08/14/2025
Let me start by saying that this article is not about the basics of defense and how volleyball defense works.
If you’re new to volleyball and want to educate yourself on that, I highly recommend reading Terry Liskevich’s article on the Art of Coaching called “Volleyball defense systems and strategies.”
This is about how players should communicate through each rotation about the strategy they’re using to win…what frustrates me the most is the lack of focus and strategy between points…which leads to teams not understanding how to make adjustments to win.
So how do we play defense to WIN?
To start, we must know the strengths and weaknesses of our own team, and also those of our opponents. We’re playing to stop the other team’s offense…who is on offense…hitters! In most scenarios there are three of them, or two and a setter. Those three hitters are called the primary, secondary and third option.
