Fun Volleyball Drills

One challenge that every sports coach eventually must face is making practices fun. While repetitive drills are necessary for building skill and muscle memory, when players become accustomed to certain drills they are more inclined to turn their minds off and go through the motions. Instead, coaches must continually rotate drills and add fun and exciting new ones to their practice line up to keep players focused and sharp. Feel free to use one of the following fun volleyball drills at your next practice to break up the routine and challenge your players in new ways.

Bingo Volleyball

For the first of these fun volleyball drills you will need a large sheet of white paper and a black marker. Begin by brainstorming a list of some of the crucial skills and moves that your players need help with such as perfect dig, block, spike, etc. Once you've come up with at least 25 draw a bingo card on the sheet of paper, filling each of the squares with one of the skills and post it next to the court.

Now divide your team into groups of six for scrimmage. The teams play against each other as if it were a regular match with one key difference: each time they successfully execute one of the aforementioned moves, they earn that spot on the bingo card. Players must call the move before the execute it to earn the spot on the card.

The goal is to make a line of 5, at which point all members of the team must yell "Bingo". This game causes players to come up with a game plan that successfully incorporates the necessary moves to make a line of 5, which can often be radically different from their normal game plan.

Hit the Deck!

When searching for fun volleyball drills remember that the emphasis does not always have to be on hitting the ball. Volleyball requires many other skills that are often less recognized, such as the ability to drop and hit the floor without fear or hesitation. The following drill, which we call "Hit the Deck", will help your players overcome that hesitation.

Begin by having your players jog on the spot. Either at the sound of your whistle or when you yell the words "Hit the Deck", all players must drop to the floor instantly. If you'd like to up the competitive spirit of the drill, you can enforce a rule where the last player to hit the floor is out.

Building Defensive Toughness

The third of the fun volleyball drills I like to use to change up my practice routines is a simple variation on 2-on-6. For this drill, one team has 6 players and the other has only 2. To begin with, have the strongest players on your team as the outnumbered ones.

The 6-player team begins by serving the ball within two steps of a member of the 2-player team. The goal is not to try and humiliate the 2-player team; rather the goal is to have them get down and play defense. You'll really begin to notice your players develop their defensive toughness after running the fun drill at a couple of your practices.

Larry Reid has been coaching volleyball for well over a decade. You can get instant access to his championship volleyball practice plans by visiting his website:

http://www.volleyballpracticeplans.com/

Free Girls Softball Fastpitch Drills

Any softball coach or player who wants to learn more softball drills can easily find a lot of drills in books and videos and on the internet. Most of these drills cost money but some of them are free. These free girls softball fastpitch drills are very good. Most of the free drills focus on throwing, fielding, and hitting the ball.

Throwing the Ball

The position of a player determines the most common types of throws that player will have to make. For example, a 3rd baseman will need to make hard throws all the way across the diamond to 1st base while a right fielder will most commonly have to make a longer throw from the outfield to a cut-off man near the infield or to a base.

The Before Inning Warm-up Drill

All softball coaches and players know what players do before an inning begins. The first baseman throws a grounder to each infielder while the outfielder stands in their positions and play catch. This is a common drill during games but it should also be performed everyday in practice.

The Relay Throws Drill

The Relay Throws Drill is another one of the good free girls softball fastpitch drills. This drill involves 2 outfields lining up on each side of an infielder. Each player should be about 100 feet apart.

One of the outfielders starts out with the ball and throws the infielder the ball using the crow-hop. The infielder catches the ball, pivots, and uses the crow-hop while throwing the ball to the other outfielder. That outfielder catches the ball and then throws back to the infielder, once again using the crow-hop.

This drill allows all 3 players to practice throwing using a crow-hop. It also helps teach the outfielders to hit the cutoff man. Finally, it helps the infielder practice receiving the cutoff throw, pivoting, and throwing to the desired base.

Fielding

It doesn't matter how well a team can hit and pitch if the team can't play good defense in the field. The key to playing good defense is for every player to be fundamentally sound. A great drill for this the No Glove Fielding Drill.

The No Glove Fielding Drill

Just as the name suggests, this fastpitch softball drill requires players to field the ball without a glove. The drill can be run with bare hands or with a board that is specially made for the drill and worn on the fielders' glove hand.

Players can either field balls hit to them by the coach (more advanced) or they can field balls rolled to them. They need to concentrate on keeping their upper bodies square with the ball (get in front of the ball), bending at the knees, and cradling the ball with two hands into their body.

Once players master the technique of fielding without a glove then they will find fielding with a glove much easier.

Hitting

The only way for a player to get better with hitting the ball is for them to actually hit. Players can either hit a ball off a tee (to work on the basics) or they can hit pitches. Also, a part of hitting that is often overlooked is bunting. Players should be required to lay down at least 3 bunts every time they take batting practice (BP). If possible, players should take BP every practice and before every game.

Look for Free Girls Fastpitch Softball Drills

Softball players need to be drilled on the basics of the game (throwing, fielding, and hitting) as often as possible. Any coach or player who is looking for drills to do can easily find them. In fact, there are a great many free girls softball fastpitch drills on the internet.

Becky Wittenburg has been coaching softball for over 15 years- it is her true passion. She's constantly on the lookout for new free girls softball fastpitch drills. You can get instant access to a sample of her softball practice plans by visiting her website:

SoftballSpot.com

For a limited time, all coaches who visit Becky's site will also get a free copy of her special report: "The 7 Biggest Mistakes Softball Coaches Make". Go get your free copy today!