Volleyball drill · Movement
Balloon Keep It Up
Why this drill works
Volleyball has the cruelest entry ramp in youth sports: the ball is fast, contacts sting, and beginners spend their first weeks chasing errors across the gym. The balloon flips all three. Hang time gives small bodies a chance to move, arrive, and choose a shape; nothing hurts; and rallies last long enough for cooperation to be felt. Underneath the giggles, the drill is installing volleyball’s real curriculum: track the ball, call it, move to it, send it up to a teammate. Every one of those survives the graduation to a real ball.
How to coach it
Be a broadcaster, not an instructor: narrate great calls, announce records, and let the balloon’s physics deliver the technique lessons. Protect the no-doubles and calling rules, since they carry the teamwork; everything else can stay loose. Notice which children produce the platform and open-hands shapes spontaneously and spotlight them, because peer demonstration at this age outperforms adult demonstration. And end with the mega-circle even when time is short; a whole team counting one shared number is the feeling that brings five-year-olds back next week, and returning is the only skill that matters at five.
- Ages
- 5–8
- Skill levels
- first-time, beginner
- Players
- 2–20 (ideal 12)
- Time
- 10 min
- Setting
- indoor
- Space
- A 10 x 10 foot area per group
Equipment
- 1 balloon per group of 2-4 (bring spares)
- 4 cones per group
Setup
Blow up one balloon per group of two to four players (bring twice as many as you need; balloons have a mortality rate), and mark a square for each group with cones so groups do not merge into one giant chase. The rules are the sport itself in miniature: keep the balloon off the floor using any body part above the waist, count each touch out loud as a group, and, the rule that makes it volleyball instead of keep-away, NO PLAYER MAY TOUCH IT TWICE IN A ROW. Demonstrate the two contacts you want to see germinating: flat forearms held together (the future platform) and two open hands overhead with fingers spread (the future set). Do not drill these shapes yet; just show them, praise them when they appear, and let the balloon do the teaching.
How to run it
- Round 1, free keep-up: each group keeps its balloon alive and counts touches aloud. Let the chaos run three or four minutes; the balloon's slowness gives every child time to arrive, which is the entire pedagogical trick.
- Round 2, the calling rule: before touching the balloon, a player must call MINE. This is the most important habit in volleyball being installed at age five with zero pressure; celebrate loud calls more than clean touches.
- Round 3, body-part menu: the coach calls a constraint each minute: FOREARMS ONLY, HANDS ONLY, then HEADS ONLY for one giggling minute (this round exists for joy, and joy is retention).
- Round 4, the record chase: each group tries to set its all-time touch record, coach roaming and announcing records like a broadcaster. Groups that shatter records get their number written on the whiteboard or the coach's hand.
- Round 5, move the feet: add the rule that after touching, a player must run and tag a cone corner before touching again. Movement between contacts, volleyball's hidden skill, enters as a game mechanic.
- Finish with the all-team mega-balloon circle: everyone in one giant circle keeping one balloon (or two, for drama) alive with the calling and no-doubles rules, group-counting toward one team number to end on togetherness.
What success looks like
Touch counts climb across rounds, MINE calls precede most contacts by round 3, the platform and open-hands shapes appear voluntarily and increasingly, players move to the balloon instead of waiting for it to drift to them, and nobody camps under the balloon bumping it three times in a row.
Coaching cues
- "Call MINE before you touch"
- "Flat arms or big open hands"
- "Move your feet to it"
- "Count it loud"
Common mistakes
- One eager player touching everything, which the no-doubles rule half-fixes; complete the fix by praising the pass TO a teammate as the drill's best play, out loud, by name.
- Swatting the balloon downward like a spike, which ends possessions instantly. Reframe upward as the skill: high touches give your teammates time, and time is the gift.
- Groups of four becoming two watchers and two players. Shrink those groups to pairs; at this age, smaller groups always beat bigger ones for touches and attention.
Make it easier or harder
Easier: Play individually first, each child keeping their own balloon up with any touch, then merge into pairs; allow catching-and-tossing for the very youngest before pure striking.
Harder: Require the sequence forearms-then-hands alternating, add a target square the balloon must cross every three touches, or graduate to a beach ball, which falls faster and previews the real thing.
Adapt it to your team
Small roster: Two players is native and lovely; a lone child with a parent runs it identically, and it should be sent home as exactly that.
Large roster: Twenty players make five groups of four in five squares, with the mega-circle finale absorbing everyone; recruit a parent per two squares to referee the no-doubles rule.
Limited space: Balloons are the ultimate small-space equipment: a classroom, hallway, or living room hosts a pair's game, and low ceilings barely matter at balloon speeds.
Limited equipment: Balloons cost pennies and pack flat; the entire drill's equipment fits in a pocket, and cones can be shoes marking corners.
Safety
The main hazards are collisions between children watching the sky instead of each other, so keep squares generous and groups small, and teach the MINE call as the anti-collision device it truly is. Latex balloon fragments are a choking hazard for young children; the coach pockets every popped balloon immediately and carries the spares personally. See the safety page for general guidance.