Volleyball conditioning drills work when they look like a rally: a few seconds of shuffling, jumping, diving or turning, a short reset, and a ball in play the whole time. Build them into the skills that carry the movement, and your two-hour practice keeps its touches. The gassers can go.
Counting is the other job. When researchers filmed a week of training at a Norwegian boarding school for elite volleyball players, the boys' weekly jump totals ran from 50 to 666 and the girls' from 11 to 251. Attendance explained part of the gap. That is one school of 16- to 18-year-olds, so it says nothing exact about your roster. It does show how far apart two teammates can drift, and you only see it once you count.
The fourteen drills below sit in four groups, running from footwork and jumps to floor work, transition and game-like team drills. Every card that makes anyone jump states the jumps per player, or how to count them. Every benchmark checks the last round against the first, since the skill you need is the one that survives tired legs. For passing, setting and every other skill, our complete volleyball drills library is the place to start.
Which Conditioning Workout Fits Volleyball?
The one that copies the sport. A rally is a short burst of hard movement, then a pause before the next serve, repeated for as many rallies as the match lasts. So a volleyball conditioning workout is a set of short, hard efforts with the ball, recoveries about as long as the gap between points, and enough repeats that the last one is uncomfortable. Long runs belong to the off-season, if anywhere. In a practice they eat ball contacts.
Six skills carry almost all of that movement. Passers shuffle and stop, blockers slide along the net, hitters approach and jump, servers jump from behind the end line, defenders hit the floor and get up, and the front row turns from blocking to attacking. Put the conditioning inside those six, and one rep trains the legs and the skill together.
Skill
The Movement It Carries
What Tired Legs Do to It
Cards on This Page
Reception Footwork
Short shuffles and a stop before every pass
The feet arrive late and the arms reach for the ball
Three-Cone Shuffle Pass, Serve-Receive Shuttle
Lateral Block Movement
Step-close and crossover along the net, then a vertical jump
The slide carries into the jump and the landing drifts
Net Shadow Shuffle, Pin-to-Pin Block Slides
Attack Approach
A full approach and a maximum jump, over and over
The approach shortens and the plant creeps under the ball
Take-Off Mark Approaches, Hit and Cover Repeats
Jump Serve
Toss, approach and take-off from the service zone
A rushed toss and a flat contact
Two Digs and a Jump Serve
Roll and Dive Recovery
Getting to the floor and back up
Slower get-ups, late to the next ball
Sprawl and Reset, Two-Ball Dig and Roll
Transition Play
Off the net to the attack line and forward again
Hitters swing from wherever they landed
Net-to-Ten Drop, Block to Approach, Six-Rotation Marathon
If you set up volleyball in Striveon with the starter content, all six are among its skills, grouped into skill sets such as Passing & Reception and Blocking. You can tie each conditioning drill in the drill library to one of those sets, then filter the library by it.
Read each card's benchmark as a comparison. A Three-Cone Shuffle Pass that scores 4 of 6 in round one and 2 of 6 in round four has told you which skill quits first on your team. Tap Add to plan on the cards you want, and the planner further down the page adds up the minutes.
Footwork and Lateral Movement Conditioning Drills
Reception Footwork decays quietly. Late in a long practice your passers still reach the ball, but they reach it moving, and a pass played on the move drifts toward the antenna. Lateral Block Movement fails louder. A middle who slides to the pin on heavy legs carries the slide into the jump and lands down the net, sometimes in it.
Only Pin-to-Pin Block Slides has players jumping. The other three cards are jump-free, and Net Shadow Shuffle suits the last practice before a match.
Three-Cone Shuffle Pass
Reception FootworkBeginner
Players: Groups of 3Time: 8 minEquipment: 3 cones, 1 ball per group
Builds: Feet that get there first and stop before the pass
Place three cones across the back half of the court, 10 feet between neighbors. The passer starts at the middle cone, a tosser stands about 15 feet away toward the net, and the third player is the target near the net. The tosser lobs a ball toward the left or right cone. The passer shuffles, plants both feet, passes to the target, and shuffles back to touch the middle cone before the next toss.
Reps: 4 rounds of 30 seconds as passer (about 6 balls a round), rotating passer, tosser and target after every round. No jumps.
Target: At least 4 of the 6 passes reach the target within a step, in round one and again in round four
Coaching cues
Feet beat the ball · Stop, then pass
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: By the third round the passer reaches with the arms, the platform swings sideways, and the ball sails past the target.
Fix: Cut the round to 20 seconds and add one rule: a pass only counts if both feet were still when the ball met the arms.
Serve-Receive Shuttle
Reception FootworkIntermediate
Players: 3 passers, 1 serverTime: 8 minEquipment: Balls, cart, a feeder for the server
Builds: Getting back to base and settled before every serve
Three passers start in serve-receive positions. A server on the far end line sends a standing float about every 8 seconds. After each pass, all three passers turn, touch the end line behind them, and get back to base before the next serve. Grade each pass 0 to 3, where 3 lets the setter run any hitter and 0 is an ace or an overpass.
Reps: 3 sets of 10 serves, 60 seconds of rest between sets, passers change spots each set. No jumps.
Target: Pass average of 2.0 or higher in every set, with set three no more than 0.3 below set one
Coaching cues
Back to base before the toss · Low and still at contact
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: Passers jog back to base and play the next serve while still moving backward.
Fix: Have the server wait until all three are set, then shorten the wait by a second each set until the passers arrive on time.
Net Shadow Shuffle
Lateral Block MovementBeginner
Players: Pairs across the netTime: 6 minEquipment: Net
Builds: Shuffling along the net with the hands up the whole time
Two players stand on opposite sides of the net, face to face. The leader shuffles along the net and changes direction whenever they like. The shadow mirrors every move with both hands up at block height, staying square to the net.
Reps: 6 rounds of 20 seconds with 40 seconds of rest, switching leader each round. No jumps.
Target: Round six as tight as round one: the shadow within an arm's width of the leader for the full 20 seconds in both
Coaching cues
Hands stay at the tape · Push off the outside foot
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: After ten seconds the hands sink to the waist and the drill turns into a plain shuffle with no block in it.
Fix: Give the leader a ball to hold at the tape. If the shadow's hands drop below it, the round restarts.
Pin-to-Pin Block Slides
Lateral Block MovementIntermediate
Players: Lines of 3 per netTime: 8 minEquipment: Net, antennas, floor tape
Builds: A square, vertical block jump after a long slide
Tape a small landing box at each pin. The blocker starts at middle front. The coach signals a pin, and the blocker step-closes or crosses over to that pin, jumps with the hands over the tape, lands in the box, and comes back to the middle. One rep is middle, one pin, middle, the other pin: two block jumps. The next blocker in line goes while the last one rests.
Reps: 3 sets of 3 reps per blocker, so 6 block jumps a set and 18 jumps in all
Target: Hips square, no net touch, and a landing inside the box on 5 of 6 jumps in set three, matching set one
Coaching cues
Stop the slide, then jump · Land where you took off
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: Late in the set, the blocker keeps sliding as the feet leave the floor and comes down outside the box.
Fix: Count any landing outside the box as a miss, and slow the slide until the last step stops the momentum.
Approach and Jump Serve Drills That Count the Jumps
These are the expensive cards. Every attack or serve on them is a maximum jump, so each card lists its jumps per player in the reps line. Add them up before practice, the way you would count arm swings for a hitter with a sore shoulder. On both approach cards, a one-footed landing ends that player's set.
In the approach, fatigue usually shows in the last two steps. They slow down, the plant lands closer to the net, and the ball ends up behind the hitting shoulder. Take-Off Mark Approaches tapes the plant for exactly that reason. In the jump serve it tends to show in the toss. If the serve itself still needs building, our volleyball serving drills start from the toss.
Take-Off Mark Approaches
Attack ApproachBeginner
Players: Lines of 4-6 per laneTime: 8 minEquipment: Floor tape, balls, a tosser or setter
Builds: An approach that keeps its length as the legs tire
Before the first rep, each hitter takes one fresh approach and a partner tapes the spot where both feet planted. Every rep after that is a full approach and swing at a tossed or set ball, and the partner watches only whether the plant lands on the tape. Hitters walk back to the line between reps.
Reps: 3 sets of 5 approaches, so 15 jumps per hitter
Target: The plant lands within a shoe's length of the tape on 3 of 5 approaches in set one and again in set three
Coaching cues
Last two steps are the fast ones · Plant on the tape, then go up
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: As the legs go, the approach shortens and the plant creeps under the ball or right up to the net.
Fix: End the set early when two plants in a row miss the tape. Those jumps would only rehearse the short approach.
Hit and Cover Repeats
Attack ApproachIntermediate
Players: Hitters, a setter, a coachTime: 10 minEquipment: Balls, cart
Builds: Attacking again after covering your own hit
A hitter attacks a set from zone 4. On the landing, a coach on that side tosses a short ball just ahead of the hitter's feet, like a block return. The hitter covers it low, backs off to the attack line and attacks again: three attacks, two covers. Hitters rest about a minute between reps, and every landing belongs on two feet.
Reps: 4 reps per hitter: 12 attacks (12 jumps) and 8 covers
Target: Rep four as clean as rep one: at least 2 of 3 attacks in the court and both cover balls kept up, in each
Coaching cues
Land, get low, eyes up · Off the net before the next set
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: The hitter watches the attack land and starts the cover a beat late.
Fix: Toss the cover ball as soon as the hitter's feet touch the floor, so watching the attack costs the ball.
Two Digs and a Jump Serve
Jump ServeAdvanced
Players: 3 servers, a coach, 3 passersTime: 8 min (3 servers per coach)Equipment: Balls, cart
Builds: A repeatable jump serve after a hard rally
Each server first hits 6 fresh jump serves as a baseline. Then the server starts in right back defense, and the coach hits two down balls at them back to back. The server digs both, jogs to the service zone and jump serves within ten seconds of the second dig. Passers on the far side receive every serve.
Reps: 6 fresh serves, then 6 serves after a pair of digs: 12 jumps per server
Target: 5 of the 6 serves after the digs land in, and no more than one fewer than the fresh six
Coaching cues
One full breath before the toss · Same toss as the fresh serves
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: With the rally still in the legs, the server rushes the toss, it drifts behind the head, and the contact turns flat or into the net.
Fix: Make one breath at the end line part of the routine, and count a rushed toss as a missed serve.
Floor and Transition Conditioning Drills
Tired defenders still hit the floor for the ball. They get up slower, and the second ball of the rally lands before they are set, which is why Roll and Dive Recovery sits in the skill map beside the footwork.
Transition has the same problem at the net. Your front row blocks, lands, and has about one breath to get back to the attack line. Once the legs go, hitters swing from wherever they landed. On every dig, your setter is the one sprinting to the target at the net, and our volleyball setting drills cover what happens when they get there. Three of these four cards are jump-free. Block to Approach adds 16 jumps a player, so check your count.
Sprawl and Reset
Roll and Dive RecoveryBeginner
Players: Groups of 3Time: 8 minEquipment: Balls, knee pads
Builds: Getting to the floor and back to base quickly
A tosser stands about 10 feet from the defender and tosses a short ball just out of reach to one side. The defender stays low, extends, plays the ball up with one or both arms, sprawls out, and is back in base position before the next toss. The third player catches the dug ball and hands it back.
Reps: 3 rounds of 6 tosses per defender, alternating sides. Roles rotate after every round, so each player rests two rounds between turns. No jumps.
Target: Back in base with the feet set before the next toss on 4 of 6 tosses in round one and again in round three
Coaching cues
Get low first, then reach · Up and set before the toss
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: Players dive from standing height, land on the knees, and climb back up slowly.
Fix: Start every rep from a deep stance with one knee close to the floor, so the extension begins near the ground.
Two-Ball Dig and Roll
Roll and Dive RecoveryAdvanced
Players: Groups of 3Time: 8 minEquipment: Balls, cart, knee pads
Builds: Coming out of a roll ready for the next ball
A coach sends the first ball wide to the defender's right. The defender digs it high to a target player near the net, between zones 2 and 3, and rolls out. As the defender comes up, the coach sends a second ball deep to their left, and the defender has to get there and dig it on the feet. Then the defender resets and the next pair comes.
Reps: 3 rounds of 4 pairs per defender (24 digs). Roles rotate after every round, so each player rests two rounds between turns. No jumps.
Target: Both balls of a pair dug to the target on 3 of 4 pairs in round one and again in round three
Coaching cues
Roll and find the coach · The first step comes out of the roll
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: The defender finishes the roll facing the wall and loses sight of the second ball.
Fix: The coach calls "eyes" during the roll, and the defender names the hand holding the next ball before standing up.
Net-to-Ten Drop
Transition PlayBeginner
Players: 3 front-row players, a setter, a coachTime: 8 minEquipment: Balls
Builds: Getting off the net to the approach spots on a free ball
Three front-row players start at the net in blocking position. The coach calls "free" and tosses a high ball over from the far side. The hitters drop to their approach spots near the attack line, the middle to the center. Whoever calls it passes to the setter, who catches, and everyone runs back to the net.
Reps: 4 sets of 5 free balls, 45 seconds of rest, rotating positions each set. No jumps.
Target: Both hitters reach their approach spots before the setter catches on 4 of 5 balls in set one and again in set four
Coaching cues
Turn and run, then turn and face · Call it before it crosses
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: Players backpedal off the net and are still drifting when the pass is played.
Fix: Make them turn and run to the spot, then turn back to face the ball. Start the toss later until everyone arrives.
Block to Approach
Transition PlayIntermediate
Players: Front-row players, a setter, a coach on a box, a feederTime: 10 minEquipment: Sturdy box, balls, cart
Builds: A full approach after landing from a block
A front-row player blocks a ball the coach hits from a sturdy box on the other side, lands, opens to their own court and runs back to a taped spot on the attack line. From there they approach for a set the setter delivers off the feeder's toss. Each rep is one block jump and one attack jump, both landed on two feet.
Reps: 2 sets of 4 reps per player (16 jumps), 60 seconds of rest between sets
Target: Back behind the tape before the setter lets go of the ball on 3 of 4 reps in set one and again in set two
Coaching cues
Land, open, go · All the way back before you come forward
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: After a few reps the blocker takes one step off the net and swings from there with no real approach.
Fix: Hold the set until the player's foot is behind the tape, then shrink the delay rep by rep.
Game-Like Conditioning for the Whole Team
Three-Ball Waves and the Six-Rotation Marathon run your whole team at once, which matters when you have one court and 12 players. They keep the ball coming faster than a match does, so the rallies do the conditioning. The First and Last Pass Test needs only five players and measures what the other thirteen cards were for.
Three-Ball Waves
Floor DefenseIntermediate
Players: Two groups of 6Time: 10 minEquipment: Balls, cart, a coach on a box
Builds: Calling and playing every ball when the rally will not end
Six players set up in base defense. Standing on a box on the far side, the coach sends three balls one after another: a hard-driven ball, a tip, then a free ball. The group plays each one to the setter and attacks the free ball live, rotating the attacker through its three front-row players. The second group shags and feeds balls, then the groups switch after every wave.
Reps: 8 waves per group, alternating groups. One attack jump per wave, so each front-row player takes 2 or 3 jumps.
Target: All three balls kept off the floor on 6 of 8 waves, with the last two waves as clean as the first two
Coaching cues
Call every ball · Back to base between balls
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: By the third ball nobody calls it, and two defenders watch it drop between them.
Fix: A ball that drops without a call costs the group the wave. A called ball that drops does not.
Six-Rotation Marathon
Transition PlayAdvanced
Players: 6 v 6Time: 15 minEquipment: Balls, cart, a stopwatch
Builds: Siding out in every rotation without a break between rallies
Team B serves every ball to Team A. When A wins a rally, A rotates. When A loses one, the coach enters a free ball to A at once and keeps entering them until A wins one. Time the first three rotations and the last three separately. Cap the run at 7 minutes, note where A stopped, then B runs it.
Reps: One run per team, capped at 7 minutes. Jumps depend on the rallies, so the first time you run it, have a spare player tally one hitter's jumps and log that number for each front-row player.
Target: The last three rotations take no more than a minute longer than the first three. A run that hits the 7-minute cap before rotation six fails it.
Coaching cues
Next ball, not the last ball · Reset the rotation fast
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: Between balls the team walks back to positions, and the drill turns into a scrimmage with breaks in it.
Fix: Enter the free ball the moment the rally ends. Nobody gets to walk back to a spot first.
First and Last Pass Test
Serve ReceiveAll levels
Players: 3 passers, 2 serversTime: 6 min (two 3-minute blocks)Equipment: Balls, cart, a clipboard
Builds: A measured answer to how much passing drops when the team is tired
Run the same serve-receive test twice: once in the first 20 minutes of practice and once in the last 10. The same two servers send standing floats to the same zones, 10 serves for each of the three passers. Grade each pass on the same 0 to 3 scale and write down each passer's average for both tests.
Reps: 10 serves per passer in each test, 60 serves in all. No jumps.
Target: Each passer's last-test average lands within 0.3 of their first-test average
Coaching cues
Same servers, same zones, both times · Write it down as it happens
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: The end-of-practice test gets softer: fewer serves, easier servers, because everyone is tired.
Fix: Keep the second test identical to the first. The comparison is the whole reason to run it.
About 50 national elite athletes from each of 9 sports in Norway. The volleyball group was men only.
Current jumper's knee in 44.6% of the volleyball players, the highest of the 9 sports. Across the study, 5.6% of women and 13.5% of men.
Visnes and Bahr (2013)
141 elite volleyball players aged 16 to 18 (69 boys, 72 girls) in a 4-year study
Odds rose with every extra hour trained (odds ratio 1.72) and with every extra set played per week (3.88). Match exposure was the strongest sports-related predictor. Boys had 3 to 4 times the risk of girls.
Bahr and Bahr (2014)
26 boys and 18 girls aged 16 to 18 at a Norwegian elite volleyball boarding school, filmed for 1 week of training and 10 matches
11,943 jumps. Training: 35.7 jumps an hour for boys, 13.7 for girls. Matches: 62.2 and 41.9. Players differed far more from each other than positions did.
Bahr and Bahr's own conclusion is careful. Total jump volume may matter more than training hours, and the link needs more research. All three studies followed elite players, so treat them as a reason to count your own players and not as a limit for your team.
Knee pain that comes on with jumping belongs with your athletic trainer, doctor or physical therapist, whatever the log says.
Counting Jumps on This Page
Pin-to-Pin Block Slides, Block to Approach and Take-Off Mark Approaches cost one player 49 jumps before your hitting lines or scrimmage start. Averaged across every player Bahr and Bahr filmed, two hours of training came to about 71 jumps for the boys and 27 for the girls. On a boys' team those three cards are about two-thirds of that average. On a girls' team they are close to twice it, so pick one of the three for a practice.
Card jumps are the easy part. The jumps that separate one player from another happen in hitting lines and scrimmage, so count those once. Early in the season, pick a practice with no jump cards in it (cards whose reps line counts jumps) and have a manager or an injured player tally each player's jumps from the first whistle to the last. Use that number as each player's estimate for similar practices, add the card jumps on top, and see who leads the week. It is often a player you did not expect.
Weekly Volleyball Jump Log
Player
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Training Jumps (Week)
Match Sets
Notes
The day columns and Training Jumps hold jumps. Match Sets holds sets played, the match-exposure measure in which Visnes and Bahr found the strongest sports-related predictor of jumper's knee.
How Much Conditioning Per Practice, Week by Week
Conditioning volume should fall as matches pile up. The table below is a planning guide built from the cards on this page, not a rule from a governing body. Its minutes and card counts are this article's suggestion for a 2-hour practice. Every cell is editable, so fit it to your own calendar.
Volleyball Conditioning by Week Type
Week Type
Conditioning per 2-Hour Practice
Jump Cards
Cards That Fit
Pre-season (tryouts to the first match)
20-25 minutes, 3 cards
1 jump card (2 on a boys' team), 2 or 3 days a week, adding one set of reps at a time
Three-Cone Shuffle Pass, Sprawl and Reset, Take-Off Mark Approaches
High school, one match a week
15-20 minutes, 2 cards, early in the week
1 jump card early in the week, none the day before the match
Hit and Cover Repeats, Serve-Receive Shuttle, Sprawl and Reset
High school, two matches a week
10-15 minutes, 1 or 2 cards between the matches
1 jump card a week, in the practice furthest from both matches
Three-Ball Waves, Net Shadow Shuffle, First and Last Pass Test
Club: Tuesday and Thursday practice, tournament on the weekend
Tuesday 1 jump card after a one-day event, none after a two-day tournament. Thursday none
Tuesday: Pin-to-Pin Block Slides, Serve-Receive Shuttle. Thursday: Net Shadow Shuffle
Any practice within a day of a match or tournament
10 minutes or less, footwork and ball control
None
Net Shadow Shuffle, Net-to-Ten Drop, Three-Cone Shuffle Pass
The jump cards thin out before tournaments because of the match-exposure finding in the research table above. In the Visnes and Bahr cohort, each extra set played per week counted for more than an extra hour of training.
For a fall high school team, pre-season is the stretch between tryouts and the first match. For a club team it is the weeks before the first tournament. Leave jump cards off tryout days, since the movement screens in our volleyball tryout drills already load the legs. Give newer players the jump-free cards while the beginner volleyball drills build their ball control.
To place these cards inside a whole session, the volleyball practice plan lays out 60-minute, 90-minute and 2-hour practices, and the session planning framework explains how to order the blocks. The planner below lists the cards you added and totals their minutes.
Your Volleyball practice plan
Add drills from the sections above to build a session you can export, print, or copy
Does the Skill Hold Late in a Long Match?
Conditioning you cannot see in a skill is conditioning you cannot plan. So rate it, and keep it small. Pick one or two skills per player from the first table, the ones their position leans on, and rate them twice in one week: early in a fresh practice and late in your longest one. The First and Last Pass Test does the same for serve receive with numbers.
Level 7 on the default 1 to 10 scale in Striveon's starter content reads "Masters the skill under pressure about 80% of the time." Late-rally fatigue is pressure too. A hitter whose Attack Approach rates a 7 fresh and a 5 late is more likely short on conditioning than on technique, though a skill that is still new breaks down the same way. The approach and transition cards above are where you find out which it is.
Build these conditioning drills in your own library next to your skill drills, tie each one to a skill set, and add them to the practices on your calendar.