Advanced Volleyball Practice Drills – Volleyball Passing Drills with Serve

• Divide the court into small sections, for example into four sections. Then require players to serve first to section 1 (which is the 10 feet or 2,33 m area next to right side line. From the back line all the way to the net). The player needs to put the serve to that section.



• Even if there will be a passer on the court to pass, still use that section as a target - the serve needs to land on it. The passer stands on his/her natural serve receive position; therefore the balls should be landing his/her right side.
  
  Even if passer knows what is the goal of the serve, coach needs to make sure that passer doesn’t cheat and stand in the middle of the narrow area to pass. Coach need to make sure players on serve receive use the same positions as in the match.



• After the first section serves are done. Players start serving to the second section (2nd quarter) of the court. Again if there is a passer, s/he needs to stand in natural serving position.



• Of course coach can use other kind of areas or targets for the servers – we have found out those section works very well. It allows players to serve hard jump serves, floaters, short or deep serves. Players can mix up their serves – and challenge the passers. It is recommended that there are several, at least 3 servers for each passer so tempo will be fast for the passer and the players have enough time to focus on each serve they do – just like in the match.

• There is an important idea behind this drill. Serving to this section may feel an easy task for an experienced player – most experienced players are probably able to do so.
  
  However, this drill is specifically made for players to practice their hard servers. In this drill it is very important that servers hit the serves hard – they are absolutely allowed to miss the serves – that’s the only way players will learn to deliver hard serves into that area in the match.
  
  The missed serve is not a big deal because there is another person ready to serve right after.

• This drill serves also the passers very well – it allows passers to pass hard serves – if the area would be bigger and servers rip their best serves hard – obviously there would not be any chance for passers to get the ball up.



• This drill will act as a huge confidence booster for the servers when they see they are able to serve the as hard as they can to a small area. It will be difficult first, but after a while servers will notice they are able to hammer the ball to the target. When players’ skills get better coach can even make the section smaller.

• In case you are wondering why we divided the court into four areas, here is the reasoning for it.
  
  Well, we thought usually there are three passers to pass the balls on every rotation. By dividing into four areas players learn to hit the balls to the both lines (2 of them) and also the seams, the areas between the players (2 of them). One day we just came up with the sections, tested them and been using it since then - they have been working fine.



• Of course coach can add another passer to the court, especially when working on the second or the third quarter. It teaches players to learn to pass the ball between the players.

• To get this drill into another level coach can allow passers to swing after a pass, of course against the block. Or to add a separate hitter to swing the ball.



• Remember, what we talked earlier about blocking; if you want to make it a real challenge for the hitters, put the blockers on the box and make them work on their hand position – just by standing on the boxes without jumping.

• go to How to Play Volleyball section


• click the "Volleyball Strategies - Understanding Serve/Serve Receive"- link.