5 Volleyball Tips, With Drills and Readiness Checkpoints

Start with a serve you can repeat and a pass a teammate can reach. Then build clear communication, consistent sets and controlled attacks. Don’t add speed, distance and uncertainty all at once: change one difficulty at a time.

These five volleyball tips are for developing indoor players. Each includes one cue, a short drill and a checkpoint. The numbers below are suggested practice targets—not federation standards or guarantees of match readiness.

1. Serving: repeat the toss before adding power

If you keep chasing your toss, work on its placement before changing your swing. For a standing overhand serve, USA Volleyball’s serving guidance emphasizes a consistent, low ball placement and a firm contact surface. For a float serve, it also cautions that stopping the arm is not what creates float; centered contact matters.

Cue: “Place it where you can strike it.”

Drill: Choose a broad target, such as the left or right half of the opposite court. Use the same starting stance and serve 10 balls. Record three things separately:

• Did the toss reach your intended contact position?
• Did the serve land in court?
• Did it reach the chosen half?

If you cannot reach consistently from behind the end line, shorten the distance during practice. Move back gradually rather than making each attempt a maximum-effort swing.

Checkpoint: Put 8 of 10 serves in court in two consecutive rounds at your current practice distance before moving farther back. Meet that target from behind the end line before narrowing your aim. If you miss, check whether the toss changed before assuming you need more power.

2. Passing: control the angle, not just the arm swing

Your platform is the joined forearm surface that contacts the ball. Move efficiently toward the ball, establish an angle toward your target and avoid changing that angle during contact. In USA Volleyball’s passing advice, Kayla Banwarth emphasizes establishing and holding the platform angle; Erik Shoji similarly recommends trusting a solid platform aimed at the target.

Cue: “Set the angle and keep it.”

Drill: Work with a feeder and a target player. Start with gentle tosses from across the net. Place the target in the area where your team wants the setter to receive the pass, safely away from the net. Pass 10 balls there; the target catches each one and reports whether it was reachable with no more than one step.

Start with predictable feeds, then alternate slightly left and right. Keep the target in the same place so you can compare results.

Checkpoint: Make 7 of 10 passes reachable within one step in two rounds before adding live serves. If balls scatter, simplify the feed and watch your platform through contact.

For hand position and common corrections, use the volleyball bump guide.

3. Communication: decide who owns the seam

A seam is the space between two passers. Don’t leave its ownership to a last-second guess. Agree who takes a ball directly between you, and make an early, clear call.

Cue: “Call before contact—not with contact.”

Drill: Put two passers beside each other, with a feeder across the net and a target on their side. Before starting, name the seam owner. Feed 10 balls: some clearly to either player and some between them. The receiving player calls “mine”; the other leaves room and prepares for the next contact.

Score the decision separately from pass accuracy. A clear call followed by a poor pass needs a different correction from two players reaching for the same ball.

Checkpoint: Resolve 8 of 10 balls with one early caller and no competing attempts before making feeds faster or less predictable. Then progress through serve-receive drills.

4. Setting: give the hitter room to work

Before trying to disguise your sets, make their starting position and destination repeatable. Lindsey Berg’s setting tips emphasize high hands, consistent body and hand positions, and footwork for imperfect passes. In another USA Volleyball resource, Joe Trinsey recommends keeping sets at least three feet off the net to give hitters room rather than trapping them close to it.

Cue: “Arrive under the ball with hands ready.”

Drill: Use a feeder, setter and target player. The target stands in a chosen attacking location about a metre off the net. Feed predictable balls to the setter, who sends a high set that descends within the target’s overhead reach. The target catches rather than attacks, keeping the feedback focused on location. Agree on the desired set height before starting; a low ball that reaches the target is not the goal.

Checkpoint: Deliver 7 of 10 high sets within the target’s overhead reach without a chase before moving the feed off-center. Add attacking only when the hitter has usable space.

5. Attacking: build timing before a harder swing

Rushing from the first step can make the approach difficult to adjust. In USA Volleyball’s attacking guidance, Karch Kiraly describes a shorter, slow-to-fast approach rather than a long sprint toward the net.

Cue: “Slow to fast.”

Drill: Begin with a few approach rehearsals without a ball. Then have a feeder provide high, predictable tosses safely off the net. Use a controlled swing toward a broad target on the opposite court. Leave plenty of landing space and keep other players out of the approach path.

Checkpoint: Send 7 of 10 attacks into the court while staying clear of the net and landing under control before adding swing speed or variable sets. If timing breaks down, return to predictable tosses; choose the next exercise from these hitting drills matched to common errors.

At your next practice, choose the first skill in this sequence that is unreliable. Complete two scored rounds, record one recurring error and work on that cue. Advance when control holds—not simply because you have finished the repetitions.