Teaching Youth Volleyball Skills & Fundamentals

with Bre Johnson,
Marshall (MI) High School Head Coach

As anyone who has coached beginner volleyball to young players knows, keeping the attention of the players is job number one. Bre Johnson understands what it takes to teach youth volleyball to all skill levels.

In this video, Coach Johnson demonstrates how to teach basic skills to players as young as 5 years old, as well as older players that are just taking up the sport of volleyball. She demonstrate drills to train players on how to pass, set, hit, block and serve. What makes her coaching style so effective is that, while breaking down the skill, she uses fun terms for each of the physical movements of a skill so that players can remember the progression of each skill.

Dynamic Warm-up and Movement Drills

Incorporate dynamic warm-up exercises for your youth players. Johnson goes through different warm-up options that you can implement in your practice, from hand eye coordination to footwork. She does a great job at making the drills both fun and effective in order to keep younger players engaged while they warm up.

Platform Training

Johnson illustrates the proper form that is required for passing and teaches players to remember by using "fun terms" while teaching this skill. Once the platform has been taught, she progresses to a number of progressive passing drills that teach how to shuffle while keeping the platform static.

Four Points of Setting

The basics of setting are taught to youth players using Johnson's "four points of setting" that are belly button, five head, finish and follow-through. As with all the other skills, Johnson progresses with a number of drills so that the players can get plenty of reps while learning the skill.

Coach Johnson does a wonderful job of teaching the basic fundamentals of volleyball in a fun and energetic way so that young players can learn and stay focused!

Produced at the 2016 AVCA Annual Convention in Columbus, OH.

55 minutes. 2017.