Practing a volleyball serve?

Question

I recently joined an amateur volleyball team, my set and dig are good, but my I cant serve to save my life....

Whats the best way to practice serving? and is there different serves? Ive seen ppl serve the ball different.

Answer 1

who ever said "overHEAD" serve is the dumbest person in the entire volleyball world that is not a real serve you are an idiot

Answer 2

There are three diffent kinds of serves.

1) Underhand

2) Overhand

3) Jump

If you want to get better, I wouldn't even bother with the underhand. Just serve up against a wall until you are consistently serving at the pace and direction that you want.

Answer 3

there r basically two ways to serve:- upper hand and lower hand. i had the same problem when i started playing volley ball. upper hand is more effective and is more difficult to handle for the opposite team as u put pressure on top of the ball making it strike hard on the opponents hands and it gives a professional look to the game and the player. lower hand serve has less chances of the ball landing at position u want it to land at as u lifted it from the bottom and made it easier for the opponent and u also gave him a chance to smash the ball in ur court.

                 for practice:- stand about 30 feet away from a wall in a tilted direction and throw the ball in the air and as the ball leaves ur left hand, give ur legs a lil spring like jerk moving all ur force in ur serving hand and hit the ball as it is going up and hit it at the point facing ur hand in the air and try not to give the ball a height of 8-9 feet coz thats enough for a perfect serve. dont forget to keep ur hand a lil loose coz harder hand might throw the ball out of the court and i dont think thays affordable in the game. ur hand should be hard enough for the ball to cross the net.

         good luck!

Answer 4

there is an overhand an underhand and a jump serve. most of the time the serves look so diff. is bc people serve diff. ways. and the only thing that will get you better is to work on them.

Answer 5

Lets not discuss different serves as you need the basic one first:

A serve is a three point basic move: Toss, Step, Hit...

Hold the ball in your palm at arms length; have it directly IN LINE with your hitting shoulder

LEARN to toos it straight up....straight up...

As the ball drops above your head, at about 25 degrees and at almost a full arms length UP, hit it forward while keeping your opposite hitting foot DOWN and Drag your hitting foot, the foot on the same side as your arm that's hitting the ball.

Coach Dunning from Stanford has DVD's out on searves, sets and all of the game, they run around $30 each and are worth every cent. There are four of them.

PRACTICE THE BASIC SERVE ABOUT 40 TIMES DAY, LEARN TO DRIVE THE BALL AND NOT LOFT IT OVER THE NET.

Practice is everything, have no expectations of a good serve lest you work it 40 times , or more, each day.

Serving counts for 4-9 points a game in rally scoring, remember, when you blow a serve, you blow a point...

If your serve is good, you may remain in rotation from fron to backrow, if your serve blows, you will get jerked when you rotate into service position as they will not want to loose points as you have no serve.

Now, get to work.

Answer 6

well if you want to practice serving just do the following. if want to practice over hand then go to a wall and hit the ball. if the ball goes straight to your hands then it was a good serve. just practice and you will do great. and remember have fun.

Answer 7

there is the easy serve that i learned it the underhand serve.

next i learned the jump-serve and also the overhand serve.

there quite simple

Answer 8

Hi! serving is quite easy once you understand the basics.

To under hand serve:

if you are right handed, hold the ball in your left hand, then look at the direction of where you want to hit the ball at. visuilize the ball going over the net. next, open-handed, cup your palm into the queen wave that kinda thing, then, launch your right hand back and hit the ball with the lower part of your hand. the one lower to your thumb.

if you are left-handed do all the steps but backwards.

to over hand serve:

do exactly the same thing but throw the ball up in the air. once it reaches a little above your forhead HIT!

good luck and keep practicing!

Answer 9

Yup there are different kinds of serves. As other people answered there is the overhand and underhand serve. You probably want to do underhand first because overhand takes longer to master. For underhand, you DO NOT  want to use just your palm. If you do that, you are just smacking the ball and making it go crazy! You want to use the base of your hand (where ur palm ends and ur wrist begins). It helps if you close your hand in a fist, but sometimes that is not legal. For overhand, you want to throw the ball so that when it lands, it lands in the area of your feet. Hit the ball when it is in the highest touch point. (Raise your hand as high as you can. That is where the area is.)

The jump serve is actually not a different kind of serve. It partially is a overhand, but you run into the ball. It is complicated, and you should just do underhand. Underhands are just as effective as long as you get it over, of course! Hope you learn how to serve and once you do, ACE the other team!

oh yeah and serves ARE NOT about power as some people answered. If you relax and just do the right technique, it will go over. Power is just as important, but doing a powerful serve while just trying to hit the ball will not work.

Answer 10

If you joined a leafue tehre are only two ways you shoudl be serving...overhand and jump serve.

overhand - place ball in non dominant hand, bend knees slightly giving a lil bounce toss ball directly above your oppoisite shouder ethn extend dominant arm and swing hittign ball with palm of hand at peak of extension.

Practicing serving can be done on an enclosed handball court.  Find a line or way to gauge hieght with soem marker on the court wall and practice serving from 30 feet away aiming for that line each time so you know its crossing the net.

Jumpserves shoudl only be practiced once youve masetered serving.  Sme practice but you toss teh ball mch higher alloiwjng yourself to take a huge step then jump meeting the ball as it descends and hitting at just past full extension of your arm, causing the ball to curve or fall as it carries across the court.

Answer 11

all you do is toss it up and hit it as hard as you can!! do that and practice it a lot of times and you'll be good to go!!

Answer 12

Under hand : Consider the easiest way to serve. However easy it is, you still need some time to master it. For a start, hold your fist and stand parallel with the base line. Stand straight before you throw the ball. When you start throwing the ball, bend your legs. Hit the ball when you straighten your legs. Some people can serve under hand standing straight. For a beginner, you should learn to bend your legs and use it to control the ball.

Over hand : If you have the power to spike, mastering over hand serve is not difficult. All you need to do is to aim the ball slightly higher than the net, it will go over the net. But make sure that you do not serve with your hand swinging like when you want to spike. Stand straight, use your hand power to 'tap' the ball. You should practice at least 20 times before and after your training. Shouldn't be hard to master it.

Jump serve : For advance player. The way you throw the ball, timing, power and confidence is very much needed.

Overhead serve : I don't know if I could explain this. This is one of the hardest and fastest serve. You stand parallel to the base line. Throw the ball above your head, swing your hand above your head. The ball will be like a tornado crossing over the net into opponent's court. Your opponent's will have little time to re-act to this kind of serving comparing to jump serve.

Answer 13

To serve overhand, start out tossing the ball in the air with both hands.  This ensure accuracy which is necessary because you have to serve on the first toss now.  Step with the opposite foot that you will hit the ball with.  Keep your shoulders level, do not drop your opposite shoulder.  You will hit it into the net if you drop your shoulder, trust me.  And use your whole body to serve.  The power comes from your legs and abs, not just your arm.

Answer 14

ok sence u just started do the underhand. thes where you put your hand in a fist and put the ball in your least dominant hand stand kinda diagonal and u just hit the ball.

when you get better u can do and overhand sereve. thats where u throw the ball up and just smack it.

and a jumpserve is exacly wat it sounds like u jump and overhand serve

Answer 15

When doing underhand, make sure your serving hand is straight, and USE THE PALM OF YOUR HAND!!! (that's a biggie)

Answer 16

just try  practicing serving cause youll really get it even if it hurts at first.....its normal! good luck...

Answer 17

One thing to remember about serving is that your non-hitting foot determines where the serve will go. What I mean is that if you're a right handed server, your left foot, the direction you point it, determines where the serve will go. If it's pointing out of bounds, it will go out of bounds.

As far as the serve goes, practice, practice, practice.

M. Clark

Answer 18

There are 3 main ways to serve

Underhand

Overhand

Jumpserve

under hand is the easiest- self explainitory

The same with over hand - except harder to master and harder to be consistent.

jumpserve is for the most advanced players (you may see them on the olympics)

For practice i have no suggestions- just keep trying!!

one day it will click! i promise!

Answer 19

toss the ball up high when you go to hit it step in and use your whole body it gives you extra power to hit harder

GOOD LUCK

SERVE EM UP!!!!!

Answer 20

There are three types of serves: Underhand, Overhand, and Jump Serve. To practice underhand serves, put X's on the court made out of tape. Then try to hit that area or close to it. Then practice spinning the ball or making it sink. This is done by hitting the ball on the side. And make it sink by hitting the ball more slowly when beginnig the serve. With overhand serves, however, practice on the wall. Step back from the wall and try to hit the ball in certain areas. Same idea with the tape. Then go on the court and see if you could serve the ball in different directions. This can be used to learn to jump serve. But the only way to really learn how to serve is to practice with someone else. Don't play a game, but just practice every technique.

Answer 21

I see a lot of good answers so i am going to try not to repeat anything. i looked over all the answers though and there was one serve i dont think anyone mentioned. that would be the sidearm serve. it is much like an underhand but you hold the ball infront of you and swing your arm from the side and hit the side of your arm. few people i know can do this correctly but when it is done correctly it can be very powerful. my suggestion for the serve you should try the overhand serve. Many people i saw gave you good advice for that so i will not go into any extent on it but here are the keys to overhand serving

1. Arms in a bow and arrow shaped form holding the ball in th opposite of your hitting hand

2. Toss the ball, step with you dominant foot, hit the ball

3. Big open hand (no fist, hand not flimsy)

5. Follow through (very important, snap your wrist, follow all the way through dont just stop)

you can try other serves but a jump serve is difficult especially if you cant overhand serve. an underhand serve is easy but not very helpful or powerful. sidearm is hard to master and only helpful when it is very powerful. so i would say your best bet is overhand. one final piece of advice: to practice find a spot at a nearby park or in your backyard where you can hit the ball against something (i practice in my back yard against the side of my house that as no low windows and is an open grassy area)

hope that help! good luck!

Answer 22

3 ways:

underhand: you hold the ball in your left hand and then hit it with your hand in a fist without throwing the ball up. vice versa for leftys i guess.

overhand: you throw the ball up in the air and then with a flat palm(try and stretch your fingers as far as you can) you hit the ball. most people take a step after they throw the ball. dont hit the ball behind your head. (hit w/ right hand if righty)

jump serve: same hand motion as over hand except your throw the ball farther ahead of you and run and jump and hit the ball. it gives the ball a topspin.

i think underhand is easiest. try practicing against a wall