Posts Tagged ‘volleyball serve’

Breaking Up the Serving Volleyball Skill: How To Become A Serving Sensation

The volleyball serve is the first form of attack. It’s the first attempt you have to make a direct point against the opposite team. By breaking up the serving volleyball skill by body part you will learn how to effectively put the opposite team in difficulty.

You will learn quickly that what you do with your feet and lower body determines how well you will perform all volleyball fundamentals. That’s why alot of my advice and tips focus on the correct positioning of your feet and lower body.

Feet In order to begin the serve we first start with your feet positioning. Right handers place your right foot behind your left foot so your Right foot is perpendicular to your Left. Your left foot should be pointed Exactly in the direction of where you want to serve. If you want to serve down the line then your Left foot ,hips and upper body should be pointed straight ahead. When serving cross court your left foot , hips and upper body should be turned and facing cross court. All your body weight should be on your back (right foot. The only lower body movement needed when you serve will be a shift in weight from your back (Right) foot to the front (Left) foot. Upper Body – Left Arm Extend your Left arm straight out in front of your palm facing up. Place ball in the palm of this hand.

Toss – The toss is one of the most important elements of the serve. Make sure the starting position for your Left arm is straight out in front of you – not down by your waist. With a straight Left arm Toss the ball no more than 2 feet in the air. For practice, while learning, let the ball fall to the ground. A correctly tossed ball will land about 10-12 inches – Every Time. Your toss should be the same EVERY TIME. Two feet up in the air and 10 inches in front of your LEFT foot. If you Toss to the left or right of your front foot

1. you will be forced off balance.

2. you will be forced to chase your toss – which will force you Not to serve in the direction you want to. Believe it or not the TOSS is where many serving errors start. RIGHT ARM Right arm is fully extended with fingertips and palm facing downward lightly covering the top of the ball. After the toss – you step forward shifting your body weight from back foot to front foot to meet the ball. At this moment you begin your arm swing. Start your RIGHT arm swing by pulling your arm straight back – palm facing outward – keep elbow high your elbow should pass Over the level of your ear – in slow motion you should be able to turn your head slightly to look underneath your elbow as you pull your arm back – use the same movement you would use to pull a bow and arrow. Once you’ve pulled the arrow (your elbow) as far back as it will go, keeping the elbow as high as possible -raise the forearm above your head – palm facing the sky – bring arm forward to make contact with the ball. Contact should be made squarely in the center of the ball with the flat upper palm portion of your hand.

Establish a Serving Rhythm

1. Assume the Start Position with your feet in the "2 o’clock" position – your weight on the back foot, prepare to toss with the Left hand.

2. Take a step shifting your weight from your back (Right) foot to the front (Left) foot towards the ball.

HIPS 1. Start arm swing (just like pulling the bow of an arrow) as you step forward (shift weight) to go contact the tossed ball.

2. Contact the ball squarely in the middle of it – with the upper part of the palm of your hand. Don’t "Shot Put" Your Serve. Shot putting occurs when your elbow is too low during your arm swing. When your elbow is low the server is forced to try and lift the ball over the net just by using the force of an open palm which doesn’t produce enough force or momentum to get the ball over the net. Don’t Disguise Your Serve Let everyone in the gym know where you are going to serve – especially whoever you are serving to. This often puts pressure on the passer. With practice and repetition you will be able to serve tough enough so that your target will have difficulty passing your serve.

Also, when you try to show that you are serving in one direction then serve in another direction- it usually forces you to add more movement than necessary in your serving technique. When this happens more often than not you will

1. miss the timing of your toss, or

2. Contact the ball on its side or

3. Be forced off balance which all contribute to a possible missed serve.

So Remember you want to …

0. Face your target

1. Aim

2. Toss

3. Shift your weight

4. Step to the Toss

5. Contact the ball squarely

6. Serve Tough.

7. Become a Fabulous Serving Sensation!

April Chapple is a former USA National Womens Volleyball Team member and Volleyball Professional who created the first virtual volleyball mentoring community with volleyball skills coaching and information sites where females learn how to play better volleyball.

xxx

xx

xx

MEN’S VOLLEYBALL: Serving errors lead to Cardinals’ downfall – SPORTS

The Ball State University men’s volleyball team did not start off the way coach Joel Walton wanted it to in serving, which led to the team being swept by George Mason University. 

Put the Punch in Your Volleyball Top Spin Serve

How do you put that maximum impact into your volleyball serve? Everyone has a style that works for them, and it’s going to be up to you to discover ways to influence your preferred style 

Technorati Tags: volleyball drills, volleyball serve, volleyball serving

Girls Volleyball 5 Reasons Why You Have a Wimpy Serve

Regardless of how much playing experience you have or how tall or short you are, if you can serve tough then you are guaranteed more playing time on the volleyball court.

Professional volleyball players will tell you that serving is the volleyball game’s "equalizer", because from start to finish they know that you and only you control every aspect and especially the outcome of the serve. It doesn’t matter how tall, how wide or how short you are, if you develop a tough serve that makes points consistently, I guarantee you will regularly see court time.

1. Mentally decide to attack with your serve.

Many volleyball players with serves that are inconsistent or ineffective need to first change their mind set about serving. For elite athletes serving isn’t about getting the ball over the net so the other team can start the play. On the contrary, "the play" STARTS with the serve meaning the serve is used as the first "attack" you make against the opposing team. So learn to "attack" with your serve. This is a mental process first. Decide to be aggressive with your serve. Create a mental picture of yourself serving tough and making an ace in your mind. Then in practice, practice making high velocity tough attack serves, not wimpy ones.

2. Keep your elbow high just like when you spike the ball.

When volleyball players complain about serving into the net one of the first things I watch is how high their elbow is. Whether you use a bow and arrow armswing or a simulation spike to serve…(that’s what I call it) if you drop your elbow when you serve, your ball will rarely clear the net. Your elbow needs to be high …always above the level of your ear. Then you need to speed up your armwsing and reach.

3. Low toss or inconsistent toss.

This is the second place I look to check for wimpy volleyball serves. If your toss is low then that means you have to go chase your ball off balanced. Because the toss is low, in order to recover and make something happen you usually lean forward…which drops your elbow which means you contact the ball below the level of net and so on …the ball won’t clear the net. Or, if one time you toss the volleyball to the right of your front foot, then another time two feet over to the left you will never create a system for yourself so you can consistently serve tough.

Create a "ritual" where you toss the same way every time you serve. I point my foot exactly in the direction of where I’m going to serve, then with an open-palmed left hand I toss the ball two feet above my head and one foot in front of my front foot. How do I know these measurements? Because at home or by myself I practiced my toss…just my toss for hundreds of repetitions. Two feet up ,one foot in front. Let the ball drop without swinging at it to make sure it lands in front of the toe of your front foot. Why? This keeps your body balanced so all you have to do is transfer the weight from your back foot to your front foot, quicken your armswing and make solid contact with the ball.

4. Not facing your target.

Some volleyball players think its really sneaky to try and fake out the opposing serve receivers by not showing where they are going to serve. On the contrary I say…let everybody know where you are going to serve. Face Your target! I’m talking about the floater serve, here. Place everything that you have, your feet, hips, shoulders and tossed ball in the direction of where you plan to serve. Face that player or that space on the court and just let it go! If ALL your energy is going in one direction you can create more force than if different parts of your body are going in different directions. If everything is all lined up in one direction and balanced then you can focus on one last element…

5. Ball contact.

If you don’t make solid contact right in the middle of the volleyball panels facing you then you probably won’t get that tough floater serve you are looking for. Contact on the sides gives the ball side spin and contacting the ball too low gives a back spin which is usually pretty easy for the opposing team to pass. In practice watching where you contact the ball helps you improve your ball contact when you serve.

April Chapple is a former USA National Womens Volleyball Team member and Volleyball Professional who created the first virtual volleyball mentoring community with volleyball skills coaching and information sites where females learn how to play better volleyball.

xx

xx

Beach Volleyball Serve on Flickr – Photo Sharing!

Beach Volleyball Serve by sgmerle. AVP Tour: Coney Island, Brooklyn, NY. To take full advantage of Flickr, you should use a JavaScript-enabled browser and install the latest version of the Macromedia Flash Player.

Top 5 little secrets to help your serve receive game « Silver …

Once the server takes the volleyball in their hands and positions themselves to indicate where and how they are going to serve, it’s at this point most elite athletes focus 125% on the ball in the server’s hands. 

 xx

Technorati Tags: 5 mistake of poor volleyball serve, mistakes for volleyball serve, volleyball serve