Perhaps, learning volleyball together would serve as a good bonding moment for you and your family. Remember that all the other times of the year except on holidays, you can seldom spend time quality time with them because you are out for a business trip or you could not join the family for dinner because of overtime at work. To this end, this summer is perhaps the only time of the year wherein you can spend additional time with them. It would be fun to fall on the sand because you fail to get the ball tossed to you or to have that dunk that caused your victory. There can be a lot of things you can do with playing volleyball together at the beach along with people you enjoy spending time with.

Indeed, volleyball training will allow you to enjoy the summer sun while being active. This year, you need not be bored with the usual swimming and lying on the sand to be tan but you can recreate this year's summer to make it a whole lot fun for you and the people you will be spending the season with. The idea of sportsmanship can also be developed in this sport as well as it will allow you and your team to develop teamwork and cooperation. There are lots of benefits you can obtain by playing the sport this summer.

Interested in learning how to jump higher or a volleyball training course? Reach you jumping potential with this amazing program designed to increase your vertical in record time.

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Volley Ball and Practicing Solo Off an Uneven Wall

There are many things you can do to help your volleyball game even when there's no one else around to practice with. One neat trick is to get next to a very high wall that has a surface of uneven brick, and then at night turn on a strobe light and practice against that wall. The strobe light makes your mind adjust to the changes of the ball extremely rapidly between light flashes. It also makes you set up your hand positions and get into the right position well ahead of time.


This will help you increase your reflexes, and improve your hand position, almost so you have the ability to process the information even when you can't accurately see where the ball is or where it's going. It helps with your mind's ability to calculate the future position of the ball, it's trajectory, it's speed, and the point at which you will make the connection. Now mind you, using this technique is not easy and it's very difficult. But it is rather fun.

Many years ago, I went to a soccer camp and they set up a strobe light, and we played soccer. I was amazed at how difficult it was, how easy it was to crash into your opponent, and how hard it was to accurately kick the ball when you couldn't see it. However after doing it for an hour or so your mind adjusts to being able to intuitively sense where the ball is, where your foot position will be, and makes your mind process all the data extremely fast. This isn't easy, and not everyone can do it.

Now then, when I tried the strobe light with the volleyball against and uneven wall, I was reminded of how difficult it is, but how your mind works in real time in such activities. When I went online to see if other people were doing this in research for this article, so I could provide you this tip, I noted that martial artists, basketball players, and many other sports are now doing this in their training. It makes sense. I thought it was rather original a few decades ago, while I was at soccer camp.

Indeed, I think what you'll find is that when you hit the ball on an uneven wall you have no idea which way it's going to go with a strobe light flashing, and then all of a sudden it goes off in some direction and it's already moving quite quickly before you have a chance to go after it. And as you do you only get glimpses of the ball, and yet, you have to hit back, and this challenges your minds ability to process the information at a high rate of speed. This will definitely help your volleyball game. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow is the Founder of the Online Think Tank. Lance Winslow hopes you've enjoyed today's topic. http://www.WorldThinkTank.net - Have an important subject to discuss, contact Lance. Currently, Mr. Winslow is working on a non-fiction eBook about the Future of Human Sports.

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Strengthening Your Legs For Beach Volleyball

Playing sand volleyball is something that many indoor players shirk from. If you are interested in playing sand volleyball after playing indoor volleyball it is important that you understand how you can enjoy the sport.


First, you want to make sure that you are training your legs. There are a lot of people that do not understand how important this will be and how much stronger their legs need to be if they are going to be playing volleyball in the sand.

You must make sure that you are taking the time that you need to understand how you are going to strengthen your leg muscles. When you are playing in the sand you will find that your legs will tire very quickly.

As your legs start to get tired it will be harder for you to move across the court. It is imperative that you are able to move across the court because you will only have one other player with you to cover the entire court on defense.

You should also make sure that you are strengthening your legs so that you can jump. There are many people that have a pretty high vertical jump when they are in the gym but then struggle getting themselves as high as they can when they are in the sand.

Jumping off of the sand is much different than jumping off of the gym floor. When you are jumping off of the sand you have to realize that you will not be jumping off of a flat surface that is going to push back on you.

Instead, you are going to sink into the sand and you will have to jump off of that sunken surface. This is why it is so important that you are taking the time that you need to learn how you will jump out of the sand well.

As you are training your legs you want to make sure that you are running in the deep sand that you will be playing in. There are many people that try to prepare by lifting weights and working out all of their leg muscles in a gym.

Instead of working out your leg muscles in a gym you want to make sure that you understand how to train in the sand. You want to be familiar with the sand and how your body is going to move in the sand and how your sand will react.

Make sure that you are taking the time that you need to train your legs in the sand. Playing volleyball on the beach or in the sand is a great way to not only gain muscle but to work your cardiovascular system as well.

If you love playing volleyball take the time that you need to understand how you are going to play beach volleyball this summer. You will get a more intense workout and will be able to keep your body in great shape if you are playing volleyball in the sand.

Destry Masterson is a health, fitness and nutrition expert. She has written articles about various topics such as sports, nutrition, dieting, and exercise equipment.

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Destry Masterson - MyOnlineArticleWriting@gmail.com - Twitter: @DestryMasterson

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Volleyball Drills for Warming Up

All coaches know that in order to build a winning team you need to practice all of the skills necessary for a game. It can be difficult sometimes to come up with a good set of volleyball drills to warm up with before a game. Warming up is the way you help your players get their bodies used to the motions they will be using in the game that is about to start. If you have a good set of warm ups, your players will already be stretched out and ready to play when it comes time to start. Here are a few volleyball drills that you can use as warm up exercises to help your team get in that winning mode.

After stretching your team out, you will want to start with one of the basic warm up volleyball drills. Have the team line up on the back line behind the court, parallel with the net. The first person in line then rolls the ball to the other side of the court. Once the ball rolls under the net, the player runs under the net and retrieves the ball. The player then runs back and gives the ball to the next person in line. This continues until all players have rolled the ball once. You may want to have them run through the line again, this time bouncing the ball over the net, or even serving it all the way over. This set of volleyball drills will help your team with running and loosening their legs.

Another great one of the great volleyball drills to help your players get prepared to move will also help with arm stretching. Have a setter standing close to the net on one side of the court. The rest of the team will be divided into two lines. These lines will stand parallel to the net behind the service line. The first person in one line bounces the ball into the court. The first person in the other line must run up and dig the ball to the setter before the second bounce. The players then switch lines, going to the back of their new line. To add an element of difficulty to these volleyball drills, you can have the second player set the ball to the setter, rather than dig it.

The last of this week's warm up volleyball drills will help your team prepare for setting. Divide your team into pairs, facing each other. One player tosses the ball into play to the other player. The receiving player must then set the ball to them self then set it back to the first player. The first player sets it to them self, then back again. Continue this, having the players increase the space between them. To add variation to this set of volleyball drills, you can have the player set the ball to their partner, then run up and touch their shoe, returning to start position before the ball is set back to them.

Warming up with a good set of volleyball drills is an important part of any game. Using these drills will help loosen your players up and get them ready to play, and more importantly, win the game they are about to play. Next week you will see even more volleyball drills to help warm your team up before the game, be sure to come back.

Hayley Merrett, Author and Volleyball Coach Start winning more games now! Put the thrill and excitement of consistently winning back into your teams life. Sign up for 20 free drills at Volleyball Drills.
Good Team Spirit.

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