If you're interested in this blog on beach volleyball serve receive and passing, you may want to take a look at our passing and serve receive course! And, now that the beaches are open again, we'd love to have you drop by one -- or more -- of our beach volleyball classes in Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, or anywhere in the South Bay!

Ball control, we admit, can be on the boring side when it comes to beach volleyball drills. It isn't going to draw the attention of a big swing or bounce, doesn't lead to any direct kills, and won't be found anywhere on social media. But it's the foundation upon which a beach volleyball player's success, and skill set, is built. 

And, yes, there are fun ways to practice ball control. It's why we invent little challenges like the one below. Enjoy, get better this week, and Make Ball Control Fun Again! 

4 Quadrant Drill for ball control in beach volleyball 

How to do the drill: The first element of the four...

If you're interested in this blog on beach volleyball serve receive and passing, you may want to take a look at our passing and serve receive course! And, now that the beaches are open again, we'd love to have you drop by one -- or more -- of our beach volleyball classes in Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, or anywhere in the South Bay!

One of the trickier elements of serve receive is the timing of your platform: When do you put your hands together to form your platform? Every player has his or her own technique. Watch a video of John Mayer, an AVP champion and former MVP and now the head coach at LMU, and he puts his hands together before the serve. Watch Kim Hildreth and Sarah Schermerhorn, AVP finalists at Austin in 2019, and their arms are wide as can be, like birds of prey, until virtually the last possible moment. 

Point is: Everyone is different. It's mostly a comfort thing. However, we do have our recommendations here at Better at Beach. As...

20 Practice Plans: The Ultimate Beach Volleyball Training Companion!

This is our latest and greatest product in the Better at Beach, beach volleyball training series!

Have you ever planned to do drills with your friends or team, then show up to the beach and wonder what you should be working on? This practice plan will give you a minute-by-minute printable guide and video examples of each drill. We take the guesswork out of it for you!! All you have to do is show up and focus on improving your game!

The program was created by current professional beach volleyball players Brandon Joyner and Mark Burik, who have years of combined coaching and playing experience on the AVP and FIVB and NORCECA world tours.

There are five areas of concentration: Passing, Setting, Attacking, Defense, and Gameplay. The drills progress from basic to advanced, and is great for coaches and players of ALL LEVELS!

We know you will absolutely LOVE this comprehensive training guide to help you get...

If you're interested in this drill on setting and digging, you may also be interested in our beach volleyball classes in Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach and anywhere in the South Bay!

All of us beach volleyball players are looking for that one big thing -- the one lift to get us stronger, the one way to make money so we can continue pursuing this life on the beach, the one thing that'll get us hitting harder, jumping higher, running faster. Sadly, we do not have the answer for some of those things -- you can, however, take our 60-day strength and conditioning program to get you bouncing balls and swat-blocking and running around like Taylor Crabb. 

What we do have, however, is the one drill you can do every practice that will improve your digging, swinging, setting, and footwork. It's all-encompassing and, perhaps the best part, it's perfect for groups when you have a strange number of players: 5, 6, 7, doesn't...

If this beach volleyball blog is of interest to you, you may also be interested in our Beginner Membership, which can be  of benefit to anyone, living anywhere, be it Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach -- or at home during the Covid-19 quarantine. 

Sometimes we can't get out to play beach volleyball with our real partner -- but we still have plenty of options. We can play with the roof. The wall. The street. Those, of course, are also not our real partners, but at least they won't complain about a bad set or pass. 

Even better, however, than our ever-reliable inanimate objects and surfaces around our houses and neighborhoods, are our roommates, fiancees, wives or husbands, children -- living, breathing partners. They don't have to be great, or even good, for that matter, at beach volleyball (you'll see in the video). They just have to be there, and willing to have a little fun as you improve at home during the Covid-19...

If you're interested in this blog on beach volleyball serve receive and passing, you may want to take a look at our passing and serve receive course! And, now that the beaches are open again, we'd love to have you drop by one -- or more -- of our beach volleyball classes in Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, or anywhere in the South Bay!

This current epoch of quarantines and stay-at-home orders could be viewed in a number of ways for those in the beach volleyball community: Lonely. Solo. Boring. Idle. Partnerless. 

And yet, there is little need for those descriptors. Now, in fact, could be the optimal time to improve quicker on the beach, learning more about how to play beach volleyball, and to play it well, than you ever have. You don't need the sand -- in fact, as this video will show you, pavement will do just fine. While practicing with two people is nice, you don't really need a partner -- who needs a partner when you have a roof? Or the...

This is the last chapter in the Volleyball Serve Receive series. We covered positioning on the court, passing, and footwork. Here, we'll go over some special situations to help develop a deeper understanding of the game. 

Passing height is a controversial topic in the beach volleyball world. Should I pass low? Should I pass high? How high is high? How low is low? What if I have a bad setter? These are all important questions we'll answer in this bonus chapter:

1. Apex
2. 6 Feet Off the Net
3. 30 Degrees Off Inside Foot
4. Side Wind

Apex, 6 Balls Above the Antenna

First, it’s important for the pass to have an apex or a top. When the ball has a downward flight that allows your setter to get under the ball and establish a balanced footing, they will have the opportunity to be more stable and therefore more accurate.

There is no hard, fast height that is perfect for everybody but 15 feet in the air is a great starting point. This equates to 6 balls above the top of the...

In this 4th chapter of the Volleyball Serve Receive series, we're going to cover some advanced footwork and techniques you can use to level up your game and start winning some beach volleyball tournaments. This will be building on the foundation of the basic footwork we went over in the previous chapter. 

Let's get started. 

Here's what you'll learn in this chapter:

1. Drop Step
2. 1, 2, Kick to Kneel

DROP STEP FOR HIGH FAST BALLS

Sometimes, serves come at our chest, neck and heads QUICK!

There is no time to get behind the ball and rock forward. You are not allowed to use your fingers to set the first ball unless it's flawless (so don’t try it) and we’ve already said that tomahawks in serve receive are a big no-no so what do we have left?

The drop-step is a crucial piece of footwork you have to learn if you want to start winning your indoor and beach volleyball tournaments.

Rather than getting handcuffed or taking a ball in the chest, our eyes have to...

If you're interested in this blog on beach volleyball serve receive and passing, you may want to take a look at our passing and serve receive course! And, now that the beaches are open again, we'd love to have you drop by one -- or more -- of our beach volleyball classes in Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, or anywhere in the South Bay!

You don’t play volleyball by just standing in place. In serve receive, that means you have to be ready to move in every direction. 

If the ball is heading towards your left side, what’s the best way to get to it? Which leg do you move first? What if it falls near the net? 

In the previous chapter, you learned about the forearm pass, how to bump a volleyball correctly and the different things you need to consider when becoming a great passer. 

In this chapter, you'll learn the basic volleyball footwork techniques: 

1. Athletic Position
2. Lateral Steps
3. Lateral Lunges
4. Move 1 Move Both
5. ...

If you're interested in this blog on beach volleyball serve receive and passing, you may want to take a look at our passing and serve receive course! And, now that the beaches are open again, we'd love to have you drop by one -- or more -- of our beach volleyball classes in Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, or anywhere in the South Bay!

Learning the keys to serve receive for beach volleyball or indoor volleyball is a crucial process if you want to get better and win more matches and tournaments. In the previous chapter, you learned everything about positioning. In this chapter, we'll cover the actual volleyball pass. You may have searched something like "how to bump a volleyball" to get here. It's ok to use the word "bump" if you're a beginner, but you'll soon learn that when more experienced volleyball players talk about bumping a volleyball, we will say "pass" or "forearm pass". 

As you might know, there are two types of passes in indoor...