Question 2: How much of practice should be play-oriented and how much should be drills?

Question

I had the opportunity to talk to an international player one time, and he told me that here in the U.S. kids in sports have no discipline. He said that they just want to play all the time, and do not see the importance of drills.

What I think:

It seems like higher level teams can focus more on game situations because they have less fundamental stuff to work on. However, it is important to keep kids interested and enjoying their sport. Maybe it's a problem with our society and how we have such bad attention spans...

Ok now you tell me what you think, because I'm not sure.

If you could do it like this that would be great-

Drills 50%

Play like drills 35%

Play 15%

Then an explanation.

Answer 1

Drill efficiencies can be determined by counting the number of balls in the air.

Answer 2

that sounds good, just remember that players get very bored with drills.

Answer 3

what we do is.

5% stretch and warmups

then blocking trips which really helps with form.

just make the beginning of the practice team drills as a warm up like deep court threes but have a goal like 10 rallies in a row or something so there is structure.

then concentrate on individual skills such as passing and hitting for about 40% of the time.

then have game situation drills such as some players blocking while others hit. and focus in on certain things.

devote at least 45 minutes to just playing a game.

despite what the international guy said. its just that he is making a huge generalization.

a game is practicing all the skills and it is a game situation because it is a game.

just keep it interesting. and goodluck.

Answer 4

I'm a CAP certified coach, not just because I wanted the moniker by my name, but because I believe in the approach to coaching. There is no reason why anyone should do anything in practice that they would not do in a game. Here's what I mean:

Using warmups, such as two person pepper, that do not utilize the net, at all.

Coaches who slap the ball to simulate the beginning of anything, do we ever slap the ball then throw it in a game? No.

Everything you do beyond stretching should involve game-like movement in relation to the net and the court space. If you simply do digging drills when coaches hit balls while standing on your side of the net, and coaches never stand on a box on the other side of the net, then players will get good at digging at balls from their front row players that smash it at them. How does that help defense in reading blocks? Not much.

With all that said, I do believe that the best way to learn is by playing the game. Here's how I would structure a random practice. Consider that my team already has general fundamentals down and I do not need to set aside time for individual work, like setters. First of all, the team has a choice and I tell them up front:

Practice hard, be quiet when I'm talking, and we'll set up a scrimmage to end practice. Talk when I'm talking and be lazy practice players and we'll do conditioning to end practice.

Both are 2 hour practices and I write a plan for each scenario:

Good Practice:

-15 min Stretching and Mini Game Warmup

- Game-Like Passing/Serving Drill

- Game-Like Hitting/Defense Drill

- Scrimmage Mini Game (i.e Bonus Ball, catch-up,) giving team a goal and something to work on.

- Scrimmage (regular)

Bad Practice

-15 min Stretching and Mini Game Warmup

- Game-Like Passing/Serving Drill

- Game-Like Hitting/Defense Drill

(I start seeing players get lazy)

- Suicide defense (Conditioning)

(It doesn't get better, or they complain about running)

- Game-Like drill focusing on  a team weakness

(players complain about practice almost being over and not getting to play)

- They run laps while I tell them why we are not playing at the end of practice.

- Game-like passing drill again to end practice.

In both scenarios, the team works on important needs whether they know it or not. It also teaches players about choices and consequences. I consider myself a life coach above all else, and in life every choice has a consequence.

With everything I've said, consider this:

It all depends on the point of the season. In the beginning, drills and fundamentals should take up most of your time with playing being about a 10% time waster.

In the middle of the season, you should be working on weaknesses, reinforcing fundamentals, and playing a little more.

At the end of the season, you should be working on weaknesses and playing scrimmages more. Fundamentals really have no place at the end of the season unless in special cases of fundamentals causing problems, which means they weren't covered well enough in the beginning of the season.

Hope that helps.