Game: Giovanni’s Serving & Passing

Synopsis: This is a competitive serving and passing game that is team vs. team rather than servers vs. passer.

Age/Skill Level: This is an exercise for all levels.

Requirements: 2 teams, one court

Execution: Split the squad in half. Each team then fields a group of passers, with the remainder serving. Teams take turns serving, with the following scoring:

+1 serving side for an ace
+1 receiving side for a perfect pass (or whatever quality pass you’re after)
-1 serving side for a missed serve
-1 receiving side for an overpass

Play to 15 points.

Variations:

• You can vary the number of passers you have on the court, and if using less than you’d normally have in a game, you can narrow the area into which servers have to put the ball (e.g. only serve into Zones 1 & 6).
• You could incorporate out-of-system passes into the scoring as well.
• If you have radar to measure serve speed, you could give a point for balls with whatever minimum speed makes sense for your level.
• You can incorporate specific things you’re working on into the scoring. For example, if you want short serves, the serving side can get +1 if the receiver puts at least 1 foot in front of the 3m line, regardless of outcome.
• Rather than the players on one side taking turns serving, you could have a server who scored a point (or who caused the other team a -1) to serve again, like in a real game.
• If you want to incorporate setting and hitting, you could add to the scoring based on the outcome of a set-hit attempt.

Additional Comments:

• This game was shared in a Learning Lab for the 2022 AVCA Virtual Convention by Giovanni Guidetti.
• Giovanni was explicit that he does not want the game to end on a missed serve. That is why missed serves are a minus for the serving team, not a plus for the receiving one.
• Giovanni said the game normally takes 3-4 minutes with his teams, but those are high level professionals. Your team may be very different.