Drill by Taylor Stallman from Phoenix, AZ.
A drill to emphasize 1st Ball Side Out (FBSO), and minimizing errors.
One side serves 5 balls in each rotation. The other side receives the entire drill (or you can modify to alternate who serves and receives), and are the only team scoring. So if you go through all 6 rotations, there are a total of 30 balls served. After those 6 rotations you should have a point total, which the other team then tries to beat.
The scoring works this way:
3 points- First Ball Side Out
2 points- Missed Serve by opponent
1 point- Any other point the receive team earns (usually in transition, block, or opponent attack error)
Bonus Point (at any time)- Run a Middle or Back-Row Set, depending on what you emphasize that day in practice.
-1- Swing in the net. Errors out-of-bounds are preferred on aggressive swings.
-2- Aced by opponent.
We use this drill every practice because it gets a lot of slower serving and passing reps. If you want to keep it fast, you can give the serving team 7-10 seconds to get back and grab another ball, that way they keep moving quickly.