Defensive Specialists In Volleyball

The defensive specialist is one of the least discussed roles in the sport. It’s an optional role that most teams and coaches use, but there’s less focus on this role and more emphasis on the libero.

If you’re a DS, this post is for you and I hope you find this to be an encouraging resource. Below I’ve described some of the best drills I’ve seen that will be helpful in your development.

You will probably find some of the other posts very helpful as well, like: What Every Player Should Know About Playing Defense In Volleyball or the Master Guide To Liberos In Volleyball: Rules, Rotation, And Tips.

What Does the DS Position Mean In Volleyball

The DS position in volleyball is the defensive specialist. This is one of the roles on the team along with the setter, the middle blocker, the outside hitter, opposite hitter, and the libero.

Defensive specialists are the players that have sound passing skills and great digging. Between the libero and the DS, you have 2 roles that are focused on ball control. Their job is to start every play with a great pass.

The hallmark of a defensive specialist needs to be consistency. They are a reliable role player who provides consistent good passes during serve receive, consistent digging, good defensive coverage, and possibly good serving.

Defensive specialists are also the players who scramble for every ball, making the impossible saves. They need great reflexes and the ability to read the other team’s offense to be in the right place at the right time.

What Is The Difference Between A Defensive Specialist And A Libero

1. The defensive specialist plays the back row just like a libero, but they have to substitute onto the court instead of doing the libero way of replacing players. These substitutions count toward the total for the team.

2. The DS can play the front row as needed to help the team on offense when the need is there.

3. The libero has some extra restrictions for contacting the ball above the net that the DS doesn’t have to worry about. The DS isn’t limited to not be able to ever block or to be able to set hitters from the front zone.

4. The defensive specialist doesn’t wear a different colored jersey. The different jersey is just to help identify liberos for everyone to be able to track her movements as she replaces players.

5. In international volleyball, the libero is not allowed to serve. If you have an exceptional defensive player who has a great serve, as a coach you may want to use them as a DS for this reason alone.

6. Some coaches view the libero as the primary serve receive player and the DS as more of a player focused on the defense throughout the rest of the play. This would be digging, diving, and covering tips.

Why Defensive Specialist Is A Great Position To Play

The DS and the libero are very similar positions, but one of the reasons I would much rather play DS is because as a libero you can never play the front. Even if you’re not a hitter, many players like having the chance to play the front row.

Obviously, that’s not where you’re going to spend a lot of your time as a defensive specialist, but the option is there. As a libero, you know going into the match that you won’t ever be on the front.

You have versatility as a DS. Traditionally, the libero will be trading out with both middle blockers and serving for one of them is they have a stronger serve. As a defensive specialist, your coach has options when they decide who to switch you out with.

If you work on developing solid blocking and hitting techniques, you may see more playing time than you expect. Sometimes coaches will be frustrated with one of their hitters and you can be the best option to help fill in for them.

Why Defensive Specialist May Be The Toughest Position On The Team

As an athlete, you are constantly getting feedback from a coach. Hopefully, it’s usually encouraging, and constructive. When we make mistakes we expect to hear more instruction or criticism.

As a DS or a libero, you are put in a position where the coach has less to praise and more to criticize. Right or wrong, that’s just the role when you think about it. They are counting on you to not mess up the first contact whenever the ball crosses the net.

All other players have offensive opportunities that allow them to get points on the board and in a sense make up for the mistakes that they might make here and there. While coaches and teammates should praise and encourage the defensive players just as much as their hitters and setters, I’m just pointing out that it’s the human tendency not to.

So in that way, I believe the DS and the libero can be the two thankless jobs on the team.

Why Do Teams Need Both A Defensive Specialist And A Libero?

The DS and the libero make a great team and combine to create such a strong backcourt. Most of the time when those 2 players are on the back row, the other 4 players are free to focus on offense throughout entire rallies.

Some of the best offensive players just make very subpar players when they get to the back row. The libero is only going to replace one of those at a time, so the defensive specialist is able to come in and play that role that fills that defensive slot.

Drills To Excel As A Defensive Specialist

Back Row Hitting Drills

One of the areas that’s often overlooked for the back row players is becoming a weapon on offense from behind the line. These drills can help you develop that skill to increase your overall ability to engage in the play and help your team out. When the setter changes it up for variety or because the play is broken, you can be there as a steady option for hitting from the back.

1. On Deck 4 on 4 Hitting Game

For this drill, you play 4 people on each team and it’s an elimination game. The base is 1 setter and 3 back row players. Every time the ball crosses the net, your team rotates. All hits need to be made from behind the attack line.

The way a player gets out is by committing a hitting error. When they do, they are then “on deck”, which means they leave the court and have to do sit-ups (or some other exercise the coach chooses) until their team gets them back in. The only way they can do this is by getting a kill.

As the game progresses, when you get down to a single person, they will need to pass, set and kill all by themselves.

2. Back Row 3 on 3

During this drill, you have teams of 3 back row players on each side and extra players behind the end line on each side. The coach starts by tossing to one side, players have to pass, set and attack the ball. After the attack, whichever player made the attack rotates off and someone from behind the end line replaces.

Variations – Coaches can choose to limit the attack that’s made. Some examples would be, only back row attacks (from behind the line), only tips, or any attack they choose.

3. Back Row Dig + Attack

In this drill one on each side, you want a setter and a line of players. On the first side these are just playing a traditional hitter and they aim for the player across the net to give them a ball to dig. On the second side, the player lines up in the back row and digs to the setter, who sets them back for a back-row attack. Setters should set near or even a bit in front of the attack line to let the hitter make an approach.

On either side, after you make an attack you rotate to the end of the line on the opposite side of the court.

The focus of this drill is having back row players get used to transitioning immediately into offense instead of just admiring their pass and being a spectator for the rest of the play.

Passing Drills

Every player needs to be able to pass, but for the DS, it’s one of the main reasons you’re on the court. These drills will help you break those servers and set your team up for their offense.

1. Double Feeder Passing

During this drill, two feeders work with each passer. They alternate sending all different kinds of balls to the player, challenging them to quickly make good passing choices. It works best if the 2 feeders have a ball cart between them to keep the action going.

2. A Balloon And A Ball

We want good passing to become so second-nature we could do it while chewing bubblegum, singing a song, or even keeping a balloon in the air.

A feeder has 1 volleyball and the player has a regular balloon. The player will hit the balloon up into the air and then the feeder will toss the ball to them. Their goal is to keep giving the feeder good passes back while alternating hits with the balloon to keep it in the air. The feeder won’t help with the balloon, the player has to balance keeping both things up. The feeder may hit to themselves or pause between tosses as needed as long as the player is being pushed to react quickly while making solid passes.

3. Passing To Dive

In this drill, the player starts in the middle back. A feeder sends them a serve. They have to pass to their target (the setter position) and then instantly after making the contact, they try to play that same ball themselves. If they make a normal good pass this is going to take some really good hustle and a dive. The objective isn’t really to make another great hit on the ball, just to make at least a saving contact.

Coaches need to make sure players aren’t making it easy on themselves by passing higher than normal.

Diving Drills

For some players, diving comes very naturally and they feel comfortable with it quickly. For others, not so much. Whether you enjoy diving or not, it’s part of the job, so work on it until it becomes one of your strengths.

1. Passing From The Exercise Ball

This is a great “diving” drill that doesn’t actually involve diving. What you’re doing is practicing the contact that needs to happen during a dive.

The player takes a large exercise ball and positions themselves where their hips or belly is leaning on the ball. You don’t want to be falling over on your face, so just adjust to a spot that lets you balance.

Have a feeder toss the ball and the player practices their platform pass at a variety of angles and speeds. This should be fairly quick and the player just stays on the ball, not getting off and on it over and over.

The passing part of the dive is usually an afterthought, we train the athlete to dive and just expect the pass to happen. Practicing this way can help the player focus on their platform.

2. Partner Collapsing Dive Drill

Each defensive player needs a partner to feed them one ball. Partners start about 4 or 5 paces apart. The feeder will throw the ball down in front of the player close enough to their feet that they need to collapse to dig the ball instead of stepping forward and diving. Make sure to send the ball with enough speed that the player is challenged.

This simple drill is to quickly practice a lot of reps doing the collapse motion properly so that good technique becomes a habit.

3. Rolling The Exercise Ball (Solo Drill)

Developing a strong dolphin dive or “arms-first” dive is an important skill for defensive players. This is a great drill to practice the motion with little impact.

Use a large exercise ball as an obstacle. The player begins 3 or 4 steps away from the ball and practices diving over the ball. You brush the top of the ball with your arms and then you will essentially roll on the ball as you reach over and get your arms down on the other side.

This drill should not hurt but instead should teach a fluid motion that avoids impact and helps the player with longterm diving wear and tear.

Related Questions

What Is A Passer Quality Rating?

This is a system that coaches and statisticians use to rate passers on their success. The most common system uses a 0-3 scale.

For every single pass attempt, the passer will be given one of these scores. For consistent comparison, the same statistician should be used as much as possible or at least people that have the same understanding.

3 is credited for a perfect pass. This would be a pass that allows the setter to make any play they want. So if the setter has the option for an outside set, a backset, or a quick set, then that’s a 3 point pass.

2 is given when the pass is good enough that the setter is able to play any 2 setting options. This means they’ve been given the ball with enough control to make a solid attack.

1 is given to a player that puts the ball in play but it’s basically a broken play. Some examples would be:

• The ball may go over the net (an overpass).
• The setter may have to save it or dump it.
• A hitter may have to set because it’s so far from the target.

0 is for a failed pass attempt. This can be a ball that should have been played that was let drop or a poorly hit ball that ends up being unplayable.

For a good representation, you have to track this statistic for a long period of time. You may have matches where you pass a very nice 2.5 average, and then the next game, have a lousy 1.2.

What Is A Ball Handling Error?

This is an error that is tracked as a negative statistic in volleyball. It has to do with the ball being misplayed. Any error that is not in another error category (a serving error, a receiving error, a blocking error or an attack error, etc.) will fall into the ball-handling error category.

What Does Cover Mean In Volleyball?

Cover means being in charge of defending a particular area. This often refers to covering an area after your opponents make a block and the ball is coming back and could drop on your side.

To learn more about the different terms in volleyball, visit our post about volleyball terms.

Photo credits:

Feature image by skeeze from Pixabay

Black & red team image by Andy Roth on flickr.com: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

Diving pancake image by Matt Pendleton on flickr.com: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/

Passer Quality Rating image by Todd Ryburn on flickr.com: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/