Exhausted in traditional volleyball warm-ups
Keeping volleyball practices fun and exciting is a challenge that plagues most coaches as the season progresses. While players are full of energy and enthusiasm at the start of the year, they often run out of steam as the season progresses, especially once games start to overtake practices like their weekly meetings. Follow these few singles volleyball training tips to keep your players engaged and having so much fun that they barely even realize they’re improving their skills at the same time.
The first of my volleyball coaching tips is to make warm-ups more engaging. One of the biggest complaints I always heard from my players after volleyball practice was that warm-ups were dull and boring. While we all know that warming up is a crucial element of exercise, that doesn’t mean it has to be all sprints and stretches. So I listened to my players and brainstormed a list of alternate means of warming up, both before practice and before games. As a result, we replaced the traditional warm-up with a 10-minute version of some of my team’s favorite backyard games, freeze tag and dodgeball.
I got you and now you’re frozen!
To freeze tag, designate one person as “it” whose job it is to run around and tag everyone. Once touched, a player freezes in the spot where they were touched and must stand with their legs wide apart. To unfreeze someone, you have to dive between their legs. If the player who is “it” can successfully tag and freeze everyone, then he is declared victorious. Sometimes I name two “su’s” so they have a better chance of tagging everyone and no one gets too exhausted. This game is also great because it makes players work on their dives when unfreezing others.
Dodge this!
Another game that gets the blood flowing is Dodgeball. Start by dividing your team into 2 groups standing on opposite sides of the playing area. We use a basketball court, with the center line as the dividing line between the teams. Each team receives a ball with the aim of hitting as many members of the opposing team as they can.
The problem is that once you get hit or your shot is caught by the other team, you get sent to jail that lines up at the back of the opposing team’s playing area. However, you can break free from jail by getting a ball and hitting someone on the opposing team. This game is a great way to emphasize shooting accuracy and teamwork.
Volleyball Goals for the Future
Finally, I offer the notion of goal setting as next on my list of volleyball coaching tips. This can be done in a variety of ways, including individual and team goals. At the beginning of the season, ask each player to write a list of 3 things he wants to improve about the way he plays and come up with ways to achieve these goals.
Work with each player individually to achieve their goals, and also take 5 minutes at the end of each practice to think of a team goal and reinforce how it will be achieved. By coming up with specific things to work on instead of just a “let’s win the next game” attitude, your team will learn to focus on what they need to improve on and gain a self-esteem booster every time they accomplish a goal.