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 outgrow practices like their weekly meetings. Follow these few singles training tips for volleyball to keep your players engaged and having so much fun that they barely realize they’re improving their skills at the same time.
The first of my volleyball training 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, it doesn’t mean it has to be just running bouts and stretching. So I listened to my players and we brainstormed a list of alternative 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 tagged, a player freezes where they were tagged and must stand with their legs wide apart. To unfreeze someone, you need 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 none of them get too depleted. This game is also great because it makes players work on their dives when they unfreeze others.
Dodge this!
Another game that gets the blood flowing is Dodgeball. Start by dividing your team into 2 groups that stand 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 is given 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 the other team catches your shot, you’re sent to the jail that lines the back of the opposing team’s playing area. However, you can free yourself from jail by getting a ball and hitting someone from 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 the next on my list of volleyball coaching tips. This can be done in a number of ways, including individual and team goals. At the start of the season, ask each player to write a list of 3 things he wants to improve about his playing 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 come up with 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 and gain a self-esteem booster each time they achieve a goal.