Volleyball 5-1 Rotation Strategy

Okay, so here we are. We're going to set up our 5-1. We're going to start off in serve 1. When we start out, we have to remember all the time, whenever we're lined up, it goes center, outside, middle, right side, outside, middle. So our right side is always going to be opposite of our center, and then our outsides, as you see, are going to be opposite of each other, and our middles are going to be opposite of each other. When it comes to our middle in the back row, generally this is going to be our libero whenever they're playing in the back row. Whether it's this middle up here or this middle, as soon as this middle rotates back to the back row, it'll be a lib. So just keep that in mind as we go through this process. So to start in serve one, what we do is we want to make sure obviously our setter is going to be our server. So they're going to have the ball over here to serve. Our front row is just going to go right up here and they're going to stack on the middle. and be ready to go into their natural positions. Since we want our lib in our defense to be over here and we need this outside to be over here, we want them to get as close to their natural positions as possible prior to being able to move. Now remember they cannot move until this server actually touches the ball. So when we set up, this is how we set up serve one. As soon as that setter touches the ball in order to serve it, as soon as it is served over, My middle is going to go automatically to their defense position. My outside is going to go to their defensive position. Right side is going to go to their defense. Outside in the front row goes to their defensive position and then my setter runs up into their defensive position. This is how we get through serve one. For serve receive one, when the other team has the ball, we want to make sure that we are going to get everybody back into their original position. locations of where they need to be for this first rotation. And as you can see, there's a few people that are not technically in the right spot. So what we want to do is we want to move people around to where we can get them in the closest spot, but yet also make sure that they're offensively ready to do what they need to do and be ready to receive the ball. So what we do first thing is we're going to go ahead and we're going to pull this first outside, who's our front row outside right now. We're going to drop them back. and we're going to hide our setter behind them. Then what we're going to do is we're going to have this middle or libero, we're going to have them pull right here, right in the middle, and then we're going to have this outside right here. So primarily the two outsides and the middle are going to be the ones that are going to be receiving the ball. What we do with our right side is we go ahead and we're just going to pull them all the way over here and then we're going to let this middle up here just kind of hang out a little bit. right up in the general area of where they need to be. We don't want them to worry about receiving the ball at all, but we do need their help in case there are any short balls that come over here in this area. So we're going to let our right side kind of handle some of these short little balls right here, and then we're going to let our middle handle the short ones over here. So here's how we're going to line up and serve receive one. As soon as this ball is touched, wherever it goes, no matter what, my setter is going to release out from behind. behind the outside and run around to where they can get into their position as the setter. Everyone else is going to play the ball first, meaning they're going to let that ball come across the net and figure out where it's going before they move. If the ball comes over to this left side of the court, what's going to happen is my outside can just come right over here to prepare to hit from right side and my middle can slide over to prepare to hit from middle. If the ball goes deep, my right side can also come over here and prepare to be a hitter. If the ball, for whatever reason, is hit over to the right side of the court, then my right side can easily drop down, my middle can drop down. My outside back here will need to play this ball first. As soon as they pass it, then they can run over here to become the right side hitter at the beginning of this rotation. As soon as that ball, let's say the setter sets it, and let's say our middle hits the ball, then everybody is able to go ahead and get into their defensive position and switch where they need to be. That means that my outside is going to run all the way over here to the top of zone four. My middle goes to the top of zone three. My right side goes to the top of zone two. My setter drops back into high one. My lib or middle back will go over here to the top of five. And then my outside plays deep six. And that is serve receive one. So if we say that we won that point and we are now going to get the ball. We first need to make sure that we have the right people in the right spot. So to go back into our original rotation, so where we're in that center, outside, middle, right side. outside middle. When we look at this, our next server then is going to be our outside one. So if we bring them over, that means everybody's going to slide one zone all the way around and rotate around. And this is where technically everybody would be in their starting zone. Now, of course, as you can see, not everybody is in the position that they need to be in. My outside is fine and my middle lib is fine as well. But however, my right side and my middle need to be able to switch. So we pull our middle over here to the middle. right up where they need to be and we stack our right side right there. Since the outside is back here serving, this setter is not bound by any rules in order to be on that side. So we're going to pull our setter all the way over here and let them just go naturally right into their defensive position. As soon as the outside touches the ball in their serve, my right side can release and move into their defensive position. So once it's served over, the right side moves, the outside comes right into their defense. And that's it. is serve two. Now we're going to go ahead and set up in serve receive two. So if we put everybody back in their original order of where they were actually supposed to be in this rotation this is where they're technically starting from. Now remember we want to be able to hide our setter that is our first primary goal at all points in time so we don't want our setter to get that first ball. So our setter is only bound by being in between these two and being behind the right side. So what we do in regards to this is we're going to go ahead and we're going to pull our right side just slightly over to the right over here. We're going to pull our setter up right behind them. Then over here what we're going to do is we're going to drop this middle back a little bit so then that way they can help with some of these shorter balls. We're going to let our outside stay right here because remember they are bound by this setter right here and then they have to be behind this middle so we're going to let them come right here. We're going to pull our middle or libero over here slightly to the left. As you can see we have a little bit more coverage there on the right side. We're going to let this outside come drop back and play right here. So this is how we set up for serve receive two. Now as soon as that ball is touched my right side is going to jump way over here. As you can see my setter's kind of already in their spot so they don't really have to move much. The middle is going to help if that ball does come to this direction short at all. My middle is going to help play that ball, but as soon as that ball passes them, they're going to run over to be a middle hitter. If the ball comes over to the left side of the court, this outside then is going to play the ball, pass it to the setter, and then become a hitter. If for whatever reason the ball is passed or served over to the right side of the court, then my outside is just immediately going to run over in order to be a hitter. To give our setter three hitting options. Once the setter, let's say they set the middle and the middle hits the ball, everybody's going to move into their base defense and go right where they need to be in order to be ready for that ball to come back over to us. And that is serve-receive two. Now we're ready to move into serve three. So when we get the ball back, now remember everybody's original starting positions. We're here for the last rotation. So for rotation number three, technically my middle is going to be the one serving. So everybody's going to slide one zone around and rotate all the way through. As you can see, my right side is already prepared to be in their defensive position. We're going to pull our middle. Now it is our middle now because they're in the front row. It's no longer our lib. So our middle is going to come here and our outside is going to stack right here. As you can see my outside in the back row is pretty much right where they need to be, but my setter however is not. So my setter is going to stack right here, my outside will go right where they need to be. Now this could be a libero or a middle, just depends on if the libero is serving. for this middle or not. But this is how we stack and line up and start for serve three. As soon as that middle touches the ball, my setter is going to release to their defense. My outside is going to release to their defense. And after they serve, my middle is going to go ahead and go to their defense. Again, this could be a libero as well, but for right now, we'll just say it's the middle. And that is serve three. So now to move on to serve receive three, we first need to move everybody back into their originating zone. So in that way, we can see who needs to go where. So as you can see, my outsides are opposite of each other and my middles are opposite of each other. When we look at our setter, in order to hide our setter, we need to remember that our setter needs to be behind the middle and to the left of this outside in the back row. So what we do is we're going to pull our middle up here. We're going to pull our setter right up in line with them, but slightly to the right so that they can get to their spot a little bit faster. Now what we're going to do is we're going to take this outside here and we're going to, because of the fact that we want them to technically be on the outside left side of the court in order to hit, we're going to go ahead and bring them over here. Now remember they are bound by being to the right of the middle and in front of the outside, so we need to pull them about right here to help us serve receive. What we're going to do with this outsize, we're going to let them kind of hang back here and be able to help with those deeper balls. This middle or libero is going to go right here and then my right side is going to be just slightly over here to the right helping with a lot of those short balls that are coming right there. So this is how we line up for serve receive three. As soon as this ball is touched my setter is going to just run right over to their setter box. My right side is going to make sure that the ball is not served directly to them, but as long as it is not, they're going to just drop right over to be a hitter. My middle is going to wait, let the ball pass the net, and then they're going to release to be a hitter. The outside is either going to play the ball if it comes to them and then move, or if the ball goes to the right side of the court, they're going to immediately just slide over in order to be a hitter. As soon as the ball is played, from the setter, let's say that they set the outside. The outside is going to hit the ball over and then everybody's going to go right in to their defensive position. And that is how we run serve, receive, three. Now to move over into serve four, what we've got to do is we got to get everybody back into their base spots, making sure that everybody is in their original rotation. And as you can see when we get the ball back this time now our right side is going to be serving. Everybody is going to slide one zone and you can tell our setter is now in our front row. You'll see in just a moment how that's going to affect the way that we lay everything out, but as our right side is getting ready to serve we need to make sure that we again are going to stack on the middle because our setter is now going to cover defense on that right side of the court. You can see again it's going to stack right here with my libero and my outside being stacked slightly off in the back so that they can get into their natural defensive positioning. Once the right side serves the ball and touches the ball, everybody is going to go into their defensive positioning and we are ready for serve four. All right, now we are ready for serve-receive four. So first things first, we're going to move everybody back into their original spot so that we can see everywhere that everybody is supposed to be bound. So you can see my setter is bound by being to the left of this middle and in front of this outside. So what we do in serve-receive four is we actually pull our setter all the way up here and allow them to be in front of the outside. but to the left of the middle that's playing front row. So we're going to line them up slightly just off right here so then that way everybody can be out of the way of that serve and my setter does not have to take that serve. Now what we do is we're actually going to pull this right side over here. We're going to pull the libero or the middle right over in front of them. We're going to pull this outside this direction. Now as you can see these three back row players are now still within their own rotation. Then what we do is we take this outside clearly off. all the way over here. Now remember they are bound by being to the right of this middle. So that's why it's important for this middle or as we say middle choo-choo time is to make sure that they are as far over with that setter as they can be so that our outside front row has space in order to play that ball. A lot of times what will happen is we'll probably be able to pull this person over just slightly a little bit. We might pull this middle down, pull this middle up, and let this right side be a little bit closer up over here. Sometimes what we can do is we can even say run a drop. four and if we run a drop four what that means is that everybody kind of moves like this so that this right side can help so if we're getting a server that can hit zone two really well and we're getting beat in this area we might say run a drop four which means that we're going to have this right side actually over here to receive this ball because remember when we're lined up this right side is only bound by being to the left of this or sorry to the right of this middle you and then behind this outside who's over here. So we just want to make sure that wherever they're at we're able to help a little bit here. Technically speaking to start off with this one though what we want to do is we want to actually start like this. So this is how it will look when we set up we just You need to make sure that this outside is in front of this right side. That's a very big important part right here. But this middle libero has got to be somewhat shorter so that they can help make sure. So this right side's job is to make sure that they are behind this outside and to the right of this middle. But this is how we will start off being set up with serve-receive-four. As soon as this ball is touched, my setter is going to release to their spot. My middle is going to release to their spot. As soon as the ball passes the middle, they'll release to their spot. Sorry. So once this ball passes the middle, as long as they don't have to play it right here up at the net, then they're going to release over to be a hitter. As soon as the ball is played, my right side, now they have to remember they are now back row. So when they hit, they have to be back here ready to hit more so from behind the 10-foot line. As soon as this ball comes over, if it goes to the right, my outside can immediately release. If it comes to the left, my outside needs to play this ball first and then release to be an outside hitter. One of the advantages of using the right side from the back row is that my middle can now run a slide if we would like to get them more involved on that right side of the court. But as soon as the ball is set, let's say they set the outside and they hit it over, everybody moves into their defensive position. Now you will see... My right side and my setter have switched defensive positions. The setter is now in charge of blocking. If you run a 5-2, when this rotation is where the setter will probably be switched to a taller setter, that can be able to actually help with blocking a little bit more. Because of the fact that they'll be blocking an outside hitter from right here, this is when, if you ever hear the word... five or the term five two for your team that generally means you're getting a taller setter in the front row and maybe even a faster shorter more defensive player as a right side in the back row. This is how you run the serve receive four in a five one five two. Now we are ready to move into serve five. When we go to serve five we got to first remember to put everybody back in their original spots. so that we can see who needs to be our next server. So as you can see, technically when we rotate our outside that was in the front row is now going to be our server. Everybody else is going to shift around. So this is everybody's standard. rotation five, space where they're supposed to stand for rotation five. Now when you look at this you can tell that not everybody's where they need to be. The back row easily can adjust because my outside plays that back middle spot. We're going to pull our right side over, our middle or lib is going to come right where they need to be and then my outside once they're done serving is going to go right into their defensive positioning. Now as you can see this outside in the front row is already in their zone that they need to be in so the only person that's going to need to move is my middle is going to come over right to where they need to be and my setter is going to stack right there ready to switch over into their defensive position as soon as the ball is touched. So as soon as the ball is touched my setter releases and goes to their defense and my outside releases and goes to their defense. Then we are set up and ready to go for serve five. Now we need to set up into serve receive five. So if we put everybody back in their original positions, we can start to get everybody lined up to where they need to be. So as you can see, my setter's already in the front row. So what we're going to do is we're just going to pull our setter right where they need to be. We're going to hug them a little close onto the net. So then that way they don't have to worry about getting that first ball. We're going to pull our middle down. just slightly still in front of that 10 foot line so that they can help with these things. We're going to pull our right side all the way over here. We're going to pull this libero over here and we're going to drop this outside back over here. So as you can see, what happens is my right side is going to be prepared to really just kind of help make sure that they're out of the way. But as soon as this ball is touched, they actually move before the ball is even played because we want to make sure that our setter has a one. 100% hitter that can hit no matter what without having to worry about playing the ball. So what happens is they line up as close to the left of this outside as they can and as soon as that server touches the ball they're going to release over to be that back row hitter for that setter. The middle as long as that ball is not served it's short into zone two. They're also going to release quickly so that our setter has these two hitter options. A lot of times what happens is they try to take out our outside, so they're going to serve over here more than likely into zone five. So this outside player has to play the ball and isn't fully set in order to become a powerful hitter. We line everybody up in this server C5 again. From here, what happens is as soon as the ball is touched, my right side is going to release. The setter is going to drop into their setter box. If the ball does not get served short right, my middle runs over to where they need to be. So let's just say that our libero, which hopefully our libero is always trying to get the ball so that our hitters can be fully available. The libero gets the ball and sends it to the setter. At that very moment, as soon as the ball passes this front row outside, they're going to release over to become a hitter. Now remember, my right side is a back row player right now, so they have to stay behind that 10-foot line when they jump up in order to hit the ball. As long as their feet leave from behind the 10-foot line, we are fine. So when my right side comes over here, they're going to start, they're going to come out wide and way back behind the 10 foot line, about three to four steps behind it. So that way they can take a full approach and be able to hit it from back row. The setter is going to set somebody, let's just say they set the right side, they hit the ball. Now, as soon as that happens, everybody's going to release to defense. Now remember, my setter is a front row player. So that means I'm going to pull my setter over here. My middle goes up where they need to, my outside goes where they need to, and everybody goes into their defensive positioning. And that is serve, receive, five. Now we're going to go ahead and run into serve six. Again, we're going to put everybody back where their original spot was to make it easy for everybody to understand where they started. Now we're back into serve six. We have another middle, maybe even a libero, depending on which person your libero serves for. And everybody else is going to slide around and get into their natural starting rotation for rotation six. So as you can see, Not everybody's where they need to be. My setter is right where they need to be for their defense. We're going to pull our middle over right into their defense and our outside is going to stack right here behind them. This outside is pretty much right where they need to be so we're just going to go ahead and let them go here and then our right side is going to stack in order to be able to release into their defensive position. As soon as the ball is touched by this server my outside releases to defense, my right side releases to defense, my middle goes up and into their defense. So then we are done with serve six. We're going to move into serve receive six. So this one, what we do is let's make sure we put everybody back into their original spot so everybody can see where they need to be starting from. Now again, we want to hide our setter, right? That's our main goal every single time we have anything that happens. So in order to do that, what we want to do is we want to actually just pull our setter right up here where they need to be. Our libero is going to come right up here and play a lot of this short serve right here. Our outside is going to come over here. This right side is going to drop to here. This middle is going to come over here. And this outside, remember they are bound by this middle, needs to be right about here. So when we set up, we want to make sure that everybody is kind of spread out, covering a lot of ground. We'll talk about different seam work and stuff as we go, but this is where we want to start for serve, receive six. Now, as soon as that ball is touched by this server, again, this right side, same as in... four and five they need to book it as soon as this ball is touched by the server they're running as fast over as they can their goal is to make sure that they're out of the way and they're not receiving this serve unless we turn into running a drop four this right side should not be receiving the serve they should be running to get to their spot in order to be that powerful great hitter that we love over there on that right side from the back row As soon as that happens as well, as soon as the balls touch as well, my setter is just going to take a couple of steps right to their setter box and be ready to go wherever that ball goes. As soon as the ball passes the middle, right, that needs to pass them, so just in case, because they've got this short coverage right here, as soon as the ball passes them, they're going to release to be a hitter as well. If the ball is hit to the left side of the court, this outside needs to play the ball first, and then they'll release over to be a hitter as well. If the ball goes to the right side of the court and they're over here for their spot, what happens is the middle is going to move at the same time the outside is going to move and shift over. So we'll say the lib sends it to the setter. We'll say the setter sets the middle. The middle hits the ball. Everybody moves right in to their defensive positioning and is ready to continue playing the ball. And that is how we play serve receive six. Now if for whatever reason we end up needing to do it what we call that drop four right so let's set everybody back up into their original spots here. If we have everybody in their original spot for serve receive six lined up let's say for whatever We're getting a little bit killed maybe in this in this short area right here. What we're going to do is we're actually going to let this outside come up, this middle come up, and we're going to use this drop four kind of scenario here. Sometimes what might happen is we might say, hey, this back row outside, pull up all the way short and drop this middle lip over here. There's a lot of movement of what we can do when we run these drop fours. But what this does is it really gives us the opportunity to be able to cover a lot more area of the court. And still then turn around and utilize this right side hitter, especially if they're a stronger passer, in order to use them on the serve receive. The only thing that you need to make sure of is that everybody is going by what they're bound by. So our right side needs to make sure that they're behind the middle. Our outside needs to be to the right of the middle and in front of the other outside. There's a lot of things as far as, like I said, when we set up in these original spots, we've got to make sure that everybody is... staying within their bounds. So my setter needs to be to the right of the outside in front of the middle. My outside needs to be in front of the other outside, left of the middle, right of the setter. My middle needs to be in front of the right side, left of the outside. My right side needs to be behind the middle, left of the outside too. My outside too needs to be behind the outside one, left of right side or right of right side, left of the middle. And then of course my middle is bound by the setter in this outside. So if we run this as a drop four, It's important to make sure that this outside stays here, but also in front of this outside. So we've got to make sure that if we're going to do this in this way, if we do it like this, we just have to make sure that we keep these people in line with where they need to be. We can also drop it here and pull this middle, this libero up and drop this, this outside over here a little bit more because our liberos usually are pretty fast and pretty, pretty decent passers to where it's easier to get them there. So the reason why I'm walking through this unsurfed receive six is because it's our last one and it just makes it a little bit easier to kind of see how those bounds work and how we're going to make sure that we have that coverage. So just make sure regardless you're listening to your coach, you're making sure that you know exactly where you need to be and for serve receive six this is the standard setup for serve receive six and like I said the most important thing is to make sure that our setter is up and out of the way and our right side is leaving as soon as that ball is touched and that is serve receive. six.

When it comes to our middle in the back row, generally this is going to be our libero whenever they're playing in the back row. Whether it's this middle up here or this middle, as soon as this middle rotates back to the back row, it'll be a lib. So just keep that in mind as we go through this process. So to start in serve one, what we do is we want to make sure obviously our setter is going to be our server. So they're going to have the ball over here to serve.

Our front row is just going to go right up here and they're going to stack on the middle. and be ready to go into their natural positions. Since we want our lib in our defense to be over here and we need this outside to be over here, we want them to get as close to their natural positions as possible prior to being able to move. Now remember they cannot move until this server actually touches the ball. So when we set up, this is how we set up serve one.

As soon as that setter touches the ball in order to serve it, as soon as it is served over, My middle is going to go automatically to their defense position. My outside is going to go to their defensive position. Right side is going to go to their defense. Outside in the front row goes to their defensive position and then my setter runs up into their defensive position.

This is how we get through serve one. For serve receive one, when the other team has the ball, we want to make sure that we are going to get everybody back into their original position. locations of where they need to be for this first rotation.

And as you can see, there's a few people that are not technically in the right spot. So what we want to do is we want to move people around to where we can get them in the closest spot, but yet also make sure that they're offensively ready to do what they need to do and be ready to receive the ball. So what we do first thing is we're going to go ahead and we're going to pull this first outside, who's our front row outside right now.

We're going to drop them back. and we're going to hide our setter behind them. Then what we're going to do is we're going to have this middle or libero, we're going to have them pull right here, right in the middle, and then we're going to have this outside right here. So primarily the two outsides and the middle are going to be the ones that are going to be receiving the ball. What we do with our right side is we go ahead and we're just going to pull them all the way over here and then we're going to let this middle up here just kind of hang out a little bit.

right up in the general area of where they need to be. We don't want them to worry about receiving the ball at all, but we do need their help in case there are any short balls that come over here in this area. So we're going to let our right side kind of handle some of these short little balls right here, and then we're going to let our middle handle the short ones over here.

So here's how we're going to line up and serve receive one. As soon as this ball is touched, wherever it goes, no matter what, my setter is going to release out from behind. behind the outside and run around to where they can get into their position as the setter.

Everyone else is going to play the ball first, meaning they're going to let that ball come across the net and figure out where it's going before they move. If the ball comes over to this left side of the court, what's going to happen is my outside can just come right over here to prepare to hit from right side and my middle can slide over to prepare to hit from middle. If the ball goes deep, my right side can also come over here and prepare to be a hitter. If the ball, for whatever reason, is hit over to the right side of the court, then my right side can easily drop down, my middle can drop down. My outside back here will need to play this ball first.

As soon as they pass it, then they can run over here to become the right side hitter at the beginning of this rotation. As soon as that ball, let's say the setter sets it, and let's say our middle hits the ball, then everybody is able to go ahead and get into their defensive position and switch where they need to be. That means that my outside is going to run all the way over here to the top of zone four. My middle goes to the top of zone three.

My right side goes to the top of zone two. My setter drops back into high one. My lib or middle back will go over here to the top of five.

And then my outside plays deep six. And that is serve receive one. So if we say that we won that point and we are now going to get the ball. We first need to make sure that we have the right people in the right spot.

So to go back into our original rotation, so where we're in that center, outside, middle, right side. outside middle. When we look at this, our next server then is going to be our outside one. So if we bring them over, that means everybody's going to slide one zone all the way around and rotate around.

And this is where technically everybody would be in their starting zone. Now, of course, as you can see, not everybody is in the position that they need to be in. My outside is fine and my middle lib is fine as well.

But however, my right side and my middle need to be able to switch. So we pull our middle over here to the middle. right up where they need to be and we stack our right side right there.

Since the outside is back here serving, this setter is not bound by any rules in order to be on that side. So we're going to pull our setter all the way over here and let them just go naturally right into their defensive position. As soon as the outside touches the ball in their serve, my right side can release and move into their defensive position. So once it's served over, the right side moves, the outside comes right into their defense. And that's it.

is serve two. Now we're going to go ahead and set up in serve receive two. So if we put everybody back in their original order of where they were actually supposed to be in this rotation this is where they're technically starting from.

Now remember we want to be able to hide our setter that is our first primary goal at all points in time so we don't want our setter to get that first ball. So our setter is only bound by being in between these two and being behind the right side. So what we do in regards to this is we're going to go ahead and we're going to pull our right side just slightly over to the right over here. We're going to pull our setter up right behind them. Then over here what we're going to do is we're going to drop this middle back a little bit so then that way they can help with some of these shorter balls.

We're going to let our outside stay right here because remember they are bound by this setter right here and then they have to be behind this middle so we're going to let them come right here. We're going to pull our middle or libero over here slightly to the left. As you can see we have a little bit more coverage there on the right side.

We're going to let this outside come drop back and play right here. So this is how we set up for serve receive two. Now as soon as that ball is touched my right side is going to jump way over here. As you can see my setter's kind of already in their spot so they don't really have to move much. The middle is going to help if that ball does come to this direction short at all.

My middle is going to help play that ball, but as soon as that ball passes them, they're going to run over to be a middle hitter. If the ball comes over to the left side of the court, this outside then is going to play the ball, pass it to the setter, and then become a hitter. If for whatever reason the ball is passed or served over to the right side of the court, then my outside is just immediately going to run over in order to be a hitter.

To give our setter three hitting options. Once the setter, let's say they set the middle and the middle hits the ball, everybody's going to move into their base defense and go right where they need to be in order to be ready for that ball to come back over to us. And that is serve-receive two. Now we're ready to move into serve three. So when we get the ball back, now remember everybody's original starting positions.

We're here for the last rotation. So for rotation number three, technically my middle is going to be the one serving. So everybody's going to slide one zone around and rotate all the way through.

As you can see, my right side is already prepared to be in their defensive position. We're going to pull our middle. Now it is our middle now because they're in the front row. It's no longer our lib. So our middle is going to come here and our outside is going to stack right here.

As you can see my outside in the back row is pretty much right where they need to be, but my setter however is not. So my setter is going to stack right here, my outside will go right where they need to be. Now this could be a libero or a middle, just depends on if the libero is serving.

for this middle or not. But this is how we stack and line up and start for serve three. As soon as that middle touches the ball, my setter is going to release to their defense.

My outside is going to release to their defense. And after they serve, my middle is going to go ahead and go to their defense. Again, this could be a libero as well, but for right now, we'll just say it's the middle. And that is serve three.

So now to move on to serve receive three, we first need to move everybody back into their originating zone. So in that way, we can see who needs to go where. So as you can see, my outsides are opposite of each other and my middles are opposite of each other. When we look at our setter, in order to hide our setter, we need to remember that our setter needs to be behind the middle and to the left of this outside in the back row.

So what we do is we're going to pull our middle up here. We're going to pull our setter right up in line with them, but slightly to the right so that they can get to their spot a little bit faster. Now what we're going to do is we're going to take this outside here and we're going to, because of the fact that we want them to technically be on the outside left side of the court in order to hit, we're going to go ahead and bring them over here. Now remember they are bound by being to the right of the middle and in front of the outside, so we need to pull them about right here to help us serve receive. What we're going to do with this outsize, we're going to let them kind of hang back here and be able to help with those deeper balls.

This middle or libero is going to go right here and then my right side is going to be just slightly over here to the right helping with a lot of those short balls that are coming right there. So this is how we line up for serve receive three. As soon as this ball is touched my setter is going to just run right over to their setter box. My right side is going to make sure that the ball is not served directly to them, but as long as it is not, they're going to just drop right over to be a hitter.

My middle is going to wait, let the ball pass the net, and then they're going to release to be a hitter. The outside is either going to play the ball if it comes to them and then move, or if the ball goes to the right side of the court, they're going to immediately just slide over in order to be a hitter. As soon as the ball is played, from the setter, let's say that they set the outside. The outside is going to hit the ball over and then everybody's going to go right in to their defensive position. And that is how we run serve, receive, three.

Now to move over into serve four, what we've got to do is we got to get everybody back into their base spots, making sure that everybody is in their original rotation. And as you can see when we get the ball back this time now our right side is going to be serving. Everybody is going to slide one zone and you can tell our setter is now in our front row.

You'll see in just a moment how that's going to affect the way that we lay everything out, but as our right side is getting ready to serve we need to make sure that we again are going to stack on the middle because our setter is now going to cover defense on that right side of the court. You can see again it's going to stack right here with my libero and my outside being stacked slightly off in the back so that they can get into their natural defensive positioning. Once the right side serves the ball and touches the ball, everybody is going to go into their defensive positioning and we are ready for serve four. All right, now we are ready for serve-receive four.

So first things first, we're going to move everybody back into their original spot so that we can see everywhere that everybody is supposed to be bound. So you can see my setter is bound by being to the left of this middle and in front of this outside. So what we do in serve-receive four is we actually pull our setter all the way up here and allow them to be in front of the outside.

but to the left of the middle that's playing front row. So we're going to line them up slightly just off right here so then that way everybody can be out of the way of that serve and my setter does not have to take that serve. Now what we do is we're actually going to pull this right side over here.

We're going to pull the libero or the middle right over in front of them. We're going to pull this outside this direction. Now as you can see these three back row players are now still within their own rotation.

Then what we do is we take this outside clearly off. all the way over here. Now remember they are bound by being to the right of this middle. So that's why it's important for this middle or as we say middle choo-choo time is to make sure that they are as far over with that setter as they can be so that our outside front row has space in order to play that ball. A lot of times what will happen is we'll probably be able to pull this person over just slightly a little bit.

We might pull this middle down, pull this middle up, and let this right side be a little bit closer up over here. Sometimes what we can do is we can even say run a drop. four and if we run a drop four what that means is that everybody kind of moves like this so that this right side can help so if we're getting a server that can hit zone two really well and we're getting beat in this area we might say run a drop four which means that we're going to have this right side actually over here to receive this ball because remember when we're lined up this right side is only bound by being to the left of this or sorry to the right of this middle you and then behind this outside who's over here. So we just want to make sure that wherever they're at we're able to help a little bit here.

Technically speaking to start off with this one though what we want to do is we want to actually start like this. So this is how it will look when we set up we just You need to make sure that this outside is in front of this right side. That's a very big important part right here. But this middle libero has got to be somewhat shorter so that they can help make sure. So this right side's job is to make sure that they are behind this outside and to the right of this middle.

But this is how we will start off being set up with serve-receive-four. As soon as this ball is touched, my setter is going to release to their spot. My middle is going to release to their spot. As soon as the ball passes the middle, they'll release to their spot. Sorry.

So once this ball passes the middle, as long as they don't have to play it right here up at the net, then they're going to release over to be a hitter. As soon as the ball is played, my right side, now they have to remember they are now back row. So when they hit, they have to be back here ready to hit more so from behind the 10-foot line. As soon as this ball comes over, if it goes to the right, my outside can immediately release. If it comes to the left, my outside needs to play this ball first and then release to be an outside hitter.

One of the advantages of using the right side from the back row is that my middle can now run a slide if we would like to get them more involved on that right side of the court. But as soon as the ball is set, let's say they set the outside and they hit it over, everybody moves into their defensive position. Now you will see...

My right side and my setter have switched defensive positions. The setter is now in charge of blocking. If you run a 5-2, when this rotation is where the setter will probably be switched to a taller setter, that can be able to actually help with blocking a little bit more.

Because of the fact that they'll be blocking an outside hitter from right here, this is when, if you ever hear the word... five or the term five two for your team that generally means you're getting a taller setter in the front row and maybe even a faster shorter more defensive player as a right side in the back row. This is how you run the serve receive four in a five one five two. Now we are ready to move into serve five. When we go to serve five we got to first remember to put everybody back in their original spots.

so that we can see who needs to be our next server. So as you can see, technically when we rotate our outside that was in the front row is now going to be our server. Everybody else is going to shift around. So this is everybody's standard. rotation five, space where they're supposed to stand for rotation five.

Now when you look at this you can tell that not everybody's where they need to be. The back row easily can adjust because my outside plays that back middle spot. We're going to pull our right side over, our middle or lib is going to come right where they need to be and then my outside once they're done serving is going to go right into their defensive positioning. Now as you can see this outside in the front row is already in their zone that they need to be in so the only person that's going to need to move is my middle is going to come over right to where they need to be and my setter is going to stack right there ready to switch over into their defensive position as soon as the ball is touched. So as soon as the ball is touched my setter releases and goes to their defense and my outside releases and goes to their defense.

Then we are set up and ready to go for serve five. Now we need to set up into serve receive five. So if we put everybody back in their original positions, we can start to get everybody lined up to where they need to be.

So as you can see, my setter's already in the front row. So what we're going to do is we're just going to pull our setter right where they need to be. We're going to hug them a little close onto the net.

So then that way they don't have to worry about getting that first ball. We're going to pull our middle down. just slightly still in front of that 10 foot line so that they can help with these things.

We're going to pull our right side all the way over here. We're going to pull this libero over here and we're going to drop this outside back over here. So as you can see, what happens is my right side is going to be prepared to really just kind of help make sure that they're out of the way. But as soon as this ball is touched, they actually move before the ball is even played because we want to make sure that our setter has a one. 100% hitter that can hit no matter what without having to worry about playing the ball.

So what happens is they line up as close to the left of this outside as they can and as soon as that server touches the ball they're going to release over to be that back row hitter for that setter. The middle as long as that ball is not served it's short into zone two. They're also going to release quickly so that our setter has these two hitter options.

A lot of times what happens is they try to take out our outside, so they're going to serve over here more than likely into zone five. So this outside player has to play the ball and isn't fully set in order to become a powerful hitter. We line everybody up in this server C5 again.

From here, what happens is as soon as the ball is touched, my right side is going to release. The setter is going to drop into their setter box. If the ball does not get served short right, my middle runs over to where they need to be.

So let's just say that our libero, which hopefully our libero is always trying to get the ball so that our hitters can be fully available. The libero gets the ball and sends it to the setter. At that very moment, as soon as the ball passes this front row outside, they're going to release over to become a hitter.

Now remember, my right side is a back row player right now, so they have to stay behind that 10-foot line when they jump up in order to hit the ball. As long as their feet leave from behind the 10-foot line, we are fine. So when my right side comes over here, they're going to start, they're going to come out wide and way back behind the 10 foot line, about three to four steps behind it.

So that way they can take a full approach and be able to hit it from back row. The setter is going to set somebody, let's just say they set the right side, they hit the ball. Now, as soon as that happens, everybody's going to release to defense. Now remember, my setter is a front row player. So that means I'm going to pull my setter over here.

My middle goes up where they need to, my outside goes where they need to, and everybody goes into their defensive positioning. And that is serve, receive, five. Now we're going to go ahead and run into serve six. Again, we're going to put everybody back where their original spot was to make it easy for everybody to understand where they started.

Now we're back into serve six. We have another middle, maybe even a libero, depending on which person your libero serves for. And everybody else is going to slide around and get into their natural starting rotation for rotation six. So as you can see, Not everybody's where they need to be.

My setter is right where they need to be for their defense. We're going to pull our middle over right into their defense and our outside is going to stack right here behind them. This outside is pretty much right where they need to be so we're just going to go ahead and let them go here and then our right side is going to stack in order to be able to release into their defensive position. As soon as the ball is touched by this server my outside releases to defense, my right side releases to defense, my middle goes up and into their defense.

So then we are done with serve six. We're going to move into serve receive six. So this one, what we do is let's make sure we put everybody back into their original spot so everybody can see where they need to be starting from. Now again, we want to hide our setter, right? That's our main goal every single time we have anything that happens.

So in order to do that, what we want to do is we want to actually just pull our setter right up here where they need to be. Our libero is going to come right up here and play a lot of this short serve right here. Our outside is going to come over here.

This right side is going to drop to here. This middle is going to come over here. And this outside, remember they are bound by this middle, needs to be right about here. So when we set up, we want to make sure that everybody is kind of spread out, covering a lot of ground. We'll talk about different seam work and stuff as we go, but this is where we want to start for serve, receive six.

Now, as soon as that ball is touched by this server, again, this right side, same as in... four and five they need to book it as soon as this ball is touched by the server they're running as fast over as they can their goal is to make sure that they're out of the way and they're not receiving this serve unless we turn into running a drop four this right side should not be receiving the serve they should be running to get to their spot in order to be that powerful great hitter that we love over there on that right side from the back row As soon as that happens as well, as soon as the balls touch as well, my setter is just going to take a couple of steps right to their setter box and be ready to go wherever that ball goes. As soon as the ball passes the middle, right, that needs to pass them, so just in case, because they've got this short coverage right here, as soon as the ball passes them, they're going to release to be a hitter as well. If the ball is hit to the left side of the court, this outside needs to play the ball first, and then they'll release over to be a hitter as well. If the ball goes to the right side of the court and they're over here for their spot, what happens is the middle is going to move at the same time the outside is going to move and shift over.

So we'll say the lib sends it to the setter. We'll say the setter sets the middle. The middle hits the ball.

Everybody moves right in to their defensive positioning and is ready to continue playing the ball. And that is how we play serve receive six. Now if for whatever reason we end up needing to do it what we call that drop four right so let's set everybody back up into their original spots here.

If we have everybody in their original spot for serve receive six lined up let's say for whatever We're getting a little bit killed maybe in this in this short area right here. What we're going to do is we're actually going to let this outside come up, this middle come up, and we're going to use this drop four kind of scenario here. Sometimes what might happen is we might say, hey, this back row outside, pull up all the way short and drop this middle lip over here. There's a lot of movement of what we can do when we run these drop fours. But what this does is it really gives us the opportunity to be able to cover a lot more area of the court.

And still then turn around and utilize this right side hitter, especially if they're a stronger passer, in order to use them on the serve receive. The only thing that you need to make sure of is that everybody is going by what they're bound by. So our right side needs to make sure that they're behind the middle.

Our outside needs to be to the right of the middle and in front of the other outside. There's a lot of things as far as, like I said, when we set up in these original spots, we've got to make sure that everybody is... staying within their bounds.

So my setter needs to be to the right of the outside in front of the middle. My outside needs to be in front of the other outside, left of the middle, right of the setter. My middle needs to be in front of the right side, left of the outside. My right side needs to be behind the middle, left of the outside too.

My outside too needs to be behind the outside one, left of right side or right of right side, left of the middle. And then of course my middle is bound by the setter in this outside. So if we run this as a drop four, It's important to make sure that this outside stays here, but also in front of this outside.

So we've got to make sure that if we're going to do this in this way, if we do it like this, we just have to make sure that we keep these people in line with where they need to be. We can also drop it here and pull this middle, this libero up and drop this, this outside over here a little bit more because our liberos usually are pretty fast and pretty, pretty decent passers to where it's easier to get them there. So the reason why I'm walking through this unsurfed receive six is because it's our last one and it just makes it a little bit easier to kind of see how those bounds work and how we're going to make sure that we have that coverage. So just make sure regardless you're listening to your coach, you're making sure that you know exactly where you need to be and for serve receive six this is the standard setup for serve receive six and like I said the most important thing is to make sure that our setter is up and out of the way and our right side is leaving as soon as that ball is touched and that is serve receive.

six.

Transcript for:Volleyball 5-1 Rotation Strategy

Transcript for:
Volleyball 5-1 Rotation Strategy