Using Doubles Volleyball
to Improve Your Indoor Game

Doubles volleyball helps you develop the keys to becoming a great player. 

• Become a complete player by developing all your skills


• Learn to communicate with teammates


• Learn how to anticipate opponents and even anticipate your own teammates


• Be creative and experiment with how you play the game

Playing doubles to improve team communication

One of the great things about playing doubles volleyball is the fact doubles forces you to communicate with your teammate. 

Serve Receive
When receiving the serve, you must communicate with your partner who plays the ball. 

The great thing is, you get many repetitions communicating because it must be done during each serve receive. 

This is different from sixes, in that, in sixes you aren't necessarily involved in every serve reception.

Setting and Hitting
When playing doubles, you often must set your partner to a different spot depending on where the ball is passed to or where the ball is passed from. This makes communication really important. 

Calling out shots
Playing doubles is a great time to work on communicating with your teammate on where to hit. 

For instance, after you set your partner, one strategy is to call out where to hit. 

The most popular strategy is to call out where to hit the ball. 

If there is a blocker at the net, you could call out, "One Up!". 

If there's no block, yell, "No One!". 

If there's a block up with the defender playing defense down the line, you could yell, "Cross!". 

If the defender is playing defense in the angle, you could yell, "Line!". 

Calling shots in doubles can really make a big difference because there is so much court for your opponent to cover. 

If you just, hit it where they aren't, you'll win most rallies. 

Playing doubles is a great way to work on developing your communication skills that will likely carry over to the 6's game. 

If you enjoyed these tips on playing doubles volleyball and would like to keep it close to you at any time, just save this pin to your Pinterest Volleyball Board.

Develop your skills by playing doubles

Obviously, when you play doubles volleyball, you are forced to develop all the skills in volleyball. 

Serving
Doubles is a great opportunity for you to develop your serve. 

By playing doubles, many players finally come to the realization.... 

Serving is really important! 

In doubles, there's only two players on the team. With only two players, there's a lot of court to cover. 

Serving tough in doubles can be a HUGE factor in the game. 

Serving tough is important in both doubles and sixes. In both, you have the opportunity to put your opponent to the disadvantage. 

In both, the server can dictate how the opposition runs their offense. But it's just more obvious when playing doubles because each player is responsible for covering more court.

Develop the attitude of serving tough when playing doubles. This mindset of serving tough in doubles will likely carry over to indoor sixes.

Passing
There's only two players on the team, so it's either you or your partner that passes the serve. And your partner can't cover the entire court. So you are forced to learn how to pass. 

Setting
If you don't take the serve, you are the setter. Your ability to set is very important to your success in doubles. For instance, if your opponent realizes you can't set very well, they could serve your partner most of the time forcing you to set. So doubles forces you to learn how to set.

Hitting
Just about everybody loves to hit. 

If you like to hit, you'll probably love doubles because you get to hit all the time. 

If you want to hit....then receive the serve. 

Every time you take the ball in serve receive, your partner is the setter and you become the hitter. 

So if you like to hit, you can use that fact as a motivation to pass well.

Another great thing is, if you love to hit, you are forced to pass first before you can hit. This is great because your pass will usually dictate how well you are set. So the better you pass, usually the better sets you'll get and the more you'll enjoy hitting. 

Learning to Anticipate

Possessing a great ability to anticipate often separates great players from everybody else. 

Having the ability to anticipate is so important because it makes playing so much easier. 

Players that can anticipate really well often look more confident and appear more athletic or quicker than they actually are. 

Anticipation helps you both physically and mentally. 

By being able to anticipate well, you conserve energy. The better you are at anticipating what's going on, the easier it is to get in position to make plays. 

This makes playing much easier on you mentally because you feel smarter and more confident you know what you're doing. For instance, if you anticipate well, you won't necessarily be scrambling to make the play. You'll be prepared for what to do next and make plays with much less needed effort. 

By being able to anticipate, this makes it easier on you mentally because less effort is needed to figure out what's going on. 

Anticipate your teammates 

Doubles volleyball helps you learn how to anticipate your teammates. 

For instance, you might see your teammate get set tight to the net. 

You could then anticipate her getting blocked. 

You are then ready and have more time to get in good position to cover the hitter. 

Or you may see a teammate get served a really tough serve. 

You can anticipate where the ball is going to be passed and help out to keep the ball in play. 

Constantly work on anticipating everything. 

The better you are at anticipating the game that's developing, the better you'll be at predicting what is going to happen next. 

The better you are at predicting what's going to happen next, the more likely you'll be in good position to make a play. 

The better you anticipate, the easier it is to play the game. 

Doubles Volleyball Related Pages

Tips for Defense

Defensive Strategies

Beach Rules

Beach History