Speed of a volleyball hit vs. a jump serve?

Question

A discussion between friends today -- what is faster at the professional/international level -- a strong jump serve or a hit from the front row at the net? My thought is they are probably similar, bot one person insisted that a hit is faster (in a MPH measure). Without sitting with a radar gun at the Olympics, what's the answer?

Answer 1

A hit has to be faster, because you have for time to aproach it especially if you get like a lets say 53 or 43 from the setter that gives you lots of time to put over the net wit ALOT of power.

by the way a 43 would be outside(4) very high(3)

53 litle farther than outside,(5, left hand hitter) very high (3)

spike about a foot away from the net

and a jump serve is about 30 feet...what would go down harder....seriously a hit

hope that answers your question

~Ashley

Answer 2

I think there are 3 main factors.

#1. How fast is the hitter traveling at the time of the hit (drift)?

#2. Are they hitting down (with gravity helping), or out?

#3. Did they toss to themselves or were they set?

I think that back row attacks are hit the fastest.

Because it is a broad jump attack, they get power benefits similar to the jump serve, but the hitter does not have to toss.

Answer 3

a hit is faster it goes over the net and down... hard.

a jump serve has to travel 30 ft then go over the net and down so a hit is much faster and there is less time to react to it

Answer 4

A spike is going to have more speed to it.

While the jump server does take a running start the ball still needs to be hit with some control to get it right over the net. Plus the distance that the ball travels does slow it down a bit. It is called air resistance.

This would not limit the hitter with no blocker and a perfect set from teeing off and smoking one down in front of the 3 meter line with reckless abandon...

Answer 5

A hit is faster, but the jump serve has more power. That;s what I think. Give me your opinion and email me.

Answer 6

i think a hit would be faster because the ball is only (or should only be going) pretty much in one direction (down) and in a jump serve, the ball is going up across and back down.

plus i think hitters have a much faster arm swing than the server does.

Answer 7

welllll a hit is probably faster... since they have the setter setting them upp. so they can relax and hit without tossing it to themselves. but on the other hand.... i know a LOT of ppl that cant hit to save their lives.. but have the fastest jump serves... so i guess it all depends on the person(:

Answer 8

haha.  olympic players can serve around 75 mph.  I would think that back row attackers actually hit fastest because they can generally get more momentum b/c the net is much farther away than a front row hitter.

Answer 9

A hit is much faster as the hitter has more room to approach and swing with consistency. A server would have to toss to himself, so that it would be hard to get to the same level of momentum.

From your opponent's perspective, hit is "faster" as it happens closer to them and gives them less time to react.