On this page
On this page
The short answer
Clip five things from a volleyball match: serve receive, serving, setting and attack, the block and the defence behind it, and transition. Then sort the receive rallies by rotation, because most teams lose their points in one or two of the six.
Film from high behind the end line rather than from the side. It is the opposite of most sports, and it is the angle that shows the pass, the block and the hitter’s approach in one picture.
Why volleyball rewards film
Pass, set, hit takes about three seconds. In real time you see the kill or the error at the end of it; you rarely see that the pass came off the platform at an angle and left the setter one option, which is where the point was actually lost.
Film fixes that, and volleyball is generous with it. Like a basketball or netball court, a volleyball court is small enough to hold whole from one camera, so all twelve players are in shot on every rally.
The game also repeats more than almost any other. Rally scoring means every rally is a point, and a three-set match has well over a hundred of them, each starting from a serve and a set formation. Four shanked passes in the same rotation is a pattern you can fix this week, not a bad night.
Film from behind the end line
Most sports are filmed from the side, at halfway. Volleyball is the exception: the standard position is high and centred behind one end line, looking down the length of the court.
From there you see what decides most rallies. The passers’ platforms and the seams between them, the setter’s position at the net, the hitter’s approach and, on the near side, the block from behind with the hitter facing it. Whether the block closed, and where the ball went past it, is plain from this angle and nearly invisible from the side.
- Height: high enough to see over the near players and the net into the far court. A balcony or the top of the bleachers is ideal; otherwise a tall tripod as far back as the gym allows.
- Frame: both end lines and both antennas in shot, camera still. You should not need to pan.
- Changing ends: teams swap sides between sets, so a fixed camera sees your team from behind in one set and face-on in the next. That is useful rather than a problem: the near sets show your passing and your block, the far sets show your attack.
- Light: gyms are darker than they look, and a hit ball is fast. If your camera allows it, raise the shutter speed and accept a darker picture, because blur hides the contact you want to coach.
A side camera at the net is the useful second angle if you have one. It shows timing at the net: when the block jumped against the hitter, how tight the set was, and where the setter was. Our guide to filming your own games covers tripods and settings.
The five things worth clipping
1. Serve receive
The first contact decides what the setter can do, so this is where to start. Most coaches rate every pass on a 0 to 3 scale:
- 3: a perfect pass. The setter has every option, including the quick to the middle.
- 2: a playable pass. The setter has some options, but usually not the middle.
- 1: the setter can only send a high ball to the outside, and the opponent knows it.
- 0: an ace, or a pass that goes straight over or can’t be played.
Rating is quick on film and slow live. Then watch the 1s and 0s again: was it the platform angle, the feet not getting behind the ball, or two passers leaving the seam between them to each other? Seams are where good servers aim, and a freeze frame with the gap drawn settles who should have taken it.
2. Serving
Aces are rare and errors are not, so counting both tells you more than either alone. More useful still is what the serve did to the other side: how often it pushed their pass to a 1 or a 0 and took them out of system.
Clip your serves and note the target. The court is numbered in six zones, with zone 1 the right back corner where the server stands, and most coaches serve to a zone, a seam, or a particular passer. Film shows whether the serve went where it was called, and whether that target is working.
3. Setting and attack
With a good pass, the question is distribution. Does the setter use the middle, or does every ball go high to the outside, where the block is waiting? A setter who always sets the same hitter after a perfect pass is easy to read, and the opponent’s block will have worked it out by the second set.
Then the hitters: the approach, the timing against the set, and the shot they chose against the block in front of them. Hitting into a closed double block is a decision as much as a skill.
Clip your out-of-system attacks too. Every team gets bad passes; the coachable part is whether the high ball that follows is hittable, and whether the hitter swings or just keeps it in play.
4. The block and the defence behind it
Blocking is a plan the whole back court depends on. Clip every attack against you and check whether the blockers did what was called: read and wait to see the set, or commit and jump with the quick hitter. Then watch the middle closing to the outside blocker. Hands that leave a seam between them are the most common fault, and on a near-side shot from the end line you can count the rallies where it happened.
The block takes away part of the court, and the defenders should be in the part it leaves. Freeze the frame as the hitter makes contact. Are the diggers outside the block’s shadow, or standing in it while the ball goes cross-court? That one frame usually explains a dig that wasn’t.
5. Transition and free balls
The other way to score is to win the rally after a dig. Watch the players who didn’t touch the ball: do the hitters get off the net and back into their approach in time to be an option, or does the setter have to put up a high ball to whoever is ready? On a free ball, does anyone call it, and does the team turn an easy pass into a proper attack?
Find your weak rotation
A team plays the match in six rotations, and they are not equally good. Different players are in the front row in each, and in a 5-1 the three rotations with the setter in the front row have only two front-row attackers. Usually one rotation leaks points, and it is the one the team gets stuck in.
Clip every receive rally and note the rotation. After a match or two, side-out by rotation shows you where the points go, and the clips show why: a passer with the toughest serves coming at them, a receive formation that leaves a seam open, or a hitter with no easy approach from where they start.
Film also catches overlap faults. At the moment of serve each player has to be in order with the players next to them and in front of or behind them, and a formation that hides a weak passer can quietly break that rule. A freeze frame at the serve shows it before a referee does.
| Count | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Pass rating average, by passer | Who is receiving well, and who the opponent is serving at |
| Side-out percentage, by rotation | Which rotation leaks points when you receive |
| Point-scoring percentage | How often you win the rally when you serve |
| Aces and service errors | Whether your serving pressure is worth the points it gives away |
| Hitting efficiency | Kills minus errors over attempts, by hitter and by set type |
Pass rating is the one to start with if you only track a single number. It is quick to count from footage, and when it drops the rest of the sheet usually drops with it.
Tag the cause, not just the point
The starter tags ClipItCoach gives a volleyball team are outcomes: Ace, Kill, Block, Service Error, Dig, Set Error and Rally Win. Hold Shift as you tag and the clip goes against the other side, so their kills sit apart from yours. Those tags are good for finding moments and for a highlight reel, but a kill is the end of the rally, and the coaching is usually in the pass that set it up.
Add a few tags for what you actually coach, like Serve receive, Out of system, Free ball and Transition, or one tag for the rotation you are working on. Set them to Start / stop, so one press at the serve and another at the whistle cuts the whole rally, or have them start a few seconds early so the clip includes the serve. Our guide to clipping a game with tags shows how.
Then send the clips to the players they are about. Groups for your passers and your middles mean each gets their own rallies, not the whole match. See the twenty-minute film session for running the session itself.
On drawing and tracking: ClipItCoach’s AI player tracking covers football (soccer), basketball and rugby. For volleyball, drawing on a freeze frame does the job: a line where the seam was, a ring on the defender standing in the block’s shadow, an arrow for the shot the hitter had. See what telestration is for the tools.
Highlight reels for recruiting
Club and high school players chasing a college place need a highlight video, and they usually ask the coach for the footage. If the matches are already clipped, most of the work is done: the kills, blocks, digs and aces are tagged, and filtering the clips list by tag finds them.
On a match, choose Export on the clips list, pick the player’s best clips, and ClipItCoach renders them into one MP4 with each clip’s title and your note in a banner. Put the player’s name and shirt number in the note, so a recruiting coach knows who to watch before the serve. Exporting needs the Coach plan and a video uploaded to ClipItCoach rather than a YouTube link. Our guide to exporting highlights walks through it.
Keep the reel short and lead with the best clips. Many college coaches also ask for a full, unedited set, so keep the match footage as well.
Common questions
What should a volleyball coach look for in match film?
Serve receive first, because the pass decides what the setter can do. Then serving targets and errors, the setter’s distribution, whether the block closed and the defenders were outside its shadow, and what happened in transition after a dig. Start each clip at the serve, since the cause of the point is usually the first contact.
Where should you film a volleyball match from?
From high behind one end line, centred, with both end lines and both antennas in frame and the camera still. That angle shows the pass, the seams between passers, the hitter’s approach and the block. A side camera at the net is a useful second angle for timing at the net.
How do you rate passes in volleyball?
Most coaches use a 0 to 3 scale. A 3 gives the setter every option including the quick, a 2 gives some options, a 1 leaves only a high ball to the outside, and a 0 is an ace or a pass that can’t be played. Rating every serve receive from film and averaging by passer is the quickest way to see who is receiving well.
How do you find a weak rotation in volleyball?
Note the rotation on every receive rally and work out your side-out percentage in each of the six. Most teams have one or two rotations where they struggle to side out. Clipping the receive rallies in that rotation usually shows why: a passer taking the toughest serves, an open seam in the formation, or a hitter with no easy approach.
How do you make a volleyball recruiting video?
Tag the player’s kills, blocks, digs and aces as you clip each match, then export their best clips into a short video with their name and shirt number on screen. Lead with the strongest clips, keep it short, and keep the full match footage too, because many college coaches also ask for an unedited set.