The Butterfly
One of the most commonly used drills by any volleyball team would be the butterfly. This drill can be modified in so many variations, that it can suit any team's goals for practicing a technique. As a coach, you can uses this drill to focus on passing, setting, hitting, blocking, defense, footwork, technique, reading hitters/passers/blockers/servers. It's really exponential.
During the "early development" phase of coaching beginning volleyball players, this drill is extremely useful in progressing from a static toss and pass, toss and set, toss and hit "blocked practice" drill into more random practice - where your players need to learn to read and react to touches on the ball that might not be perfect.
Virtues of Consistent Setting
Perhaps one of the most under-rated characteristics of a good team (or maybe I am biased because I'm a setter) is consistency of setting.
You see a lot of setter changes with competitive teams at the juniors level as well as in adult recreational open-gyms/leagues. Sometimes a coach decides to run a 6-2 simply to get more players involved in the game (rather than for proper strategic reasoning.) Other times at a recreational (however competitive) league, teams may decide to run a 6-2 or just rotate "middle setter" to keep more players involved or to "keep it simple."
I need to whole-heartedly disagree with the notion that having two drastically different setters splitting the touches, or changing setters upon every rotation, simplifies the game. I'll touch upon both points (6-2 and "middle-set") in today's post as well as the general concept of how having a good setter can clean up the game.
Basic Setting Technique
Setting, sometimes referred to as an "overhead pass" is an essential technique. This is one skill that shortcuts cannot be taken in footwork, and errors are more often called by the referees. In this post we will discuss the basics of setting technique for your hands, feet, and body positioning, as well as the different in-game uses of setting.