Serving

[Vernon]

Serving is one of my favourite things. It's something you can practice on your own and it's amazing how many different types of flight you can get on the ball.

The floater serve has no spin and should wobble a bit in the air. You have to hit it reasonably hard so it goes just above the top of the net. Too high or too hard and it goes out. Not hard enough or not dead centre of the ball and it won't float so well. Keep trying ;) Here's some advice on basic overhand float serving techniques that I found on the web:

[shadow=black,left,600]The main points of the overhand floater serve[/shadow]

1. High position
2. Fencer's stance-point with front foot
3. Bow and arrow armswing
4. Medium toss in front of hitting arm
5. Contact ball exact centre with heel of hand
6. Stiff wrist thuds it rather then slaps it
7. Hitting arm fully extended
8. Very little follow through

If you get everything right it should look like this:



Good luck!

[Vernon]

Serving practice

This is my tip for serving practice: Find a tennis court that nobody is using or a multi sports court with some tennis markings. There's often one in a park. The distance from the base line to the service line on the far side of the net is about almost exactly the length of the volleyball court (18m). If there isn't a tennis court, find a couple of lines on the multi sports which are about 18m apart. Measure if necessary. Failing that, even two coke tins in a field 18m apart will do.

Hit volleyballs from behind the baseline so they land inside the far service line. You'll have to imagine a volleyball net about 3/4 of the distance between you and the tennis net (9m away). The height of the volley ball net is 2.4m or about the same height as a room ceiling. Make sure the ball goes high enough to clear your imaginary net.

Learn the floater server first (above). When you can do that every time, you can experiment with top spin, side spin, and jump serves. Bascially though, the floater is the one to learn. It's reliable, accurate, easier to do, and difficult to pass.

[suz]

people may think it strange to serve in field! i think i need net to tell if my jump serve hits net

[angelica]

how can i control where i serve to?[glow=red,2,300][/glow]

[Vernon]

Hi Angelica

First of all learn to serve straight in the direction you are facing. This can only be done by following your arm through straight towards the target and you'll find this is easiest if you line up, body sideways on, head facing the target. Then practice!

Lastly face your target as described above and serve hard or slow depending if your target is deep or just over the net. Again you need to practive to get the distance.

After you have done it a few 1000 times it will start to come. It won't happen overnight. I usually serve deep and hard with lots of topspin at the weakest receiver. You can win loads of points that way. A hard topspin serve is good against weaker receivers. If the receiver is talented then this kind of serve is usually easy for them to pass. That's where mixing in a float serve of varying length makes it much harder for them.