Small Sided Games for Scoring Big Points

Break away from many of the conventional methods of teaching skills or systems by teaching them within game-like situations.

Eric Schulze demonstrates the importance of using different numbers of players on each side of the court rather than the standard 6v6 wash drills or scrimmages that many coaches use. He feels that putting players in random situations during practice will better transfer the skills learned into games. Coach Schulze introduces 10 drills with multiple variations that give players game-like reps instead of simply using the "old school" method of tossing balls at players.

Warm-up Drills

The first few drills introduced are great warm-up drills that can be done with a smaller group of players. The drills include many variations to work on different aspects of every skill. Not only will your players work on skill development, but they will also do so in a way that will help transfer the skills to games.

Passing is the number one priority in the drills in this section, but serving and out of system play are also touched upon. These drills take up a small portion of time, but guarantee players a ton of quality touches on the ball.

Pepper Drills

Coach Schulze goes into detail on how pepper drills can be tailored to focus on different skills for players. These drills focus on all skills, especially ball control and transition. The purpose of these drills is to work on skills while playing the ball over the net. He explains that any time drills can be done over the net, your players will have a better chance of transferring their habits to games.

Training Defense

When coaches hit from the top of a box, defenders don't need to use their reading abilities to defend. Instead of coaches hitting at players from a box, Coach Schulze explains that system defense needs to be trained in a game-like drill. This allows players to defend against situations that commonly happen on the court.

These drills can be used to defend any type of attack and allow players to read attackers and move to defend as they would in a game. Not only do these drills work on defense, but they also allow setters and hitters to work on their offensive connections.

Out of System Training

With volleyball involving such fast-paced and intense rallies, the majority of the time is spent hitting out of system. These drills will help you get your team comfortable hitting out of system. Non-setters will get numerous reps setting hitters and running an offense in game-like drills.

There are two main drills in this section. The first one uses any player besides the setter to set out of system. Many times when a setter cannot take the second ball and the libero isn't in position to do so either, it causes a free ball to be sent over the net. When other players get repetitions setting the outside hitters, teams will be more likely to attack out of system in games.

In the 6-on-6 setter out drill, the libero gets work taking the majority of balls out of system. The drill puts the main focus on getting a quality swing when the libero becomes the setter.

Ball Entry

One of the most overlooked parts of practice by coaches is ball entries. Coach Schulze uses situational entries for his drills. He can take a drill and change the type of ball entry and it changes the whole outlook of the drill. Depending on what your team needs to improve on, you can utilize specific entries to drill your situations that need work.

Coach Schulze's methods will allow your team to be better prepared to play the game and win the big points!

Produced at the 2015 AVCA National Convention.

51 minutes. 2016.