Volleyball Serve Receive Drills

You may probably heart a lot about the importance of performing serve receive drills for the sport of volleyball. It’s worth noting that mastering serve receive drills provides volleyball players with a countless amount of important benefits.

Actually, serve receive is all about receiving the ball and transition into offense quickly. If you do volleyball serve receive drills consistently you’ll be able to improve your passing significantly over time.

Obviously, practicing serve receive drills help volleyball players with organizing attacks. That’s the reason why volleyball players need to do serve receive drills on a regular basis. Below, we’ll describe volleyball serve receive drills that you can add to your training program.

Black Sheep Drill

This volleyball drill is aimed to train a volleyball player who finds it hard to receive the ball after serve (black sheep). First of all, a coach has to divide volleyball players into two teams. After that, each of teams has to assign a player who will take the role of black sheep during the drill. The job of a server is to serve the ball to the so called black sheep. And of course, the black sheep is responsible for receiving the serve. Other players of the team have to do everything they can to adjust to the position of the black sheep and help with transition into the offense.

Serve Receive Transition

It’s known that if serve receive is done in the right way the chance that your team will win a point increases dramatically. That’s the reason why serve receive transition drill has to be practiced by players.

Actually, this type of drill is all about teaching volleyball players how to shift from serve receive to hitting. Totally, 10 volleyball players have to participate in the serve receive transition drill. Initially, players are divided into two teams. So, each of teams consists of five volleyball players (3 passers, 1 setter as well as 1 attacker).

The drill starts on the whistle. Initially, the server has to serve the ball over the net. So, one of the opponent team’s passers has to receive the ball and pass it to a setter. The job of a setter is to set the ball to a hitter, who finally carries out an attack hit. While practicing the drill, volleyball players have to change their positions on the court.

Serve Receive with Immediate Return

Serve receive with immediate return is the drill that helps volleyball players with transitions. Obviously, this type of drill is very similar to serve receive transition drill. However, it can be more challenging for a team to perform serve receive with immediate return drill.

The drill requires from six to eight volleyball players. The coach divides volleyball players into two teams. One of teams consists of five volleyball players (3 passers, 1 setter as well as 1 attacker). Another team consists of three volleyball players (3 servers).

The drill begins when the ball is served by one of servers. The task of the opposite team is to receive and set the ball to a hitter, who finally needs to carry out an attack hit. After that, the coach has to throw in a free ball. The receiving side has to be able to recover from serve very quickly and react to the free ball. As a result, the team repeats everything once again – receives and sets the ball and then carries out an attack hit.

Pass Target

The goal of this drill is to help volleyball players receive and pass the ball correctly. Volleyball players of the team need to position themselves on two lines at the back side of the court prior to starting the drill. One or two team’s setters need to position themselves near the net. Two other volleyball players need to go to the opposite side of the court. They’ll be responsible for serving.

The drill begins when one of servers serves the ball, so the ball goes to the opposite side of the court. The job of the team is to receive the serve and then pass the ball precisely to the target. The passing target should be a setter who positions himself/herself near the net. When practicing the so called pass target drill volleyball players need to change their positions. So, each of players will be able to take the role of a setter and passer during the drill.

Two-Minute Serve Receive Drill

Two-minute serve receive drill is all about improving the speed and accuracy. It’s important to know that the drill needs to be done by six volleyball players. Before the drill begins two volleyball players (2 servers) should position themselves on one side of the court and four other players (2 hitters as well as 2 setters) need to go to the other side of the court.

The drill begins when the server serves the ball to one of hitters on the opposite side of the court. The job of a hitter is to carry out either forearm hit or overhand hit and pass the ball to one of setters. The setter sets the ball and the hitter carries out an attack hit. It’s important to point out that the drill has to take no longer than 2 minutes. So, the team should try its best to carry out as many successful attack hits as possible.

Overhead Passing

What is great about the so called overhead passing drill is that it’s all about teaching volleyball players how to make quick decisions. That’s why this drill is very important.

The drill is performed by six volleyball players (3 hitters as well as 3 passers). Hitters should go to one side of the net and passers should go to other side of the net. One of passers has to position himself/herself near the net. Actually, this player is the target for passers.

The drill begins when one of hitters hits the ball towards the opposite passer on the opposite side of the net. The job of a passer is to receive the ball and hit the ball to the target (a volleyball player who stands near the net).

Another important thing that you need to be aware of is that a passer has to take advantage of overhead passing and pass the ball to a passer during the drill. Finally, volleyball players change their roles and repeat everything once again. That means that hitters become passers and passers become hitters.

21 Down Serve and Receive Drill

And of course, volleyball players who want to improve their serve receive skills need to practise 21 down serve receive drill regularly. One of great benefits of the drill is that it provides volleyball players with a splendid opportunity to master serve and receive skills in competitive environment. That means that volleyball players are motivated to demonstrate excellent results to win the drill. And of course, they will do everything they can to pass the ball perfectly after receiving the serve.

It’s worth noting that volleyball players need to be divided into two equal teams prior to starting the 21 down serve receive drill. The drill begins once the ball is served. The main responsibility of a passer is to receive the ball. Volleyball players have to follow a pass-and-replace pattern when performing this drill. In other words, once a passer does his/her job during the drill, he/she needs to be replaced by a new passer.

The job of a coach is to evaluate the quality of each pass during the drill. Four different types of passes can be used in the 21 down serve and receive drill. These include: 3 pass, 2 pass, 1 pass as well as 0 pass. The perfect pass is 3 pass and a bad pass is 0 pass.

Initially, each of teams has 21 points. Each time the serve is done, the receiving team is awarded with points. The reality is the number of points depends on the quality of a pass. So, the team will get 0 points for 3 pass, – 1 point for 2 pass, – 2 points for 1 pass and – 3 points for 0 pass. The team that gets 0 points loses the drill.

It goes without saying that serving, receiving as well as passing are vital skills for every volleyball player. We have just provided you with some of the best volleyball serve receive drills to help you with mastering these important skills. Obviously, you should do these serve receive drills on a regular basis. The success will not keep you waiting for a long period of time. We believe that practicing these volleyball drills will greatly contribute to your success on the court. Sooner or later, you’ll be able to take your serving, receiving and passing skills to the next level. Best of luck!