Volleyball Drills
for Player Development

Explore these essential volleyball drills about fundamentals of volleyball and learn skills every successful volleyball player has learned at some point of their career.

Drills can be divided into three categories:

• Skill, technical or fundamental drills
• Tactical or strategic drills
• Conditioning drills

In this section we focus on training of the skills and technical development. We start from the very basics, beginner volleyball drills and progress from that.

We want to pay special attention to the fact that top volleyball players practice fundamental skills also. They absolutely do.

Practicing fundamentals should be progressive and can be progressed much further into details than the basics of setting or passing. At the top level, the skill drills look a whole lot different compared to junior level. Please notice it is never too late to learn proper fundamentals, which are the key becoming a successful volleyball player.

Volleyball Skills Development - The Most Important Volleyball Drills

Compared to many other sports, skill and technical development plays a very important role in volleyball. Without developing great skills, it is impossible to think about playing volleyball at a higher level. The higher level a player plays, the more important it is to master every single skill.

Especially at a younger age, it would be important to let players play multiple positions and learn various skills equally. Very often coaches do not pay enough attention to the skill development.

Our courteous wish would be that coaches would put winning a little bit aside at younger age and focus more on the player and skill development, even if it would cost some games or matches. With higher skill level, a player would be prepared to play at higher level and maybe completely different position for some other coach in the future.

Volleyball Drills: Keep It Simple – Break Down the Drills

Even basic volleyball skills are very complex and it takes countless repetitions and practice times to learn them properly. To ease up the process, it is recommended to keep everything very simple and “break the drills down” for players to catch every aspect of them.

Practicing skills should be progressive; here is an example how to “break down” the volleyball drill and how to progress from the simple towards more complex drills. (This is just an example, not suitable for everything).

Example of "breaking down"

• Introduction – players mimic the skill without hitting the ball
• Practice the skill without footwork
• Practice the skill with footwork
• Practice the skill in game-like situation (and possibly adding a tactical aspect into it)
• Practice the skill in the complex game-like situation combining various skills together (plus possibly adding tactical aspects).

It is very important to notice that practicing on the most complex level requires highly skilled players.

For example, there is no sense practicing hitting combined with passing and setting, if a good set rarely reaches the hitter. It is more beneficial learning to hit from coach’s toss first and get several repetitions to the hitter. The moment when players are skilled enough it is time to progress to the complex level.

Breaking down skills or drills helps coaches to focus on the aspect they want to work on. Keep it simple!!

Volleyball Drills Related Pages

Essential Passing Drills
Explore basic volleyball passing drills - and tips how you can learn proper fundamentals of passing.

Essential Passing Drills II
More volleyball passing drills - and tips to help you organize those drills.

Passing Drills for Advanced Volleyball Serve Receive Techniques
Drills to improve your volleyball skills by extending your passing range.

Passing Drills for Overhead Volleyball Passing
Drills to teach overhead serve receive techniques.

Volleyball Beginner Drills - Setting Drills
Simple setting drills for beginners. Learn what is "Volleybal Juggling".

Volleyball Beginner Drills - Passing Drills
Simple passing drills for beginners. Learn how to "juggle" with volleyball.