with Vicki Brown,
University of Iowa Head Women's Coach from 2019 through 2021;
University of Iowa Associate Women's Coach from 2017 through 2019;
University of San Francisco Head Indoor and Beach Volleyball Coach from 2016 to 2017;
as a player at the University of Illinois, was 2x All-Big Ten honorable mention and tallied more than 1,000 career kills;
played professionally in Austria, Puerto Rico, and Spain
Go inside a University of Iowa volleyball practice with head coach Vicki Brown in this insightful instructional video! Coach Brown opens the doors to her gym to give you a front row seat as she runs through a session focused on 6v6 drills, position skills, and training key techniques. If you want to see how a Big Ten program works to get better during the season, this is your chance!
Getting Started
Brown has her players begin practice with a Pepper Series, which typically lasts about 8-10 minutes and gets athletes plenty of touches so they are ready to compete. Next, they move on to split court work. This is a great opportunity to get repetitions in situations that mirror what your team will see from your next opponent. Split court work shown in this video includes offense, defense, and rotations.
6v6 Drills
In their first 6v6 drill of the day, Coach Brown has her players work on serve receive. This is the first time of the day where the team gets a chance to operate at a speed closer to what they'll experience during a match. The next 6v6 exercise is Brown's 1-2-1 drill. One side receives a ball, then defends two out-of-system balls in a row. If they win those three points, they earn the opportunity to serve for a big point against the other side.
As Coach Brown explains, sometimes she will call a "timeout" during 6v6 drills to simulate a break during a match. This provides an excellent opportunity for coaches to instruct players on things they could do better, while also doubling as practice for coaches to be efficient with their communication, as is required during a live match.
Brown's practice concludes with the Vegas drill, which is a best-of-5 format. Brown loves running this drill during the beginning of a week because it's a great way to get players re-engaged following a weekend match.
Practice makes perfect, and after watching this practice, you'll have some great ideas to make your own practices even better.
47 minutes. 2021.