Tip by Whitney Armistead, Hilton Head Island, SC.
Our goal is efficiency in SR and being comfortable being uncomfortable.
One of our teams favorite drills that they ask for by name is the Monday Drill (because we do it on Mondays). We adapted this off of a simple SR butterfly, but mad it so that we are tracking the competitive moments that lead to success. It is a SR efficiency game that warms up all of the skills in one shot and we do it at the beginning of practice after warm up to get our competitive, ball control, and focus under control. We usually set a timer for 15 minutes and see if we are earning more than we are giving away- the math to winning matches. Ideally a 2-1 ratio is the goal.
Side A-
3 players in SR- one to fill in waiting behind.
1 setter (we usually rotate every 5 minutes or so)
2 hitters on the pins (although they can hit from any location based upon pass quality)
Side B-
One blocker
Remaining players are serving.
Servers call their seam and serve tough. After serving they sprint in to a base position and try to dig the oncoming attack.
Passers pass, call out the quality of the pass (0-3), and cover the hitter. Setter runs what they feel is the most efficient setting option based on who their hitters are and the pass quality. Attackers swing attempting to avoid the blocker and the defender.
Passer replaces hitter, hitter replaces passer, blocker shags the ball and gets to the end of the serving line, server goes to side A to fill in as a new passer.
We have competing concepts while working together to be efficient. We keep a scoreboard (One side counts errors, the other counts effective SR conversions) and attempts on a pitch counter. We will give a bonus point for 3 perfect conversions in a row, and we give bonus points for accomplishing smaller goals that change throughout the drill (Zone to zone swing, Deep line kill, Middle tempo swing, Setter attack). We will also give a bonus for the defensive side successfully shutting down the attacker or digging a ball outside of their zone.
It is really fun and has helped us be much more efficient in SR