Middles - reading the hitter

Purpose: To train your blockers to read the hitter’s body and hitting arm. The blockers’ goal is to line up chest to chest with their attackers to take away the strongest attacking angle.

Setup: Two blockers, a tosser, an attacker, a ball. You may run two groups on one net.

The tosser will start at the 10 ft. line with the blockers on the same side. The attacker is on the opposite side from the tosser and blockers.

The tosser will toss a ball over the net for the attacker to hit. The blockers must read the attacker and communicate to effectively block the ball. The tosser tosses 5 balls. Each time the ball is tossed, there is a point scored for either the attacker of the blockers.

The attacker gets a point for getting an aggressive attack (not a tip or roll shot) past the blockers. The blockers get a point for a stuff block putting the ball back on the other side, and for a soft block in which one of the blockers can catch the ball. Play mini-games of 5 points and switch blockers.

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