Volleyball Conditioning Drills?

1. My coaches used to stand in the center of the court, split the girls up into two lines, and spike the ball to one, but the two wouldn't know which one would get the spike. You have to do it quick to work on their reaction time. 2. Set the girls up in pairs to play the ball back and forth on the net using setting only, bumping only, depending on what needs to be worked on. 3. Have the girls form lines facing a wall from about 20 feet back, the girl at the front will hit the ball, move quick to the back of the line, so the second girl hits the ball back at the wall and so forth. 4. Have a scrimmage of 2 vs. 2. on the court. It's challenging and really makes them work knowing their other team mates are watching. 5. Work on the squats while bumping! Hope this helps!

I like to combine conditioning with volleyball skills, so my teams don't do a lot of peppering or running around in circles. Early in the season, I'll intersperse some straight strength and conditioning work with volleyball drills, then as the season goes on I use drills that have a lot of movement, sprinting, and game-paced activity. A fun warmup is one I call Short Court Touch. Put 3-6 players on either side of the net in front of the attack line (10-foot line). (The fewer the players, the more challenging this one is.) Have them play a short-court game, where the end line is the attack line. But every time a player touches the ball, whether it's the serve, a set, a pass, an attack, whatever -- s/he has to sprint to the end line, touch it, and sprint back to the short court. This one is fun because there will be a lot of movement and noise, as as the game goes on, teams will realize where the holes are on the other side and start to use them. This kind of perception comes in handy during a match too -- find the hole, where the opponent is out of position, and exploit it. :) We do a lot of over-the-net pepper (instead of partner pepper) for warmups. This can be two-on-two half-court or any kind of combination. After a set period of time, I'll have all the groups start at the same time and the group that keeps their ball going the longest is the "winner," and gets to pick the next drill or assign a punishment to the losers. Another good one, especially if you have enough court space, is to have a player attack, do a defensive movement, transition to attack, and attack again. Repeat that 3-5 times at the beginning of the season and progress to 10 in a row. We also do a lot of running and serving. Serve the ball, run and get it, then run back to the end line you started on and serve it again. The goal is 10 in a row. This will help your players learn how they should serve even when they're tired, which will come in handy at the end of a long tournament day. Hope these help. I have a couple of great volleyball conditioning books as well that I bought from the AVCA's website (www.avca.org).