Limited Touch Games
Yesterday we talked about the effect of Transition play on success on the beach.
Coaches that coach on both surfaces might notice the same thing I have. The relative weight of Transition and First Ball at practice seems to be different between the two surfaces. When I work with indoor coaches, I find that their default is to over-weight Transition play and I help them emphasize First Ball play. On the beach, the default tends to be First Ball heavy.
This isn’t a bad thing. First Ball tends to be the more important factor on the beach. Starting rallies with serves, which allows First Ball play to happen, can also lead to transition situations. At the risk of over-generalizing, beach practices tend to be more gamelike than indoor practices.
Having said that, some beach teams need to find ways to emphasize Transition play at practice. So, today we’ll look at a few ways that coaches can get this done.
1-Touch Games
1-touch or volley-tennis on the beach has always been a popular warmup. The USA women’s indoor team has also always loved it. It gets you moving, it gets you covering court, and it produces some different touches. The reality is that over-passes (and particularly: over-digs) are a threat to score on the beach, especially at lower levels. Getting young players comfortable with the ball coming back over quickly can be a useful warmup. With the goal of court coverage and sending smart balls over (which young players have to do often when they can’t get an attack), I play this 2v2. You can do this as a warmup with players waiting to come on. Typically I have the pairs stay for the whole rally, rather than cycle off after every touch, as some coaches do.
1-touch can be played 1v1 as well. It’s common to see teams playing on the beach warming up with a little 1-on-1, short-court volley tennis with their teammate while they get ready for a match. I actually like playing a full-length, but narrow-width, 1-on-1 1-touch game for young players. This game is especially good for players with an indoor background who are transitioning to the beach. This game turns into a short-deep battle where you are generally trying to drive the other player deep and then mix in a short ball. Players with an indoor background will often resort to trying to set an overhead ball, so this drill can help break them of that habit! Even for players with some experience, this game produces some chances for tomahawks and fists and other odd touches.
2-Touch Games
2-touch is also a game that is going to get the ball going back and forth over the net and create some transition situations. As a general concept, drills that are good training drills for younger players are often good warmup drills for more advanced players, and vice versa. 2-touch with nobody at the net is a way that some advanced teams like to warm up. Some will play competitively and some will play cooperatively.
For less advanced teams, 2-touch is a viable training drill. A characteristic of intermediate-level players is that they can pass the ball competently, but they aren’t always mindful of putting their touch right on target. For example, a typical 16 year-old who has been playing beach for 2 years isn’t getting aced off the court every game, but she’s often not mindful about how her pass makes it easier or harder for her partner to set the ball. When you play 2-touch, and you put your partner in a bad spot, it becomes very obvious that she can’t swing on the ball. It’s just a more clear feedback for some players.
Another good variation of 2-touch is to play short-court 2-touch. You can play full-width short-court. Have the players draw a line in the sand about 10-12 feet (I say “3 big strides”) off the net as the endline. Players serve and play 2-touch volleyball. Of course, you can play 3-touch as well. But the 2v2 2-touch nature of this ends up with the strategy being to play the ball up high and close to the net (which requires some touch on the first contact) and to play shots and pokes along the net. Many players are more comfortable poking and shooting deep, so the short-court but full-width variation of 2-touch is going to get them moving the ball laterally along the net.
The final 2-touch game is one that I really like is to play short-court and narrow-width. So the court is 3 strides deep and 3 strides wide, just a little box. You serve the ball in with a little pop serve and then it is 2-touch from there. The effect of this is to bring the blocker much more into play. You have to choose the right level for this game. If you play this with kids who can’t get over the net at all, you won’t get the value out of it. But this game is great for that level where they can get a full hand over the net, which is a legitimate blocking presence, but not so big that their default is to get up to the net and make a play.
This short/narrow-court 2-touch game produces a lot of balls that a blocker is going to have a shot to get. It will also show these developing blockers that the strategy is often to waitwaitwait… and then jump. Most blockers jump too early on the beach. So waiting and having an active, “shot-blocking,” strategy is the way to be effective at the net in this game, and it’s a skill for developing blockers to learn.
Short/narrow 2-touch is also a great game for advanced players. If you play this with high-level players, they are physical enough that the blocker can take away almost everything. So it turns into a game of jousts and tool attempts. They will find it is very physically-demanding! The player at the net is essentially going to have to take 2 to 4 max jumps in a short span of time, often in a situation where they aren’t under full balance. So I also see it as a gamelike conditioning or plyo workout and encourage S&C coaches of high-level beach teams to think about using a game like this as a replacement for more static jumping drills. Throw a heart rate monitor and/or a Vert on your guys and see what kind of power they can produce in this setting.
When playing short/narrow I don’t count the block as a touch. If you play this game right, you’re going to get a lot of block touches, so one of the most valuable effects of this game is to practice digging the ball up to attack on 2. I want to keep that play alive.
1-2-3 Touch
A way to incorporate these limited-touch games is to play 1-2-3 touch. Typically I would play these in a wave format toward the end of the warmup portion where we’re getting ready to transition to competitive game drills. Initiate the rally with either a serve or a toss and the receiving team has to send it back over on 1, then the serving team has 2 touches, and then both teams get access to 3 touches.
Like a lot of these limited-touch drills, this plays a little faster than normal volleyball. The ball will cross the net more times and you have fewer First Ball kills. If you use cooperative serving, you also aren’t going to get many Terminal Serves. So essentially everything is in Transition. For more advanced players, this helps get the body moving and heart rate elevated. With a 24 year-old pro with a 30-inch vertical jump, I want them to be really warm before we start really spiking and competing. These limited-touch drills are a more fun way to get warm and create some different touches and work on ball control.
For younger players, I find that these drills help with their eyework and focus, because they know the ball is coming back over the net sooner. The reads are a little simpler (easier to read a player sending the ball over with their platform and see where they are playing than it is to read which way a hitter is going), so they can start having some success there and recognize the importance of eyework.
Try some of these games at your next practice and let me know what you liked and what you didn’t.