Technique Tuesday: No-Pass Footwork

A 2-minute breakdown of this critical attacking footwork pattern

This November we talked about Season Planning and deciding on your Big Rocks that you need to put into your practice plans. If you’re a club volleyball coach, one of those Big Rocks might be something like, “Establish our sideout offense.” (It’s probably a Big Rock for coaches at any level, but high school, NCAA and pro coaches are past the pre-season stages now…) In this early part of the season, I know I’m trying to get my players good at some of the foundational mechanics that support our sideout offense.

Broadly speaking, there’s 5 main footwork patterns you need to have in place for your sideout rotations:

1. Setter entries

2. Middle attacker entries

3. Pin attacker footwork when they pass

4. Pin attacker footwork when they are in serve receive but don’t pass

5. Pin attacker footwork when they aren’t a primary passer

Let’s look at #4 here which is a common situation: I was in serve receive, ready to pass, but I didn’t get served. What do I do? If you’re most 16 year-olds, the answer is, “put my head down, bolt to the same spot off the court that I stand in for hitting lines, and totally lose my vision and rhythm.”

Let’s… find some better solutions.

Below is a 2-minute clip, designed for players, that showcases the 5-Step Shuffle footwork I like for outside hitters when they don’t get served.