Bring a mentally tough and technically sound blocking skill set into your program.

Joe Lynch's tough-minded defensive philosophy has been the catalyst for vaulting Iowa State Volleyball into the national limelight. In this instructional volleyball DVD, Lynch shares tactics and drills that you can use to train your athletes to be solid and disciplined in their blocking techniques.

Lynch begins this 3-part presentation with Footwork Drills offering a comprehensive sequence of 1-, 2- and 3-step footwork drills from basic to advanced. He also includes footwork for middles closing the block.

Part 2 consists of coach-controlled blocking drills hitting into the blockers hands, teaching blockers to close the seam more effectively. These intense competitive drills include movement and non-movement drills for outside hitters and middle blockers including solo blocking and double blocking.

In Part 3, Lynch moves into team drills with blockers vs. live hitters that bring game chaos and unpredictability into play. He demonstrates drills to defend three types of hits: Quick (middle attack), four (high outside set) and five (high back set).

Implementing Lynch's drills will help you bring a mentally tough and technically sound blocking skill set into your program.

49 minutes. 2009

Kim Oden, one of the most feared and dominant blockers in USA and NCAA volleyball history, shares her blocking expertise in this complete guide to blocking! Oden simplifies all aspects of coaching blocking, one of the most challenging volleyball skill areas to coach.

Beginning with the basics, Oden teaches the specifics for spacing, stance and jumping hand and body position. She covers three types of footwork for blocking, how to most effectively penetrate the net and vision sequencing for anticipating where the hit will come from. Oden details block positioning with drills for attaining an advantageous block position.

A special "situations" segment includes solutions for the many blocking related realities faced by club and high school coaches. For each situation, Oden demonstrates the "problem" before demonstrating the "solution," offering a unique look at how to identify and solve blocking issues. She touches on small blocker solutions, how to block back row attacks and blocking strategies to give your team an advantage, which includes five specific strategies.

Give your team a competitive edge with Oden's comprehensive guide to blocking.

120 minutes. 2009

Legendary coach John Dunning presents the point scoring areas in volleyball: Attacking, Serving and Blocking. All topics are presented from the foundational basics and progress through advanced tactics. In Part 1, Attacking, Dunning shares technical and tactical goals for successful attacking. Coach Dunning implements a series of technique drills on the box without the jump, teaching foundations of rotation and body before progressing to the approach. He details the approach without the ball followed by approaches with hitting. Throughout the drills, Dunning offers invaluable insights for footwork, planting, location and landing. Next, Dunning moves into hitting situations and sets including quick set and hits. In Part 2, Serving, Dunning shares technique, strategies and ability-based progressions for the standing float serve, jump float, jump spin, short serve and deep court serve. In Part 3, Blocking, Dunning's basic blocking instruction begins with one on ball focusing on proper blocking technique. Next is partner blocking that necessitates court awareness, location, communication and read of the hitter. Drills and strategies included in this section include box drills, movement blocking, jump blocking and soft blocking. To further enhance each skill area you will hear insightful dialog from the players and see game footage of each skill area.

68 minutes. 2008.

Court movement, net movement, hand positioning and vision sequence are the major points of Coach Shymansky's game speed blocking drills. He begins with snapshot blocking and focuses on anticipation and positioning. These situations are covered on the net, off the net and over the net. Players work on hand positioning, which includes spreading the fingers out as the player prepares to block. The fast penetration move is taught to add efficiency to blocking at the net. The best blocking comes from taking away angles over the net, not by going straight up. Another technique at the net is drop blocking. The player must be aggressive and take away angles based on the read made on the hitter. Shymansky demonstrates the one hand blocking technique. Footwork includes the 4-step method, which makes movement efficient and quick. Another blocking technique is to concentrate on getting square to the net in order to maintain penetration. A zone blocking drill teaches players to block in all nine areas of the net. The rapid fire blocking drill challenges the player to block five shots from two different spots on the net.

48 minutes. 2007.

How would you like your team get more ball touches on the block? In this long-awaited DVD featuring coaching legend Dave Shoji, he talks about the important elements of blocking such as body and hand positioning and footwork. He also demonstrates outside blocking techniques for the end and middle blockers and coordinated blocking techniques and details techniques for filling the seam, blocking high balls in the middle. As a bonus, Shoji talks about his philosophy on the blocking techniques for shorter players that can help make them effective blockers. All techniques are explained and demonstrated in live drill settings.

37 minutes. 2006.