The first skill I learned in beach volleyball was hand-setting.

To most, this seems to be a momentous accomplishment. Many find hand-setting to be the most difficult skill in the game, since it’s the only one where, should you do it incorrectly, the other team is awarded a point immediately. Karch Kiraly considered it a luxury. 

To me, it’s the skill that made the most sense to learn first.

When I moved to Florida, in April of 2014, I knew only one person, my childhood friend, Mark Lammey. When he found out I was moving to Florida, he was so excited for me that he asked if he could come, too.

Absofreakinglutely!

We found an apartment, signed the lease, sight unseen, and began our Florida adventure with an 18-hour road trip from Baltimore to Navarre.

Neither of us had ever played beach volleyball before, outside of the jungle ball stuff that is as much beach volleyball as putt-putt is to golf. I wouldn’t begin playing for another few months, when I made a few...

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 blog on beach volleyball setting, you may also want to check out our comprehensive setting course! You may also want to take a look at our beach volleyball classes in Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach or the South Bay!

This is a long blog. But it's long because it's comprehensive: If you want to learn how to set a volleyball, this is the blog for you. You don't have to read it all in one sitting -- or two or three. It'll be here for as long as we have the internet, so take your time. 

In this blog, you'll find any drill you could possibly need to become a better setter on the beach. You'll find drills to do on your own, drills with a partner, drills with other teams, drills with lots of other teams. You'll find drills for bump setting and drills for hand setting. You'll see videos that will help you to determine when it is more advisable to bump set and when it may be better to let the nectar flow. 

If you're looking...

Beach volleyball partners can argue a lot, but I'd like to save you a fight and teach you how to set and where the best players in the world prefer to get set. This video does look at some great players with big verticals and quick arms which means they can hit sets hard and down from far away. 

Most volleyball players try to overcome their lack of accuracy in their spikes by hitting hard. If you're a shorter player or you don't have a massive vertical jump, it can be frustrating to hit balls that aren't on top of the net because you never get the feeling of hitting down. 

In the video below, we show you examples where there is a big physical blocker at the net, which means tight sets will be gobbled up....

If you're looking to learn how to be one of the best setters in beach volleyball, you've come to the right place! At Better at Beach, headquartered in Hermosa Beach, CA we run beach volleyball setting drills every day! And if you'd like to enroll in our online setting course, you can do that year-round, day in and day out, partner or no partner. 

However, you don't have to wait for one of our beach volleyball classes to start learning the fundamentals. We mainly teach sand volleyball but if you play indoor volleyball, fear not! The principles and drills are almost exactly the same for bump setting and hand setting in the two sports. 

Yes, the first thing nearly every coach preaches is pass first, pass first, pass first. There’s a reason for that: Every single offensive action you could possibly take, whether in serve receive or defense or waiting for the beloved free ball, begins with the pass.

Yet it’s the second – and likely most...

If you're interested in this blog on beach volleyball setting, you may want to consider our comprehensive course on setting in beach volleyball. We promise that you'll be setting the nectar in no time, and that your partner will love you for it!

Bump setting in beach volleyball is a skill that should come pretty naturally if you learn how to pass before learning how to set; they use most of the same keys and technique. There are a few slight differences, but as long as you keep a few keys in mind it should be a quick learn.

Keys:

1. Platform straight and hands together - This is a technique that should be the exact same as passing in beach volleyball. It is important that you hold your hand tight and keep your arms straight throughout the entire process of the set, just as you would the pass.

2. Net foot forward - When approaching the ball to set, you should think about getting your net foot forward. The reason we say ‘net foot’ is because throughout a play you...

Guess what everyone? The beaches are open! I repeat: The beaches are open! Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Huntington Beach, Redondo Beach -- yep, all open. You can put up a volleyball net anywhere you want. Good news, however: For this beach volleyball drill, you don't need a net. You don't even need two full teams, though it certainly wouldn't hurt. 

All you need to become a better setter in beach volleyball is a ball, an open mind ready to learn, and a partner. The more the merrier, of course, but for now, two will do just fine -- and you're not even breaking any old Covid-19 rules if you keep it to within the people in your household. Everyone wins. 

If you'd like to become an expert setter in beach volleyball faster, consider enrolling in our setting course. And if you'd like the strength to be able to set as well as possible, consider trying out our 60-day strength and conditioning program!

Here is a Basic Setting Drill for all you coaches and players....

Hand setting in beach volleyball can be a challenge until you’ve mastered proper technique.

We clock a lot of hours every month coaching beach volleyball. What we have found is that there are seven common mistakes players make that are limiting them as hand setters. Overcoming these seven deadly sins on the court can make the difference between crushing a match or getting crushed. Nobody wants to get crushed. 

If you're looking to improving your hand setting on the beach as fast as possible, try out our course on setting!

To help, we’ve put together this video demonstrating the seven deadly sins of hand setting in beach volleyball, but more importantly, proper technique that puts you in charge of the volleyball – and ultimately the court. So don’t be the player with “dainty lady” hands, or a slapper. A balloon catcher. Or ol’ “crab hands.”

Be sure to check out our other beach volleyball training videos for coaching...

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. We'd love to have you take one of our beach volleyball classes in Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, and Hermosa Beach -- or you can some up for a video call with us too!

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...