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Tip by Paul Dill, MIT in Cambridge, MA.   Dig To Self Triples:This is done in a Queen of the Court style with a coach feeding in a down ball to the winning side and losing team shagging and getting back in line. Coach feeds in down ball and a player must dig the ball to her/himself and then set a teammate either front or back row. The rally continues with the same dig to self rule in effect throughout. This teaches players to be accountable for a quality first touch since they must set the second touch. They also...

Tip by Craig Cummings in Jonesboro, AR. A 6v6 team defense drill I like to use early in our season to reinforce positive performance execution is Nev's for Points: The defensive side is in a specific rotation, and their goal is to earn 15 points from 20 balls. The offense side must run basic 4-1-c attack for the first 10 balls, after that they can run anything. Coach tosses to any of the five players on the offense side (setter has released). The defense can score a point from a: block, dig that the setter can use their hands on,...

Tip by Daniel Hart, Pulse Athletics VBC in Yorba Linda, CA. When coaching athletes on passing I use 3 basic questions to get them to understand what they are doing! Questions 1: Did the ball hit your "sweet spot"? The "sweet spot" is when the ball hits both of your arms evenly at the proper place. Most athletes tend to have the ball only hit one arm, hit their thumbs, or the ball hits the arm to high. We encourage the athletes to track the ball to their platform and this will help with having the ball consistently hitting the...

Tip by Lori Aleshire from Waynesboro, VA.  Serve-Serve Receive Drill * Team Play- Score starts at 18-15. Team with 15 is on Serve Receive (SR) all the time. Serving team can rotate every 3 serves. Receiving team does not rotate since they are working on a particular SR rotation. Game to 25, -1 for any unforced error (UE). Winning team gets a Big Point. Once the game is over the recieving team will now serve in the new game. When the team recieves for a second time they should move to a new rotation. 1st team to get 6 Big...

Tip by Susan Kentner, Bismarck Henning HS, Bismarck, IL This is a super fun competitive drill and the girls love it! Blanket Drill: Put a tarp or several blankets over the net so neither team can see the other court, play 6 on 6 and coaches take turns throwing any kind of ball across the net at one of the 6-member teams, they play it out and we keep score....when that rally is finished another coach throws the ball to the other side and we continue to play. The girls have to really watch the ball to see where it...