This week is Beach Week at Smarter Volley. Yes, that’s two Beach Weeks in a row! Well it only makes sense, given that the NCAA Beach Volleyball National Championship just concluded.
I’ve highlighted a few drill setups I like on the beach. Previous posts include:
8-Ball is another setup that I like. In sticking with our First Ball theme, 8-Ball is a good setup for working on your First Ball game. It’s less of a training paradigm in and of itself, and more of a setup to make sure all 4 players on the court are getting sideout chances for you to then coach them up.
Setup
The setup and execution of 8-Ball is really simple.
Team 1 plays Team 2. Each of the 4 players between the two teams gets two serves. (2 players x 2 serves) x 2 teams = 8 balls. Hence the name.
Each player also must serve each opponent. They have two serves, so they need to hit each partner once. You can mark the midpoint more formally by dragging a line in the sand or putting some tape on the endline, or let the players work it out more informally, like you might do in a coed tournament.
Because there’s a fixed serving schedule, the service order doesn’t depend on who won the last point. Player A serves two balls, then Player B serves two balls, then the serve goes to the other team and Player C serves two balls and Player D serves two balls.
As with almost any drill, I like to “earn the sideout,” by entering a replacement (either bowl or easy serve) for any missed serves. This can be done by the coach or by a player who is waiting off. The fixed serving schedule makes this a little easier, because the first four serves go from one side, and then the next four from the other. So the replacing coach only needs to switch sides one time.
I also like the fact that each player is going to get two chances to sideout within an 8-point game. There are other drill constructions that give players more concentrated chances to sideout1 that can be really good as well. This is more in the median zone where there’s enough structure to make sure everybody is getting sideout reps, while still keeping the pace and turnover of the game a bit higher than some of the longer, more concentrated sideout drills. More on that below.
The final aspect is that, since you’re playing an 8-point game, you can tie 4-4. This gives you the opportunity for a tiebreaker. I’m a big fan of games that can end in a tie!
Volleyball plays deuce points for a reason. Different sports have overtime rules, etc. Setting up a framework where, “it all comes down to this point,” or there’s special attention played to the critical points is one of the easiest ways to increase engagement at practice. I should know, I am the winningest overtime coach in the history of Athletes Unlimited.2
So I find it much more fun to call the game 8-ball rather than “first to 5 points” or “best of 9,” which are way lamer ways to call the same thing. But when you get a 4-4 tie, you play a tiebreaker. The simplest and generally best way to do it is let your players decide for themselves with a rock-paper-scissors or something, and just play a 1-point for the tiebreaker.
But if you have some sort of overall focus for the day, or broad team emphasis, you can do something else. Another good tiebreaker is to roll a ball out onto the sand and give all 4 players the chance to serve or attack the ball and whoever hits closest to the target wins the tiebreaker for their team. Playing 2-touch-no-attacking can also be a fun tiebreaker because the rally will usually go for a little while and the feeling of “outhustling” the opponent for a win is a good one for the winning team to earn.
Making It Work
I really like 8-Ball for practice sessions when more than 2 pairs are sharing a court. This is by far the majority of juniors beach practices that I’ve seen, but even more advanced teams might have training circumstances that require this. Whenever you have teams waiting off, you have to strike the right balance with the pace of your practice.
Increasing the wave frequency gets the energy going, prevents boredom, and can be good for the early phase of practice. Indoor-style Queen of the Court where it’s one-serve-and-off is pretty popular for a warmup. All of the running on and off the court can be beneficial in this phase of practice.
Decreasing the wave frequency by lengthening the games often increases the competitive atmosphere and allows players opportunities to respond to in-game dynamics and repetitive situations in ways that running and off of the court doesn’t. The physical, but more importantly, mental strain of pushing to win a 21-point set is what volleyball is ultimately about. But the downside is that teams are now sitting off for a long time and getting cold physically and mentally.
The 8-Ball setup seems to be a nice bridge that works well if you have something like 4 pairs sharing one court, which seems to be the most common number for non-elite practices that I’ve witnessed. A round of 8-ball will be played in about 3 or 4 minutes, so even 4 pairs will cycle through fast enough. But at the same time, 8 points (9 if you need the tiebreaker) is long enough that it doesn’t feel random.
It also works really well for one of my favorite setups, which is a workup format over multiple courts. Playing longer games, like 15-point sets, is great for the competitive aspect, especially if you have a good court-to-pair ratio (like 5 pairs on 2 courts), but once you get more pairs, you risk players sitting off more than they are playing. Plus, the longer the game is, the less synched-up the courts will be.3
An 8-Ball workup format over multiple courts keeps the chance to compete over multiple points and not feel like one let serve totally sinks you, but they are short enough that the courts turn over fairly frequently and the courts stay relatively synched up.
Karch once told me he would do a drill at practice where he had to sideout 15 times in a row. Give that one a shot at your next juniors practice and call me back in 3 days when you finally finish.
Also: there has only been one overtime game in Athletes Unlimited history.
This isn’t always a bad thing, sometimes pulling a couple players onto the dead court while everybody is waiting for one court to finish is a great chance to teach.