104. Practice videos: Maciej Biernat - Budowlani Łódź (Part 1)
What is happening in the training gyms around the world? Today, we have Maciej Biernat reviewing one of his practice sessions.
🔍 Intro
We've already featured 23 practice video articles with pro and college coaches, and today it's time for our 24th Practice session article here on volleybrains.com.
At VolleyBrains, we bring you inside practice gyms worldwide to see how top coaches develop their teams.
👊 The coach who's guiding us today
In this practice video session, we feature Maciej Biernat, head coach of PGE Grot Budowlani Łódź, one of Poland’s top women’s volleyball clubs competing in the TAURON Liga and the CEV Champions League.
A true product of the Budowlani system, coach Biernat began his journey with the club as a statistician, later served as an assistant coach, and in 2022 took over as head coach.
Since taking charge, he has guided Budowlani Łódź to consistent top-tier finishes — 3rd in 2023, 4th in 2024, and 3rd again in 2025 — while leading them back onto the European stage with regular CEV Champions League appearances, including a 2025 quarterfinal run.
His growing influence within Polish volleyball has also been recognized by the Polish Volleyball Federation, appointing him as head coach of Poland’s national university team for the Summer Universiade.
Known for his calm authority and analytical precision, Coach Biernat combines a statistician’s data-driven insight with a coach’s intuitive feel for player development.
⚡ What's inside the practice videos?
Maciej shared four full training sessions with VolleyBrains — today we’ll dive into one of them in detail. The remaining sessions will be featured later on.
These practices were filmed right after the New Year’s break in the heart of Budowlani’s mid-season grind. Despite a stretch of injuries at the time, you’ll see top-level athletes training with precision, poise, and the sharp focus that defines high-performance volleyball.
Inside the session coach Biernat's big takeaways are:
- Preparation with purpose: short, efficient physical prep, then straight to the ball. Warming up only as long as it serves to get ready.
- Serve–pass identity: a team built around pressure serving and confident reception. Variety (short/drop/zone targets) matters more than showy power.
- Simple → complex: start clean, then layer constraints and chaos so decisions, not perfect reps, drive improvement.
- Breakpoint mindset: embrace the mess: covers, “dirty shots,” second-touch solutions. Scoring in transition is a competitive advantage.
- First touch is king: quality and height of the first contact keep the middle alive and the offense balanced under stress.
- Use video, keep ownership: feedback tools support learning, yet players are pushed to self-correct and solve in real time.
- Efficiency under constraints: Training stays compact, competitive, and gives confidence, especially pre-match. Limited court time, control injuries.
Enjoy!
And a big thanks to Maciej for breaking down his session and sharing the purpose behind every detail.
As always, we greatly appreciate every single coach open to share their insights, especially those who go the extra mile to do so in a nonnative language, helping grow the game for everyone.
A sneak peek into Lodz's in-game performance - A lot of what coach Biernat is emphasizing in the practice edit is seen in this clip.
Practice notes
Some of you are from Poland or Polish speaking. Maciej's notes of this featured practice could be valuable to you.
VolleyBrain Members only sessions
50 minutes of narrated practice sessions
