How to Prepare Your Setters for the Volleyball Season

Bump, Set, and Spike. All three skills are vital for a good team. This article is going to deal with the setters only.

Developing a setter at the High School level is quite a challenge. They have to be smart, aggressive, quick, and have good hands. Many times a setter doesn’t get the credit that they deserve. Usually it goes to the hitter or blockers. However, without a good setter, the hitters would be lost.

A good setter has to know many different things. They have to know and understand where their hitters want the ball placed above the net. They have to know who to give the ball to at crunch time during a game. They have to be able to read the opposition. By this, I mean they have to know who is a good blocker. If you have a weak hitter on your team and they are matched up with a great blocker from the other side of the net, you got problems.

Your setter can’t have a conscience. They have to put friendships and clicks aside and set the ball to the teammate that will finish the job. This can cause some harsh feelings among teammates at times. However, the main goal is to win the game.

My teams always got out of the way when the setter went for a ball. The setter has their eyes fixed on ball location. They can’t be worried about running into someone. That is why if a setter would ever run into a teammate, it is the teammate that got in trouble not the setter. If a setter can’t get to ball, then yell for help. Usually, I had the setter yell “I GO”. That way everyone knows it is their ball. This is where it is important to be aggressive.

A setter must have good soft hands to handle the ball. They can’t be afraid of being called on a catch. That is going to happen from time to time by officials that don’t understand the game. a setter with great hands can control a game more easily than a hitter or blocker.

Some good drills for young setters are; Circle Pass; Everyone in a large circle has a ball. As you go around the circle, one ball is tossed out to the setter who returns it to the original passer. Do this drill 100 times. Wall Pass; The setter stands three feet out from a wall. They then continuously pass the ball to the wall low, middle, and high. Floor Pass; With a coach standing on the end line, the ball is thrown into the floor. The setter runs from the net corner of the court and makes a pass to one of the hitters positions. You may use a hitter in this drill. The setter must return to the spot that they started from each time. Do 30 to 50 balls here. Line Pass; Have the setters teammates line up in a single line. Every other player has a ball. Starting at one end of the line, have a teammate toss a ball to the setter. The setter sets it back to the person next to them as best they can. This drill continues until a number of successful attempts have been completed. Lastly, The Two Ball Set; Two teammates each have a ball and are 15 feet apart. The setter faces one of the passer’s. The passer tosses the ball into the air and the setter sets it right back. As the setter is making releasing the ball back, the opposite passer tosses the ball into the air. The setter must slide step to get the second ball. This continues for a 3 minute period. This can be a killer drill physically on an individual. It is great for conditioning.

As a coach, I probably did more communication with my setters than anyone on the floor. They are an extension of the coach. Even if my setters were having a bad day in practice or a game, I was more lenient towards them than anybody.

Anyone can set a volleyball but not everyone can be a setter.