Volleyball is a team sport! It requires every involved player’s effort to be able to score points and potentially win games. That’s why you probably should train with partners (most of the time) to sharpen your team skills…
However, partners are not always available and sometimes it is better to train alone to make sure you can work individually on some skills that you might be lacking.
That’s why, I’ve made sure (in this article) to cover the most important drills you need to learn and execute that you can implement alone with a net.
What do you need to train volleyball alone with a net?
Here is what you will need for those drills:
- A volleyball ball (preferably several balls)
- A court or an open space.
- A Net (surprise, surprise!)
If you don’t have access to an actual court, they you should make sure you have a net that can be assembled and disassembled whenever you feel like it.
Example: You can have a look at this Portable Volleyball Net! In can be assembled and disassembled anywhere, even on your yard.
The net I’ve just recommended is adjustable in height. Indeed, that’s a great thing to try different heights in an increasing manner to master movements like spiking and serving.
You can have arm sleeves and knee pads, depending on the intensity of practice.
But for now, just stick to the basic equipment if you are a beginner, and later on there is always the possibility of including more advanced equipment.
The second option is to practice on the court with a net and some cones. Place the cones in a random position on one side of the court, and practice your serves by targeting the cones.
You would also need a few balls in order to have continuity when serving.
5 Drills to practice volleyball by yourself with a net.
There are a number of drills that you can do by yourself if you feel the need to improve some of your skills or just to pinpoint some mistakes in your game!
SERVING
Stagger your feet – The feet need to be in the width of your shoulders. One foot goes in front, opposite to the hitting hand. Align your shoulders and hands with the net, not your feet. Most importantly put your weight on your back foot, in order to be more explosive during a serve.
When practicing the serve it is important that you transfer all the weight from the back foot on the front one effectively, ultimately resulting in a strong serve.
Hold the ball in front of you – place your hand in front of you with a flexible elbow, but keep it straight. The palm is face up.
One more method is to hold the ball with both hands in place.
Ready the hitting hand – Swing your serving arm back or up if you will, get your hand slightly above your ear and swing, this is the moment the ball starts leaving your hand.
This stance opens your body.
Releasing the ball – Here you basically toss the ball in the air, align your hitting shoulder with the ball and propel your hitting hand, which is at a 90 degree angle before it gets propelled forward, at the ball the moment it starts dropping down.
Weight transfer – here is where the weight transfer comes in, by transferring weight nicely you get momentum when hitting the ball.
Hitting the ball – It all comes to this, it is important to hit the ball with the heel of your hand as strongly as possible. The hand needs to be slighted slightly upward. Aim for the middle of the ball, for maximum effect, resulting in a serve over the net.
TOP SPIN JUMP SERVE
The stance – The stance is the same as before, feet – shoulder width, except that here you will be holding the ball with both your hands. Try to be at least 1.5-2.4m behind the line in order to make a 3-4 step approach.
Tossing the ball – step forward, beginning with the foot that has all your weight on it, transferring slowly all the weight to the other foot while at the same time lowering your arm and swinging it upwards effectively tossing the ball.
It is important to create a spin on the ball when tossing it, also make sure that you to throw the ball effectively, not too high not too low.
The steps – The steps should go from slow to fast, the last two steps should look as if they were happening at the same time. On the last step you should make use of the momentum to propel yourself into the air.
Hitting the ball – in this type of serve your arms both go behind you, that is when doing the steps you lean your arms back in order to gain even more momentum when you swing them upwards when jumping. When you are up and your arms are above your head, hit the ball with the heel of your hand, just like before.
JUMP FLOAT SERVE
The initiation – The stance is pretty much similar as when doing the top spin jump serve, but here the method of tossing is not so important as the rest of the serve, so toss it as you like, but be precise.
When to toss the ball – the ball is tossed when you make the first three steps, basically the ball is tossed simultaneously with your jump. So when you make the three steps to a jump, you toss the ball at the same time and go after it.
Hitting the ball – Since you are basically chasing the ball in the air, it should be hit more with your entire body than with the heel of your hand, resulting in a successful serve.
LOWER NET DRILL
This drill helps you to effectively place your body, arms and hands when trying to block and attack properly.
So the goal is to improve your feeling of the block and to improve your overall confidence when it comes to blocking.
- Lower the net to a reasonable height, not too low or too high, since you need to feel the height of the net.
- Start repeating the jumps and all the movements that you need in order to do a successful block. Later on, someone could toss the ball just for you to get the extra sensation.
- When you get the full feeling with a lower net try doing all the things that you have practiced with a fully raised net, and success should not be far away.
We have already mentioned that not all drills involving the net can be done alone, sometimes you need help in performing those drills. The next drill is done by the player and the coach.
BLOCK HITTER ON BOX DRILL
For this one, it is really preferable to have a coach with you:
- The coach stands on a box on one side of the net, and the blocker goes to the opposite side of the net.
- The coach tosses the ball to himself and performs an attack hit and the blocker needs to block the hit with maximum effect.
- Getting both hands on the ball is very important and it is also important to watch over your entire posture.
Can you apply these drills at home?
Some of these drills that we have mentioned can be practiced at home if the latter has enough space.
Basically the first 4 drills that we have mentioned can all be practiced at home or at the park.
But it is very important to have practice station (portable & adjustable net).
The good thing about this practice station is that it helps you with your precision since you need to send the balls in the boundaries of the station.
It can help you with the lower net drill, since it can be adjusted to fit the needs of all kinds of players and drills.
Some moves you can’t train alone even with a net (few limitations!)
Basically, practicing completely alone with a net is more difficult than it is with one more person.
Besides the drill block hitter there are some more practices that require one or more people, but that are focused more on you than they are on other players.
This drill is called Block jump to ball drill. This practice requires 2 players and is done in a way similar as the hitter on the block drill.
The only difference being that the player or coach holding the ball does not toss it, he just holds it in place, while you try to jump to the ball in a blocking move, effectively practicing your blocking maneuvers.
The next one is called mirror blocking and is performed by two blockers. The blockers need to be on different parts of the net, and mirror each other.
One player will perform a blocking move and the other one should mirror his movements in the best way possible. This drill allows players to master an effective blocking technique and also it helps players react faster during a game.
Keep in mind that you can use a wall to practice many volleyball drills!
Final Thoughts …
The main excuse I often hear when somebody doesn’t feel like practicing volleyball is that he can’t find other people to train with!
Guess what … After reading this article you can’t have this excuse anymore.
Finally, I highly invite you to practice volleyball alone from time to time, so you will get the chance to improve some of the skills you might feel important!