Serving a volleyball can be a difficult skill to learn if you are a beginner. If you are just starting out playing volleyball, especially if you haven’t played other sports that involve overhead throwing motions such as baseball/softball, then you may need a lot of practice serving a volleyball.
The truth is, literally anyone can learn this skill. You don’t need to be able to jump well like you do with hitting and blocking. You don’t need really good coordination like you do for passing and defense.
And you don’t have to be a great athlete or be in great physical condition to learn how to serve. So, this is definitely a skill that anyone can learn.
A Chance to Stand Out
Serving is something all volleyball players need to learn how to do. And if you are looking for a way to stand out, having a tough serve is a great way to do it. For example, if you desire to make your school team, be sure to develop a great serve. Especially at the younger ages, coaches love to see players that serve really well.
To get you serving a volleyball really well, I have created a list of things you can do to help speed up the learning process.
Serving a Volleyball – Keys to Learning this Quickly
- Practice Every Day. You will benefit a lot if you spend just 5 minutes each day practicing your serve. And serving isn’t something that is going to be too physically demanding to do every day.
- Consider Strength Training. Push ups, pull ups and overhead presses are great strength exercises for serving. Especially if you haven’t done much strength training in the past, then you will see great gains in strength right away.
- Throw Objects Overhead. To be able to hit the ball over the net you need to have power. You can improve power by throwing a baseball or even a volleyball. Weighted objects such as medicine balls are also great for improving overhead strength and power.
- Consider Complex Training Exercises. Complex training is basically a fancy term for combining two exercises together. So, basically you perform one exercise immediately after the other to get the benefit of increasing power. For serving, you want to do an upper body strength exercise and follow it immediately with an upper body power exercise. My favorite combination is 5 overhead presses followed by 5 overhead medicine ball throws. After each Superset (the combined exercise sets) take 2-3 minutes rest before performing another Superset.
- Practice the Serve from Inside the Court. When learning a new skill, it’s usually best to start the easiest way first so you can start with success. So, have success first and then make things harder. If you start practicing the serve from a spot near the net, then you won’t be intimidated or frustrated by not getting the serve over the net. As you get more comfortable and confident with your serves, work your way back to near the end-line.
- Continually set tougher goals (be specific). If you are fairly consistent serving in, you don’t want to just toss the ball up and have the goal of getting the serve in the court. It’s best to set tougher goals and continue to challenge yourself. Every chance you give yourself to struggle a little, this is when you are giving yourself a chance to get better. And again, the great thing about serving is anyone can learn to do this. Serving doesn’t take a special talent. And it’s the ones that put in the most work that will see the best results.
So, here’s your chance to quickly improve at serving a volleyball.
And if you are someone looking for a chance to stand out, improving your serve just might be a great opportunity to do just that.
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