Coach clip · July 27, 2026
What should a new volleyball coach focus practice on? Start with first contact — serve and pass. Those actions happen every rally and gate everything after them. Aim for about half of your on-court drills to include a serving or passing contact. Match practice to what shows up most in your games; lower-level teams need even more ball control before heavy offense.
If you are a new volleyball coach and you are not sure what to focus your next practice on, start here. Improving a team week to week gets easier when you stop guessing and follow how the game actually works: pass, then set, then hit.
After years on the court, the system that makes focus and time allocation simple is built around first contact — not around whichever offensive drill looks most exciting that day.
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Download free on the App StoreEvery rally starts with your team either serving or receiving serve. If that first contact is bad, everything after it matters less. That is why you focus here first.
Ball control is non-negotiable. It is the base the rest of the game is built on, and it takes a ton of reps to get good at it. Offense without a reliable first touch is noise.
This can sound extreme, but a useful target is that serve and receive show up in about half of what you run on the court. That does not mean fifty percent of the clock is only standing there serving and passing in isolation.
It means that among the drills you schedule, aim for about half to include a passing contact or a serving contact — so first touch stays present even when the session includes other skills.
Offense is the most over-practiced skill across age groups. Coaches forget to weigh how often an action happens in a real match.
Every point starts with serve or pass. Everything after depends on the quality of that first touch. It is far simpler to be clearly better at serving and passing than your opponents than to be average at everything and drag every rally into mediocre complexity.
Lower-level teams need even more ball control and out-of-system reps. Higher levels can add more offense, blocking, and systems — but first contact still dominates.
Your job: figure out what you see most at your level, and practice that. First contact and ball control before offense, because that is literally how the game works. Pass, then set, then hit.