I still can't serve overhand in volleyball so it goes over the net. Any tips to help me out?

Question

Everyone on my team, even the girl that has only been in volleyball for one year can get it over the net. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong? I throw it right but I don't think I'm hitting it right.

Answer 1

When starting any new sport, the two biggest factors that contribute to early success is coordination and strength.

I suspect that you understand the mechanics for serving or have had it explained to you by a coach:

1) Put your left foot slightly forward and keep your weight on your right foot. Now toss the ball.

2) As you strike the ball, step forward with your left foot until your whole weight is now over top of your left foot.

These all sound like simple instructions, but one thing people leave out is you need to have some strength in your arms and upper body in order to make solid contact with the ball. Imagine hitting a baseball with a broom stick versus a lead pipe. When you swing both at the same speed, the lead pipe is going to hit the ball farther.

A similar effect is happening with people starting out with volleyball. Their arms don't have enough strength to make the serving motion. Here are two drills that will get you the muscles you need.

1) Put a can of soup or a 5 lb barbell in each hand and lift them one at a time over your head. Try 3 sets of 10 repetitions.

2) Face a wall, turn 45 degrees to the right and swing your arms in a big circle towards the wall. This will improve your arm speed and tone your chest muscles specifically for volleyball. (put down the cans of soup before you do this or you might put a hole in the wall)

After about two weeks, you should be able to see improvements as your arms gain the necessary strength for serving a volleyball.

Answer 2

put ur elbow really far back so ur hnd is by ur ear. then toss the balll and smack it like u would when u spike it!! it should go over--thats allways worked 4 me when i thro it good

Answer 3

1 year ill hope your team must lose everygame with u and her on it if u cant serve i learned in 6th grade pe first day its easyier than beating someone up U HIT THE BALL HIT HIT HIT

Answer 4

For a small person, the arm alone is generally not strong enough to give the ball enough momentum to get it over the net.

So the secret is to get your body into the action. This is done by transferring your weight from the back foot to the front foot as you hit the ball and by crunching the top half of your body forward by contracting your stomach muscles like doing a sit up, but standing up. Lean back before you hit the ball and do a stomach crunch as you hit it, moving your weight onto your front foot at the same time. Both of these need lots of practice and probably help from your coach.

Although you can only move your body slower, it is much heavier than your arm so it really helps move the ball. Think about hitting the ball with a walking stick and hitting it with a baseball bat. It will go just as far with the bat, even though you can whip the stick faster. Because your body is solidly connected to your arm, some of the momentum from that will go into the ball as well so when serving, you are using both the stick and the bat together.

(Here's the Physics of it:

The momentum transferred to the ball depends not only on how fast an object hits it, but also how heavy that object is.

So if your arm weighs 3 kg and you can move it at 17 m/s, that gives a momentum of 51kgm/s

If your body top half weighs 25 kg and you can move that at 2 m/s that gives a momentum of 50kgm/s

Add these two together and you get 101 kgm/s (twice as much as your arm alone) By doubling the force you put into the ball it will not only go over the net but also far enough so you can hit it at a weaker player in the back court defence. Hit your serve at the weak receivers most of the time because you will force a higher percentage of weak passes)

Answer 5

Start small then work back.  Start a litle behind the 10 foot line.  The toss is the most crucial part and should NOT spin at all.  It needs to be high enough, and in front of you.  It also needs to be directly in front of your hitting shoulder.  Start with the opposite foot forward.  It´s important that you step onto that foot and have a weight transfer.  This is what is going to propel the ball...not the strength of your arm.  The toss therefore needs to be far enough in front so that you can step into it.

Your arm is another story.  When you contact the ball your ELBOW must come through before your hand.  If you want to serve somewhere, face it.  There is no sense in tricking your opponent...you are 20 feet from them...it won´t work.  Face your target and contact the ball in the MIDDLE with a short burst.  This will give you a float serve meaning that there is NO spin on the ball.  The 2 biggest problems are the toss and the contact on the ball so practice that.  If you need to start on the wall do so and the back up slowly.  Do that on the court too.  Do 5 good ones, take a step back, etc.  Form goes down when you mentally overwhlem yourself with the distance.  GOOD LUCK!

Answer 6

okay, you need to work on your form more then anything. so what you do, stand facing the net, your left foot slightly forward and feet spread shoulder width apart. hold the volleyball in your left hand right in front of your right shoulder. get your right hand back and keep your elbows in. spread out your fingers and tighten your hand. now this part is the throw and hit, it is all done in two motions. pull the ball no further than a foot down, do not go down past your waist when you are getting ready for the throw or it will be lopsided and hard to hit, so drop down and then throw it straight up, and now step forward with your left foot and at the same time swing your arm and smack the ball. if its not going over just keep practicng because all you need is LOTS AND LOTS of practice to get it right! hope this helps!!