The Volleyball By Design Podcast

Most coaches spend hours hunting for new drills when the drills they already run could be giving their players twice as many quality touches.

In this episode, I break down rep ratio, a concept I learned working alongside national team and professional coaches, and show you how to restructure simple serve receive and blocking drills so the ball never stops moving and no player is standing around. We dive into:

What rep ratio is, and the minimum reps per minute your passers need to actually acquire the skill

How 5 to 7 seconds between serves quietly wipes out hours of quality reps over a season

Why removing a passer from my serve receive drill doubled everyone’s reps

The serving rhythm that keeps a serve receive drill moving with 7 servers in line

A national team blocking drill that keeps the ball alive and cycles blockers through faster

How shadow blocking turns time in line into extra reps

How to audit the drills you already run before you go looking for new ones

Click here to join Digital Volleyball Academy - www.digitalvolleyballacademy.com

Click here to join my workshop - http://volleyballworkshop.com

Reach out via Instagram @BrianSingh_CoachB

Interested in my in-person coaches mastermind (tentatively August 7, 2027)? Email brian@coachbtraining.com or DM me on Instagram and say “I’m in.”

More and more coaches are leaving the game for one reason: they’re done dealing with parents. So I’m going back to the vault to re-air one of my most requested episodes, on five strategies to prevent parent issues before they ever start.

Before we dive in, I added a new intro on something I didn’t cover the first time: no-cut policies. If you can’t remove a player who’s poisoning your culture, you don’t control your team. Your team controls you.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

The tryout presentation

The parents meeting

The player-coach contract

The 24-hour rule

Defining the role of the parent

Doing your job

I also share the year 1, 2, 3 pattern I see in parents, and how to address it right away when a parent crosses the line.

👉 DVA members: my player-coach contract and tryout presentation templates are inside DVA, ready for you to adapt. Not a member yet? Apply at www.digitalvolleyballacademy.com

Join my workshop - http://volleyballworkshop.com

 

Reach out via Instagram @BrianSingh_CoachB

Designing your offensive systems is one thing. Training them so your players know exactly where to be and get the most quality reps is another.

In this episode, I break down how to train your team’s systems in practice. That starts with knowing every scenario your players need to recognize: in-system, out-of-system, medium pass at 8 and 12 feet, sideline, the 3–4 zone, and the corners.

You’ll learn:

Why high level coaches use one “skeleton” 6-on-6. 

Alan Knipe’s rotation order (1-4-2-5-6-3).

How to set the variables. 

How the way you enter the ball decides what you train

My favourite systems drill, Offense vs. Defense. 

How to run it with only 9 or 10 players.

If your team looks lost the moment the pass isn’t perfect, this episode gives you a plan to fix it.

Want the full training, including Alan Knipe’s transition multi-ball drill?

Apply to join DVA at www.digitalvolleyballacademy.com

Join my free workshop on the top 3 things that helped my team win a championship at http://volleyballworkshop.com

Reach out via Instagram @BrianSingh_CoachB

Every coach eventually faces it: a player who’s talented, maybe even your best, but is quietly dragging the whole team down. In this episode, I share the story of cutting my best player at Seneca, the step-by-step process I use when a player’s behaviour starts damaging team culture, and what to do when cutting isn’t an option. We dive into:

Why one player can derail a volleyball team faster than in almost any other sport

The difference between an unhappy player and a toxic one, and why coaches mix them up

The warning signs that teammates are playing scared

How to run a players-only meeting, including the questions to coach your captains to ask

Why “hoping it goes away” makes it worse

What to do when you can’t cut a player: playing time, practice suspensions and clear consequences

What happened to our program the season after we made the call

Click here to join Digital Volleyball Academy - www.digitalvolleyballacademy.com
Click here to join my workshop - http://volleyballworkshop.com
Reach out via Instagram @BrianSingh_CoachB

In this episode, we go back into the vault. In 2021, I sat down with John Speraw, former head coach of the U.S. Men’s National Team and UCLA, and now President and CEO of USA Volleyball. Recorded around the Tokyo Olympics, this conversation is packed with lessons from one of the best minds in the game that hold up just as well today.

In this episode:

Behind the scenes of the Tokyo Olympics

How John approaches seasonal planning

Practice structure and planning at the highest level

Why fundamentals still matter at every level

Game day preparation and approach

And much more

Click here to join Digital Volleyball Academy - www.digitalvolleyballacademy.com

Click here to join my workshop - http://volleyballworkshop.com

Reach out via Instagram @BrianSingh_CoachB