Beach volleyball-returning a serve hand over hand?

Question

can't find any official mention for returning a serve in beach volleyball, excepts no double hits. my question: can you return a serve (or any hit over the net for that matter) with your hands up above your shoulders, placing one hand over the other...whether to pass to a teammate or send it back over the net. i've been told you can only so this on a "hard-serve"...is this true?

Answer 1

YES, you CAN receive a serve using one hand over the other.  It's considered single contact so it doesn't matter if you use old or new rules.  It is NOT true that you can only do it on a hard-serve.  Someone may have told you so because there is a good chance of committing 'lift,' 'carry,' or 'push,' if the ball is coming over softly.  But it is a judgement issue so using that technique is okay as long as you keep the contact short and clean.

Answer 2

yeah if you put you hand flat like together making a diamond you can do that just dont swing but let it bounce off because im pretty sure the serve will be hard kinda anyway but good luck

Answer 3

tomahawk!

Answer 4

The "old" rule (meaning when I was playing beach tournament) was that you cannot return with two separate hands over your shoulder. If both hands are together like you mentioned it is all legal.

These days there is also a chance that they could call "attacking the serve" if you are in front of the "attacking line" (if you have one on your sand court when playing six-on-six or even four-on-four).

If it is a recreational league play, everything is in the hands of the ref.

By the way, if it is not a hard serve, you'd better do overhand pass (it is all legal these days with both hands separated and hitting the ball with any weird sound for a legal pass) and set up your teammate for a play. Hitting is fun in volleyball, so let more teammates hit the ball, and swing spiking.