Passing: Put yourself in front of the ball.

If you were to demonstrate to a new player how you want the volleyball to be passed, would you:

A) Turn your back to your setter and pass the ball back over your head?

B) Turn sideways to the flight of the ball and swing at it like a baseball batter?

C) Stretch straight up and hit the ball with the knuckles of one hand?

D) None of the above.

Geez. I hope you answered "D".

But how many times have you seen a player fail to move his feet or turn sideways or entirely backward to the setter while attempting to pass the ball? How accurate are the passes made this way compared to the passes made by players who get both feet in front of the ball and are able to pass from a crouching stance instead of facing mostly away from their setter and twisting and stretching backwards?

Passing the ball from a sideways or backward stance poses many inherent problems:

Problem 1. You face farther away from your setter than if you get in front of the ball.

Problem 2. You might be stealing the ball from a teammate who is in the better position to make the pass.

Problem 3. You risk a collision and injuries with teammates when you are out of position to play a ball -- because when it appears that you are out of position to make the play, your teammates will try to make the play.

Problem 4. You set up the fake-out: You attempt to play the ball, realize you don't have as good a chance at it as a teammate so you stop your attempt but your teammate has already stopped her attempt, too, because she thought you were committed to the ball.

Problem 5. When you appear to be out of position to play a ball -- and especially if it looks like you and a teammate will both attempt to play the same ball -- your other teammates lose confidence in whether the play will be made. This throws off the timing of the setter and the approaches of the hitters.

You can fight off a tendency not to get in front of the ball by (1) anticipating and starting your move quickly to a position in front of the flight of the attack hit and (2) striving for that good passing position instead of just any ol' position that allows you to touch the ball.

Simple drill: Two people. Stand facing each other. Start the drill any distance apart but vary the starting distance as you repeat the drill. One player lobs the ball just high enough for the other player to rush into a good passing position, fully in front of the path of the ball and facing the person who lobbed the ball. The second player passes it back to the first. With three people, one lobs it over the head of the second. The second one rushes to get in front of the ball, passes it to the third (as though this person would be setting). The third person catches it and lobs it over the head of the first person who rushes to get in front of the ball, etc.

The goal for you is to lose the habit of passing lazily and to build the habit of passing as though the whole match depended on it.

The Floater Serve

by Chris Wright

Often times you find yourself and your team in a rut. You and your team may be doing everything right but no matter what, it seems you just can't break the run your opponents are on. Frustration starts building, you and your teammates start feeling on edge, and you wonder, "How could our team have blown such a large lead?" or, “This is just no fun at all.”

FINALLY, your team gets the serve and now is your chance to get out of that rut and hopefully regain the lead or at least have a respectable showing. But alas, it was not meant to be as your server just served the ball straight into the net. Talk about frustrating!

Many times during the service, the server feels they need to serve as hard as they can or simply feel the serve should be a "kill" opportunity, or someone is trying to impress everyone. While it definitely is a chance to score, the serve is so much more. When your server fails to get the serve over the net, or hits the ball out of bounds, it is the biggest momentum killer there is. Though it sounds pretty obvious, it seems many people forget that the most important part of the serve is to simply get your serve in.

Don't get me wrong, if you are good enough to perform a highly consistent jump serve, then by all means go for it. But a jump serve generally takes a somewhat higher toss, an approach, and timing your jump. Compound it by trying to actually aim the serve and temper it with the right amount of power and you have a recipe for a very inconsistent serve.

It has been my experience that, while some can execute a few killer jump serves for a few uncontested points, their run ultimately ends by a bad serve. When this happens, your team never really felt like they gained momentum or any sense of control, as they just stood there, while you tried to take it upon yourself to win the game with your serving. You may have gotten two or three uncontested points, but your successful serve percentage tends to be quite low.

For these reasons, I am a strong advocate of the floater serve. In my case, the floater serve starts with a low toss and little movement. This in itself makes the serve easier on the server to place the ball and get good contact on the ball. I find the floater to be extremely consistent, it can be just as likely to get uncontested points, and it is more likely to frustrate your opponents then most serves.

A typical jump serve or any hard serve with rotation, the only difficulty is really getting to the ball in time. If you can get there, it’s a fairly easy serve to pass. Contrast this with a floater. The floater always looks like a slow, soft serve that should be easily returned. However, if done correctly with no rotation on the ball, the ball can suddenly drop, float farther than expected, or shift from side-to-side in mid air, making it difficult to judge exactly where it is going and make it hard to pass correctly.

If your teammate fails to return a killer jump serve, you just shrug it off as a lucky serve. On the other hand, nothing frustrates a team more than watching one of their players shank what appeared to be a very easy serve or fail to get under the ball when it just kind of floated there for so long, but that is what often happens with a floater. It can rob a team of momentum.

Now, you most likely won't get much adulation from your teammates when the other team makes a poor pass of your soft, slow, easy-appearing serve. They may think the other team is just messing up. But you'll know it when your serve was the reason. Even if the other team handles your floater serve, you have put the responsibility on them to convert and your teammates will not feel like you blew their chances of staging a comeback or failed to put the nail in the coffin. That is why I find always serving the floater to be the best way to go for me.

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.

Strategy: Let your opponents have the opportunity to fail.

Sometimes, the best strategy is the simplest. Not the prettiest and not the loftiest or most elegant.

Sometimes the best strategy is a strategy that would lose games under most other circumstances.

This is that type of strategy.

And here's when you'll usually need it: You're in a game in which your team is all thumbs. Your team can't pass. Your team can't set even if a pass accidentally gets to the setter. Your team can't hit even if a good set magically appears.

No timing. No chemistry. No communication. No teamwork. No luck.

But, despite all this, you're still in the game: the score is fairly close.

Wait a sec'. Playing this poorly, you should be getting your butts kicked.

Why do you still have a chance of winning this game? 

The answer to this question -- and the solution to your problem -- is right in front of you. Move your glazed-over eyeballs away from your hapless and frustrated teammates and focus them on your opponents.

Maybe they should be getting their butts kicked.

Are they passing that much better than your team? Are they setting that much better than your team? Are they hitting that much harder or dinking that much smarter?

If they were all that much better, the score wouldn't be close at all.

So, in lieu of your team actually gelling and playing at its best, the way to catch up and win is to let your opponents have the opportunity to fail.

Here's the mindset you need for this strategy:

Ball in play on your side = your problem. Ball in play on their side = their problem.

Here are some of the finer points you might employ as the game goes on:

1. Send ALL your serves directly to their weakest passer.

2. Hit ALL your hits (spikes, lobs, dinks -- everything) directly to their weakest passer.

3. Every time your opponents' hitter goes to hit, put some hands in front of him. Any hands. Ninety percent of blocking is just in showing up. Showing up is enough to distract, if not discourage, most hitters.

4. When your opponents send the ball back over to your side of the net, they no longer have the opportunity to screw up. So, at a minimum, send the ball back to them, even on the first touch if necessary.

5. Forget about making a great pass, a great set and a great hit. Consider ANY playable pass to be a good-enough pass, ANY playable set to be a good-enough set and ANY hit to their court to be a good-enough hit. It's a great hit if it goes to their weakest passer.

I've seen plenty of games where a team just beats itself. When your team is doing this, shift the focus from your weaknesses to your opponents' weaknesses.

Let the other team have the opportunity to screw up. They might just meet your expectations by beating themselves faster than you can.

And with all the attention and expectations focuses on their side of the net, maybe your team's communication, timing, teamwork, skills -- and luck -- will return.

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.