Effective Serving
Mary Wise, University of Florida Head Women's Volleyball Coach
Effective serving has always been essential in preventing a team from siding out. In the rally score era, it is even more important because a weak serve or an overaggressive serve that was once just a sideout is now a point for an opponent. One way to check your player's serving effectiveness is to rate the opponent's passing efficiency to their setter.
You can use the following scale:
• Zero-pass option: Opponent's setter cannot set any hitter. Setter gets 3 pts.
• One-pass option: Opponent's setter can only set one hitter. Setter gets 2 pts.
• Two-pass option: Opponent's setter can set at least two hitters. Setter gets 1 pt.
• Three-pass option: Opponent's setter can set all options. Setter gets 0 pts.
Courtesy of "Volleyball Skills and Drills," by the American Volleyball Coaches Association.
Visual Clues
Don Hardin, University of Illinois Head Women's Volleyball Coach
Visual cues are important in becoming an outstanding blocker. The five key visual cues a blocker should watch for in preparation for attempting to block a ball are:
• Identify the opponents' attackers (hitters)
• Glance at the pass (ball)
• Look at the setter (setter)
• Glance at the set (ball)
• Watch the hitter (hitter)
Courtesy of "The Volleyball Coaching Bible," edited by Don Shondell and Cecile Reynaud.
Communication
Joe Sagula, University of North Carolina Head Women's Volleyball Coach
Team communication is a key to strong team play. It needs to be clear and to the point for an offense to coordinate properly. If players neglect their responsibility to communicate to teammates, the team's system will break down. To ensure good communication, players must practice their verbal skills along with their volleyball-specific physical skills all the time.
Courtesy of "The Volleyball Coaching Bible," edited by Don Shondell and Cecile Reynaud.
Tooling
Jim McLaughlin, University of Washington Head Women's Volleyball Coach
"Tooling" your shot can be quite useful and should be included in every hitters "bag of tricks." To "tool" a shot, the hitter should make contact on the side of the ball opposite of where they want to hit it. Once contact is made, the hitter hits partially into the block and then follows through with their hitting arm (usually out of bounds). If the shot is performed correctly, the ball bounces off the block and either out of bounds on the opponent's side or just inside the three-meter line.
Courtesy of "The Volleyball Coaching Bible," edited by Don Shondell and Cecile Reynaud.
Ball Control
Taras Liskevych, Oregon State Head Women's Volleyball Coach and former USA Women's National Team Coach
Ball control is always a cornerstone for a team's success at all levels of the game. Very simply, the teams that have the best ball control and mastery of the six volleyball skills (serving, serve receiving, setting, attacking, blocking, digging) will be a contender at their respective levels. With the advent of rally scoring, the premium at the lower levels should be, more than ever, an emphasis on ball control! Every error results in a point. At the higher levels - top collegiate and international - attacking (particularly in transition), locking and serving factor heavily into determining the winner of the match.
Courtesy of "The Volleyball Coaching Bible," edited by Don Shondell and Cecile Reynaud.
