#serving help

[passion-for-the-game]

Hi! I'm in Volleyball conditioning rn and I'm having trouble Serving over the net, setting and a huge problem with footwork. I really want to make the team, any tips?

For serving, please refer here

Something I’d like to stress from the serving portion (two things actually) are keeping your wrist locked and practicing closer to the net than the serving line is. 

The Rec Center near me has open gyms where they set up the nets and just let anyone go (if there’s something like that near you, it’s a great place to practice serving), but there were some girls serving and the number one thing I noticed is their wrists weren’t locked. Their wrist either bent back when they contacted the ball or flopped awkwardly to the side. Whatever the exact situation, it usually started with their wrist. 

I recommend starting at the ten foot line to practice overhand serve. It’s important because it ensures you use the proper technique. Often, people will just try anything they can to get the ball over the net if they start at the serving line, and it results in horrible technique that hurts them later. Start at the ten foot line and do it right. Don’t be tentative just because you’re close to the net, but you don’t have to hit it as hard as you can either. You really just want to focus on your toss and the contact. Drive the ball straight forward (over the net though). Once you successfully do that like 10 times, take five steps back, and try it from there. It’s a gradual process but I think it’s the most effective. 

Setting stuff look here

I’m not sure what you’re referring to when you say footwork. Every skill in volleyball requires footwork, whether it’s hitting, serving, setting, passing, etc. Feel free to send another message clarifying and let me know if you have any additional questions!

[passion-for-the-game]

I have just finished my 8th grade year and I still cannot OVERHAND SERVE. I refuse to go in freshman year an UNDERHAND SERVER. HELP ME!!!

Also see here

A lot of the time when someone gets frustrated because they can’t make an overhand serve, they’ll just stop trying and serve underhand. The problem with this is then you aren’t getting practice or repetition. The more you do something, the more comfortable you become with it, and the better you’ll get at it. Just keep that in mind. 

Your toss is really important. It’s hard for me to explain how high or how low to toss just through words on the internet, but you want it to be a little above your head. Make sure you’re also tossing in front of your right shoulder instead of just straight up. You don’t want to have to lean to the side in order to hit the ball. 

It’s really important that you keep your wrist locked. It’s a lot like giving a high five, it’s gonna be a pretty lame high five if your wrist is floppy. It’s the same with serving. Keep your hand open and wrist locked. Someone should be able to push on your hand and it shouldn’t move. You want to contact the ball up high, don’t wait for it to come down. 

A really good way to practice this is to get a ball and find a wall. Stand about an arms length away from the wall and just toss the ball up and contact it like you would serve. But what you’re going to do is trap the ball in between your hand and the wall. You want to make sure it’s up high and that your wrist doesn’t move. Just do this over and over. If you don’t understand what I just explained, let me know and I’ll make a video. 

The movement will be awkward at first and in all honesty it probably won’t go over the net at first. This just means you have to get used to the motion. Do not use incorrect form just because you’re getting frustrated.

Main things: high toss, high contact, locked wrist. 

If you need any more help, send me another message and I’ll try some other things.

[passion-for-the-game]

This is my first year in club and I'm 5'8" so I automatically got middle hitter. But I have a lot of trouble with, we'll everything. I'm definitely the worst on my team and I can't get my serve down either. I'm in shape for volleyball it's just the technique I can't get. Please help with my serve and approach form!

First of all, don’t think of yourself as the worst on your team. You’re probably just the least experienced, there’s a difference. 

Then there’s your toss. It’s really hard for me to explain how your toss should be, but a few things on it regardless. Make sure you’re tossing in front of your right shoulder and not merely straight up on your left side. If you have to lean to the side in order to contact the ball, you need to fix your toss. Then there’s also the matter of not making it too high or too low, but that’s really hard to explain via text. 

What we’re aiming for is a basic float serve which means you want it to have as little movement as it’s going through the air (no topspin). In order to do this, you have to make sure your wrist is locked. Make sure your hand is open and fingers spread out. If someone were to walk up to you before you contacted the ball and shake your arm, your hand should not move. If they push on your finger tips, your wrist should remain locked. You might have heard this analogy already, but it’s a lot like giving someone a (good) high five. You wouldn’t let your wrist fall or anything other than keep it locked when you would go to give a high five, so don’t do that when you serve. 

The last is make sure the ball is in front of you. (This is all projectile stuff if you’re in physics). It has to do with the angle that you contact the ball. If you’re standing under the ball, you’re going to get a really easy/awkward “lollipop” serve. If you keep the ball in front of you (not out of your reach, but in front) then when you contact the ball it goes faster and more directly to its destination. 

I highly recommend against starting from the endline and trying to serve over the net. When you start with that, you’re too focused on getting the ball over the net than you are with the proper technique, which will slow down the process and just get you more frustrated. I would start at the ten foot line and just focus on the technique of it. Yeah we want it to go over the net, but it doesn’t matter if your technique is wrong. Once you’re able to do it (consistently) from the ten foot line, go back to twenty feet and eventually to the end line. 

A way you can work on it at home is to find a wall (with a ball) and stand about arms length away from it. Toss the ball up like your going to serve and contact the ball, but trap it between your hand and the wall. This works on repetition with technique, contacting the ball at a high point, keeping your wrist locked, and strengthening the muscles that are used to serve, because your body probably isn’t used to the motion. And remember, the idea isn’t to hit it as hard as you can, it’s to trap it.

But that’s a huge thing to remember when you’re playing volleyball. If you don’t have the technique down and you try to just whack the snot out of the ball, it’s not going to work because you don’t have the fundamentals down.  

If you don’t fully understand this still, send me another message and I’ll post a video or link a video or use pictures or something. I really hope this helps you :)

[passion-for-the-game]

Hey (: How do you get better at serving the ball to make it go farther and higher? I've been having problems with that lately.

Well, for further, just hit it harder. I know that sounds stupid, but just make sure you hit it hard enough. 

So you have the top of the ball, the middle of the ball, and the bottom of the ball. When you hit, you hit the top of the ball because you want it to go down. When you serve, you have to contact the ball in between the middle and the bottom. It has to go up but you don’t want to lollipop it. 

You may need to fix your toss though. You want a high toss. I don’t mean throw it all the way to the ceiling obviously but high enough so that your hand can it it while your arm is outstretched. You also want to make sure you contact the ball while it’s still high. A lot of people wait until it gets down to their head, and that won’t work. 

Hope this helps(:

Ciara