Training Aggressiveness
-By Dave Cross
A Question for Dave:
This year I have been blessed with a 18u team that has great potential
to have a winning season, but none of them are true leaders or aggressive.
I have asked my two true 18s to take leadership rolls as co-captains for
the team. Only three of these girls have ever played together and we have
two more practices and skill sessions before our first tournament. How can
I get this team to be more aggressive?
Dave's Reply:
What you have to do here is force them out of their comfort zone in
terms of how hard they play. They are obviously playing with
the speed and effort they are used to playing with.
In otherwords, they displaying their "habits", in terms of playing the game.
Here a couple drills from our Gold Members Site you can use to help
them change these "habits" and learn to play aggressively on a consistent
basis:
DRILL: Alabama 36
FORMAT: 6 on 6 drill
EQUIPMENT NEEDED: A ball cart with at
least 6 balls at each end of court.
HOW IT GOES: Coach starts the time-duration
is three minutes. One team begins by serving. They serve until
they win two rallies in a row. As soon as they do, they start to receive
free balls. They continue to receive free balls until the remainder
of the three minutes is up.
The scoring is one point per rally won. If the team receiving
the ball scores a kill on their
first possession, that is worth two points.
At the end of the three minutes, both sides rotate and the
opposite side serves.
Continue this sequence until both sides have served from all
six rotations. (Thus the "36"
in the name-twelve rotations serve for three minutes each)
RATIONALE: This drill emphasizes
scoring off the serve and free ball termination.
**If time is limited, each rotation's time to score can be
reduced to two minutes.
**You don't have to run through all six rotations if time is
limited. Run it through three, and then the next practice, run it
through the other three.
Here's another version of that drill:
Same setup-but this time the pressure is on the receiving team.
The serving team serves the first ball as the time is started
(either two or three minutes).
The serving team continues to serve until the receiving team
wins a rally.
Once the receiving team wins a rally, they then receive free
balls for the remainder of the time.
The goal is for the receiving team to score as many points as
they can in the time remaining (one point per rally win). They do
not get a point for winning the serve receive rally.
Again, if they win the rally on their first possession with a
kill they receive two points.
**No matter which version of this drill
you run (or any other competitive drill), make it either 3 or 5 pushups
per point lost by for the losers. This forces them to play hard for
the entire time, no matter what the score, because the more
points a team loses by, the more pushups they have to do. (If they've
been doing a lot of pushups, switch it up and make it situps-and go
with either 20 or 25.)
Other drills to run from the members site:
-Progressive Scoring
-Earn Your Points
-Basketball (one of my favorites)
-Rotation Game (another favorite)
When you are running these drills, make sure to continually call
the score out and every 30 seconds or so call out the time remaining.
The whole idea is to put enough pressure on them
to force them to go all out. Make sure to put out alot of energy yourself
as they are playing, praising plays, giving brief key-word instructions
while they are playing, etc.
Now here's the key:
When they do well in a drill, playing hard and with enthusiasm, bring
them together afterward and ask them if it was "fun". They will always
say, "Yes".
Then point out to them that the game is the most fun when they are
playing with great effort, energy and enthusiasm, so why not play
like that all the time because it makes the game more fun? You've
got to get them to realize they control how much fun they have while
playing!
And, when they have a "dud drill", do the same thing, pointing out
to them that it wasn't "fun", and that the reason was that they didn't
play with the effort and energy needed. Now, it's in their control
to change that! Run them through the same drill again, stressing the
change in effort and energy-they will always do better and them bring
them in and point out what made the difference.
Finally, here's another drill I use all the
time:
COOPERATIVE SERVE VS SERVE RECEIVE:
SETUP: Six on six, timed for three minutes
for points.
FORMAT: Assign point values for proper
skill execution, such as:
-3,2,1 on the serve receive pass
-One point for:
-A good set
-A good attack (in bounds)
-A good dig
-A good block
-An ace
-A great hustle save
Two points for:
-A kill
-A block kill
Four points for:
-A "grunt" kill
Minus one point for:
-A missed serve
Remember: It's a cooperative drill-there
is one combined score for the entire court, they are all competing
to together to score for point total for the entire court.
GOAL: Depending on skill level, it can
range from high 40's to mid 70's. (My 16 American team scored 71 and
75 last week in the two times we ran it.)
KEYS:
-One girl serves for a minute and a half. Stop the clock and then
have one girl from the other team serve the rest of the time. (You
can also switch up positions really quick then)
-If the ball gets away after a rally, stop the clock-just don't tell
them you are doing this.
Again, assign pushups/situps for each point under the goal scored.
I use this drill as a warmup early on in practice-the higher skilled
your players are, the earlier you can run it.
OTHER IDEAS:
-Run the Pit Drill stressing defensive aggressiveness for 45 secs.
Keep two scores:
-Number of balls passed to target
-Number of balls not touched
-Subtract the "not touched" from the "to target"
-Five pushups for every point below the winner each player finishes.
**I would also have them start doing
visualizations of themselves playing as hard as possible in a match situation.
If you need a refresher on how to do this, it's in the members site!
:)
-Good Luck!
Dave Cross
National Director
"Yes, I Can!" Volleyball
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