1) Don't Give Away Free Balls
- Your opponents are the happiest when they receive free balls. So, keep teams from spiking by putting pressure on them that they can't handle. Here are some examples
ALL TEAMS can perform:
- Serve short or into the deep corner, whichever is open;
- Setter dumps the 2nd hit to an open spot;
- Spiker tips or rolls or hits to the open spot;
If you do these, your opponent's first contact may be poor and often you won't get a spike back at you. However, realize that this takes some scouting to know where/when/how to place these balls. If your players don't know what defense the opponents are playing, then their serves/dumps/tips become free balls to the opponents!
2) Let Your Blockers Take Away the Hitters' Choices
- If your blockers are big enough, try to get a few blocks and make the hitters change their game. Normally, if you make High School hitters change, they're not going to succeed. So tell your blockers, "
She's going to hit THAT DIRECTION, so take that away from her." Also,
tell your blockers to cheat over to their best hitter before the set is made. It's amazing that they won't cheat to organize the block vs. the opponent's monster hitter.....even after they've seen the same girl hit the ball 20 straight times. Maybe that's our fault as coaches, b/c we so often say, "
Stand here, and move after you see what's happening."
3) Let your Digger Dig!
- Whether your blockers are big or not, put your best diggers where the spikes are coming. It's OK if you have to say, "
Cynthia, when #14 gets in the front row, you have to be the cross-court digger. So you'll have to shift over there! Tell Beth & Carla to move over. We've done this in practice."
4) Use the Pride Factor
- Before you play the big spiking teams, have a talk with your team. Get the girls in the proper frame of mind. "
Their #14 put down 17 balls against us last time. Now you already know that we're going to make the two adjustments that we've been working on in prctice. But, ladies, if she puts down 17 again, they'll be almost impossible to beat. We MUST make some great defensive plays. You guys MUST leave some skin on the floor, jump an inch higher, run down some shanked passes, blockers must cheat, etc. for us to beat this team. Let's start TODAY at practice working on making the great play against the big hitter!! READY? Come on!!"
5) Serve Tough
- Coach, my teams have played teams that were so much stronger than us that we had to serve tough to keep them from setting up their hitters. This is the final option and it's very risky......let your good serve bang away, hoping that they get hot and the opponents can't pass them well.
