Eve Rackham Watt: Coaching Volleyball 3-Pack

with Eve Rackham Watt,
University of Tennessee Head Coach;
North Carolina Assistant Head Coach from 2013 to 2018;
AVCA Division I Assistant Coach of the Year in 2014;
2x ACC Champions (2014, 2016);
North Carolina Assistant Coach from 2009 to 2018;
Florida International Assistant Coach in 2008;
East Carolina Assistant Coach from 2005 to 2008;
Colgate Assistant Coach in 2004;
played for North Carolina from 1999 to 2002;
2002 All-ACC & 1st team AVCA All-Region

Tennessee’s Eve Rackham Watt went from being the top assistant in the country for UNC (2014 AVCA Assistant Coach of the Year) to a rising star head coach who is making impressive growth every year and seeing consistent, growing successes! Her attention to detail and rich experience as a high level player and coach shine through in the beautifully designed warm-up drills that will reinforce skill, challenge your players to become more versatile and mobile, and put them into game-like situations later in practice that will pay off in the seasons ahead!

In this phenomenal instructional video, Coach Rackham Watt shares several warm up drills to make your team more proficient at the critical skills of digging and setting; with a huge emphasis on making sure you dig and set the ball high. 

The drills move on to using more movement with your team to improve mobility and reinforce better communication among your players. 

As the video progresses the drills become more game-like with the players playing pepper with 3 and then 4 players.

Coach Rackham Watt does a great job of describing each drill in detail and gives ample time for you to watch and understand each drill.

Customer Review: 5 Stars!

“This is the best warm up drills video I have ever seen!. Eve Rackham Watt’s attention to detail and expertly crafted drills show why she is one of the best volleyball coaches in the nation!”

52 minutes.  2023.

with Eve Rackham Watt,
University of Tennessee Head Coach;
North Carolina Assistant Head Coach from 2013 to 2018;
AVCA Division I Assistant Coach of the Year in 2014;
2x ACC Champions (2014, 2016);
North Carolina Assistant Coach from 2009 to 2018;
Florida International Assistant Coach in 2008;
East Carolina Assistant Coach from 2005 to 2008;
Colgate Assistant Coach in 2004;
played for North Carolina from 1999 to 2002;
2002 All-ACC & 1st team AVCA All-Region

Teams often spend a lot of time training how to get their opponent out of system on a serve or attack, but then miss out on closing out the point because they are not able to defend successfully. This video walks you through how to prepare your team to more effectively block and defend against out of system attacks.

Tennessee’s Eve Rackham Watt focuses on understanding how to take advantage of your opponent’s disadvantage when they are attacking out of system by highlighting some key differences in blocking strategy for in system vs. out of system attacks.  

Coach Rackham Watt then shows how to train your blockers and floor defenders using a 5-drill progression that is increasingly game-like, along with emphasizing early blocker recognition and adjustment to out of system attacks. Rackham Watt’s drill progression starts with only an outside hitter, followed by out of system sets to both pin hitters from a coach initiated ball, and then progresses to a continuous out of system defending sequence and finally to a combination of defending against a mix of both out of system and in system hitting.  

While coaches train in system defense quite extensively, Rackham Watt demonstrates through the drills how often out of system is seen during rally play. She reminds coaches to teach their athletes that sometimes the defense has a strong advantage, but we must train our players to recognize and react to keys for when the advantage has switched to the defense.

Coach Rackham Watt discusses the importance of blocking technique, recognizing setting patterns, and coordinating with your floor defenders to dig out of system attacks better as well. While the clear focus of the drills is on improving blocking, an added bonus is providing opportunities to train primary and secondary setters along with their attackers on out of system hitting.  

This video provides a practical guide to help you increase your team’s ability to effectively block and defend against out-of-system attacks that will translate into greater success and more wins!

42 minutes. 2023.

with Eve Rackham Watt,
University of Tennessee Head Coach;
North Carolina Assistant Head Coach from 2013 to 2018;
AVCA Division I Assistant Coach of the Year in 2014;
2x ACC Champions (2014, 2016);
North Carolina Assistant Coach from 2009 to 2018;
Florida International Assistant Coach in 2008;
East Carolina Assistant Coach from 2005 to 2008;
Colgate Assistant Coach in 2004;
played for North Carolina from 1999 to 2002;
2002 All-ACC & 1st team AVCA All-Region

Adding firepower to your setter’s repertoire is going to pay dividends for your program!  Tennessee’s Eve Rackham Watt shows what it looks like in practice to create a setter with bonus skill sets and enhanced volleyball IQ that will turn them into an offensive weapon.

Coach Rackham Watt starts with a great warmup package - a 10 minute warm up drill to go over setting to dumping into various zones and ends with turn and hitting. 

She then has the setter work against a front row that develops into setter versus a team defense. Rackham Watt demonstrates techniques on six different ways and locations your setter can attack the defense. 

Rackham Watt also shares the nuances on how to communicate with your setter to train her to be an offensive setter; she has a setter demonstrate the technique and location to dump the ball with a discussion on how to communicate with your setter when and where it makes sense to dump. As she discusses the technique, she shares how and when your setter can use each option to win points for your team.

Coach Rockham Watt explains the relationship you need to build with your setter to give them the environment to learn how to be an effective offensive setter. She shares how much time it takes to build your setter’s confidence to be efficient and how to train that confidence. Then, you can communicate a strategy of how aggressive you want your setter to be as an attack option and give her the green light to score points and open up your other hitters.

Rackham Watt utilizes a drill  - your setter against blockers  - and builds on the drill until there is a full defense. By training your setter, you are also training your defense to read the setter. As your setter becomes more aggressive, your blockers will attempt to take away the setter options, which opens up your other hitters. 

Rackham Watt demonstrates how your setter can impact the defense and shares

where your defense can get too aggressive as well so you can communicate your strategy to both your offensive setter and your defenders.

While everyone loves when the setter scores, Rackham Watt shares that really effective offensive setters must be trained to recognize the good opportunities and when it’s better to set your hitters; an offensive setter can be a valuable weapon, but it takes time and patience to grow the skills and to build the relationship for your setter to be effective. 

In this excellent video, Rackham Watt provides that structure and the techniques needed to help you coach your setter to become an offensive weapon!

50 minutes.  2023.