Open Practice: Middle School Volleyball Practice

Learn how to run a successful youth volleyball practice that maximizes reps and touches for each player.

Kate Fitzgerald of the Milwaukee Sting volleyball club takes viewers through a live, un-cut practice for middle school aged volleyball players. In this complete practice, Coach Fitzgerald works on techniques and drills for all of the basic skills of the game.

Dynamic Warm-up
Discover a series of dynamic warm-up drills that raise body temperature, warm muscles and prepare athletes for competitive play. The drills include a progression of athletic movements that result in a complete body warm-up.

Skills Warm-up
Watch as Coach Fitzgerald runs a ball control series that serves a dual purpose; warming up hitting shoulders and giving players numerous repetitions on proper passing techniques. This segment starts with very simple toss and pass drills from a knee and progress to cooperative passing drills with a larger group of players. Players will get quality touches while passing, setting, tipping, rolling and playing down-balls.

Serving
The last portion of the passing series adds serving to the mix. Fitzgerald starts by using the serve to work on passing drills and then transitions into drills that focus solely on serving. These drills help train players to serve aggressively and help them get comfortable serving to different locations on the court.

4-2 Offense
As you watch Coach Fitzgerald introduce the international 4-2 offense to her team, you will learn what it is, why it's used, and how to teach the defensive side of the 4-2 to a middle school team.

She goes into great detail on how to train the defensive side of the 4-2, including how to defend different types of attacks from all areas of the court. She also shows a variation of the defense for teams that have a shorter setter in the front row and shows how to defend with her pulling off of the net - a common scenario at the middle school level.

The key benefit to the 4-2 is that setters set out of the front row which keeps the game simple and as result creates a higher level of offense for young players.

Digging Drills
The practice concludes with defensive digging drills that allow players to practice digging from all three back row positions.

This video is a great foundation for new coaches of any level, experienced coaches for middle school aged teams and even high school coaches who are looking for a good pre-season practice format.

Coach Fitzgerald touches on all the main aspects of the game while giving players feedback and explanations of what she is looking for in each drill. The drills will challenge players' competitive nature and give them numerous quality touches for improving their volleyball skills.

61 minutes. 2015.