Help with a 5-1 Rotation for my HighSchool JV team.

Question
I am a new coach this year and I am coaching a JV highschool team.  I have played volleyball for 12 years and went to college to play on a scholarship as a libero.  

I love the 5-1 rotation and our Varsity team also runs a 5-1 so I feel like they should learn early.  I am just having trouble getting it across to my players.  Am i wrong and can you give me any pointers please! i have 1 great setter and more hitters that i need to take advantage of.

Thanks again!

Answer
Good afternoon!
Welcome to www.allexperts.com!
I have had lots of experience with 5-1 offenses.  It's what I almost always run when I'm a school coach.  In travel ball, I usually run a 6-2 b/c one setter is usually not head-and-shoulders better than the other.  
Before I answer your question:
a) It is not your job to prepare the girls for varsity offenses that will take a week to learn when they are 16 years old.  It's the job of that coach of that team.  
b) When you teach a 5-1, you should only have to teach half of a new system....b/c the other half the girls should know.  For example, if they're been used to running a 6-2, then all you have to teach is what the team needs to do during serve receive when the setter is in the front row.  
c) Since you're new to coaching, but not to the game, plan practices meticulously!  Budget at least 1 hour a day for practice planning.  In this way, your drills progress from warmup, to stretch, to pepper, to serving, to serve receiving, etc. OR any other way you want to do it.  If you show up with random, unorganized thoughts/actions and drills that aren't progressive in nature, then how do you expect your players to improve?  

Finally, would you visit us at www.coachhouser.com?  My staff and I have directed 38 camps in the past 4 summers.  There's a reason!  The smiling faces will give you a hint as to why we continue to direct more camps each summer.   

Here is a portion of two articles about teaching/coaching a team that's running a 5-1 offense.

Hope you're having a great week.
Coach Houser


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July 28, 2008

What You May Not Know About The 5-1 Offense:   If I have one very proficient setter that I don't need to hit or serve receive, then I run a 5-1.  She is often my best setter.  Sometimes she isn抰; but, I let her run the offense because the better setters are needed at other positions.   Furthermore, the setter that you select should be a cagey veteran, know how to jump set, know how to go up and battle with the other team抯 blockers when she抯 front row, etc.  A 5-1 setter doesn抰 have to be a vocal leader, but does have to lead with her skills and her work ethic.  If a team loses confidence in their 5-1 setter, that抯 like the football team losing confidence in their quarterback.  A volleyball coach will shudder if his players ever turn from a huddle and say, 揟hat won抰 work,?because the team抯 搎uarterback?is so poor.  

In 2003, I thought I needed my 5-1 setter as a serve receiver/OH.  So I tried for a week with my 2nd team setter as the starter.  We won one and lost one.  Neither match was because of the setter situation.  However, I抎 seen enough, and the next week we went back to the 1st team setter running the 5-1.  The OH gain wasn抰 as substantial as the loss at setter.  

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Teaching A 5-1 Offense To A Team That抯 Never Done It Before
August 14, 2009

Coach Houser:
I抳e been asked by a friend to teach his players a 5-1 offense.  When he is asking me to do a clinic, does that mean he does not know how to teach it?  He抯 given me 6 hours on one day.  Any advice for me would be great!

Coach:
When you抮e teaching a team a new offense, this is your goal:  揟o have the players understand it so well that they will need no coaching/teaching during the next scrimmage/match.  They will only need reminding.? All drills have that as their goal. All other goals are secondary.  

When my team is playing in front of fans, and I have to do more than just remind my players, then I either haven抰 spent enough time practicing the new skills, or my practices have been inefficient/wasteful/incomplete.

The good news about teaching a new offense:  You probably only have to teach three rotations, since the team probably knows the others because of their previous offense.  So review over what the players should know, checking on their knowledge.  Then get after the rotations they don抰 know.  

OK, let抯 start.  

Part I:   Base Defense.  Let抯 hope you have 12 girls at the clinic, maybe teach 2 mini-teams at one time, 6 on each court.  If you don抰 have 12, then maybe the host can put in a manager, or some graduates or his wife, etc.  

After the host coach tell you what base defense he prefers (number of blockers and the back row defense), review double block, single block, free ball, etc.  Does the coach want to ever have two or three blockers in the middle?  

Reminder:   You抮e there working for the host coach.  So if he has a strong opinion, then follow it.  If he抯 unsure, then offer him what you think is best.  But he makes the final choices.

After you are satisfied with that, then have maybe one mini-team do hitting lines, while the other mini-team plays defense.  I call this drill "Offense vs. Defense".  The drill runs just like many teams do in their 5-minute pre-match warmup.  It抯 initiated by a toss to a setter who抯 standing at the net, the ball is set, then it is attacked.  The defensive mini-team tries to dig, set and attack.  The original hitter shags the ball, at the coach抯 command the tosser tosses another ball, and another attack occurs.  During the drill, you and host coach can be watching the defense to see if the girls are doing what was just reviewed..  

If this drill goes very well, if the defensive mini-team is doing great, if you抳e switched the mini-teams and you抳e switched the back row and front row players, and it抯 still going great?  Well, then WOW!!!  OK, you may go on to Part II below.  But I imagine the girls will be making many mistakes with their base defense.  Honestly, if these girls and their coach were so good at this game, then why were you asked to come teach them?   Do not leave Part I of this clinic until you fix the defense, fix it again, re-fix it.  After a certain number of minutes, or a certain # of correctly done defenses, have the two mini-teams switch and do the drill again.  

The tosser:  I don抰 recommend either of you toss.  You can teach a monkey to toss a ball.  So find a parent, a manager or let the players do the tossing.  You were hired to teach a new offense, so do that.   A monkey抯 can抰 teach a new offense.  You can!    

I foresee the girls needing another drill.  I recommend the Offense vs. Defense drill with different twists.  For example, make it a competition, make it a goal drill, make it a pressure drill, etc.  You can announce, "The hitting team hits until the defense can dig, set and attack back x times.? When I run this drill, it抯 challenging to know what to do with all the hitting errors.  So, I now prefer this!  "The hitting team will hit for 5 minutes.  How many kills can they get.  But, anytime the defense isn't right, I will stop my watch, we will fix the defense together, and then I抣l restart my watch.  After 5 minutes, you guys will switch sides, and the other team will get 5 minutes to hit.  The winner is the team who can get the most kills in their 5 minutes."  So each hitting error will receive a 揅RAP!?from the hitter, rather than an 揙h well.? 

Before leaving this drill, make sure you have switched the back row and the front row players.  I like to do that half way through the drill, so that learning continues.  Which team wins these drills isn抰 as important as what the kids are learning.  In fact, conditioning to the loser is even less important.  But, you can add in something minor for a little extra motivation.  

Why work on defense so long?  Remember you抮e teaching a 5-1, so either the kids have never been at base with a back row setter, or never with a front row setter.  Plus, if you jump right into serve receptions that they don抰 know, then you say, 揘ow base,?then you抣l have to simultaneously teach base defense also.  Too much to learn for kids.  You抣l see them starting to get frustrated, starting to look at their coach and teammates in despair, etc.  Let抯 teach from the ground up, chunk by chuck, then each new layer can stand firmly on previous layers that have already been taught.  

Part II:  Serve Receive.  

Once again, you probably only have to teach 3 of the serve receive formation, and review the other three.  I recommend you start by reviewing the three that are known, to ensure that they抮e being done correctly.  If the girls are unsure about them, then do a little 揝erving At Receivers?drill to get the receiving team back on track.

The drill I like for this is a cooperative drill.  For example, 揥e will do this drill until we all reach 100 points.  All of us.  All 12 of us are in this together.  One point is rewarded for a serve in the court.  Two points for a pass on target.  One for close to target.  One for an attack on the 3rd hit.  One for covering correctly.  One for getting to base.  Bonus points for x, y, and z.? The bonus points are for whatever the coach wants to see.  Or if covering is a team bug-a-boo, then make covering worth 3 points.  揥hen we get to 100 points, then the receiving team rotates one spot.  When we do this 3 times, the serving team becomes the receivers, and the receiving team takes over serving.? 

Most girls like cooperative drills, and these drills are especially useful if the team is learning something new.  Having competitions when the team is half-lost seems like you抮e beating someone who is defenseless.  I don抰 put competitions in my practices until I feel like my team is completely competent with the skills that we抮e testing.

I recommend you do three rotations, then switch courts, then do the same three with the team that was serving.  

Idea:  You may want to do this part with the starters together.  Since this is an in-season clinic, we have to assume that the girls will have a match within 2 or 3 more practices.  Yeah, we can do base, double, single, free, etc. with any 6 members of the team.  But serve receive, routes, cover, base,etc.?  Let抯 put the starters together in this drill.  

Idea:  You may not want to switch the servers and receivers, but make enough subs during the drill so that everyone gets a few rotations on the receiving team.  If your team is small enough, maybe make the subs that would be likely to occur in a game situation, thus ensuring complete participates on the receiving side.  


Finally.  If this takes 3 or 4 of your hours or all 6 hours, then so be it.  Don抰 fall into the 揻un?trap of short-term smiles and giggling.  It抣l be fun when they can beat their next opponent with a brand new offense!!  That抯 long-term fun!  

Remember, after you leave the girls and the coach must be confident that all they have to do is remind each other!  Then you抳e done your job well, and may just get asked back!