Advanced Team Play Drills
Vic Lindal
For all team play drills it is very important to figure out in advance what
you wish to achieve. What is the picture of a great result for your team and
specifically for the drill.
You can do this by knowing what your ultimate system will look like at the end
of the season. This takes planning and foresight by the coach. Yes! it helps to
know who you will have, but more importantly, you need to know what it will take
to win in your league. The coach must do and "E.P.V.", End Point
Visualization. I believe in showing the team the full team play systems in the
first practices. This means everything on day one and day two. No question there
can be lot's of confusion but this method pays off in the end. I remember in
1994 with our 18 boys team. We introduced a whole new service reception, called
the "Break Out" (all players stand in the middle of the court and wait
until the server starts the toss before we move to our positions.) This system
was designed to cause uncertainty and havoc with the other team. In our first
few practices, it only caused havoc and uncertainty with our team. We stuck with
it, and that is the key, and won the Canadian gold.
There are two other methods that coaches use to teach team play. One is to watch
and see what our team is able to do this year and the other often combined with
this approach is to teach the systems incrementally or in parts. Sometimes we
say that we will add things later. I have a strong believe in giving everything
and then breaking the system into parts in order to work on specific elements of
the system. Have found that we can cut parts of the system later but have never
found we were able to add later. For example if we want to run an "X"
on free balls, then we better do it (even badly) on day one.
Key principles when running team play drills.
- Be absolutely clear on what a great performance looks like. Our motto is
to paint a picture of a great performance for every drill and every skill
within the drill. For this, you must use the EPV system and pace it back to
now. For example: You might be running a quick 3-1 (quick ball 3 feet to
left of centre). We want to know exactly where the ball is to be hit to and
know all the covers on the play. Now you can pace it back to the hit, the
set, and the pass etc.
- Keep score and have some consequence. Keeping score sharpens the focus.
Consequence means someone wins.
- Play every ball to conclusion. Design drills that continue. The is
essential for simulation.
- Design every drill to be game like. Simulation is the most important word
in coaching and maybe the most abused.
- Drills are to be run at game tempo or faster in the later part of the
season. They can be run slower in the early season.
- Intervention is important. Must be in two parts. a) if it is done right
away, the players must know and be told in very specific terms. Avoid the
use of "But." b) if the skill or action has not been carried out
correctly, then quickly run on the court and have the specific action
repeated correctly, sometimes with the coach throwing the ball. This is
called redirection. In Blanchard's "One Minute Manger," he talks
about one minute praising and one minute reprimands. We do not have to use
one minute reprimands very often but we do need to use redirection and one
minute praising. When the players do it right they must know exactly what
they did right.
- Players must know the purpose of the drill, and must be able to visualize
how this drill fits into the game plan. Take time to run a visualization
session prior to every drill. We know visualization works so we put it into
every drill. Have them see and feel the perfect result. Having the players
fully appreciate the reasons for the drills is very important. Brent Rushall
in reviewing Robert Christina's work had this to say:
"The basis of transfer from training to competition performances is
the components shared by both tasks. This concept has gone unchallenged for
almost a century. The greater the proportion of components of training tasks
which match those of a required competitive performance, the greater will be
the positive transfer. However, this transfer is modified by an athlete's
recognizing the components which are similar between both settings and
actively promoting their transfer.
The greater the perceived (recognized) similarity of the training and
competitive situations, the greater will be the amount of transfer. No
transfer takes place when similarities are not recognized. In some cases, when
dissimilarities are perceived, an athlete's application quality at practice
will be degraded.
Implication. For full transfer to occur, athletes have to be aware of
the elements/components practised in skills that need to be transferred to the
competitive setting. Practice activities are detrimental to competitive
performances when items are perceived to have few shared components and many
distinctive/irrelevant ones."
Drill administration is important for every drill: Things to think of:
- Do we have enough balls?
- Who collects the balls?
- How are the balls stored and handed to the coach?
- What is the rotation?
- What are the boundaries? (many of our drills use various side lines so it
is important to know what we are using for each drill)
- What is the scoring system?
- How many players will we use?
- Can we hit anywhere on the net?
- Is there a penalty for losing?
Examples of Advanced team play drills
Game one: The permanent setter & middle hitter (King or Queen) of
the court):
Objectives
- Train the setter (with repetition)
- Train the middle hitter for either a 31 or 51 or a step around.
- Service reception practice.
- Serving practice.
- Practice hitting to zone one.
- Line blocking and 31 blocking.
- Line hitting & line defense.
Method:
&
remain
as permanent players and work on their various combinations.
&
move to the scoring side, to the side line, then back on to the non scoring
side.
starts
with a serve and then runs on to the court to defend.
The four person side plays the ball and the game is on. Yes the side with four
has an advantage (all the more reason to get over to the scoring side). When the
game is under way you can use all four to return the ball but remember that the
setter is back row.
We make modifications to this game by putting one permanent setter on the non
scoring side, or sometimes we will have the same configuration on the non
scoring side for setter and middle. Then we have a contest on scoring with these
players (the setter and middle) as a separate game. Again they can only score on
the scoring side which is the service reception side.
We use the following drill/game as a warm up at every practice. This is
fundamentally the same as the previous drill/game but has some modifications.
Purpose:
Serving, service reception, front row setter practice, middle hitting and step
around, and back row hitting. Good practice at receiving the ball in zone one.
Zone one is one of the toughest spots to defend and transfer from. We used to
make players serve from zone one, but this is not necessary with the new rules.
Method:
Serving from the non scoring side.
Notice that we have a permanent setter, but the middle is not permanent,
although you could make the position permanent and put one more player on the
scoring side. The key again is to get to the scoring side. Important to not
allow players to run for balls into the next court.
All of these games can be run as regular king of court scoring or you can use a
wash type drill where you have to get two in a row to count. If you are on the
scoring side then you get the point, if you are on the serving side you get to
go to the scoring side. We use the team that is out to throw the balls.
With these drills we have also done service reception and serving stats. These
stats are kept by the players that are off. There is a clip board ready. The
stats give an added incentive to doing well.
Team play defence
Purpose:
Practice transition off a spike from position #4.
Method:
The setter and middle blocker are permanent. Sometimes we have an extra setter
to rotate in on every other play.
This drill is started with a spike from the coach. The coach slaps the ball.
Just as the coach slaps the ball the left front and left back move back to their
appropriate positions. The setter and middle blocker prepare to block. The coach
hits the ball to the scoring side. The game is on. The setter can set middle,
left front or left back. The key is to score and stay on the scoring side or
side out and get to the scoring side. There are variations on this drill: For
example: you might use the left front to cover tips, if this is the case then
you have only one digger. Sometimes we use a permanent middle back to give us
practice at taking the deep dig cross court shots . Lots to play with. The coach
can be on a chair or toss and jump and spike or use a real hitter. Sometimes a
real hitter does not give you enough practice. This game can also incorporate a
wash system.
Wash drills are basically tow or three rallies that must be won in a row before
a point is scored. With this king of the court drills the teams that are off run
the drill.
Cross court continuous game.
Purpose:
Practice at digging when the ball is hit from position 2 to positions 2,1 and 6.
Method:
The coach or player starts the game with a tossed ball set off the net to
position #2.
Note the setter on the scoring side is permanent. You may have a permanent
setter on the non scoring side as well playing right back.
Note the side lines. The only restrictions are that you must hit the ball in the
areas but you can hit and play the ball form anywhere on the court.
Note there is a permanent middle on the scoring side. Optional but a good idea
for blocking.
Our Favorite Wash Drill: Bingo, Bango, Bongo
Professor Yoshida
from Japan introduced this to us.
Start with a coach on each end line. You may run this with the ball being
projected to the side by the coach by throwing it over the net.
Ball starts as though it has had one touched; the coach from one side throws the
ball hard to the floor to the setter. This is Bingo. If you win the rally then
you get the second ball called Bango and so on to Bongo. If you get the point on
Bongo you have in effect won three in a row. You now have the chance to serve
for a real point. When you score a real point then you rotate. Full six
rotations and you win. Notice that if you miss at any point in the Bingo, bango,
bongo or the serve then the other team is under way, with their bingo, bango
bongo, and serve. This drill gives good practice for defence and free ball. Has
the added pressure of serving after you have fought hard to get there.
This is only one great example of a wash drill with the emphasis on free balls
and serve for point.
If you want to work on serve and service reception then you will start with the
serve and call the serve Bingo and then go to a free ball for bango. You can
stop here or go on to the bango. The key on wash drills is to determine what you
want to concentrate on. The US men's team in 84 and 88 wanted to concentrate on
service reception and defence so all their drills focused on this. For example
the first ball was a serve to the A team, the second ball was a free to B. The
idea being that you need a reception to get the side out and you need defence to
win a point. Now if the A team is much better than the B team then you go to a
third ball to the B team. The key on unbalanced teams which will be the case
"A team against B", you will always want the A team to have to win one
or more rallies than the B team.
