Developing a Quick-Tempo Offense from the Back Row

An effective back row attack gives you more hitters and other options when your team is out of system. Eleven-time national championship coach Charlie Sullivan covers an entire lesson on how to train and implement quick back-court options into an offense. From the ground up, he demonstrates how to get players to understand what it takes to properly run quick attack options out of the back row.

Coach Sullivan explains his philosophy on running an offense with multiple back-court options. He discusses the rhythm and tempo the pass and set, and what is necessary to run the offense properly. You'll learn about the hitter's approach and how it influences the tempo of the pass and set.

The next segment includes a series of drills to train a team to run a faster back row offense. These drills start with easy-to-understand tempo drills involving front row attackers. This helps set up the back row attack that will be hard to defend due to the tempo of the front row attackers. Coach Sullivan progresses to drills that work the passer, setter and back row attacker. He gives feedback to help the passer, setter and hitter understand how they are all part of creating the proper tempo for a back row quick attack. By putting the front row and back row attack together, Coach Sullivan shows how tandem attacks can be run to keep blockers and opponents defense off guard. He runs players through drills where the setter has multiple quick options. These drills piece together the entire sequence of the previous drills.

Coach Sullivan concludes his presentation with small group and 6v6 drills that put the entire offense together while focusing on running front row and back row quick tandem options. Throughout these drills he explains the importance of the tempo of the pass and set, which also needs to be combined with the tempo of the hitters approaches. He makes it easy for coaches to understand what it takes to run a quick-tempo offense that includes back row options.

This presentation will be valuable to coaches who want to add more speed to their offense, It's a complete package that's great for any coach at a high school, club or college level.

Produced at the 2014 AVCA Spring Clinic in Chicago, IL.

49 minutes. 2015.