I need someone who seriously knows a ton about jump serving and is willing to write a lot. Please please help.

Question

1. What are the rules for letting your serve drop when jump serving? Does it matter if the ball lands over the line? Does it matter if you step over before the ball lands?

2. Is it better to serve just top spin, or is it better to have some side spin too?

3. Should I be trying to hit the endline at the back of the other court (I always have trouble passing those), or should I be serving farther in?

4. I was watching the national team play, and they toss really high. Does this high toss increase top spin + speed or what?

5. I saw some really good player on Russia's women's team using a two handed toss that was lower. Is that a more accurate way to serve?

6. I know that the best jump servers toss and contact the ball over the service line to give passers less time to react... How much does this help? Because it's really hard (at least it is for me).

7. How can I work on getting more spin? Please don't say snap your wrist more.

Answer as many as you can.

Thanks in advance. :)

Answer 1

2. there are obviously different types of serves. it depends on where you want the ball to go and who you are serving to. you really wont have topspin and sidespin at the same time.

3. If you are trying to hit the back line it is best to go for the corners. This, however gives you very little room for error. but yes, id say either serving deep or serving really short is a good way to go.

4. They toss really high because it gives them more time to step it out and jump into the air(b/c they are usually freakishly good jumpers) and they want to contact the ball  with their arm pretty much extended.

5. That would be quicker, and maybe give the other team less time to guess where she was serving to. In alot of different players I've watched they really don't all serve and jumpserve the same way. Maybe she learned that way and is such an effective server that a coach wouldn't ask her to change it.

6..Well, Unless youre at the national level or anything, I do not believe that little detail is a huge difference. You just need to practice the length of your steps, practice tossing the ball to that spot, and do it consistently.

7.You need to make sure you are contacting the ball high up. also, remember to roll your hand up and snap over the ball.

hope this helps.

EDIT::

i just want to say a few things about the person below me's answer.

first of all, a floater is not a hard down ball, and does not have any spin. so, they must not know much about serving at all(but, i'm sure you would have noticed it if I didn't point it out.).

Also, you do not want to look where you are serving to start with, because that tells the other team exactly where you're serving.

however, you want to follow through the direction you are serving and not look down, or out of the court, when you finish your motion.

Answer 2

1> At your level, it is not allowed to have service-attempt per new rules. Once you toss the ball, you will have to serve it.

2> If you want power and speed, top spin is the way to go. If you have more control and wanted side spin, go for it. If you do jump floater, the ball could curve (shake) left and right without any spin. Side spin does work for lots of players that I have played with. It would be great if you can mix them together.

3> Ideally you should hit the ball wherever you want it land. It is not always the end line that has the weakest spot. Your serve should always try to find the weakest passer, and put more pressure there. Try not to let your opponent know that you can only serve to the middle or that you prefer to hit the end line.

4> If you believe that you have the muscle, a jump serve is really a 30-feet spiking. You just hit the ball and let it bounce off your opponent. From that stand point, if you could toss high and hit at a higher spot, it would make a difference. High toss should not benefit top spin, but may help with speed if you can hit it consistently.

5> Two hand toss would help making the toss more consistent for beginners. It is really just a habit at national level, however they got trained in the youth club would be how they toss later. Some players don't have high jump, so that they toss low and hit low. They would pretend that they could hit as hard as their teammates though.

6> Like I mentioned in 4>, if you could make a 30-ft jump into a 29 (or 29-1/2)-foot spiking, it would make a big difference. Just draw a vertical triangle and see how high you would have to jump at 30-ft vs. 29-ft, in order to hit at the same angle to serve it "straight down". It would also help you get into defense position more quickly as you will land into the court.

7> Toss the ball with a top spin (shhh, that is my "secret").

Answer 3

1.  If you are over 14 years old, you will not be able to let the ball hit.  If you toss it, you will serve it.  

2.  If my 2 choices are topspin and side spin, I will choose side spin.  Unless you hit the topspin HARD, it is very predictable.  Very few people use side spin.  

3.  I would never aim at the end line.  I would always let there be some margin for error.  You can serve deep, but not at the line.  

4.  The high toss is more for timing and speed.  The high toss allows the server to time the serve.  It also allows the server to delay a little and move quickly into the ball.  That allows more speed on the serve.  

5.  I never used the high toss.  You can toss that with one hand.  I used to use the lower toss with 2 hands.  (I also toss with 2 hands when I am standing on the ground, too.)  I like the control of the 2 handed toss.  Some people tend to get their fingers involved when tossing with one hand.

6.  Jump serving from in front of the line is the best way if you have the hard topspin serve.  It does give less time for the passers to react and it has more downward trajectory.  It is as you mentioned hard to do.  You have to get a consistent toss to do that serve well.  Practice your toss.  

7.  Topspin is accomplished by making sure your hand is cupped when you serve the ball.  Your fingers will touch the ball before the rest of your hand.  That starts the topspin.  It is the opposite of the floater which has the flat hand.  

Good luck.

Answer 4

1. you can throw th ball up it does not matter where you or the ball is unless you come in contact with the ball. You must NOT come in contact with the ball at all or it will be called a serve. If you do not the reff will blow the whistle and you can try again.

2. The best type of serve is a floater which has more top spin and is a hard down ball. I am not positive if you want side spin but i personally do not have side spin i guess it depends on how you hit it but most likely i would try and not use side but do use top.

3. look at the court. find a hole. most often holes are in the back behind back row players, but you dont want to be aiming for the back line just aim for behind the players because aiming for the back line may cause the ball to go out which obviously would not help you. You have to analyze the team look for the weakest passer and aim at a hole near them or if you see a slightly empty space that may get players confused.

4&5. I am going to say right away i am not completely sure on either of these but i have my opinion. I think everyone has there way of serving that is effective for them. There is no set in stone way to serve (lets say) someone who finds high tosses easy to hit and the best way to serve and someone who likes lower tosses dont see eye-to-eye but they are both good servers then there is no way to say which way is the best to jump serve. Practice all kinds of different ways to see what works best for you and that is what makes a more accurate serve.

6. if you think about it, it only makes like a seconds difference so if it is tough for you dont practice it because you may foot fault in the game.

7. Snap your wrist more-haha just kidding- well i was working on this recently and was looking at different ways to do this what worked most for me was when i contact the ball i contact it more towards the top then on a side. This can be slightly dangerous because it could go down too much, but if you work on it you ca find the right way to do it. Also i have a friend who has really great serves and she looks at the spot where she is gonna throw it then keeps her eyes there then we she serves she knows exactly where to hit it and it helps a lot with top spin. Just try a lot of different ways and you will find what works for you.

EDIT:::

Ok now i would like to say something about the person above me and how they corrected me. Thank you for pointing out my mistake of saying floater (although it was  not nessisary for you to be so mean about it try to correct someone politely rather than being so rude.) there was 2 different things i was thinking of a floater is a good serve (in high school we were taught it was the best serve) and I never really stuck to that. I did try to use more top spin and not side spin IT WAS A HARD DOWN BALL. And for the person above me to make it even meaner said i did not know anything about serving (if i knew who this person was i would challenge them to serve because i bet i could serve better than them i am a VERY good server) but i actually do. and may i point out i answered ALL the questions asked and if i wasnt sure i straight up admitted it them gave my best effort and answered the way I WOULD or what I THOUGHT.

Hope i helped!!!!!!!

Answer 5

For #1, it depends on what level you are playing, whether it's high school or club, as far as if you can let the ball drop and try to serve again. However you elect to serve, jump or anything else, you cannot step on the court until AFTER you have hit the serve into play.

For #2, there are two basic types of jump serve, the top spin ( or power Jump serve), and the jump float. The whole idea of the power jump serve is to add top spin so the ball will drop into the opponent's court. If you hit a hard serve with no top spin, it goes way out! Side spin can be useful sometimes, but in a jump serve, it is incredibly hard to keep control and keep the serve inbounds with side spin.



For #3, your first goal is to keep the jump serve in the court, whatever that will take. A jump serve is only a good strategy if the server can keep it in the court. As you get better at controlling it, your coach or even you might see a hole in the other team's serve receive and target that.

For #4, many international players treat the jump serve as a long distance spike, so they toss way up to make sure they jump and extend as far as possible. Gon on You Tube and search for Leonel Marshall, a player from the Cuban National team, for a great example!

For #5, my guess is that was for the second type of jump serve, the jump float. It is a floater (or , little or no spin) serve that is hit with a jump approach to give it more power. If you can hit a floater serve like that and give it more speed while still droppoing in and keeping the no spin part, they are horribly hard to pass. You will see passers setting up to make contact with the ball and they miss it by a foot because it moves so much!

In #6, a lot depends on whether you can keep your jump serve in the court from wherever you feel good about hitting it. As long as you time it right, jumping up over the end line to make contact is an effective play. But if you hit it out from there, you may have to move back a little anyways....

For #7, sorry, but the only way for more spin is more snap. the wrist snap moves your hand up and through the ball, making it roll over to create top spin. You may also want to spin the ball forward ( away from your body) on the toss to add more spin.

Answer 6

1. As far as stepping over the line before the ball lands, thats okay. As long as you have contacted the ball before you are over the line you are good!

2. I would say (being a jump server) top spin is better cause your over the ball and side spin is just more practice and harder.

3. At first when you are doing jump serve I think you should focus on just the ball in, then inside the court, then you can worry about doing spot serving (when you serve to a certain location).

4. They toss higher because they jumper higher than you probably and they have to get over the ball :)

5. Its' different for everyone, make sure you have the concept before you try to do all the tricky stuff.

6.Read #5

7. Work on your toss, then yes I'm bout to say it work on snapping your wrist more. if not you can always spin the ball in your toss, but again stick get the concepts before you do anything that will hurt you :)

Hope this helps!!

Answer 7

1. Rules are different depending what league/country you play in.  In my league teh ball cannot hit the ground after it leaves your hand for the toss.

2. Again this will depend, on where your serving to/from and to whom your serving too.  For example, if your serving from the traditional spot and are serving down the line you might want to try and get some counterclockwise spin so that it fades away form the person your serving to.  If your just serving anywhere then the direction of the spin will not matter as much.

3. This question also depends, it eally depends on the pass reception set up of teh other team.  if you can do both then you can switch it up depending on the passers.

4.  it gives you more time to get a running approch if you can toss it higher.  This will also depend on the space you have for an approach.  Timing is also tougher and the toss is harder the higher you toss it.  the higher you are the better the jump serve usually is.  Start with what your comfortable with.

5. Again i think its what your comfortable with.  Higher toss should end up with a harder better serve overall.  

6. being over the line also gives the server an angle advantage, they can be more acurate and have more courtto play with.

7. Get a better higher aproach jump and faster arm swing and follow through.