Two Workshops + A New One

Two smart guys. And me.

October has been all about Break Points here at SmarterVolley. We used a Sideout By Pass Quality lens, but flipped around. So we first looked at producing Defending Opponent In-System Sideout. Last week, we looked at Defending Opponent Semi-System Sideout. On Monday, we’ll look at some block/defense considerations when your opponent is Out-of-System.

And at the end of the month, we’ll wrap up with a Subscribers-Only Small-Group Workshop. The planned date/time is Thursday, October 27 at 9pm Eastern (Note: earlier I had 8pm, note the change!). The topic is Blocking Lessons From The 2022 Men’s World Championship. There will be application to all levels of volleyball, but I’m going to take plenty of space to touch on some higher-level concepts, so it won’t be aimed at beginner blockers. It’s open to all premium subscribers and I’ll send out the links as we get closer.

And today, I’m sharing a couple defensive sessions that I’ve hosted over the past couple of years. Nebraska has been known as a defensive powerhouse, and this year is shaping up no differently. Previously, I sat down for a session with their assistant coach Jaylen Reyes, and he shared his philosophy on training the block/defense part of the game. The highlights for me included:

Nebraska likes to keep things simple with their blockers and defenders, with only slight tweaks based on opponent tendencies.

They prefer to have their athletes react to what they are seeing on the court rather than following a heavily-rehearsed game plan: "defend what you see" first and then "defend what you know.”

Nebraska middle blockers generally read and react to the opposing setter rather than scheming (fronting or committing); they employ a split step, which unlocks their length and athleticism and allows them to chase the ball out of the setter’s hands.

Their defenders use a “drop and drive” move prior to the opponent hitter contact to generate momentum and attack forward into the direction of the dig.

Nebraska’s defensive training consists of a lot of partner work, but also a lot of opportunities for athletes to read and react to specific and unique defensive situations.

Here’s that split-step in action:

I also had the chance to sit down with Luka Slabe, now-Head Coach of NC State University in the run-up to the Tokyo Olympics, when he was Assistant Coach and the defensive coordinator for the USA Women’s Olympic Team, who would go on to win Gold in Tokyo.

Some takeaways from that session:

USA wants to stay in their default defense as much as possible; for them, this includes a bunch-read blocking scheme and a middle-middle defense based on reading and reacting to opponents

They will adapt from this default if there is a specific player with unique tendencies that are both high in frequency and efficiency – these exceptions are the only things they include in their gameplan in order to keep things simple for the athletes.

Reading is incredibly important in this system; blockers need to evaluate the reception quality and use their peripheral vision to see opposing hitter routes in order to make efficient blocking moves in a short amount of time.

Luka likes to ask the following questions when training his blockers’ reading skills:

1) What do you see?

2) What do you know?

3) How are you going to respond?

To gain buy-in from athletes it is necessary to explain along the way: 1) why we are doing this, 2) what it should look like, 3) how we're going to get there.

Full download links, streaming links, and 10-page mini-books for each sessions are available after the paywall.