Volleyball Passing Drills for Beginners For Players To Do At Home

These volleyball passing drills for beginners focus primarily on setters and non setters who need to take the ball over their head.

After you've practiced against the wall for a bit, then start your first count of 25 with your right foot slightly forward. 

Once finished then go again this time with your left foot slightly forward. 

When you've finished with that take two steps back and repeat the above, but further away from the wall. 

You are still working on:

• Passing the ball to the target on the wall as many times in a row as possible and stopping and restarting when you don't
• Avoid swinging your arms when you pass even though you are further away from your target
• Being low enough so that your hips stay below the level of the oncoming ball 
• Shifting your weight from your back foot to your front foot, as needed, to get the ball to the target on the wall and back to you

You improve your passing skills by increasing your ability to pass well placed tough or high speed serves to the target, repeatedly in our practices and semi-private training.

In order to do this,

• once you get used to passing balls thrown at you
• then easy served balls aimed AT you
• then you progress to tough high speed balls

served from the opposing court in practice. 

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February Volleyball Passing Drills at the Breakfast Club ⁠ .⁠ .⁠ .⁠ Two servers and one passer.⁠ .⁠ .⁠ .⁠ Servers are at half court taking turns serving right to the left back passer - at a regular rhythmic clip (how about those fancy words? lolol) ⁠ .⁠ .⁠ .⁠ Passer working on passing technique...fixing angled platform based on what she/he read from the server's body language.⁠ .⁠ .⁠ .⁠ Passer working on reading/storing/interpreting as much information as possible from what the server's body language is telling/indicating/showing. ⁠ .⁠ .⁠ .⁠ Then using that information to quickly formulate a plan on where she/he needs to move/shuffle/run to get to the location where the ball will enter the court....before the ball does. ⁠ .⁠ .⁠ .⁠ Servers working on float serve technique. One target if you have a group of four. Then passer and target switches with servers after a set number of serves. ⁠ .⁠ ⁠ .⁠ .⁠ Totally doable at home and even without a net. ⁠ .⁠ .⁠ ⁠ Read more about passing in the article: "Volleyball Ball Handling Begins With Ball Control and Faster Footwork"⁠ .⁠ .⁠ Improve your passing skills with great ball control and volleyball ball handling skills along with faster footwork when moving to a served ball on your court.⁠ .⁠ .⁠ https://bit.ly/ball-handling-begins-with-ball-control⁠ ⁠ .⁠ .⁠ .⁠ .⁠ #vegasvolleyball #volleyballtraining #volleyballpractice ⁠ #summerlinlife #vegaslocals #varsityvolleyball ⁠ #girlsvolleyball #playvolleyball #hendersonnevada ⁠ #ilovevolleyball #thisisvolleyball #lasvegasbaby #vegasborn #summerlinlv #vegaslocal ⁠ #lasvegaslocal #avcavolleyball #volleyon⁠ #volleyballdrills #youthvolleyball #eastlasvegas ⁠ #hendersonnv #volleyballclinic #lasvegasnv⁠ #pass #passing #passer #middleblocker #blocker #learnvolleyball⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠

A post shared by Coach April (@coach_apchap) on Mar 22, 2020 at 9:05pm PDT

Let's get into the specifics as to how you would do this with your teammates in practice . 

• Form groups of 3 on one half court with a server, a target, and a passer.

The server is working on performing correct serving technique and consistently serving the ball to the target down the line. 

The passer is working on performing the correct passing technique and passing consistently to the target.

The target catches the ball and bounces it back to the server after the server has completed their serve.

The Court is divided into thirds and in each third there’s a group of three with a server a passer and a target.

In serving warmups the server is aiming to serve between the chest and belly button of the passer. 

Working on 

• Serving technique and target practice

• Contacting the ball in the same place every time to get the ball to go to the same place

In passing warmups working on

• watching the server’s body language then
• tracking the ball all the way into your platform

• Controlling body parts so you can control the ball

• Working to finish your movement to the ball and footwork BEFORE passing it (fast feet)

Figuring out how much to angle the platform to get the ball to the target.

How low is low in your passing stance?

How low do you need to go to keep your hips below the level of the ball when contacting it?

Working on

• passing from your lower position without standing up during the pass.

Working on

• starting position with hands extended straight out in front without hyper bent elbows .. because as the serve gets tougher.. all you have time to do... is put your hands together...good servers will not give passers time to straighten elbows before putting hands together

Three servers line up on the opposing court.

I like to stagger the servers so

• one is behind the service line
• one a few feet inside the service line and
• one server usually the most cross court server is at half court. 

Passers Get Served Three Balls In a. Row

The first server in Zone 1 serves the ball first all the time, followed by the second server in Zone 6 and the third server that's standing at half court between Zone 5 and Zone 4.  

I stagger the servers in this way on the opposing court so that the passer has some balls coming from behind the service line, just like what happens in the game, but the remaining two balls come from a shorter distance away.

This means the balls get to the passer alot faster,

• giving them less time to read and react to the oncoming serve
• forcing them to perform the correct passing technique quickly. 

In this drill I like for servers to keep a certain rhythm so the passer isn’t waiting long between reps... this way you can make quick tweaks to your passing technique while creating muscle memory faster.

Servers working accuracy and technique and will serve 5 rounds serving to the left back passer

The server switches with passer

5 rounds serving to middle back.                             Switch passers with server

5 rounds serving to right back
Switch passer with server

5 rounds serving left front to Zone 4
Switch passer with server

5 rounds serving middle front to Zone 3.
Switch passer with server

5 rounds serving right front to Zone 2 
Switch passer with server

There are two techniques you can use to pass the deep serve. 

Reese is reading and reacting quickly using "fast feet" or quick footwork to move deeper in the court beating the ball to the spot she anticipates it’s going land...

Then she stays in her low passing position and being patient enough... not to rise up but let that ball come down where she can control it. 

Carmela uses the other passing technique we practice when a ball is coming right at your head.

Volleyball Passing Drills: Let The Ball Pass You Then Cut It Off

You turn sideways to let the ball pass you, then you drop your inside shoulder to present your angled platform in the path of the ball so you redirect it back to your zone 3 where your setter is waiting to run the attack. 

Follow me on Instagram @coach_apchap to improve your game even faster!

I share alot of individual, partner and easy-to-do volleyball serving drills we do in class with my followers.

Many of these volleyball practice drills you can do at home by yourself or try at your next practice with your teammates.

If you're a B team or JV player trying to make varsity next year...your goal should be to complete 1000 reps a day of at least three of the basic skills on your own...volleyball passing, serving and setting should be at the top of the list. 

Your three options are: 

1. You can learn more about Drills by visiting the Related Links below.  
2. Follow the suggested reading on our Sitemap page  Learning How To Play (Sitemap)
3. Or visit the pages in the How to Play Volleyball section in the drop down menu at the top of the page to get started. 

1. Improve Your Volleyball Performance with Vegas VB Coach April Chapple
 ›
2. Drills For Setters, Hitters, Liberos, Passers and Blockers
 ›
3. Volleyball Passing Drills for Beginners For Players To Do At Home

Follow me on Instagram @coach_apchap to improve your game even faster!