--- title: "Volleyball Drills for Beginners: 90-Minute Practice Plan" description: "Volleyball drills for beginners in one 90-minute practice plan: warm-up, passing, setting, serving, hitting and a game, with timings and coaching cues." url: "https://www.coachboard.app/library/volleyball/beginner-practice-plan" sport: "Volleyball" category: "Training Session" level: "beginner" dateModified: "2026-09-24" --- # Beginner Volleyball Practice Plan — Volleyball Training Session This is a 90-minute beginner volleyball practice that moves from a ball-handling warm-up through passing, setting, serving and a first hitting approach to a small-sided game. Beginners need touches, not lectures. The plan below keeps every player handling a ball for most of the 90 minutes, runs each skill block in pairs or small groups, and ends with a game so the skills are tested in a real rally. It suits a first season group of 10–12 year olds or adult newcomers, with 10–14 players on one court. The order matters. Forearm passing comes first because it decides whether a rally exists at all, setting follows because it depends on a controlled pass, and serving sits in the middle of the session to give arms a rest before the hitting approach. Adjust net height and serving distance to your league's rules for the age group. ## Objective Build a platform pass, a basic overhead set, a legal underhand or overhand serve and a three-step approach, then link them in a rally game that rewards three contacts. ## Setup - **Area:** One volleyball court (18 × 9 m) with a net; walls for wall-setting if available - **Players:** 10–14 beginners, worked in pairs and groups of three - **Equipment:** 1 ball per two players, 8–10 cones, 2 hoops or floor-tape targets, Water bottles at the bench - **Duration:** 90 minutes - **Level:** beginner (U10+) ## How it works 1. **0–10 min: Movement warm-up** — Two lengths each of jog, side shuffle, carioca and backpedal across the 9 m court width, then arm circles, walking lunges and 10 squat jumps. Finish with shuffle-and-touch: players shuffle between cones 3 m apart and touch the floor in a low ready position at each end. 2. **10–20 min: Ball-control warm-up** — In pairs 3–4 m apart, one partner tosses underarm and the other passes back on the forearms, 10 each, then 10 overhead catch-and-release sets. Finish with 30 seconds of self-passing to see who keeps the ball alive longest. 3. **20–35 min: Passing to target** — Groups of three: a tosser on one side of the net, a passer 5 m back on the other, a target standing 1 m off the net right of centre. Ten passes, rotate roles. Progress from tosses to easy underarm serves from 6 m away. 4. **35–47 min: Setting** — Pairs set back and forth 3 m apart, then three-person triangle: pass, set to a hitter's spot at the left antenna, catch. Aim for a set about 2 m above the net that drops 1 m inside the sideline. 5. **47–52 min: Water break and rotations walkthrough** — While players drink, place six of them in zones 1–6 and walk one rotation clockwise so the group sees where they serve from and where they stand to receive. 6. **52–65 min: Serving** — Split players along both baselines. Serve underhand from 3 m inside the endline, and step back to the endline after three good serves in a row. Players who are ready try a standing overhand float. 7. **65–77 min: Approach and hit** — Three-step approach footwork without a ball (left-right-left for right-handers, finishing with a quick right-left plant), then tossed balls hit from the left side of the net into the open court. Keep the net at league height or slightly lower so players make contact above it. 8. **77–90 min: Game and cool-down** — Play 4v4 on the full court with a bonus point when a team uses three contacts. Rotate one player in every rally. Finish with 3 minutes of stretching and one question per player about what they learned. ## Coaching points - Ready position before every ball: feet shoulder-width, knees bent, weight on the balls of the feet, arms out in front. - Platform angle does the work in passing: point the forearms at the target and let the legs, not a swing, add height. - Set with the hands in a window shape above the forehead and extend towards the target, not straight up. - Toss the serve no higher than necessary and step with the opposite foot; a steady toss fixes most beginner serving errors. - Praise good decisions (calling the ball, using three contacts) as loudly as good outcomes. ## Variations - **60-minute version** — Cut the rotation walkthrough, shorten setting and hitting to 8 minutes each, and play a 10-minute game. Keep the full passing block; it matters most for beginners. - **Youth mini-volley** — For under-10s, lower the net, play 2v2 or 3v3 across the width of the court, and allow a catch on the second contact so rallies last long enough to be fun. ## Build it in Coach Board Build each block on its own Coach Board volleyball court: pairs and cones for the warm-up, tosser-passer-target triangles for passing, and the 4v4 game. Animate the passing triangle and the three-step approach so players see the ball path and footwork, save the boards as one session in your playbook, and share the link with assistant coaches who run a station. [Volleyball coaching app](https://www.coachboard.app/sports/volleyball) · [Start 14-day free trial, no card](https://my.coachboard.app) ## FAQ ### What are the best volleyball drills for beginners? The best beginner drills give lots of touches in pairs: partner toss-and-pass, triangle passing to a target, partner setting, short-court serving and tossed-ball hitting. Start with forearm passing, because a controlled pass is what lets a beginner team set, attack and keep a rally going. ### How long should a beginner volleyball practice be? Sixty to ninety minutes suits most beginner and youth groups. That is long enough for a warm-up, three skill blocks and a game, and short enough to keep focus. Put a water break in the middle and end with a game so players leave with rallies, not drills, in their heads. ### What is a good volleyball warm up for beginners? A good beginner warm-up is ten minutes of movement (jog, shuffle, backpedal, lunges, low ready-position work) followed by ten minutes of partner ball control, such as tossed forearm passes and overhead sets. It raises heart rate and gets hands on the ball before any skill is taught. ## Related - https://www.coachboard.app/library/volleyball/passing-drill.md - https://www.coachboard.app/library/volleyball/serving-drill.md - https://www.coachboard.app/library/volleyball/pepper-drill.md - https://www.coachboard.app/library/volleyball/4-2-rotation.md --- [Volleyball coaching app](https://www.coachboard.app/sports/volleyball) · Animate and share this training session with your team: https://my.coachboard.app