Strategies and Progressions for Teaching an Up-Tempo Offense

with Bond Shymansky,
former University of Iowa Head Coach;
former Marquette University Head Coach; 2013 Big East Champs;
former Georgia Tech Head Volleyball Coach; 2004 ACC Coach of the Year

Most coaches don't have a team full of 6'5" hitters that can just hit over an opponent's block, so implementing a faster, up-tempo offense can be a highly effective strategy to rack up more victories.

In this video, Bond Shymansky starts off by reviewing the potential benefits as well as the risks for getting your team to run an up-tempo offense, which involves the entire team (passers, setters and hitters) to flow together for a fast, seamless attack on serve receive or after digging a ball. He also reviews what coaches need to do in evaluating their personnel, serve receive configuration and risk tolerance to install an up-tempo offensive strategy.

Coach Shymansky next walks through the principles and techniques for passers to consistently deliver a lower "tempo 1" pass. He then discusses the strategy of how to exploit the opponent's block by setting and hitting the gaps along different net zones. This translates into training the mindset and approach that setters need to take in setting a "tempo 1" ball in different net zones and teaching hitters how to adjust their transitions off the net and approaches to be able to attack those sets.

Throughout the video, Shymansky provides team drills and tips to train each of your players how to be successful in their role of an up-tempo offense.

This includes:

• Techniques for a tempo 1 pass
• Adjusting the approach arc for hitters
• "Knee drive-Elbow drive" to attack a tempo 1 set in any net zone
• Transitioning hitters to stay in up-tempo rhythm

Coach Shymansky provides key insights into how you can train your team to run an up-tempo offense that will lead to more wins at any level. This video describes the components needed for coaches to configure this strategy successfully to their team, along with individual drills and tips that will help players learn to recognize where to attack their opponent's block and how to do so faster and more effectively.

56 minutes. 2019.