June 2023 Coaching Tip

Tip by Cheryl Burris-- Panama City, FL.

Tug o'War - A good competitive game for serving/serve receive. Divide teams equally. One team is serving, the other team has a target, and three players in serve/receive, any extra players form a line behind the end line, they will fill in for the person who passes. That passer becomes the target and target goes to the passing line.

The "flag" in the middle is 5 points. The servers are trying to get to 10 points, passers to 0. There is only one score, it changes up or down based on play. Servers are trying to get aces (+1), passers are trying to get perfect passes (-1).

If the servers get an Ace the score goes to 6, if the passers get a perfect pass, the score goes to 4. You keep adding or subtracting until one side wins, then the passers become the servers.

We allow the passers to get a second touch on the ball, we call it a wash and the score remains the same. Allowing the second touch (by any player on that side) really encourages running down balls and keeping balls in play.

To begin with, missed serves are a wash. As my players got better at serving, serves into the net were a -1 but missed serves out were a wash.