Volleyball drills, training and practice plans for coaches

Make your volleyball training and volleyball practice more fun and ensure more enjoyment for your players with our video volleyball drills and training tools.

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Popular volleyball practice drills

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u18, Seniors
Figure 8 – passing
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Goal: Improve the serve receive and transition through quick coverage and positional changes.

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u18
Setters Showdown #1 a Setting Challenge Left kneesit set, right kneesit set
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Setting drill – Goal: Improve overhand technique.

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u12
Hitting Hero #1 a Spike Challenge
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Attack drill – Goal: Improve and strengthen stroke arm and eye-hand coordination.

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u18, Seniors
Block Pepper Trio
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Attack drill – Goal: Increase reaction speed after an action

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u18, Seniors
Target game
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Defense drill – Goal: Scoring under pressure

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u18, Seniors
3-person defense – position rotations
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Goal: Improve serve receive and transition by practicing extra ball handling and position changes.

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u12
Catch Volley
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Passing drill – Goal: Developing basic ball feeling through throwing and catching

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u18, Seniors
Noughts and Crosses
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Goal: Having fun

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u18, Seniors
Pass, Set & Attack Cross Part 1
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Attack drill – Goal: Getting warm and improving control

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Everything you need for better volleyball practices

Find volleyball drills, build practice plans and improve your coaching knowledge.

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Drills
Beginners, Youth, and Seniors

Explore more than 1000 volleyball drills suitable for every skill level—from serving and attacking to strength training and varied game formats.

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Practice plans
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Short on time? Use our ready-made practice plans or build your own in minutes—everything you need to coach with confidence.

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Useful resources
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Check out our latest blog articles, expert tips, and insights to elevate your volleyball IQ.

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How volleyball clubs use VolleyballXL

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Protos volleyball association
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Student volleyball association

Protos

Protos uses VolleyballXL to help coaches deal with different levels, add more variation to training sessions and prepare practices with a stronger structure.

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SV Loil Volleybal training environment
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Local volleyball club

SV Loil Volleyball

SV Loil Volleyball uses VolleyballXL to make training preparation easier for youth and senior coaches and to give volunteers a clear starting point.

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$ 64.99 $ 44.99 per coach per year
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How to choose the right volleyball drills

Good volleyball drills start with a clear goal. Before choosing an exercise, decide what you want your players to improve. Are you working on passing, setting, serving, hitting, blocking or defense? Or do you want to combine several skills in a more game-like situation?

The right drill also depends on the age and level of your team. Beginners benefit from simple exercises with lots of ball contacts and a clear objective. More experienced players can work with drills that include movement, decision-making and realistic game situations.

VolleyballXL helps coaches find drills for different skills, positions, ages and levels. Use the filters to quickly find exercises that match the objective of your practice.

Build your practice from simple to game-like

A good volleyball practice often progresses from simple technical work to situations that increasingly resemble the game. For example, a passing practice might start with a focused ball-control drill, then add a server or setter, and finish with a competitive serve-receive game.

You do not need a completely different drill for every step. Many exercises can be made easier or more challenging by changing the court size, number of players, scoring system or rules.

Volleyball drills for every skill

VolleyballXL includes drills for all major volleyball skills. Find passing drills for serve receive and ball control, setting drills for accuracy and decision-making, serving drills for consistency and pressure, and hitting drills for approach, timing and attacking.

You can also find drills for blocking, defense, digging, warm-ups and game-like situations, as well as exercises for setters, liberos, middle blockers, outside hitters and opposites.

Each drill includes a video demonstration, making it easy to understand the setup, movement and objective before using it with your team.

Turn drills into a complete volleyball practice

Finding a good drill is only part of planning a training session. The exercises should also work together. Start with the main objective of your practice and choose drills that gradually build toward a realistic game situation.

With VolleyballXL, you can browse more than 1,000 volleyball drills, save your favorites and combine them into a complete practice plan. This helps coaches prepare structured and varied training sessions without starting from scratch every time.

How to plan a volleyball practice in 4 steps

A good volleyball practice has a clear goal and a logical structure. This example of a 90-minute practice plan works for most youth and club teams. Adjust the times to the age, level and court time of your team.

  1. Warm-up with the ball (15 minutes). Start with simple drills with many ball contacts, such as Catch Volley for beginners or a pepper drill for more experienced players. See all warm-up drills.
  2. Technique (25 minutes). Choose one main skill and work on it with a focused drill, for example Figure 8 for passing. Browse the passing drills and ball control drills.
  3. Game-like drills (25 minutes). Combine skills and add pressure, for example with Pass, Set & Attack Cross or 3-person defense. See the team drills.
  4. Game (25 minutes). Finish with a game that rewards the goal of the practice, such as Target game or a 6 vs 6 with an extra point for a perfect pass.

Close with a short cool-down and one key point the players can take to the next practice.

Volleyball training for beginners

Beginners learn fastest with short drills, many ball contacts and small groups. Use throwing and catching to teach the right movement, lower the net or make the court smaller, and switch to game situations as soon as the players can keep the ball in the air.

Find more ideas in our volleyball drills for beginners and the youth volleyball drills.

Save time with ready-made practice plans

Do not want to plan every practice yourself? With VolleyballXL you can save drills and combine them into your own practice plan, or start from a ready-made volleyball training plan. Read more about planning a volleyball practice.

Frequently asked questions about volleyball drills and practice

How long should a volleyball practice be?

Most youth and club teams practice for 60 to 120 minutes. For beginners and young players, 60 to 90 minutes with short drills and lots of ball contacts works best. Experienced teams can practice longer, as long as the intensity stays high and there are enough breaks.

How do you plan a volleyball practice?

Start with one clear goal, for example better serve receive. Then build the practice from a warm-up with the ball, to technique drills, to game-like drills, and finish with a game that rewards the goal of the practice. Choose drills that fit the age and level of your team.

What are good volleyball drills for beginners?

Good volleyball drills for beginners are simple and give every player many ball contacts. Throwing and catching drills, passing in pairs, ball control drills and small games on a small court help beginners learn the basic skills quickly.

How many drills should you do in one volleyball practice?

In a practice of 90 minutes, 4 to 6 drills is usually enough. Fewer drills with more repetitions often work better than many different exercises. You can make a drill easier or harder by changing the court size, the number of players or the rules.

Are the volleyball drills on VolleyballXL free?

A selection of drills can be viewed for free without an account. With a membership you get access to all 1000+ volleyball drills on video, complete practice plans and the training generator.

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