Volleyball Serve
The volleyball serve is one of the most important skills in the game of volleyball. There are many particulars involved in a good volleyball serve, and certain skills are needed to be an effective server on a regular basis. Following are the most popular ways to serve the volleyball in a game.
The basic volleyball serve is completed from behind the endline, with the main objective being to drive the ball onto the other team's side of the court while keeping the ball inside the boundary lines. A serve also needs to have solid aim combined with speed so that the receiving team will not be able to easily return the ball over the net.
An ace refers to a super powerful serve that the opposing team is unable to return. In fact, the ace blasts through all six players on the other side and hits the ground without even being touched.
Here are the most common volleyball serves you will see in the game today:
The Overhand Serve or Underhand Serve
The Underhand Serve is considered to be the easiest volleyball serve from a receiver's perspective, and it is not recommended for competitive play. When using an underhand serve, the server hits the ball from below at around waist level. With an overhand serve, the server tosses the ball into the air and then makes contact at around shoulder level.
The Cross-Court Serve
Basically, this type of volleyball serve sends the ball across the court.
The Floater Serve
The floater is a type of overhand serve where this ball has no spin on it at all. The lack of spin makes it tough to predict what path the volleyball will take. A floater serve is similar to the knuckleball in baseball. It can be completed from a jumping or standing position.
The Hybrid Serve
This is another overhand serve. The hybrid serve has an unpredictable path like the floater serve, but delivery uses a snap of the wrist like the top spin serve.
The Jump Serve
Also an overhand serve, the jump serve is one of the most popular serves in both college and professional volleyball. Here the server throws the ball up fairly high and then jumps up to hit the ball, giving it a good dose of topspin.
The Jump Float Serve
This serve is similar to both the jump and floater serves. Here the server does not throw the ball quite as high as in the jump serve, but they do jump up when making contact with the ball. Like the float serve, the jump float serve can take an unpredictable flight path.
The Line Serve
With this serve, the volleyball makes a straight line down the court, parallel to the side lines.
The Round-House Serve
For the round-house serve, the server tosses the ball high into the air and uses a quick circular arm movement to contact the ball, hitting it with the palm of the hand, creating a significant topspin on the ball.
The Top Spin Serve
This is yet another type of overhand serve. Here the server snaps their wrist during contact, putting a topspin on the ball, which makes it fall super fast.