The first step to any good volleyball program is defense or passing. If a team can't pass the ball to the net, then there will be no offense or hitting. When I start a practice, no matter what age group, I show my players the proper passing form--legs shoulder-width apart, knees bent but not over the toes, arms out in front of your body, one hand makes a fist and the other hand encloses the fist for a proper passing platform. Thumbs should always be straight out and pointing to the ground. This allows the ball to bounce off the forearms evenly. Their shoulders should be rounded forward facing the ground. Passing arms should never come between the legs because this causes a swinging motion of the upper body and bad passing form. The most important part of passing is making sure you are stationary before the ball hits your arms. If your body is moving then the ball will shank.
After the proper form is checked, start your passing drills. I always start with free ball passing just to warm up. This drill consists of three players out at a time on the baseline. Each group of three will pass 15 total balls to the target at the net. Free balls should be tossed nice and high and right to the players so they can get in the proper passing form and give their setter a nice high pass. After 15, the next groups go until all have passed. When the teams get better at this drill, I always add my setter into the mix and have her set the ball to the outside hitters. This allows multiple aspects of the game to be incorporated into one drill!
Practice run-throughs. Run-throughs are and important skill in passing. These are very short balls, such as tips, that cannot be passed in a stationary form. Again, three players are on the baseline, and the tosser tosses lower short balls right in front of them. The key to a run-through is to run through the ball (don't stop once you pass) and to pop your wrists once you touch the ball. This allows the ball to get higher in the air giving your setter time to set. Continue this drill until all groups have passed 15 balls to the target. Once this drill gets better, I always have my other players who are not in the drill touch the ball again after it's popped up to promote wanting the ball and never letting it drop to the floor without effort.
Run downball or hit passing drills. Again, three players are on the baseline, and someone is hitting balls at them. The main focus on this drill is to make sure the feet are planted to the floor before touching the ball and that the arms are out in front of the body, not between the legs. Do this drill until all groups have passed 15 to the net.
Begins settting drills by concentrating on the hands. Both hands need to be "big," as I call it. This means the fingers are spread apart and slightly bent. The next step with the hands have the pointer fingers and the thumbs form a triangle, without touching each other. I use the analogy of grabbing a two-liter bottle. Your triangle is now there. However, the key to the hands for setting is keeping your hands high. They should be at your forehead, so if you were to stick your thumbs back, they would poke your eyes. Have each girl grab a ball and put their hands on the ball as if they were going to set it. Every finger pad should be on the ball, and there should be a gap between the ball and their hand. Their elbows are slightly bent, and their neck should be straight, not bent back.
Have each girl get a partner and a ball to practice the hand part of setting. One partner is on her knees with the ball in her hand. The other partner is standing up in front of her, putting pressure on the ball. The partner on her knees is pushing the ball up and away from her 15 times. Make sure that each time the ball is coming back to the forehead, not the chest. The latter will cause bad habits and illegal contact in a game. Then, the partners switch. The next drill is wall sets. Have the girls stand shoulder-width apart and about a foot away from the wall. Get the ball in proper hand form and have them set 50 short quick sets to themselves. The ball should barely come out of their hand in this drill.
Practice left-right footwork for setting. They catch the ball on their left foot, and when they release it, their right foot should come in front. They best way to teach this is with the "catch & release" drill. One partner stands about 5 feet away from the other with the ball and tosses it nice and high. The other partner is going to step with the left foot, catch the ball and then from her forehead, release the ball off of her right foot back to her partner. The feet should not come high off the ground, but they must catch the ball with the left foot forward in order to keep the body moving forward not backward. Have each partner do this 15 times. After this drill is complete, they can set on the wall from farther away this time. Each can set 25 to 50 to themselves, and then have them set in a line back and forth and set a goal of how many good sets they need to have before the drill is over.
Practice timing in hitting. You should not leave for your approach until the ball is at its peak, or starting to fall back down. The first step to hitting is the footwork. I use a left right left approach for my teams. The first step, or left, is a big read step towards the ball. The next two are short and quick and get you into your jump motion. After your three-step approach you should have bent knees and be facing your setter. In order to check this in my players, I have them all line up and show me their approach without the ball. If they don't do it right they work on it until they get it.
After the footwork, practice the arms swing. The arms of a hitter should be bent at the elbow and tucked close to the body. We use the analogy of "airing the armpits" because the elbows go up and out from the body--not backwards! A right-handed hitter will then take their left arm and point it at the ball in the air. This gets the upper body in the proper hitting position before actually hitting the ball. The right arm of the hitter needs to be stretched higher than the ball so that contact is on top of the ball, not behind it. After the ball is contacted or hit, the right arm should come all the way through the ball and end up back at the hitter's right side. If the hitter stops her arm after contact with the ball, the ball will go out of bounds. I always say, "Fingers to the ground after hitting."
Use the wall next. After we go through the basics of hitting, we still don't hit over the net. Three girls stand about 15 feet away from the wall. A tosser tosses the ball fairly high, and the hitter runs her approach and hits the ball. If done properly, the ball should land on the ground before it hits the wall. If it hits the wall, then the player is not contacting the ball on top. She is hitting the ball behind and needs to work on her timing. Do this drill for about 15 minutes. It's great for conditioning, and it gives the players time to get their timing down before hitting over the net.
The last step to hitting is hitting over the net off of a toss. I set up two outside hitting lines and have my coaches toss high sets. This gives the players a chance to hit over the net and to work on putting everything together. We do hitting lines for about 15 to 20 minutes and then maybe put a setter in there. Once the team gets better at hitting, I will also put a passer in the back row and my setter at the net and work in all aspects of the game.
Have the team play short court. This involves cutting the court in half, or a little more than half, from the net to the baseline. Make teams of four and play wash to five. I usually have two passers, a setter and a hitter on each team. This is a fun game for the girls, and it helps to reiterate the skills they just learned.