Fun volleyball drills

Looking for fun volleyball drills that keep your players active, engaged, and motivated? Discover enjoyable volleyball exercises for different ages and skill levels. From competitive games to fast-paced team challenges, these drills can help you create a volleyball practice your players will look forward to.

Fun does not mean training without a purpose. The best volleyball drills combine lots of ball contacts, little waiting time, clear objectives, and game-like situations that help players improve while enjoying practice.

Fun volleyball drills for your next practice

Try these volleyball drills during your next training session. Adding competition, scoring, and game-like situations can turn a simple exercise into an engaging challenge for your players.

Two-Touch

• U18
• Seniors

Goal of the drill:
Play twice. The second ball must be hit with force over the net. After the ball is played, step with one foot outside the court. After the game, switch sides, and depending on the number of teams, join the waiting line. Count your points.

Explanation of the drill:
Play twice. The second ball must be forcefully hit over the net. After playing the ball, step with one foot outside the court. Post-game, switch sides and, depending on the number of teams, join the waiting line. Keep track of your points.

Variant: Choose one half of the court as your playing area.

Watch drill

Self-control 1 vs 1

• U18
• Seniors

Goal of the drill:
Increase ball control and get nice and warm

Explanation of the drill:
This drill is an extension of the ‘self-control’ exercise. You will now engage in 1v1 matches. Play the ball for yourself by passing, setting, and attacking. Attempt to score against your opponent. Play sets to 10 points.

Watch drill

Rebound & play

• U18
• Seniors

Goal of the drill:
Increase ball control and awareness of follow-up actions

Explanation of the drill:
For this drill, you will need a rebounder. One player will pass and attack, while the other serves as the setter. All actions must be performed with control. Immediately after hitting the ball, the attacker must transition to a defensive position to defend the ball. After two minutes, the players should switch roles.

Watch drill

Freestyle Fun

• U12
• Bovenhands

Goal of the drill:
Players work on ball control, creativity, and body coordination in a playful way.

Explanation of the drill:
The players play overhead and forearm passes. Have them perform small tasks at the same time. For example: head the ball, play it with your shoulder, play it with your chest, let the ball land on your knee, on your back, and so on. Tip: Let the players come up with a task themselves as well. That makes it even more fun.

Watch drill

View all drills

King of the Court volleyball drills

King of the Court is one of the easiest ways to make volleyball practice more competitive and enjoyable. Players immediately understand the goal: win the rally, stay on the winning side, and keep earning points.

The format works well because it combines competition, communication, decision-making, and repeated game-like actions. Coaches can also adapt the rules to focus on a specific skill, such as serving, passing, attacking, side-out play, or defense.

King of a Small Court

• Seniors
• Onderarms

Goal of the drill:
Improving serve reception and rally passing during the warm-up.

Explanation of the drill:
Divide the court into two small half courts and separate them with a pool noodle. Play 2 vs. 2 with a maximum of two contacts per team. The ball must be played over the net from a standing position. If the team on the Kings or Queens side wins the rally, it earns one point. If the other team wins, the teams rotate. Possible variations include requiring the first contact to be played overhead or requiring the ball to be played over the net with one hand.

Watch drill

KOTC Pass Volley

• U12
• Onderarms

Goal of the drill:
Playing in a game-like format with a focus on scoring, teamwork, and quick transitions.

Explanation of the drill:
Play 2v2. The winners of the rally move to the King Side or stay there. Player 1 passes the ball to the teammate or plays a self-pass. The other player catches the ball and plays it overhead over the net. Try to score against the opponent. Which team reaches 5 points first?

Watch drill

Bagger tennis

• U12
• Onderarms

Goal of the drill:
Forearm passing short and deep balls

Explanation of the drill:
In this drill, the coach tosses balls in and the players have a maximum of one forearm contact to play the ball back over the net. After each action, the players join the back of their line. In the first phase, the teams mainly try to keep the ball in play for as long as possible. In the second phase, it becomes a competitive game: if the ball hits the floor, the opponent gets a point. The first team to reach 10 points wins. The drill can be made easier by allowing a catch-and-throw movement, playing 2 against 2 with rotation after each action, or making the court smaller with cones. Try to aim for an average rally of about four ball contacts. To make the drill harder, the court can be made bigger.

Watch drill

Van Harskamp Game

• Seniors

Goal of the drill:
Encourage constant movement, communication and smart court positioning.

Explanation of the drill:
Play 2 vs. 2 in a King of the Court variation with Court A for the challengers and Court B for the kings. The rally starts with an easy underhand serve. Both teams must use three contacts, with the third contact played hard over the net from a standing position. The third ball must always travel from Court A to Court B. This forces the challengers to think about their defensive positioning and requires passers to move immediately after passing. If the kings win the rally, they earn one point. If the challengers win, they become the new kings. Possible variations include requiring the passer to finish an underhand serve reception in a three-point stop position with one knee on the floor, or allowing overhand serves while the kings indicate through their positioning whether the serve should go to the left or right side of the court.

Watch drill

View all drills

To make King of the Court even more useful, add a clear training objective. For example, award bonus points for a three-contact rally, require a successful serve before a team can score, or only count points after a controlled attack. This keeps the drill fun without losing the technical purpose of the practice.

What makes a volleyball drill fun?

A fun volleyball drill is not necessarily an easy drill. Players often enjoy challenging exercises when they stay involved, understand the objective, and have an opportunity to compete.

Lots of ball contacts

Players come to practice to play volleyball. Drills with frequent passing, setting, serving, attacking, and defending actions usually keep players more engaged and give them more meaningful repetitions.

Little waiting time

Long lines quickly reduce energy and concentration. Use smaller groups, multiple balls, or different stations to give every player more opportunities to participate.

Competition

Points, targets, teams, and short challenges can immediately make an exercise more exciting while keeping players focused on the training objective.

Clear goals

Players should know what they are trying to achieve. A target such as five perfect passes, three successful side-outs, or ten serves into a specific zone gives the drill purpose.

Game-like situations

Exercises become more engaging when players have to read the game, make decisions, communicate, and react to unpredictable situations.

How we choose fun volleyball drills

At VolleyballXL, we do not consider a drill fun simply because it includes a game or a scoring system. A good fun volleyball drill should still help players improve and should keep as many players involved as possible.

• Lots of ball contacts: players should regularly pass, set, serve, attack, or defend.
• Minimal waiting: avoid long lines and inactive players wherever possible.
• A clear objective: players should understand what they are trying to achieve.
• Competition with purpose: the scoring system should reinforce the skill being trained.
• Game-like decisions: players should have to read situations and make choices.
• Easy to adapt: a strong drill can be made easier or harder depending on the level of the team.

King of the Court is a good example because the basic format is simple, but the coach can change the rules to train almost any phase of the game.

Fun volleyball drills for beginners

Fun volleyball drills for beginners should be simple to understand and give players plenty of opportunities to touch the ball. New players are more likely to stay motivated when they experience success and do not have to wait a long time between repetitions.

Start with basic passing, serving, setting, movement, and ball-control exercises. You can then make these drills more enjoyable by adding targets, points, partner challenges, or small competitions.

• Use small groups whenever possible.
• Keep instructions short and clear.
• Add simple scoring systems.
• Give players plenty of ball contacts.
• Adapt the difficulty to the level of the group.

View volleyball drills for beginners

Fun volleyball drills for kids

When coaching children, enjoyment is an important part of learning. Fun volleyball drills for kids should combine movement, coordination, teamwork, and plenty of contact with the ball.

Try to avoid long explanations and complicated rotations. Demonstrate the exercise, let the players start quickly, and make adjustments while they are playing. Target games, relay-style exercises, mini-volleyball, and small-sided games can all work well with younger players.

View youth volleyball drills

Fun volleyball drills for older youth players

Middle school and high school players are usually ready for more competitive and game-like exercises. At this level, fun drills can still be demanding and should challenge players to apply their technical skills under pressure.

Use side-out games, serve-receive challenges, transition exercises, King of the Court, and small-sided games. Add points, targets, or bonus scoring rules to make the exercise competitive while keeping the main volleyball objective clear.

View middle school volleyball drills or view high school volleyball drills.

Fun competitive volleyball drills

Competition is one of the easiest ways to increase engagement during volleyball practice. Almost any technical drill can become more exciting by adding points, targets, teams, or a winner.

Simple ways to add competition

• First team to 10 successful passes wins.
• Give players points for serving into target zones.
• Play short 2v2, 3v3, or 4v4 games.
• Award bonus points for three-contact rallies.
• Use King or Queen of the Court formats.
• Create team challenges with a time limit.
• Reward successful side-outs or transition attacks.

Make sure the scoring system supports the purpose of the drill. If the goal is passing, reward good passing. If the goal is attacking, create a scoring system that encourages players to make effective attacking decisions.

Fun warm-up volleyball drills

Your warm-up can set the tone for the entire practice. Instead of starting every session with running and static exercises, use volleyball warm-up drills that combine movement, reaction, coordination, and ball control.

A good warm-up gradually increases intensity while keeping players mentally involved. Partner challenges, pepper variations, reaction exercises, and short competitive games can all work well.

View volleyball warm-up drills

Fun volleyball drills for small groups

Training with a small number of players gives you plenty of opportunities to create fast-paced drills with lots of ball contacts. Players have more responsibility, receive more repetitions, and spend less time waiting.

With two to six players, try partner passing, pepper variations, serving challenges, target games, 2v2 volleyball, 3v3 volleyball, and continuous rally exercises.

View volleyball drills for small groups

Fun volleyball drills for large groups

The biggest challenge when coaching a large group is keeping every player active. Avoid exercises where one player performs the drill while the rest of the team waits in line.

Divide players into smaller groups, use several balls, create multiple stations, or organize small-sided games on different parts of the court. This increases ball contacts and keeps the intensity of practice higher.

View volleyball drills for large groups

How to make volleyball practice more fun

You do not need completely new exercises every week to keep volleyball training enjoyable. Small changes can make familiar drills feel fresh and challenging again.

• Add a scoring system.
• Turn individual goals into team challenges.
• Use different target zones.
• Change the size of the court.
• Add a time limit.
• Play more 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4 volleyball.
• Introduce bonus points for specific actions.
• Let players compete against their own previous score.
• Adapt the rules to the skill level of your team.

The goal is not simply to entertain players. A fun practice should still help them improve their volleyball skills. The best drills combine enjoyment with a clear technical, tactical, or physical objective.

Turn fun volleyball drills into a complete practice

Finding individual exercises is only one part of planning a good volleyball practice. A complete training session needs structure, progression, and a clear objective.

With VolleyballXL, you can find volleyball drills and use them to create a complete practice for your team. Combine a warm-up, technical exercises, competitive drills, and game-like situations to build a session that is both effective and enjoyable.

Explore volleyball training sessions or browse all volleyball drills.

Frequently asked questions about fun volleyball drills

Discover more volleyball drills

Looking for more ideas for your next volleyball practice? Explore VolleyballXL and find exercises for passing, setting, serving, attacking, defense, warm-ups, youth volleyball, and complete team training sessions.

Browse all volleyball drills or view volleyball training sessions.