Volleyball · Middle School · Tryout Prep · 3 weeks

Middle School Volleyball Tryout Prep: The 3-Week Plan

Middle school volleyball tryouts are, for a lot of kids, the first cut they have ever faced. Sixty or eighty kids in a gym built for two courts, two or three afternoons, a coach with a clipboard who may not know any of their names, and a roster that holds twelve or fourteen. Some schools run an A team and a B team and keep more; some keep one team and send half the gym home. Either way the evaluation is short and the group is big, and the kid who is easy to see is the kid who gets kept.

What decides it is more basic than most families expect. At this level coaches are choosing between kids who can get a serve over the net several times in a row and kids who cannot, and between kids who pass with a platform and kids who swat at the ball. Almost nobody makes a middle school roster on a spike. A lot of kids make it on eight serves in and a willingness to call the ball out loud.

The plan below assumes a kid who has played some volleyball, at rec, in PE, or at a camp, who has a wall and a ball, and who has about three weeks. It can be run alone against a garage door or with one parent tossing. If there is less time, run weeks two and three. If there is more, repeat week one.

What coaches are actually looking for

Ask a middle school coach and you get the same list every time: can this kid serve it in, can they pass it up with two arms together, do they talk, do they move their feet, and do they do the next rep the way they were just told. That is the whole list. Height helps and it gets noticed, but a tall kid who shanks passes into the bleachers is a tall kid on the B team.

Serving is the loudest signal because it is the one skill a coach can score from across the gym. A kid who serves eight of ten in, underhand or overhand, is a kid a coach can put on the floor without giving away points. Passing is the second signal, and it is less about where the ball goes and more about the shape: two arms locked, ball played on the forearms, feet moving to the ball before the arms swing.

Coachability is the third, and it is more visible than parents think. In a gym of sixty, the coach corrects a kid’s platform and then watches the next three reps. The kid who fixes it, even badly, has told the coach they can be taught. The kid who nods and does the old thing is harder to keep.

What the days themselves look like

Day one is the biggest group: a dynamic warm-up, then stations. Serving lines, a passing station with coaches tossing, maybe a setting station against a wall, and some kind of footwork or shuffle drill. Kids get numbered pinnies, and coaches walk between stations writing. Very little of it looks like a match, which surprises kids who expected to play.

Day two usually shrinks the group and adds game-like play, often short three-on-three or queen-of-the-court games so coaches can see who talks and who moves. If there is a day three, it is a scrimmage among the kids on the bubble. The list goes up on a door or gets emailed, and there is no conversation on the spot. Prepare your kid for that before day one, not after.

The 3-week tryout prep plan

Practice Plan

Three Weeks to Tryouts: Serve It In, Pass It Up, Say It Loud

Everything in this plan builds toward the serving line on day one, when the coach is counting and you want a routine you can trust.

Week 1: The two skills that decide it

Shoulder Warm-Up and Serving Routine

Duration15 minEquipmentBall, a wall or a net, a piece of tape for a target

Before any serve, two minutes of arm circles both directions, then ten slow arm swings without a ball, then ten easy tosses and catches. Your shoulder is not ready to serve until it is warm, every single day. Then put a tape mark on the wall at net height plus a foot, or use the top of a garage door. Build a routine and never serve without it: bounce the ball twice, one breath out, toss, hit. Thirty serves. Count how many clear the tape. Write the number down. Feel your toss go up in front of your hitting shoulder, not behind your head, and feel your hand hit the middle of the ball with your whole palm.

Coaching Cue

Cue: "Bounce, bounce, breathe, toss, hit."

Wall Passing

Duration10 minEquipmentBall, a flat wall

Make your platform: one hand flat in the other, thumbs side by side and pointing at the floor, elbows locked straight, shoulders shrugged forward so your forearms make one flat table. Stand six feet from the wall. Toss to yourself, pass to the wall, catch it. Ten. Then pass, let it come back, pass again, and count how many in a row. Feel the ball hit your forearms above the wrists, never your hands, and feel your legs do the lifting while your arms stay quiet.

Coaching Cue

Cue: "Arms are a table, legs are the engine."

Setting Against the Wall

Duration10 minEquipmentBall, a wall

Hands up above your forehead, thumbs and pointer fingers making a window you can see the ball through. Toss to yourself, set to the wall, catch. Then set continuously and count. The ball should touch all ten fingers and leave without a slap sound. If it is slapping, your hands are too flat; make the window rounder.

Coaching Cue

Cue: "See it through the window, push with the legs."

Week 2: Add feet and voice

Serve to a Zone

Duration15 minEquipmentBall, wall or net, three tape marks

Warm the shoulder first, same as week one. Now put three tape marks on the wall, left, middle, right, and serve ten at each with your routine. You are learning that where the ball goes is decided by where the toss is and where your hand finishes, not by how hard you swing. A serve that goes in, softer, beats a serve that goes hard into the net every time.

Coaching Cue

Cue: "Toss decides it. Finish toward the target."

Shuffle and Pass

Duration15 minEquipmentBall, a partner tossing (or a wall at an angle)

Partner stands ten feet away and tosses to your left, then your right, then short, then deep. Before the toss lands, move your feet so the ball is in front of your belly button, say "mine" out loud, then pass it back. Twenty tosses. Saying it feels silly alone. It will not feel silly at tryouts, because the coach is listening for it. If you are alone, toss the ball off a wall at an angle so it comes back away from you and chase it with your feet.

Coaching Cue

Cue: "Feet first, say mine, then arms."

Approach Footwork and Quiet Landings

Duration10 minEquipmentOpen floor, gym or grass, never concrete

Learn the three-step approach at walking speed: for a right-handed hitter, left, then right-left together, both arms swinging back on the step and up on the jump. Ten walk-throughs with no jump. Then ten small jumps, landing on two feet at the same time, knees bent, quiet. Only after ten quiet landings do you add height, and only on a gym floor or grass. Hard concrete is not a place for jump reps, ever.

Coaching Cue

Cue: "Land on two, land soft, land quiet."

Week 3: Make it automatic

Ten in a Row

Duration15 minEquipmentBall, wall or net

Warm the shoulder. Then the game: serve until you get ten in a row over the tape. A miss resets you to zero. Keep your routine exactly the same after a miss, same two bounces, same breath. This is the pressure the serving line brings, and the kid who has felt it in a driveway is the kid who serves the same ball on day one.

Coaching Cue

Cue: "Same routine after a miss."

Pass, Set, Catch Circuit

Duration15 minEquipmentBall, a partner tossing

Partner tosses, you pass to yourself, set to yourself, catch. Twenty. Then partner tosses, you pass back to the partner, they catch and toss again, continuous, and you call "mine" on every one. This is what a passing station looks like at tryouts.

Coaching Cue

Cue: "Pass, set, catch. Say it every time."

Short Conditioning and the Walk-Through

Duration10 minEquipmentTwo lines about thirty feet apart, timer

Six rounds of shuffling sideline to sideline and back, thirty seconds of rest between. Stay low, do not cross your feet. Then, the two days before tryouts, walk through the drills you expect: a serving line, a passing station, a shuffle drill. Nothing at tryouts should feel new. Then sleep.

Coaching Cue

Cue: "Low, quick feet, nothing new on day one."

Run the plan, then after the first tryout day, tell us how many serves went in and which thing the coach corrected first. That is where the next plan starts.

This was written for every middle school volleyball player. ParentEdge writes one for yours.

Their position, their team, what they’re working on, and what the next few weeks actually look like. Two minutes, nothing to sign up for.

Build one for my kid →

Tryout day checklist

Physical form, school paperwork, and any tryout fee turned in before day one. Kids get sent home for this.
Knee pads on, not in the bag. Court shoes with grip, not running shoes.
Hair tied back and away from the face; no jewelry.
Water bottle plus a second one, and a small snack for between sessions.
If numbers or pinnies are handed out, put it on where the coach can read it and keep it on.
Warm the shoulder before the first serve: arm circles, easy swings, ten soft tosses. Do it even if the group skips it.
Serve it in. Softer and in beats hard and out, every time, on every serve.
Call the ball out loud on every pass, even when it is obviously yours.
When corrected, say "yes coach" and change it on the very next rep.
After each day, write down three things that went well and one thing to fix tomorrow. Then let it go.

Common questions

How many kids make the middle school volleyball team?

It depends on the school. A team usually holds twelve to fourteen, and a school with an A and a B team keeps twice that. Some schools take everyone and sort into teams; some cut half the gym. Ask the coach or a current player what last year looked like, because the number changes how much the serving line matters.

Does my kid need to serve overhand for middle school tryouts?

Not always. Many coaches accept an underhand serve at sixth grade if it goes in consistently, and by seventh and eighth most expect an overhand serve. Consistency beats style: an underhand serve that goes in eight of ten beats an overhand serve that goes in four of ten. If the overhand is close, spend the three weeks making it reliable; if it is not, serve what goes in.

What if my kid has never played volleyball before?

Then the three weeks are about two things: a serve that goes in and a platform that does not swat. Run week one twice. A first-time player who serves in, passes with two arms together, and calls the ball is a very keepable kid on a B team, and a lot of players start exactly there.

What if my kid gets cut?

Ask the coach for one specific thing to work on, thank them, and keep playing: a rec league, a club’s developmental team, a winter clinic. Plenty of kids make the team the next year because they came back visibly better at the one thing the coach named. The advice library has a page on handling getting cut if the conversation at home is the hard part.

Tryout Prep at other levels

Club (USAV / JVA)High School National-Level Club

All volleyball prep by level Volleyball practice plans by age Volleyball drill library A parent's guide to youth volleyball Find middle school volleyball programs near you ParentEdge for volleyball