How to spike a volleyball

How to Spike a Volleyball

Spiking in volleyball is a very important part of the game and consistent spiking is often the deciding factor between winning games and losing games, I would say its the only deciding factor but a team that is well versed in blocking or a team that a very high serving percentage can also impact games drastically. But that being said is a key component. There are lots of different techniques and methods when it comes to hitting as everybody has their own style of movement however with that being said there is a certain technique that should be followed as closely as possible to ensure you are getting the most power, precision, height when spiking the ball.

Footwork to Spike a Volleyball

One of the most important factors to spiking the ball that people often don’t mention is your footwork on your approach, using the correct footwork will not only drastically improve your timing so that you are in the right position when the ball is at the right height to hit, but it will also drastically improve the height of your jump and your body position to allow you to execute the spike.

So what is the correct footwork?

The first thing you want to do whether you have passed or not is get in to the right starting position. Now depending on what side/ position you are hitting from this will differ each time. I will cover this in more detail in my article about player roles. However as a brief overview if you are a right handed player, playing on the right side in beach or in the opposite position indoor you will most likely start approximately 3m (or 3 steps) away from the net and you will most likely step inwards towards the centre of the court. The reason you would step inwards is because you want to give yourself the best chance of having a good hit with your right hand, if the set does not go far enough and the ball ends up on your left side it will be very hard to attack the ball with power. Now if you were a left handed player on that side the opposite would be true and you would want to step outwards away from the court to ensure that even if the set goes very wide you still have a chance of keeping it on your left hand. Again the opposite would be true if you were attacking from the left side.

So to summarise if you are right handed on the left, step outwards and start approximately 3m off the net. If you are right handed on the left step inwards. If you are left handed the above would be flipped over.

Now let’s get onto the footwork proportion. When approaching to hit a ball you use a 3 step process, now these 3 steps go from slow to quick and also long to short. Now what I mean by this is you will take 1 explosive step with your left foot (When hitting from the left). You will then take a big second step with your left foot, your final step you will be shorter and used to square your body up with the setter or setting trajectory, when your 3rd step touches the floor you explode upwards off of both feet to ensure you jump towards the sky as opposed to towards the net.

How to Use Upper Body and Arms to Spike a Volleyball 

The next thing to consider is what you need to do with your upper body and arms.

It is important to ensure when approaching to hit the ball using the aforementioned footwork that your upper body stays upright and straight this will ensure that when you jump your momentum is going upwards rather than forwards towards the net. The next thing to ensure is that when you take your 2nd set your arms swing out behind you that when you take your 3rd step you can use your arm swinging forward to generate further power and momentum when jumping.

Now you have the approach and jump let’s get into the actual hitting action. When you jump using your arms as mentioned above it is important to keep them both up, depending on which hand you are predominant you will use the opposite hand as your guide and also you anchor point to ensure you body remains extended and strong in the core. Your hitting arm will go behind your head in a bent motion, if your can picture a person pulling back a bow and arrow this is the position you want to adopt with your hitting hand. 

If you perform both of these correctly it will resemble something similar to the nike swoosh logo.

The next you do is using your hitting arm like a whip you want to push your elbow through towards the ball and extend your arm to ensure you are contacting the ball at the highest possible point. As you contact the ball bring your anchor downwards sharply and contract your core to utilise your full body weight and momentum when hitting. 

You want to hit the ball with an open hand and you want to try and wrap your fingers over the top of the ball to create a downwards topspin motion. This will cause the ball drop more quickly making it harder to defend.

What shots can you use if the set isn’t right to hit (Indoor Volleyball)

Sometimes when playing the set just isn’t right for you to spike the ball, this could be for a number of reasons, the setter is having an off day, the first pass isn’t good enough to give the setter a chance or maybe you as the hitter can’t get the right timing. Well it is important that you have other hitting options when playing to make sure you don’t give the other team easy points.

If the set is good but your timing is off you may want to use what is referred to as a tip, a tip is when you slow your arm swing down and gently push or place the ball either past the block or the most common use is to place the ball just over the block as they are on their way down. Because you as the hitter slow your arm swing down you will cause the blockers to jump to early so you can simply push the ball over the block with the aim to land it just the other side of the blockers so that the defenders don’t know whether to take the ball or let the blockers turn and play it.

The next situation is what to do if the set is off the net. If the set is off the net and you simply can’t attack the ball it is important to know what the most effective options are. The first option you have is to perform the handset directly over the net (See article for how to perform a handset). You would either try and handset in to space between the front row and back row or alternatively you would want to handset to the back corners so that the other team have a harder time getting a good pass into the setter. 

The last situation you may face is if the ball is set to tightly to the net, you really have 2 options in this situation and each option would depend on just how tight the set is. If the set is 50/50 on your side and the opposition side and there is already a block from the other team you may have to perform what is referred to as a joust.

A joust in volleyball is when you both jump in a blocking motion however you both press the ball to try and force it down on the opponent’s side.

See picture for example.

*Pro tip*

If you want to win the vast majority of your jousts make sure you jump after your opponent, if your momentum is going upwards when your opponent is going down it will be much easier to push the ball down on to your opponent’s side.

The other option you have when the ball is set very tight to or on the net, if you do happen to jump before your opponent you may be able to perform what is known as a wipe. This is when you intentionally aim to hit your opponents block in such a way that it comes off them and goes out of bounds.

What shots can you use if the set isn’t right to hit (Beach Volleyball)

As noted above, sometimes the set just isn’t right to spike the ball. Not only do you have all of the aforementioned reasons you also have to compete with the weather moving the set around making it harder to hit the ball. So with that being said what shots can you play if you can’t spike the ball.

Now beach volleyball is slightly different to indoor as you only have 2 players on the opposite team to beat rather than the 6 you face when playing indoor.

This means you have much more real estate to aim for and beat your opponents. The most commonly used shots in beach volleyball when not spiking is the line over shot and the cut shot.

The line over shot is when you hit the ball over the blocker to make it land down the line in which the opposition player is blocking (To learn more about blocking read this article). The reason for this if the blocker is lining up to block line, the defender will be in the cross court position so you will have a large area behind the blocker in which you can place the ball. This shot can be used at all times, by this I mean you can execute this shot when the set is perfect, too tight or too far off the net. However it is worth noting that if the set is too tight you may have a difficult time to hit over the block, where as if the set is too far away from the net, the blocker may be break meaning the line over will be much harder to perform.

The cut show is when you when you hit the ball diagonally over the net trying to land the ball as close to the net on the opponent’s side as possible. See below image for reference.

This can be very effective if the set is too tight or if the set is perfect however it is worth noting it would be very difficult to execute this shot if the set is too far away from the net.

Some other honorable mentions regarding shots you can execute in beach volleyball are the jumbo (sometimes known as the rainbow or jumbo shrimp) and also as noted in the indoor the joust or wipe shot.

The jumbo is when you play your shot high and loopy so that it arch’s over the opponents reach with the intention of getting it right in the back of the court. This is why it is sometimes referred to as a rainbow shot. This shot again can be utilised in nearly all situations however it must be executed very well when playing against strong opponents.

 

Thus concludes my article on spiking now get out there and start showing up your friends on the court.