6 Tactics for Smart Serving

When your team has the serve, your opponents will probably get the first attack. So how can you pare down that advantage for them?

Tactic 1. Just serve the ball "in" and give your opponents the opportunity to mishandle the ball. This is far preferable to giving them a free point via a bad serve. If you have good blockers or your opponents have weak hitters, just getting the ball in might be the best service tactic of all.

If you can do more than "just get the ball in" when you serve, here are some more tactics to consider:

Tactic 2. Serve to their weakest passer. He/she might shank it.

Tactic 3. Make a harder serve than the other team expects. They might shank it. (Problem: Do you have less control when you serve harder? Most players do. In this case, see Tactic 1.)

Tactic 4. Serve a floater: a slow-traveling ball that moves from side to side, sort of like a slow knuckleball. (Problem: Sometimes these floaters float all the way out of bounds. If you can't keep it in bounds, see Tactic 1.)

Tactic 5. In co-ed volleyball, serve to a male. Two reasons ...

The first reason is that men are just not usually as good at passing as women. Usually, the males in adult leagues did not play volleyball in high school. Not even in physical education class. Whereas a whole lot of adult women currently playing in organized leagues have a lot of volleyball experience from their youth in high school phys-ed classes, on club teams and on varsity teams. Good players tend to attract other good players to their team. Therefore, if a team has one male who is a good passer, the others might be also. Your job, then, becomes figuring out which is the weakest passer. (See Tactic 2.)

The second reason to serve to a male is that serving to a male will obligate your opponents to get the ball to a woman player for at least one of their next two touches. If the male shanks the pass and another male player saves it, you know their attack hit will be coming from one of their women players who usually have less of an attacking advantage on the tall (co-ed) net.

Tactic 6. Make their regular setter pass instead of set. If you've identified, before you serve, which of your opponents' players is intending to be their setter for the upcoming play, you can usually disrupt their planned service receive by dropping your serve right onto that person. The would-be setter will probably pass the ball instead of setting it and, even if she does set it and set it well, their hitters will probably -- probably -- not be ready for a set coming from the first touch.

The chances are good that their setter will be standing in the middle front for service receive. So you'll need enough control over the flight of your serve to drop it not far over the net. If their setter is coming from the outside of the front row, or from the back row, she is probably going to be awaiting your serve while standing right next to a teammate. You'll need very good aim to force her into making the first touch if this is the case.

Digging: Don't be a square.

When you get into position to dig a cross-court spike, avoid squaring up to the hitter.

Making your hips and shoulders perpendicular or "square" to the hitter when the volleyball reaches your passing platform (extended arms with hands together), increases the chance that your pass will reflect directly back where it came from.

Here are the first five reasons that come to mind as to why this is not desirable:

Reason #1: It gives the opposing hitter a second chance to score before your team gets a chance to attack.

Reason #2: It aggravates your blockers. They did their job -- properly enough that you had the opportunity make a good pass -- and you just negated their efforts by, basically, setting their hitter.

Reason #3: The hitter always has the advantage over the blockers for this second attack because he is facing your court and probably sees the ball coming right back to him from your dig. Meanwhile, your blockers have had to land and turn to even see the ball and then regroup and attempt to block.

Reason #4: You really don't want to give your opponents' hitters anything to smirk about.

Reason #5: You really don't want to give your setter anything to frown about.

Your teammates may offer you additional reasons.

Solution: Face their hitter but favor your setter.

A setter will not usually choose to set from the spot the hit just came from because of the potential for a traffic tie-up with your blocker(s).

As you get into position for dig, note where you want your pass to go. Place one foot slightly ahead of the other, enough to close your body slightly away from the angle of the incoming hit and slightly toward your setter.

This technique does the trick for most passers. If this tip works for you, please leave a comment here.

If it does not work for you or if you do not try it but continue to set your opponents' hitters, there's every change your teammates will offer you some additional, explicit instructions. Good luck with that.

P.S. Reason #6: It's poor sportsmanship to show up your opponents' setter by giving her hitters better sets than they get from her.

Post Post Script -- Thanks to Theresa P. for bringing this tip to my attention during a game, only a week or so after the game in which I first brought it to her attention.