Volleyball blocking drills should be an important part of your team’s practices. Good blocking skills means some easy points during matches. But that is not the only thing blocks will do for you…
Blocks are demoralizing to the other team. After a few good blocks, they will begin to think that they cannot hit around you or off of you. At this point, you will be getting in their heads and, in many cases, that is worth more than the actual point that was won from the block.
Blocking is one of the first keys to playing great team defense.
Besides these drills, you should also focus on proper blocking technique. If you are not sure what proper blocking technique is, then you should take a look at these blocking techniques.
The main thing to remember when blocking is ball, setter, ball, hitter. This tells you how you should read the play so that you can be at the right place at the right time.
It is also critical to penetrate over the net as much as possible. This will take away some of the hitting angles from the other team plus it will help to have the blocked ball land on the other team’s side of the net.
Let’s get to these drills:
Blind Blocking Drill
This drill helps the blocker read the hitter to get in the right position for the ball. While this drill can be very helpful for reading the hitter, it is important to remember that the hitter is the last thing to read. Here is a video showing the drill:
Middle Blocking Drill
The purpose of this drill is to two-fold: First of all, we want to teach the middle blockers to transition their block to the outside. Secondly, we want to teach blockers to seal off the block when blocking together. In many cases, blockers will leave a gap between their hands when there is a double block. This volleyball blocking drill will help eliminate that tendency.
Side to Side Blocking
This last drill teaches players how to move side to side quickly in order to get into blocking position. With the balls being held over the net, players will also focus on penetrating the net.
Hopefully, these volleyball blocking drills will help you accomplish more as a team and as a player.
