Volleyball. Everybody’s favorite sport in gym class. However, if you want to play competitively, there’s a tremendous gap you need to cross in order to be an effective player. One of the ways that will help cross this proverbial gap, is performing volleyball drills to improving your ball control. Long gone are the days of randomly hitting the ball and hoping a teammate can get it. The most effective volleyball player can place the ball exactly where they want, whether it’s a bump, set, or going for the kill with a spike.
In this article, you are going to learn volleyball drills to improve ball control. These drills will run the gamut of ball control and cover everything you need to be a better and more effective volleyball player. Volleyball class during gym was fun, but it’s time to step up your game and these drills are going to do just that!
Pass and set drill is an exceptional drill. Not only because of its effectiveness, but its simplicity AND you can drill by yourself! That’s right, the pass and set drill merely comprises of passing and setting to yourself. At first thought, that sounds easy, but have you ever tried to see how many times you’re able to bump a ball consecutively? It’s difficult. Therefore, you will practice both passing and setting to yourself until you’re a master.
The ladder passing drill, also known as “Three-Touch Passing Drill”, will bring in another player (tosser) for the passer to pass to. In fact, three more! These three tossers will stand in a line on the court with 5 feet between them. Any line will do, but the sidelines work great. The passer passes to each player in succession as they work down the line. Not only does it train passing to multiple targets, the passer will also have to do it on the move.
Passing out of the net is going to drill real-game scenarios. Sometimes during game-play, a ball doesn’t make it over the net and you must keep the ball in play by “passing out of the net”. Still, the uncertainty of where the ball will go after leaving the net adds unpredictability to the drill, which forces the athlete to always be ready. This drill requires teams of two players with a maximum of 3 teams (6 players)
“Run The Middle” is a ball control drill where you focus on getting the ball played in middle court after a serve. To run properly, this drill requires 7 players; 2 players on one side of the net and 5 on the opposite side.
2 Player Side
5 Player Side
After a serve, the other side’s objective is to receive the ball and then set for the middle hitter. The middle hitter will strike the ball over the net and the middle blocker will attempt to block.
This is a great drill for all positions and covers every aspect of ball control
The pass and weave drill is like the ladder drill but also involves agility, hence the weaving. In order to perform this drill, you will need 4 players (3 tossers, 1 passer), 3 volleyballs for play, and 3 balls or cones to weave around. The tossers will stand facing the passer who will wave around the 3 cones while staying low and in an athletic stance. While doing so, tossers and passer will also pass a volleyball back and forth. This is a great drill to practice hitting multiple targets while on the move!
Variations are like the “Ladder Passing” and include adding tossers (w/ cones) or going back and forth
The cross court pepper drill is the best volleyball warm drill that is also going to allow you to practice multiple assets of ball control;
The drill gets a little more complicated as it’s performed with 4 players who pass diagonally. Therefore, the ball of the other 2 players may be distracting. Regardless, use this drill in the beginning of practice OR anytime there’s some down time.
There’s a lot going on in the 25 Contact Drill, as it will use six players to practice teamwork, communication, and ball control across multiple positions. To set-up, the players will divide into two teams of three and stand on opposing sides of the net.
A coach will put a ball in play and then the players will pass the ball amongst each other in a structured format. The goal is to hit the ball consecutively 25 times.
This drill is like structured game-play, so it’s a phenomenal drill to get a team ready for game-day.
The Pass, Set, Down Ball Drill will teach players to hit balls to a desired location and working as a team with communication.
The drill requires at least 10 players in total. Four players will be actively playing on either side of the court while the extra (at least 1 but there can be more) will stand on the back court waiting to come in.
The players will work in a specific layout and rotation pattern as they play the ball back and forth with the other side. After mastering this drill, players should be able to exercise ball control, ball delivery, and see improved team work.
Above are the 8 best volleyball drills for improved ball control. However, VertiMax can be used in volleyball to address a vast array of volleyball training. Everything from general sports performance, volleyball-specific training, and team training!
For more ideas on how VertiMax can make you and your team a more dominating force on the volleyball court, check out the VertiMax Instagram or VertiMax YouTube Channel.