Essential Volleyball Setting Drills Taught By 5 Pro Setter Specialists

Five volleyball celebrities explain
their favorite setting drills.  

Setter (R.L. Dalmore)

Volleyball setting drills. 

Today let's first look at a selection of effective setting drills explained by five accomplished setters who are specialists in this skill as both athletes and coaches in the game. 

Hear from these five experts...

• Alisha Glass
• Kele Eveland
• Christy Johnson Lynch
• Lauren Carlini
• Chris P Austin

...about what their fave volleyball setting drills are, why they do them and what you can expect to gain by doing them too. 

If you learn or hear anything that really inspires you, please let me know about it in the Comment section below. 

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If you're like me, when you write things down, you remember and retain that information much better and for longer periods of time. 

Let's get to it. 

First up is USA Volleyball Olympic Silver medalist Alisha Glass. 

In this video Alisha talks about how easy the "catch and release" contact of the ball during your setting technique should be. 

Watch as she demonstarates an "easy-to-do" at-home floor drill which aims to help you improve your setting form. 

If you're looking for volleyball setting drills to do at home, the second suggestion focuses on wall drills which I highly recommend doing. 

Especially as you move away from the wall, wall drills are good for building hand and shoulder strength and increasing accuracy.

• Alisha Glass is a two-time Olympic setter for the United States

• Alisha is a two-time USA Volleyball Female Indoor Player of the Year

• She is a three-time gold medalist in three FIVB Grand Prix competitions

• Won three consecutive NCAA championship titles as the starting setter at Penn State for the Nittany Lions

• The finalist for the Women's Sports Foundation Sportswoman of the Year in 2014 and was named the Best Setter on the 2016 Olympic Dream Team 

Source: Art of Coaching Volleyball

Kele demonstrates two volleyball setting drills that help the setter "feel" where the middle blocker is going to take-off and land. 

The drills are designed to help build a better connection between a middle blocker and her setter. 

• Kele is the first player ever in the Atlantic Coast Conference and her alma mater Georgia Tech to be named as a First Team AVCA All American ever

• She is the most decorated player in Georgia Tech volleyball history

• Finished her career ranked fourth on the NCAA career assist list with 6,464 which places her first on the career assist list at Tech and in the ACC

• After playing professionally for four years in Spain, Kele became the assistant coach at San Diego State under head coach Deitre Collins Parker

• Founder and Head Coach of Setter Training.com, Elite Setter and Volleyball Training with video subscriptions and online lessons

Source: SetterTraining.com

Christy shows us drills that work on developing hand strength and release quickness for a setter. 

Secondly working on setter movement where the setter has to quickly get to a ball, beating the ball to  the spot where its going to land, getting "squared" to the the antenna at Zone 4 and contacting the ball before setting it to the target. 

Lastly, Christy shows us a couple of drills that work on improving setter vision. 

• Since 2005 Christy Johnson Lynch has been the head coach of Iowa State Cyclone's women's volleyball team

• Coach Johnson coached the Cyclones to the NCAA playoff Elite Eight twice 

• With the exception of her first year, she has coached Iowa to the NCAA Championship playoffs every season

• In 2009, the Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year was named the AVCA Central Region Coach of the Year and ASICS/Volleyball Magazine National Coach of the Year

• Coach Christy is 141 - 75 against Big 12 opponents

Source: Art of Coaching Volleyball

One of our countries best young setters, Lauren Carlini is now a professional volleyball setter and a member of the US Women's National team. 

Watch her as she goes through a setting session her freshman year, at her alma mater the University of Wisconsin.

• In 2017, Carlini was the first volleyball player to win the AAU James E. Sullivan Award. The other six finalists were all Olympic gold medalists

• The 2016 Sullivan Award winner is a three-time First Team All AVCA All American 

• The setter at the University of Wisconsin is the first Badger volleyball athlete to be named as a four time AVCA All American and a four time All-Big Ten player 

• Ranked as the number one recruit in the nation by Prepvolleyball.com in 2012 Carlini was the Gatorade National High School Player of the Year the same year

• Now a USA Volleyball National Team member, Lauren Carlini is the face of the new Adidas volleyball campaign

Source: FRVBC 

Chris is a Division I NCAA championship winning setter.

He shows us some great setting drills he has his young setters do in practices and that you can do at-home. 

• Chris Austin is a two time NCAA National Championship setter having graduated and played at UC Irvine after playing one year at Long Beach City college

• The Las Vegas native played professional volleyball in Finland and Greece

• Chris was named to two NCAA Final Four All Tournament teams

• Chris was a member of the USA Volleyball Junior National Team

• Chris is the Founder of National Champ Volleyball Training Academy, authored the book "The Way", created a signature line of hats and tees called 'Young Lion' and is a motivational speaker!

Source: Volleyball 1on1 Videos

So What Is A Set?

A set is usually the second contact a team makes on the ball during a rally when the ball has entered your court.

It is called a 'set" because the setter or the player who makes the second contact usually chooses to contact the ball using an 'over the head' setting technique to guide the ball to the target.

One thing players should note, you use your legs to get your body underneath the ball to set it.

Your hands and arms are just in place to cradle the ball and guide it to its target.

A player's legs and lower body possess the strength they need to get the ball to one of the outside hitters.

Its the leg and butt strength volleyball players rely on to push the ball up in the air 8 - 10 feet to deliver the ball to a third teammate so they can hit it over.

With volleyball setting drills, so much time is spent on developing leg and butt strength and muscle conditioning because running, jumping and setting a ball across a court and holding a low body position takes a lot of leg strength.

Thank you so much for visiting this site and reading the info on this page. 

I'd love to know what did you think of this page and the information on it? 

• What was your favorite clip?
• What are you going to immediately use and apply in your setting team practices or individual practices?
• Do you have a setting drill you'd like to share that others can learn about?

Leave it in the comments below. I'd love to join in the discussion. 

Thank You!

Wanted to leave a thank you to Desiree Thompson!

Thank you Desiree for buying one of the VolleyBragSwag volleyball t-shirts. It means lot to me.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoy ours!

Crawl.Run.Play. VolleyBragSwag shirt

Be sure to check out our VolleyBragSwag volleyball t-shirt collection on Teespring. We are raising money for a select number of charities. 10% of the sale of each shirt goes to each charity. 

Thank you again for your support!

Sources

• Art of Coaching Volleyball

• Setter Training.com

• Front Range VBC

• Volleyball 1on1 videos