How do i make my overhand serve in Volleyball better??

Question

i have my overhand serve i just need to know how to make it harder and faster so it goes over the net farther before 8th grade tryouts ( in less than 2 months)??

Answer 1

Try practicing with your friends or on the wall.  Good Luck

Answer 2

practice, practice, practice.  Find an open gym where you could practice during the summer.  

remember to stay behind the ball and drag your right foot when you contact the ball.  also, timing is very important.

just having a good serve can get you into an 8th grade team.  In 8th grade, my position was "the server".  Even though my skills at other positions weren't so good, I just went in to serve and went out immediately after.  Learning to serve consistently can make a big difference

Good luck!

Answer 3

I used to have the EXACT same problem as you. My first year playing, every time I went to serve in a game, EVERYONE knew we weren't gonna win that point. It was embarrassing and extremely frustrating. So I started taking private training lessons with a Junior Olympic team coach from my area. He taught me a ton of things that improved my serve IMMENSELY. Now I love serving. Here is what I learned and I hope it helps you too!

1. If you've ever been told that you drop your elbow and that's why your serve doesn't go over, this is NOT true. I was told the same thing, but this coach told me that dropping your elbow has nothing to do with getting the ball over the net.

2. The toss is the most important part of serving. If you toss too high or too low it can AND WILL mess up your entire serve. Toss the ball out and up in front of you and WITHOUT HITTING IT see where it lands. You want it to land about a foot or so in front of your right foot. Toss the ball and let it land a couple times until you get used to it. This is your toss!

3. Once you have the toss down, next is footwork. If you're right-handed, which I'm assuming you are, once you toss the ball, right before you make contact with your hand, take a BIG step forward with your left foot. This may cause you to drag your right foot a little which is totally fine. (This is why a lot of volleyball players have wear, even holes, on the tip of their right shoe!)

4. Combining the two steps above, you want to toss the ball out in front of you and take a BIG STEP with your left foot to, in a sense, "go out and get that ball." You have to reach for it, but you don't want it too far in front of you that you hit it straight down.

5. ARMS. Toss the ball with your left hand while your right hand is back in the air. Your right hand should be up with your elbow pointing out and your fingers should be by your ear. When you toss the ball up to serve, bring your right arm slightly back and then up to hit the ball.

6. CRUNCH. This is a step that took me a while to get used to, and depending on your age and body type you might not need to use this step yet. When you make contact with the ball, slightly crunch your abs forward. This in turn pushes your shoulders forward and gives you more power. If you play for a middle school team or even JV in high school, you probably don't need to do this, as it's usually used by more experienced players so they don't have to swing as hard.

7.SWING FAST! SWING FAST! SWING FAST! This is perhaps the most important step (and it's also true in hitting). When you make contact with the ball, snap your wrist and swing your arm AS FAST AS YOU CAN! This is what makes the ball go farther. I had a VERY slow arm swing when I first started playing volleyball, and it helped me a lot to video tape myself serving. I realized how slow my arm was going. To help speed up your arm swing, go outside with a friend or family member and throw a baseball or softball back and forth. Focus on swinging your arm FAST all the way through and snapping your wrist.

8. NEVER GIVE UP! No matter how long it takes, if you practice, practice, practice, you WILL get better. It may not be this season but IT WILL COME. I know I was so discouraged when all the girls on my team could jump serve and do all this fancy stuff, when I couldn't even get it over the net. But, and this is another tip I almost forgot, KEEP IT SIMPLE. Don't make serving more complicated than it needs to be. The JO's coach told me that when someone tells you "You have such a simple serve" or "Wow you make it look so easy!" that's the best compliment a server can get.

I hope this helps you become a better server and player, and remember, DON'T GIVE UP!

One more thing I almost forgot!

If you feel comfortable, ask your coach to consider letting you underhand serve. You might think "No way only really bad players do that!". But my private coach told me about a girl at one of his volleyball camps a few years ago who had a bad shoulder injury and couldn't serve overhand. She served every ball underhand and won the camp's award for Best Serve. There is a technique to underhand serving that I won't explain here, but it's always something to consider talking to your coach about if you don't think you're ready for overhand serving yet.

Answer 4

Just practice the correct way instead of just trying to get it over the net at first. It is all about form, not strength so get the correct way of doing it and have it consistant!

Answer 5

i do an open hand its alot harder to do but thats just what i do. Probs to get it faster is to chuck in the air, make fist, hit with good amount of force to a spot where no1 is. hope that helps.

Answer 6

this website helped me alot.

Answer 7

make sure that your arm is fully extended when you contact the ball. and make sure your toss is slightly in front of you. the toss is so important in your serve so make sure its good.

if you want to have a top-spin serve, you might want to give the ball a little spin in your toss and make sure you snap ontop of the ball.

if you are going for a float serve, contact on the back of the ball and dont snap your wrist. float serves are a lot harder to pass than top-spin serves.

but anyways. if you have anymore questions, let me know =]

good luck!!

Answer 8

As one of the other people here answered, if you feel you aren't ready, go for an underhand serve. I've always "played up" (playing on a team one year older than me) and I didn't have a big enough body to have the power to overhand serve. Actually, for a year or so, I couldn't even underhand serve. Once I got a consistant underhand serve, I really began to love serving. It was my favorite thing to do, even though months previous I dreaded it.

My secret to getting an underhand serve was practicing at home. During practices wasn't enough, I was consistantly getting no serves over the net. I decided to practice at home and immedietly got 8 serves out of 10 over a makeshift net (swingset XD). Looking back, I'm sure that I was way in the "court", but it was a huge confidence booster. I practiced at home everyday for a week, and eventually measured out a real court.

I can't really share a sucess story for me and overhand serving, unfortunately. I probably get 50% or less over the net, but I am making attempts to get better. After I got my underhand, I started lifting weights.

The biggest things with volleyball is to PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. You need to get a consistant serve before you worry about getting a stronger serve. Assuming your serve is consistant:

For one, sometimes it isn't all about having a hard serve that makes a good server. PLACING your serves is more important the older you get because then girls aer mroe experienced and can handle a hard ball and aren't afraid of the ball as much. Placing your serve is a matter of practicing, mostly.

If you want a REALLY hard serve:

1. PRACTICE! This will increase consistancy and make it easier to practice having a hard serve

2. Make sure you SWING YOUR ARM, FAST FAST FAST!

3. Make sure you have a strong arm, by lifting weights.

4. KEEP YOUR HAND AND ARM STRONG. At a recent camp, I learned a bit about floaters. The coach (who was a college coach from out of the area) told us to keep our arm and hand strong, not weak or limpish, and he also told me the next tip:

5. GIVE 100%. He said that a lot of the time if you ask a girl to hit a ball, she would give a weak, girly type hit. Tell her to hit it hard, and she'd hit it a bit harder. It would take a while until she was hitting it at 100%. He said to give it 100% all the time.

This coach also demonstrated a hard, fast armswing. You could actually hear his arm crack through the air like a whip. Now thats one hard serve.

Again, it takes lots of PRACTICE to get a fast armswing. It is the most important tip I can give.

Just remember some of these things and you should have a better, harder serve.