Many people ask me how to coach volleyball so that they get the most out of their players. I have added this page and will share some of my thoughts and techniques that have worked well for me.
One of the first things I have to ask coaches when they ask for help is what age group they are coaching. As difficult as it may seem, there are people that do not think about making their offense and training age appropriate. If I am teaching volleyball skills to children in grade school, I am not going to start by trying to have them run a full blown offense.
This is an important part of how to coach volleyball. The younger the kids are, the simpler you have to make it. It has been my experience when working with kids that age that the sport I know and love becomes more like tennis. There is one hit on each side of the net and they are lucky to get it over the net.
The main skill I am going to teach at that young age is how to pass the ball. If they can control the ball, it opens up a whole new world for them. Most of them are not tall enough or cannot jump high enough to spike it, so I will not even worry about that.
I want to begin to give them building blocks that will let them learn the more difficult skills and abilities later on. At that young of an age, it is all about building a foundation. That foundation is all about the fundamentals and proper technique.
As the kids get older, now comes time to teach them the skills of hitting and blocking. The hardest part about learning to hit is the approach. I want them to understand the proper technique so that they will stand out at higher levels as they mature.
Once all of the building blocks are in place, now it is time to start teaching the different positions and basic offense and defense positions. This is when you are able to start teaching the kids about playing a specific position (outside hitter, middle blocker, libero, etc.). From my experience this tends to be around early to late middle school when they are ready to handle this kind of training.
Another important part of how to coach volleyball is to realize that all along this training and development, they still need to be working on their fundamentals. The fundamental skills are always important and you can never cover them enough.
So, what does this mean for the beginning coach? The easiest way to think about coaching volleyball is that you are preparing them for the next level. What skill level will they need to be at in the next 1-2 years? That is what you should be working on very heavily.
There are also ways that you will want to break up your practices, and also how to get the most out of each player, but that is for another page!
Just remember to train them on the fundamentals first and the rest of the game will come easier to them.
