Published: 8/29/24

Last Updated: 8/29/24

Author: Thalia U.

The butterfly drill is a volleyball drill that is known to be an essential part of the sport, and coaching it’s fundamentals.

While it may not be your athletes favorite drill, it is still important to stress the key skills practiced in the butterfly drill like hitting, passing, and hustle shown.

In this blog post I will go over:

• What is the Butterfly Drill?

• How to run the butterfly drill in a competitive way

What is the butterfly drill?

A full court drill that uses a:

• Target (x2)

• Passer (x2)

• Tosser (x2)

On both sides of the court, mirrored (similar to a butterfly’s wings which are mirrored).

It will end up looking like this picture example shown below with the full court, and mirrored sides (target, passer, tosser on one side… target, passer, tosser on the other side).

The tosser will have a ball, and either hit a down ball over the net to the passer across the court, or toss them a free ball (depending on your teams skill level).

The passer will then pass the ball with an intention to get it to the target on the same side of the net as them (high pass, angled to the target).

If the passer shanks the ball, the target still is responsible for getting the ball so they can then join the tosser line on the same side of the net they were a target to. This makes perfect sense since as a tosser, you need a ball to toss… so the targets become the tossers!

This creates a continuous drill where athletes are moving to a different point of the drill, also moving in a butterfly wing’s shape (Passer to target, target to tosser, tosser to passer).

Below is a picture which shows where the athletes will move once they complete their current task:

How to run the butterfly drill in a competitive way

Like any other drill, there are ways that we as coaches can make the butterfly drill more competitive, fast paced, and increase the intensity.

• 1) Add a numerical goal, with a time limit

You can use this tip for any drill, but especially with the butterfly drill it is important to increase the intensity so players hustle to their next spot, and push themselves to get that perfect, 3-ball pass.

After your athletes have run the butterfly drill for a few minutes, you can blow the whistle and yell “FREEZE”. Then you will give them their goal, and time limit.

An example of this could look like saying:

“In 5 minutes, I want us to get 15 perfect passes”.

Reminder: A “perfect pass” is categorized as a 3-ball pass which I explained in a previous blog post.

You can adjust that goal and time limit to best fit your teams skill level.

• 2) Free ball toss, or a Down-ball hit

As mentioned earlier, you can choose how your tossers are giving the ball to your passers. Knowing your teams skill level, you can choose if your tossers will down ball hit the ball over the net, or give a easy free ball toss to the passers.

For my varsity teams, I have them do down balls so they are getting extra reps practicing hitting control, on top of passing reps.

For my JV teams I have them do free ball tosses for better efficiency of the drill, but you as a coach know your teams limits… so you make that final call!

In conclusion…

The butterfly drill is a essential drill that I practiced with 8+ years ago during my freshman year of high school volleyball.

Although it is sometimes known as being players “least favorite drill” it is your job as a coach to remind players the importance of this drill, and how much more “fun” it would be if skills kept being improved on!

To help with that, don’t forget to add that numerical goal to the end of this drill to add that competitive aspect, increasing the intensity and pace of the drill.

I hope to see you in another blog post!

-Coach T