Holly McPeak’s beach workout series – Session 2

Workout No. 2 with 3-time beach Olympian Holly McPeak at Manhattan Beach, Calif., is another good one. As always, Holly has a specific practice plan written out. This particular one takes her sand students through a progression that culminates in a scrappy end-of-practice scrimmage with a lot of tough serving.

After a basic pepper warmup, Holly guides the players through passing, then passing and setting, then pass, set, hit. Along the way, they work on shots like the rainbow, the cut and the deep middle. There's also a transition setting drill.

Participants on this day are Gigi Hernandez (a junior at JSerra Catholic High in San Juan Capistrano, California, who will play beach Pepperdine), Abril Bustamante (a senior at Redondo Union High School in Redondo Beach, California, who will play beach at the University of Southern California), Skylar Caputo (a senior at Mira Costa High in Manhattan Beach, California, who will play beach at Pepperdine) and Hayley Hodson (a high school senior who studies online at Laurel Springs and will play indoor at Stanford in the fall.)

In the pass-set part of this drill, each player receives 10 serves while passing one side of the court. Their partner then bump sets to Holly at the net, who urges them to push the ball forward in the wind and focus on getting it to the attacker's hitting shoulder.

Serves are delivered from two players on the other side, one serving from the left side of the back line and the other serving from the right side.

Frequently in a Holly McPeak training session you’ll hear her tell players “long touch, long touch.” It’s a simple reminder that beach volleyball players need to keep the ball on their platforms longer than indoor players, who use more of a quick jab.

Here, Abril demonstrates the difference between a beach pass and an indoor pass.

Building on the pass-set warmup, the four players progress to a pass, set, hit drill targeting the deep corner. One player serves, 2 players alternate receiving serve and the fourth player sets. The players rotate to a different spot after 8 serves.

One theme Holly repeatedly reinforces is waiting on the approach and staying behind the ball. This allows the hitter to have better vision of the court.

Here, the players rep a common and useful beach shot – the deep rainbow. Same format as the previous drill – serve, pass, set, hit. In this drill, the passer is on the left and hitting a cross-court rainbow, but the drill can also be done with the passer on the right.

A teaching point from Holly here is to approach and jump like you’re going to hit hard, then hit the loopy shot with only a hand motion. That keeps the defense thinking that you may swing away.

Following the rainbow work, Holly has the players pass from the same side and hit cut shots in front of three discs. Like the previous drill, the play starts with a pass off a serve. Each player receives 8 serves.

Holly instructs the players to take a more angled approach to the net rather than squaring their shoulders. By coming in at an angle, it’s easier to disguise your shot and it allows you to use more of your body for the hit instead of just using your arm.

Holly talks here about the importance of communicating with your partner after a less-than-perfect pass as well as staying within 6 to 8 feet of where your partner is setting the ball.

In this transition setting drill, the player at the net pulls from a blocking position to set her partner near the center of the net. Disks on the court mark 3 hitting options for the attacker: deep line, deep middle and deep rainbow.

Holly reminds the players to keep their butts down when digging. A butt-down position allows the defender to pop the ball up, making it easier to set than the low trajectory digs that often come from a straighter body posture.

Holly also talks here about adjusting the sets and hits to the windy conditions.

This drill is a straight sideout scrimmage, with each player getting 10 serves. Holly's teaching points include serving tough (as well as in) and fronting the hitter on the block.

At one point, Holly tells Hayley that she will be a more effective blocker if she takes ball on the block rather than blocking angle or line. She then tells Gigi to “take care of your dig” on a ball that Gigi doesn’t control even though it’s hit right at her.

Later in the drill, she explains to Abril that she needs to grab the ball when blocking on tight sets rather than staying with line or angle. She also talks about the importance of sealing the line on the block so the defender has a chance to make a dig if the ball gets by the blocker.

The drill continues, and Holly talks to Hayley about keeping a clean line to the net — in other words, moving her partner over so she can run directly to the net to block. She also emphasizes keeping pressure on the other team with tough serves.

As Holly explains, the receiving team has the wind at their back, so they need to be precise with their passes and crisp offensively.

Late in the drill, she tells Abril to make a more angled approach on her jump serve to give herself more options.

After practice, Holly spends one-on-one time working on the cut-shot with Hayley, who is primarily an indoor player – a very good one. Hayley has already played for the U.S. National Team and is headed for Stanford this fall on a full ride.

Two points Holly stresses with Hayley are: Hitting the ball farther out in front and rolling her hand over and to the side on contact.