Player Development

Below are techniques that you will learn following our training system.

Serving

  • Posture
  • Right-handed servers = left foot slightly in front of the right
  • Left-handed servers = right foot slightly in front of left
  • Toes pointed towards the target
  • Toss
  • Able to toss ball consistently in front of your hitting shoulder
  • Arm Swing
  • Start with a high hand and elbow back by ear
  • Hand Contact
  • Contact the ball with the palm of the hand so there is a pop on the ball to create the float serve. There is good contact with the palm if there is a pop on the ball. If it is only the heel of the hand that contacts the ball, there is a thud sound, and if towards the fingers it sounds like a slap.
  • Weight Transfer
  • Understand how to take one step and rotate your hip through the ball to generate speed and power
  • Mentality
  • No back-to-back errors as a team or individual
  • Make the opponent pass after timeout (don’t miss a serve after a timeout)
  • Serve the sub 
  • Stay away from libero
  • Deep court serves 
  • Able to serve all 6 zones
  • Able to serve below a serving cord (between the top of the antenna and the top of the net tape
  • Serve ball at 30mph. The ball begins to move/float at 28 mph
  • Introduce the jump float serve. It may not be used in competition, but it needs to be ready for refinement by 13U

Serve Receive/Passing

Players need to develop a soft touch/sound platform…not swing. Players will learn the basics of platform adjustment (tilt). Players will learn basic movement (load and launch/shuffle step).

  • Footwork
  • Ability to shuffle behind the ball, drop step and t-stop
  • Don’t let the platform drop between legs when moving
  • Players should not be taking crossover steps when passing a serve receive ball or a free ball
  • Posture
  • Feet at least shoulder-width apart. You can consider feet more than shoulder-width apart for more balance and platform area between the knees
  • Medium height posture (not super low)
  • Bend at the knees and ankles to create a bottom-down position
  • Knees over toes, shoulders over knees
  • Head forward and thumbnails pointed towards the ground
  • Eye Work
  • Introduce reading a serve
  • Identify if it is going short or deep based on the speed of the ball and the server’s arm
  • Make athletes say short, mine, or deep as the ball is coming to them
  • Begin to introduce the terminology of serves
  • Top spin = drop ball
  • Float = going to move side to side
  • Block Touch
  • Introduce slow ball PUSH faster with shoulders
  • Introduce fast ball PUSH slower with shoulders
  • Learn how to cushion the ball for a soft pass and understand “quiet” platform skills.
  • Angels
  • Understanding how to create an angle by dropping the shoulder to point “platform to target”
  • Left and middle back = take the ball midline or off to your left
  • Mentality
  • No ball hits the ground without effort
  • No fear to pass the serve, want the ball
  • Being able to pass a ball to the target
  • Pass grade goal = 2.0 on a 3.0 scale
  • Consistently pass free balls to target 60-70%
  • Consistently receive service to target 45-55%

Setting

Seek out your best natural athletes (regardless of height) and encourage them to set. Stress the fact that they will be involved in every rally and will become the focal point of every team they play for. Have multiple athletes training as setters to create a large pool that will shrink as the athletes move up in age groups.

  • Footwork
  • Understand footwork to the target position
  • Able to do left, right, set footwork, and 4-step footwork to set a pass 10 feet off of the net using left, right, left, and right footwork
  • Able to get hips around the ball and square to the target
  • Receive ball over the top of the forehead (ball should hit your forehead if it were to slip through hands)
  • Semi-circle footwork- every setter should be able to do proper footwork to a ball in front of the target, off the net, and behind the target 
  • Hand Shape
  • Hands in the shape of a ball, a small triangle, and thumbs back
  • Pointer finger and thumbs should have an even distance of space
  • Understand “wrinkles in the wrist” and thumbs back
  • Finishing with a small triangle follow-through every time
  • Receiving balls with elbows bent and releasing with elbows straight
  • Players as young as 10U can start with medicine balls to improve hand and upper body strength
  • Emphasize starting with big hands, finishing with big hands when releasing the ball, and freezing with big hands. 
  • Use Legs
  • Understand knees bent when you receive the ball/straight when you release the ball
  • Legs are what help you push the ball to the target
  • Must have feet under the ball so you can take the weight transfer step
  • Out of System Setting
  • Every athlete should be able to platform set a ball 5 feet off of the net and 5 feet inside the court
  • To platform set, an out-of-system ball takes the ball sideways and down/up body weight to target
  • Mentality/Decision Making
  • Introduce to athletes that setting is not like “passing out candy”, and not everyone gets the same amount
  • Begin to teach the athlete to set the “hot” hitter when they are on
  • You can give the same hitter multiple sets in a row
  • Introduce the setter being an offensive option
  • LOCATION IS KEY FOR ALL AGE GROUPS
  • Put up a hittable ball
  • Able to set a 4, 2, and 8 all with hips square to the outside target
  • Able to platform set an out-of-system ball 5 feet off and 5 feet inside the court at 60% accuracy.

Attacking

  • Footwork and Posture
  • FEET TO THE BALL
  • Able to make correct 3-step approach (1st step = drive step and 2nd/3rd step = plant step)
  • Shoulders forward
  • Understand arms forward on first step and back on plant step
  • Use arms to explode off the ground
  • Understand how to jump straight up
  • Floating is minimal
  • Able to do proper block transition footwork
  • step, cross, hop footwork
  • Able to do proper base to read the defense to transition footwork
  • step, cross hop footwork
  • Able to do proper service to receive to transition footwork
  • turn, run, slant to get all the way outside (even with the 10ft. line)
  • Hand Contact
  • Spend quality time perfecting the hand contact. Teach the hard, wide hand, shaped like the ball.
  • Understand how to apply topspin to the ball by snapping the wrist. Creating spin is the number one thing to learn as a young player
  • Understand to contact the ball with the arm fully extended
  • Mentality
  • If you make a mistake, make an aggressive mistake
  • Always want the ball even after an error
  • Approach hard on every ball
  • Hit a ball to zone 1 and 5
  • Block, serve receive and play defense then transition to make the approach 
  • Understand body-to-ball position (Is a ball hittable)
  • Attacking 60-70% of 3rd contact balls

Defense

It is very important to teach how to execute floor techniques. This will help keep the athletes from getting hurt or sliding on their knees. It is also important to repeat footwork appropriate for ball play during training such as run-throughs, shuffles, running to the ball, and jump stops.

  • Footwork 
  • Step, cross hop for base to read
  • Shuffle through a defensive ball
  • Take a big first step to the ball by pushing off opposite leg
  • Step to the ball and then push off FRONT let to increase defensive range
  • Introduce floor moves and how to execute them (STAYING OFF YOUR KNEE), such as run and roll, run and slide, side layout, barrel roll.
  • Posture  
  • Bending at the knees not the waist
  • Bending at the ankles
  • Weight forward
  • Head and shoulders forward (lead with the head)
  • Hands neutral to be able to play balls with platform or hands
  • Positioning
  • Understanding base to read and moving to the dig position for one of these systems
  • perimeter
  • rotation
  • Mentality
  • Defense is an Attitude
  • All out pursuit
  • Every ball is YOUR ball. No hesitation
  • Mentality to KEEP BALL OFF THE FLOOR
  • No ball hits the floor
  • Be able to dig balls high and off the net
  • Perform basic defensive components: Position, Posture, Passion 
  • Show an understanding of basic defensive systems (freeball, down ball, etc.).  
  • Dig down balls to target 50-55%

Blocking

This is the skill you can spend the least amount of time training and focusing on, however it is still important for the players to learn the proper technique and basic footwork, and understand the basic goals of blocking. 

  • Footwork
  • feet shoulder-width apart, legs loaded
  • space between you and net
  • step, cross, hop for middle blocking footwork
  • Hand Shape
  • fingers spread apart
  • thumbs pointed towards the ceiling
  • understand going over the net not straight up
  • Set-Up & Timing
  • pin blocker set the block
  • hitter’s hitting shoulder should slice the pin blocker in half
  • the athlete jumps when their attacking arm starts to go forward
  • understand if the setter is in the front row or back row and who your hitter is
  • only single blocking the middles at this age
  • Vision introduce on, off, over eye work
  • Mentality
  • Learn how to get in front of the hitter every time
  • Block the path before blocking the ball
  • Be able to find your hitter
  • Be able to do proper footwork to get in front of your hitter
  • Understand a stuff block isn’t the only successful block
  • Teach slowing the ball down is equally as helpful