Junior High Volleyball Drills

Around the same time basketball was developed, an early form of volleyball was developed in 1895 in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Over the next few decades the game was defined and later became an international sport played in World Championships and the Olympic Games. There are many skills necessary for the game, which can be refined using drills at the junior high level.

  1. Setting Lines

    • To improve at setting the ball, a player must repeat the motion over and over again. Have your players get into two straight lines facing each other. The first player in one line sets to the first player in the other line. After setting, that player goes to the back of his line. The next player sets and then does the same. The same game can be performed with pairs of two setting the ball back and forth to one another. To add a challenge, have both lines set on separate sides of the court, forcing the players to set the ball over the net.

    Wall of Serves

    • This is an entertaining game that practices how accurately your team can serve. Start by having one player on one side of the court and another player on the other side. The first player serves to the other player and the other player serves back. Add two more players to the court, one on each side. They both serve the ball at the same time, attempting to serve to their partner. Keep adding more pairs of players until you have nearly everybody serving at once. This is a fun game to play when the team is unfocused as by the end it will lead into eventual chaos of many balls coming at once.

    Volleyball Tennis King

    • This game requires one player on either side of the court. Players will play volleyball as if it is tennis, with only one chance to get the ball to the other side of the court. Place some cones to make the court around 10 feet by 10 feet (or 20 feet by 7 feet for more front and back movement) so that the rallies are longer and that no winners are easy. Players will have nobody to help them so they will move around a lot, which will hone their footwork and their hitting techniques. After a player loses a point, he is replaced with a new player.

    Pepper

    • This simple drill may be one of the most important in volleyball. It is not extremely exciting, it can get repetitive but it may make your team much stronger. Split your team into pairs of two and give each pair a ball. The players must pass the ball to each other using a bump or a set over and over again. To make more of a game out of it, you can see which pair gets the most hits in a row without the ball hitting the ground. You can further vary it by making the game go in order of bump, set and spike. Keep in mind that the spike should not be an attempt to defeat a teammate but to place the light spike somewhere the teammate can get it.