Practice at digging hard driven spikes that are directed at and around the defenders body.
Set up
# of players : 2-8 players
Ideal : 3 players
Equipment : 6+balls
Average duration : 15-25 minutes
Description
- The coach or an athlete drives hard balls at the defender who is positioned in the angle.
- Initially spikes should be aimed directly at the defender but once the athlete has begun digging these successfully, they can move on to having balls driven to positions 2 and 3.
- At positions 2 and 3 the defender will need to pass the ball outside their body, which increases difficulty.
- The objective of the defender is to get the ball to travel straight up in front of them approx 10-12 feet in the air.
Evaluation :
# of good reps (ex. 6-10)
Variations
- Left and right
- Rotate between players
- Balls should be hit at the defenders from all areas of the court.
Progression
- A good adaptation to test if the dig is good or not is to get the defenders to catch their own ball.
- The athlete can juke prior to ball being hit.
- The defender can move up or back depending on where the throw is made by the hitter.
- You could add another defender in to play out the ball.
Key points
- Athletes need to stay low and keep their head still – especially while ‘juking’.
- The arms should be kept apart and high enough to be able to play defense on a ball that comes to the face.
- It is important that when digging a ball outside the body that the athletes does not bring the arms together too early and swing their arms to the ball – they must reach out with the arm closest to the ball and bring the other arm across to join it