Sand Volleyball Drills to Get You Ready for the Beach Season
Waiting for the beach season is like waiting for Christmas morning! For those of you that can get on the sand now without freezing your ROX bootys off (yes, we are in Florida and it's 80 degrees out but we feel for you northerners) here is a chance to drill like a professional. We followed Pro Beach ROX Star, Michelle Moriarty's drills she is currently doing on the beaches of Cali to help you get your beach body.
A really good volleyball drill that works on skill and gets you warm is the triangle drill. You need at least three people to make the drill work. One person is in left back and one person is in right back. There is a hitter on the same side of the court standing with their back to the net. The person at the net is hitting roll shots down the line to one of the diggers (it doesn't matter which person you decide to hit at because everyone will rotate through digging in right back and then you can switch it and do the same drill hitting at left back). As your shoulder gets warm, you can start hitting harder. The person who doesn't dig the ball comes in to set the hitter and the hitter hits the ball at the digger again. It should be continuous, kind of like pepper. The ball ends up traveling in a triangle (hence the name of the drill!). After 10 good reps you can rotate and everyone should rotate through all three positions. Then you do the same thing but dig from the other side of the court. If it is a windy day, it's good to dig from all four corners of the court to get used to passing and setting in different winds. This drill really works on the fundamentals of passing and setting, as well as getting your shoulder warmed up for hitting.
When my partner and I only have each other to work with, we like to do a lot of passing and serving reps. One person has all the balls on the end line and is serving across the net to their partner. You can start out with easy serves, but you should work into serving tough balls. Learning how to serve tough is a really important part of the game, and if your partner is able to serve really tough at you, you are able to become a much better passer (also an extremely important part of the game!).
To work on setting (transition setting specifically), my parter will stand at the net on the same side as me and hit cross court at me. After I dig, she transitions off the net to set me. If you are looking to do low amounts of jumping, you can just catch the ball and start over. But, this is also a great drill to work on transition hitting. If you put a few cones out on the court, you can really work on hitting the right spots! (Deep down the line, a cut shot, hard cross court, and hitting the side lines)
If you have 4 people, another great ball control drill is working on cut shots back and forth. Two people set up in defensive positions on opposite sides of the net (right back and right back, or left back and left back). The other two people stand at the net as blockers. Initiate the drill with a toss. The defender passes the ball, the blocker comes in to set and the person who just passed the ball comes in to hit a cut shot. Once the ball crosses the net, the other defender has to run down the cut shot, the person who just blocked comes in to set, and the hitter hits a cut shot back. Keep the rally going as long as you can. The point of the drill is to work on hitting as good of a cut shot as possible, while consistently keeping it in play. It is also about learning how to hold in your defensive position and run down a cut shot. Each player should do reps in the defending/hitting and blocking/setting positions. Once you have done cut shots from the left, switch it up and do cut shots from the right.
Thanks Michelle! We are so fortunate to have you on the ROX team. Good luck with the season!
And, if you're really too cold to play in those awesome ROX bikinis, we have just the right capris and tanks for you! AND ready for the best part? The ROX Beach Competition Tank and the Low Rise Capri's are 40% off until February 15th! Comment on this blog and we will send you the code to use at checkout!
Filed In: Michelle Moriarty | News | Volleyball Training Tips
Posted by Courtney Davidson on February 01, 2012
Comments: