12 Best Volleyball Drills to Maximize Athlete Performance

Whether you're coaching a group of aspiring beginners or honing the skills of seasoned players, our round-up of volleyball drills aims to address your coaching needs. This blog aims to explore a diverse range of drills designed to enhance agility, power, technique, and overall game proficiency.

We have outlined 15 volleyball drills that are simple to coach yet will have a profound effect on your team's performance.

Volleyball Passing Drills

1. Passing Ladder

• Have three players stand on one side of the net with their backs to it. These will be the tossers.
• Have an additional three players line up in a single file line. These will be the passers.
• Passer A will start by passing the volleyball to Tosser A.
• Tosser A will return the ball to Passer A, who will then pass the ball to Tosser B.
• Once Passer A has received the ball from Tosser C, have the next player in line (i.e., Passer B) start the circuit.
• Note: Double up on this drill, having 3 passers and 3 tossers run through the exact same motions on the other site on the court.

2. Shuffle Passing

• Have all players line up in a single-file line directly across from the coach.
• Serve the ball to the first passer, either serving the volleyball to the left or right.
• The passer will have to quickly follow the ball and return the pass.

What does this volleyball drill teach? Speed. Players will have to be quick on their feet, making it to the appropriate side of the court in time to return the ball.

3. Pipeline Passing

• Pair players together for this drill. Each passer will stand in between two pylons facing each other. Note: The pylons will be 10 feet apart.
• Passer 1 will pass the ball to Passer 2, shuffle to the left, touch the pylon, and then shuffle back to the middle of the pylons: all before Passer 2 returns the ball back to the passer.
• Once Passer 1 reaches the middle of the pylons, they will pass the ball to Passer 2, who will do the same (shuffle to the left side, touch the pylon, and shuffle back to the middle).

What does this volleyball drill teach? Endurance. Players will need to maintain a good pace, running to the ball before it drops and not tiring too quickly.

Volleyball Serving Drills

4. Serving Around the World

• Split the court into 6 zones.
• Divide up your athletes into two teams, forming a single file line on each side of the court.
• Goal of the drill: The first team to successfully serve the ball into all 6 zones wins.
• Players on each side of the court will take turns serving, moving to the back of the line after they have taken their turn.

Tips:

• Zones don’t have to be hit in ascending order. However, to make it harder, you can tell players they must hit Zone 1 first, Zone 2 second, etc.
• Rotate the type of serve (overhand, underhand, and jump) as each player makes their way to the “serve” position.

What does this volleyball drill teach? Aim and accuracy. Players will have to work on hitting the ball into a target on the court.

5. Serve Competition

• Divide your player into two teams, with one player on each team going first as the server.
• Goal of the drill: Hit 12 serves (as a team) landing in-bounds on the other side of the court.
• Each team will rotate through players, taking turns serving.
• To make this drill more challenging, the coach will shout out what type of serve the player has to achieve before each round commences.

What does this volleyball drill teach? Aim. To hit 12 successful serves, players need to focus on hitting the ball with intensity to get it over the net and in bounds.

6. Run and Serve

Set up:

• 4 players will be placed on each side of the court.
• Place volleyballs at an equal distance between each other on the baselines of the court.
• 8 feet behind the volleyballs, place four pylons beside each other.

Execution:

• 4 players will start standing directly behind the volleyball.
• On the coach’s whistle, players will sprint to the pylon and back to the volleyball.
• When they reach the volleyball, they will pick it up off the ground and attempt to make a successful serve.
• If a player makes a successful serve, swap in another player for the next round. If a player doesn’t make a successful serve, they will have to participate in the drill again (until they make a successful serve).

What does this volleyball drill teach? Endurance. Players will need to make a successful serve following a sprint.

Volleyball Hitting Drills

7. Wall Balls

Set up:

• Put two pieces of tape on the wall.
• Depending on the average height of your players, place one piece of tape at 6 and one piece of tape at 8 feet.

Execution:

1. Have players line up in a single file line.
2. The first player will stand about 10 feet away from the wall.
3. Player 1 will hit the ball to the ground (aiming it at the ground between them and the wall).
4. Goal of the drill: Each player will hit the ball with enough force so that they hit the 6 and 8-foot tape markings.
5. Once the first player has hit both tape targets, move on to the next player in line.

What does this volleyball drill teach? Power. Players must hit the ball with enough force so that it bounces to a target on the wall.

8. Squat Balls

1. Have players partner up for this drill. One player will start in a squatting position (around 1 foot away from the net) and one player will start as the server.
2. The player in the squatting position should have their feet shoulder-width apart, toes slightly out, hips below the knees, and knees bent.
3. The player in a squat position will be served the ball. From there, they will have to jump up and attack the ball, hitting it over the net.

What does this drill teach? Explosiveness. Having a player start in a squat position will teach them to explode upwards with a lot of force to successfully hit the ball over the net.

9. Approach and Spike

Set up:

• The coach will stand 1 foot away from the net.
• Players will line up in a single file line, taking turns working on their approach and spike.

Execution:

• Players will only be able to take three steps forward (they will have to carefully judge how far back from the coach they want to start).
• As the player is approaching the coach, the coach will throw the ball in the air and the player will attempt to spike it over the net.
• After rotating through all the players, the coach can stand 2 feet away from the net and repeat this drill.

What does this volleyball drill teach? Strategy and footwork. Because players only have three steps before they can spike the ball, they must determine how big their steps need to be to make contact.

Volleyball Blocking Drills

10. Swing Block

Set up:

• Place two attackers on one side of the net facing forward. One will be to the far right and one will be to the far left of the net.
• Place one blocker on the other side of the net, standing in the middle of the court.
• The coach will stand behind the two attackers.

Execution:

• The coach will toss the ball to either the left or right attacker.
• As the attacker makes a move, the blocker will have to perform a swing block to negate the attack, either moving quickly to the left or right to block the volleyball.

What does this volleyball drill teach? Footwork. A swing block requires the blocker to use specific footwork (usually a 3-step crossover) to help them gain more height and momentum in their block.

11. Side-To-Side Blocking

Set up:

• Place two attackers on one side of the net.
• One attacker will be to the far right and one will be to the far left of the net. Note: Each attacker will always have access to a volleyball.
• Place one blocker on the opposite side of the net, directly across from the attacker on the left side of the net (1 foot away from the attacking line).

Execution:

• To start, Attacker 1 on the left side of the net will serve the ball.
• The blocker will approach the net, jump up, and successfully make a block.
• Just as the blocker has negated Attacker 1, Attacker 2 will serve the ball.
• The blocker then laterally shifts to the other side of the net, jumps up, and blocks the ball.
• Once the player makes three successful blocks in a row, you can then assign a new player to be the blocker.

What does this volleyball drill teach? Agility. The blocker will have to move fast between attackers to successfully block all volleyballs served their way.

12. Shadow Wall Jumps

Set up:

• Place 5 targets side-by-side on a wall using tape.
• Targets can vary in height (between 8 and 10 feet depending on the height of your players).
• Have your players line up in a single file line.

Execution:

• The first player will move laterally, jumping up to hit each target on the wall (pretending as if they were blocking a ball).
• To successfully "block the ball," players will have to touch each target on the wall with their fingertips. Note: Players' hands should be tilted so their thumbs are facing upwards toward the ceiling.
• To make this drill more challenging, set a time limit. For example, a player will only have 15 seconds to move laterally and “block the ball” at each of the 5 tape targets.

What does this volleyball drill teach? Height. Without using a ball, players will have to focus on jumping high enough to reach the tape targets.

Wrapping Up

Coaching volleyball is no easy feat. However, we hope you can incorporate these 15 volleyball drills into your next practice or volleyball tryouts, helping to make each of your athletes a superstar!

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