Same Drill Different Focus: A Volleyball Coach's Game Changer!

with Christy Johnson-Lynch, Iowa State University Head Coach; 2018 National Invitational Volleyball Championship (NIVC) Champions; 2009 Asics/Volleyball Magazine National Coach of the Year; 2009 AVCA Central Region Coach of the Year; 2009 Big 12 Coach of the Year; 2011 & 2008 Elite Eight appearances; 9 of 10 'Big XII Libero of the Year' award winners from 2008 to 2017; also coached the 2021 'Big XII Libero of the Year'

In this fantastic video presentation, Christy Johnson-Lynch takes you inside her mind to explain her move to a “same drill - different focus” mentality and all of the advantages and improvements it has brought for her staff and team. 

Efficiencies in Overall Planning

When she began to implement a handful of the “same drill - different focus” type drills, Coach Johnson-Lynch immediately saw the benefits start to reveal themselves.  If she calls out a drill (for example: “Deep Court”), all the players know where they need to be on the court instantly.  What the focus is in ‘Deep Court’ can remain up to the coaches.  Her planning for practices can become  - instead of pages and pages of drill names and time slots and on and on - a short list of a half dozen drill names.  From there she can run the drills and within each drill, can add and adapt to shift the focus on different skills, strategies and situations she wants to reinforce with her team!

A Few Drills - Different Focus

Coach Johnson-Lynch shares a handful of drills that she finds work extremely well to use/set-up, can be modified and then allow a variety of shifts in focus and what is being taught and reinforced/watched; those drills shared include ISU 10, 5 on 5, Deep Court, Serve +1, Scramble, W.I.N. and a variation called: I.S.U. With anywhere from 2 to 5 or 6 variations per drill, this assortment shared by Johnson-Lynch can set you up with more than 20 varieties of drills and also allow for many more of your own tweaks and variations added in!

Skills, Strategies, Situations, Team Bonding & More!

Watching this video will reveal drills that work on reinforcements for serving, setting, passing, blocking, attacking and digging. You'll create training opportunities and situational circumstances ideal for your liberos, servers, blockers, middles and setters to better prepare them for game-like situations. You'll be able to add in out of system situations, combination plays and other game-like scenarios into these drills. And all the while, you are getting a high volume of serves, setting, passes, movement training and more. Some of the drills are ideal for warm-ups and many can lead into highly competitive situations with scores kept as the drill goes on. You will see that these drills can be extremely competitive, very fun and lead to great team bonding as they navigate through the situations, look to find each other with good passes, timely blocks and enjoy the ups and downs of live, score-kept competition!

Once you have watched this video and added some of the drills shared by Coach Johnson-Lynch, you will be amazed at the versatility, effectiveness and efficiency of this “same drill - different focus” mindset for your practices!

48 minutes. 2022.