Lyndsey Oates: Successful Strategies for Setter Development

with Lyndsey Oates,
University of Northern Colorado Head Women's Coach;
6x NCAA Tournament appearances;
9x Big Sky Conference champions;
4x Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year (2009, 2011, 2014, 2019)

Fresh off of her 6th NCAA appearance, Northern Colorado’s Lyndsey Oates presents a wonderful mix of drills and rich coaching insights to help you take your setters, regardless of their age or level of play, to another level! You will learn innovative insights, strategies and practice routines for setters that will help you coach this key position more effectively going forward.

Developing More Complete Setters

Setters play such a pivotal role on any volleyball team, and it can be challenging to effectively train your setter especially if you haven’t played the position yourself. 

Coach Oates starts off by providing a series of coaching tips to help you develop more complete setters. This includes teaching players about the type of mindset needed for setting, ways to improve their movement for optimal setting, and applying the principle of communicating setting systems and incorporating multitasking in practice to allow setters to be less overwhelmed during competitive matches. 

Coach Oates next discusses the 4 C’s that describe top setters and how you can promote these characteristics. She outlines key techniques that setters can apply with regards to hand position and finger contact, setting window, hip loading and weight transfer, and finishing sets properly. Coach Oates also clarifies ways to work with setters to understand how to command the offense, maintain their composure under pressure and know what defines a great setting performance. 

Setter Training Drills

Drills are organized to provide an approach to prepare your setter to become physically stronger, to be able to set from different body positions, and to increase their volleyball IQ. 

The drills range from more effective warm-up routines, wall-based technique and conditioning drills, and ways to move efficiently to set passes from different places on the court. Coach Oates finishes by walking through ways to teach effective setter attacks to different court targets and to help them learn to self-adjust to correct their techniques.

Coach Oates provides a comprehensive system to train your setters to be more effective no matter their level of play. Oates’ excellent video shares a wealth of individual drills and coaching tips that will help players develop all of the key skills needed for them to become setters that thrive in competition. 

57 minutes. 2022.