RonSalazar

I have been doing a "continuous rotation" for the last couple of years. I really like it and so do the parents. Basically, I rotate a new player in every time we get the serve. It moves pretty fast and each player usually gets to the serve position twice during each game. The negative effect, depending on your perspective, is that you constantly have new servers, setters and hitters. I actually like that because it forces the girls to learn each position which I think will help them later on. If you are not sure how to do a continuous rotation let me know and I will give you the highlights. Any chance of creating two teams out of your 16 girls? Anyway, goodluck. Ron

Hey Tim. Nice post. I'm really big on trying to get the girls to really put themselves out there, make mistakes and grow as players. I think having them make a conscious decision as a team to do that is a great idea. Nice going coach. By the way, give us a description of how to play "queens of the court."

Another thought Holly. This time about getting the kids excited about volleyball and improving serving. Try using serving games instead of doing serving drills. My kids love "dead fish" and "centipede." No joke, they actually beg to play these games. If you look at some of the posts from the past you will see descriptions of lots of great games that make practice fun. As an example, instead of making the kids run...let them play tag. I've got kids that can't run because of allergies and asthma that can play tag all practice long. Just a thought. Ron

Hi Holly. Try having the girl who is throwing up the ball in the air before the serve practice without the ball for awhile. This will allow her to "see" her "shelf hand" before she strikes the ball. This should help to visualize why she needs to keep her "shelf hand" steady and might cure her problem. As far a not having the strength to get the ball over on a serve, there isn't much you can do about that. At one point I had a team of eight year olds. None of them were strong enough to serve over the net. Now they are all ten and the problem is solved. I guess what I'm saying is it isn't the girls fault, the problem lies with the location of your serve line;i.e., it needs to be moved up. Ron

Hi there. I consider myself a beginner coach (three seasons of ymca, 10 and under girls). I took the Cap 1 course this weekend and really learned a lot. There were concepts that I have read about, but actually seeing and doing it made a big difference in my understanding. Having said that, I think it was too advanced for where I'm at in terms of understanding the game. Also, it was definately geared towards older kids playing a much more sophisticated game than my girls are capable of at this time. In retrospect, I think I would have been better off finding something that would be more specific for my age group of girls, to quote the instructor "tactics are determined by the technical ability of the team." In other words, learning and teaching an offensive system is basically irrelevant if your kids can't pass the ball. Hope this help and let me know if you have specific questions. Ron

Thanks for the insight John. If you could email me a diagram that would be terrific. Thanks again. Ron

I have a nine and ten year old girls team and would like them to start playing the "w." One problem, I don't know what in the heck it is! I have read some descriptions of it but can't seem to picture it in my mind. For one thing, every "w" I have ever seen has five points, not six. It would be great if someone could give me a very simple explanation of the "w," how best to introduce it to this age group.

This isn't so much a drill as something I do to keep the "ready position" on their minds. At the beginning of practice I have the girls line up. I have taught them that when I yell "ready" they have to jump into that ready position. When they jump into the "ready" position together there should be a loud thud in the gym as their feet all come down together. The first time they do it I ususally say something like "that was soooo weak." Then I yell "ready" again. They make a point of all coming down together so they hear that loud thud. Then I yell something like "awesome girls." Then when they are in the "ready" position I yell "clap once," which they do, then, "clap twice," which they do, then "clap three times," which they do. They love this. I go through this process a few times and it gets them fired up and ready to practice. Then during the games, who ever is in the back and left position is called our leader and they are responsible for yelling "ready" before each serve. They are also responsible for looking around the court and making sure everybody is in fact ready and reminding the other girls to get ready. I run a continuous rotation so every girl is the "leader" several times during a three game match. It keeps the idea of "ready" at the surface at all times. I hope this helps. How is your season going?

I think it's because bumping the ball can sting a little in the beginning. Letting my team wear long sleeves or something on their forearms has helped my girls in the past. Good luck. Ron

Hi everybody. I do something similar to Connie's warmup. I try to involve the other parents at this point in practice and break the girls into groups of three. I have the parents run the warm up. If it is possible, I try to float and give pointers. I want to eliminate standing around as much as possible. Ron

I'm looking for fun drills for my 9 year old girls team. Connie gave me a great suggestion - "dead fish." Any others?

Hi there. My girls learned the proper position to bumb this way. I have a contest to see who can catch the ball between their knees. I line them up in a single file line. Then for each player I throw the ball a few feet to the left or the right. The girls have to move to the ball and naturally get into a really good position to bump the ball. When one girl wins the contest we transition into bumping the ball from that same position. It works great. I would love to hear other suggestions where they learn a skill in a fun way. Ron

Thanks for the great insight and the great ideas. I will let you know how it goes. Ron

Last year was my first year coaching volleyball. I had coached soccer and basketball so I had a little experience. Life can be rough for the coach's kid. Like all of you, I've seen my share of melt downs. I think its because our sons or daughters have to change their relationship with you as soon as they get out of the car for practice and because they feel like they have to stick up for us if another kid says something negative about you. That's not an easy situation for an adult, let alone a kid. With my own kids, I try to make sure they understand the only thing they need to be thinking about is learning, getting better, being respectful, trying hard, and having fun. I try to make a commitment never to be negative with them. As far as coaching volleyball, I'll leave that to the experts in this forum. Ron

Hi everybody. I'm a second year coach with a team of nine year old girls. We get to practice for one hour, once a week. I have a couple of girls who I think are ready to try to overhand serve. Any suggestions on how to introduce this skill. Also, last year we had a hard time returning serves. Any suggestions on how to improve that area. Thanks. Ron