Hope is Not a Strategy: Drills for Out of System Play

with Mike Lingenfelter,
Co-Director of the Asics Munciana Volleyball Club and Munciana Samurai Head Coach;
2024 Triple Crown Volleyball 'Heart of Sport' Award;
2021 AVCA Club Coach of the Year;
2023: AAU Open Championship (18s);
2022: AAU Open Championship (18s);
2021: AAU Open Championship (18s);
2017: AAU Open Championship (18s);
2011: AAU Open Championship (18s);
2009: AAU Open and JVA National titles (18s);
Coached HS volleyball at Wapahani HS in Selma, IN;
3x Indiana State High School Champions;
3x Indiana State Coach of the Year;
Coaching at the college level (Cincinnati Head Coach - 5 years, Memphis Head Coach - 2 years);
played college volleyball at Ball State University

No team is perfect. If your practice consists of drills in which your setter sets a perfect pass or your hitters attack a perfect set, your team is not prepared for a live competitive match. Elite college volleyball teams are in system 60-65% of the time, elite high school teams maybe half that!

How much time are you spending training out of system play with your volleyball team? The answer is probably not enough. This video will teach you how to practice in an out of system environment to limit the amount of free balls your team sends over the net and help greatly increase the percentage of attacks for your team in a match.

Coach Lingenfelter begins his high energy presentation by insisting that all coaches must have a plan for what their team will do in all out of system situations. Once a plan is established drills are designed to execute all phases of the plan.

Using the part to whole training philosophy, the basic fundamentals are taught first in a series of drills and subsequent progressions. Eventually, full 6v6 game-like drills are used to tie everything together to prepare for the most common element in a volleyball match: chaos.

Not only does this video teach you how to play out of system, but it teaches you how to attack and be aggressive out of system. If your team regularly produces more free balls than good swings, this information will definitely give your team a competitive advantage!

Produced at the 2012 AVCA National Convention in Louisville (KY).

57 minutes. 2013.