• There are a wide variety of advanced volleyball drills.volleyball girl image by alice rawson from Fotolia.com
  
  Playing volleyball at a high level requires a great deal of technical ability as well as athleticism. Advanced volleyball drills teach team strategies and enhance a player's ability to perform fundamental volleyball skills --such as volleying, bumping and spiking- in difficult situations. Advanced volleyball team practices should be up-tempo and focus on game-like sequences. Non-volleyball actions such as throwing the ball or playing without opposition should be avoided when training.
  
  

Sliding Set

• Have a group of hitters stand in a straight line by the side-out line. Position a setter in the middle of the court by the net, and two passers in the back court. Get two blockers and a server to stand on the opposite side of the net. To start the drill, instruct the server to serve the ball in the general vicinity of the passers who will pass the ball to the setter. The object of this drill is to get the striker to hit the ball away from the block. To do this, the striker will jump laterally instead of straight up and down, taking off from a position in line with the setter, and making contact with the ball 3 to 4 feet to the setter's side. The blockers will jump straight up and down at the point where the striker takes off, so the hitter's lateral movement should create space to hit the ball away from the block. For this exercise to work well, the hitter and setter will have to time their pass-jump well; the hitter will need to take off before the setter sets the ball, and the setter will need to lead the hitter, predicting their trajectory and the reach of their swing.
  
  

3-on-3 Pepper

• Divide the court in half lengthwise, organize players into two groups of three and position the teams on opposite sides of the net. Instruct each team to nominate one passer/server, one setter/blocker and one hitter/blocker. Start the drill by having one team serve to the other. The receiving team should then bump, pass and spike the ball to the other team focusing on speed and control in their execution. The object of the drill is to keep a rapid rally going, so instruct players to try to spike the ball to the digger/passer on the other team -but don't let up on the power of the strike. Meanwhile, on defense, the two blockers will attempt to block the spike and the digger will be in position to pass the ball to the setter. Continue the drill back and forth for a few rallies, then rotate players on each team so that different players get a chance to play different positions.
  
  

Two Balls In Play

• Organize your players into two teams of six players and place them on either side of the net. Instruct one team to serve the ball to the other, and as soon as the first ball is passed to the setter, throw a second ball in at the same player that just passed the ball. The same sequence of bump-set-spike should be used for each of the balls put into play. This drill will force the receiving team to scramble and create two different offensive plays, one after the other, that utilizes different attacking players. It will also put pressure on the defense, which must defend strikes in succession- if the offensive setter gets creative and sets the first ball on a three count and the second on a one count, the defense may even face two strikes simultaneously.