At our Gold Medal Squared coaching clinics and summer camps, we encourage coaches to use the following rotation sequence during 6 vs 6 drills.
- Round 1
- Team A: Rotation 3
- Team B: Rotation 2
- Round 2
- Team A: Rotation 6
- Team B: Rotation 5
- Round 3
- Team A: Rotation 4
- Team B: Rotation 1
- Round 4
- Team A: Rotation 1
- Team B: Rotation 4
- Round 5
- Team A: Rotation 5
- Team B: Rotation 6
- Round 6
- Team A: Rotation 2
- Team B: Rotation 3
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The most important reason for using this sequence is to prevent a middle blocker from being in the front row for two consecutive rotations. In a drill where this sequence is NOT being used, it’s both exhausting for the front-row middle and boring for the off middle, especially if the team is in a rotation where the off middle isn’t serving or playing defense.
This rotation sequence will keep your middles fresher and healthier during the specific 6 vs 6 drill, and ultimately throughout the course of a season.
Another nice advantage to this sequence is the individual match-ups it creates during the drill. Instead of a generic “1vs1, 2vs2, 3vs3, etc” sequence or an even more generic “switch front-row with back-row” sequence, our preferred sequence will create additional front-row match-ups when looking at the team as a whole.
The middles, however, are always matched up with the same opposing middle in each rotation. This happens as a result of not keeping a middle in the front row for two consecutive rotations. But this match-up problem can be solved by systematically rotating teams and M1/M2, OH1/OH2 spots from drill to drill or practice to practice. You won’t solve it with the rotation sequence, so you need to solve it with how you mix players.
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