Training Young Setters Part 1

Culture of setting

A reader asks a question that ends up being too big to answer in a Mailbag.

Beyond the GMS standard keys for setters, how would you train young setters? What are the things you consider most important and how would you train those (beyond lots of gamelike setting reps)? I currently coach U14 and the setters are the weakest link for my team currently, so I am trying to understand what I should focus on/how to best help them. I find that the thing they struggle with the most is location while on the move. Something else that I've been thinking about is how to start teaching them about setter decision-making. When I coach the setters at [a college], I talk a lot about finding 1on1s and using the width of the net with overload/isolate type ideas, but I'm not exactly sure since most of that isn't applicable at the u14 level. I have talked to them about setting who gives us the best chance of scoring but that's a bit hand-wavey and not very concrete. Was curious if you've had experience with this with younger setters before.

At the risk of telling you what you already knew, the GMS keys are my starting point for coaching young setters. But beyond that, it’s important to think for a second about the distinction between volleyball players who set and setters.

Complete Players

All volleyball players need to learn how to set a ball. I’ve talked about Non-Setter Setting before. I really like all players being able to use hands to set and to throw the ball up high and let a teammate go get it. If I’m coaching club volleyball, I’d rather see a few unclean sets from time to time in order to emphasize players looking to grab the ball with their hands and chuck it up to hitters.

One of the many cool things about getting to watch Jordan Larson play from the best seat in the house was that I always thought she was one of the best in the world at setting the ball, even though she was an outside hitter.

So one of the first things to do is establish a culture of setting. You also want to establish a culture of defense. Don’t accept that your middles can’t dig a ball. Don’t just give your libero coach-on-1s for poor effort or a bad defensive move. Make sure your middles are serving and digging in practice and don’t be afraid to give them repeats for defense too. That sends the message that everybody in your gym is a volleyball player and volleyball players can pass and dig balls. But a culture of setting means that you expect everybody in your gym can competently set a teammate who can kill a ball.

What are some of the ways to do this?

Small-Group Games
I’m not a huge fan of Queen of the Court/Backrow-3s sorts of games. They aren’t so bad, but there’s often better uses of time of reps. But, one of their best uses is if you get everybody setting the ball. For this reason, I’m a fan of running it without designated setters. But I like playing 4s-In-A-Square more; the transitions for both hitters, setters, and non-setters match up with what you do in the game.

I also like narrow-court Doubles for this as well. Have them set from the inside-out.

Two things to emphasize are:

1. Use your hands

2. Set the ball HIGH

Girl’s volleyball is filled with pillow fights in transition. Players (setters and non-setters alike) under-set the ball, which causes shortened double-arm lifts, late/low jumps, and slapping at the ball. Get your players to chuck the ball up high, have hitters go slow-to-fast, and go rip the ball.

Speedball Rules

To quote a previous article:

Let’s run down Speedball Rules in general.

When you win, you stay and receive.
When you lose, you rotate and serve.
The player who rotates off gets the ball and gets back in line.

Since the players who are off are waiting with a volleyball to serve, it lends the speed to the Speedball, because you’re able to get the next serve in quickly. You can do Speedball 2s, Speedball 3s, 4s, even 6s. The basic thing is that you stay on when you win, and you have some sort of rotation or switching on the losing side and then you enter the serve.

We’re getting into just, “best ideas for practices for young teams,” right now, and not just specifically setting. But setting needs reps to develop and Speedball Rules help maximize reps for small-group games. So teaching your kids how to run Speedball Rules for various games (2s, 3s, 4s, 6s) is really valuable at 13s and 14s.

Setting is Eyework - Footwork - Handwork. Technical drills can help with Handwork and, to an extent, Footwork. But Eyework has to come from tracking a live ball that’s being passed by a teammate and maintaining your relationship to the ball as you move to it. You need some amount of game context for that, and running Speedball Rules maximizes that.

Split-Court PSH
I’ve talked about 2-Way Hitting plenty of times, which is my go-to as offenses get to really be “offenses” and not just “setting the ball”, but doing it as a split-court where you hit the same way allows for a true “2 balls at once” and not just a semi-staggered drill. Typically I favor this for U14 and below and I like to go about 50/50 setters and non-setters. I would do this drill almost every day, so I’d have everybody rotate through one day and the other day I’d have only the setters do it. This makes sure you’re getting your setters the most reps while developing the ability of everybody to set. Let’s look at the difference here between a 2-Way Hitting setup and a Split-Court PSH setup: