Volleyball Blocking Drills That Fix Feet Before Hands

Purpose. Turn two blockers into one wall: the middle travels, the pin sets the line, and the seam between them disappears.

Setup. Pin blocker at the antenna, middle blocker at center net, coach on box at the opposite pin with hitters or targets.

Steps. On the coach's turn, the pin blocker plants and takes the line; the middle crossovers in and closes hip to hip. Freeze at the top of the first three jumps for a spacing check, then run live at speed. Eight closes each side, then swap roles. Chart seams: any ball through the gap between blockers scores against the pair.

Coaching cues. For the pin: "set the line early, be a wall to close to." For the middle: "close to a touch," meaning her lead hip should brush the pin blocker's. The seam call belongs to the pin blocker, out loud.

Common mistakes. Both blockers jumping their own jumps: unsynced timing leaves a moving gap that looks closed from the bench. Freeze-checks expose it immediately.

Age fit. 13U and up; younger teams block solo and should spend the time on Drills 1 to 3.

Purpose. Train the sequence that separates varsity front rows from JV ones: block, land, open, push to the attack line, and be available to attack.

Setup. Blockers at the net, coach on the same side with a cart, a setter at target.

Steps. Blocker jumps against a simulated attack (or the box), lands, turns and pushes off the net to the attack line, and immediately approaches for a live set from the setter. Six full cycles per player. This is honest conditioning with a skill inside it, and it doubles as the middle's offensive rep block.

Coaching cues. "Land, look, leave": eyes find the ball during the turn, not after arriving at the attack line. Full approaches, not drifting steps; tired approaches are the ones that need the practice.

Common mistakes. Letting the transition shrink to two lazy steps as fatigue builds; the drill's value lives in the last two reps being full speed.

Age fit. 13U and up.

Blocker vs. hitter ladder. One blocker against a rotation of hitters attacking coach-tossed sets; the blocker scores for touches that help (chart them honestly) and holds the net until beaten three times clean. Blockers learn more from ten live reads than fifty patterned ones.

Wash with a scored block. Run your normal 6-on-6 wash game, but a block touch that a teammate converts scores double. For one scrimmage, blocking becomes the most valuable act in the gym, and the behavior follows the scoreboard: middles start traveling early and pins start setting the line without being reminded.

Blocking improvement hides from match stats, so measure it in practice: seam-chart results from Drill 4, helped-touch counts from the ladder, and the timing and hand-position scores in Rizzler's volleyball player evaluation template, whose Blocking category exists precisely because stuff counts undervalue young blockers. The optional block-touch metric (inches) gives your middles a number to chase season over season. Assign the at-home portion (footwork lanes and jump work need a wall, not a net) through Rizzler Reps, and staff the front row from measured reads in the Game Manager's Depth Chart rather than from height alone; the tryout guide shows where a blocking station fits in a full evaluation day.

Footwork lanes and mirror blocking to build movement patterns, read-and-press from a box to train eyes and hands, double-block closing for seam control, and block transition for the land-and-attack sequence. Feet first, then reads, then hands is the order that works.

Start with footwork patterns and squaring to the net, no ball, then add the press over a lowered net, then reads against a slow, visible attacker. Delay double-block work until solo footwork is stable, and grade effort on travel and timing rather than stuffs, which are rare at youth level.

Usually feet, not height: blockers who arrive late reach sideways, and reaching blockers deflect balls out of bounds or not at all. Chart travel timing in practice, and redefine success as touches that channel or slow the attack; stuff blocks are the bonus, not the standard.

After the hitter, almost always: the blocker's hands need to be over the net when the ball arrives, which for most youth attackers means loading as the hitter's arm starts forward. Jumping with the hitter's jump is the most common youth timing error and gives up every off-speed shot.

Footwork lanes along any wall, block-jump repeats with a press onto a high wall target, and shoulder-square landings. Ten minutes of patterns twice a week between practices keeps travel mechanics sharp, and coaches on Rizzler assign exactly this through Rizzler Reps.