Serving Progression Drill: Beginner Friendly Volleyball Drill
Posted on: 9/16/24
Last Updated: 9/16/24
Author: Thalia A. U.
Serving Progression drill
One of the most important, and impactful parts of volleyball include your serve. Your/your teams serving efficiency has a large impact on how efficient your offense will be able to run.
The tougher your serve is to receive, the better chances your team has to set up a great offense once the ball is sent back over the net.
A tough serve is also a great way to help rack up points for your team, a great way to show your importance on the team since this is the one area where you are performing alone during the match.
In this blog post we will go over a popular, and well-known serving drill for volleyball that works on your athletes serving efficiency/consistency/accuracy, fundamentals of serving, their confidence, and spot serving. This drill is known as the “Serving Progression Drill”.
setting up for the serving progression drill
For this drill your team will:
Get into pairs of 2
1 of the athletes in the pair has a Volleyball
Separate on both sides of the net, on the 10ft line, facing your partner
As shown below, your partner pairs will set up on the court, facing each other on different sides of the 10ft line with one Volleyball (Either partner can start with ball).
How to run the Serving Progression drill
Now that your have your team in pairs, and set up on both sides of the 10ft line (across the court from their partner) with one person holding a volleyball… we can start the drill!
You will instruct your athletes to:
Focus on the fundamentals of serving (Consistent toss, Contact at highest point, timing, correct contact with hand, and elbows)
Serve at their partner, with the goal of their “serve” going directly to their partner, without them moving much
After each person in the pair get a successful serve to their partner (can increase to 3 successful serves for experienced teams) they can take 1 large step back, and start “serving” again.
The pair will continue doing this until they reach the serving line
Once at the serving line, coach can decide how long they will continue to run the drill for (But aim for each athlete to push themselves as far as they can serve… even if some of them cant get it over at the service line!)
Why the Serving Progression drill is a helpful tool for coaches
The serving progression drill is one that my athletes have said good things about since day 1 of my coaching career.
I’ve heard things like “This helps with my confidence because I see myself getting the ball over when I’m closer, instead of missing it at the serving line” and “I like how it helps me practice spot serving, and accuracy”.
Serving is a vital part of a volleyball teams success, so it’s important to not skip over the fundamentals of serving to ensure your team is consistently working on their serve.
Even if your team gets their serves over consistently, there is always room to make your serve tougher to receive. That is where your serve starts to have impact for your team’s offense, so always work on your serve no matter where you are in that journey!
I hope to see you in a future blog post!
-Coach T