Improving Your FBSO

Originally Published in: Coaching Volleyball

Copyright and Provided by: AVCA

Every program seems to have its own favorite metric for measuring its team's progress and, ultimately, its success. Some have hitting efficiency at the top of the list, others may favor passer rating as an indicator of success. The beauty of our sport is that there is no right or wrong answer to this argument. If there is a certain statistic that is important to you and you understand how to train your team to improve in that area, your team will improve. In our program, we place a high premium on our ability to First Ball Side Out (FBSO) and do everything that we can to make it difficult for our opponents to FBSO. We feel that this is a phase of the game that we have the most control over. FBSO always comes after a stoppage in play, which gives us time to reset and assess the match-up that we have. It also allows us to call a play that we feel gives us the best chance to side-out on our first swing. The better job we do at FBSO, the more difficult time that the opponent is going to have getting point-scoring runs.

That said, here is a drill that we will use to help us focus on FBSO in each of our rotations ... FBSO Blitz.

• Side A is always receiving serve and Side B is always serving

• Side A gets two points for FBSO, and one point for winning the rally

• Side A needs to get 60 points (rotating every 10 points) in a specific amount of time (we typically like to use 6-8 minutes to keep the drill moving and to make sure we are challenging Side A to be as efficient as possible)

• If you have a small roster and are not able to play 6-on-6, place cones in areas of the court that you would like your team to get better at attacking in First Ball situations and award two points for balls attacked into those areas and one point for clean kills in the court.

• Play this drill every day for a week or two. Stat each rotation to help you figure out your strongest rotation and your weakest rotation. You may gain some insight into which rotations you should be starting the match.

• Use this drill to evaluate players during preseason. Players that help you side out more often should win spots in the starting line-up

• Add a -1 point scoring system (Examples: Side A gets -1 if they give up a service ace, -1 for attacking a ball into the net or hitting the tape if they are not playing against a full block/ defense, etc.)

• Use a +1 point scoring system to reward good decisions by the setter. Perhaps you are about to play a team that struggles defending the slide attack. Reward the team with an additional point for every FBSO from the slide attack. As a coach, you can sneak some scouting report material into this drill pretty easily.