Volleyball Wash Drills

A wash drill is a volleyball training exercise designed to develop skills through repetition of positive results. The drills are used in scrimmage situations, but points are only awarded when the desired skill is performed a proscribed number of times in succession. When a players executes just once, but cannot repeat the result, the one point is washed away. Wash drills were first introduced by USA men's assistant coach Bill Neville while working with the 1984 Olympic team.

  1. Six on Six

    • One six-on-six wash drill is set up with both teams at full volleyball strength with six players in the six designated spots. The object of this drill is to win points so that your team rotates through each of the six positions. A team does not rotate with every point it wins, as in traditional volleyball scoring, however, but only rotates after winning two consecutive points. It must first win a point on serve then immediately after winning that point win a second point that is initiated by the coach putting a second ball into play. Only by winning the points back-to-back can the team rotate one spot. The first team to rotate its players through and back to the spot in which each began the drill is the winner.

    Three Kills

    • This is a drill that is designed to work on a team's ability to put together consecutive points in a match situation. The scrimmage drill is set up with two six-player teams in standard volleyball set. After a coin toss determines which team will serve first, that team serves the first point. The goal for both teams is to get a clean kill to end a point then repeat that for three straight points. When one team gets a kill, it scores a point and controls the next serve. The team must win the next two consecutive kills as well to keep its point. If the opponent wins the next serve, the first team loses its point, but if it continues on to win three straight kills, it keeps all three points and the game continues.

    Individual Serving Drill

    • Spots are marked out near the back corners of the court as targets for servers. Four players compete against each other, with each trying to be first to amass five points. Each player has an assigned spot on the court that she is serving to, and the four alternate taking serves. A player scores one point each time she serves three consecutive balls into her assigned target area.

    Back Corner Drill

    • This wash drill is designed to work on the skill of hitting the ball from the back row into the far back corner on the other side of the net. Teams are set up in the standard six-player set, but all balls hit over the net must come from one of the three back row players. When a ball is successfully hit into a marked box in the back corner, that team scores a point, but it can only keep its point if it can duplicate the feat on a coach-initiated second consecutive point. If it cannot, the initial point is washed away.