In order to improve a players serving technique, they should focus on these 4 fundamentals:
Their Feet – Foot placement: This is vital. If a player is right-handed, then they will keep their left foot forward and their right foot back. As for left-handed hitters, their right foot would be forward and their left foot back.
Stance – Players need to stagger their feet with their non-hitting foot forward. They should keep their knees slightly bent, their feet should be shoulder length apart, and their weight placed on their back foot.
Hands – For a player who is a right-handed hitter, they will hold the volleyball in their left hand, and prepare to hit it with their right. The opposite will be true for left-handed hitters.
Balance – Keeping their balance while they are hitting is very important and crucial. Players should practice their stance while serving in order to create good muscle memory.
Underhand Serve
This is the easiest serving technique. Although it is not common in professional volleyball, it is still used for amateur leagues. The player can perform this serve by swinging their hitting arm in a certain underhand fashion and then hitting the ball out of their non-hitting hand. They can use either the palm of their hand or their wrist to hit the volleyball. This is a good technique to practice for getting the ball over the net and to build arm strength.
Overhand Serve
The Overhand serve is performed by the player hitting the ball in an overhand motion. While they are holding the ball in their non-hitting hand, they are to toss the ball up, and then swing with their hitting hand by using the heel of their open palm.
The important aspect to a well-executed serve is to toss the ball correctly. If a player tosses the ball too low, too high, or too wide, then they will be forced to modify their stance while they try to hit the ball.
When they swing at the ball, they need to be able to swing it all the way through so that they can get as much of their body weight behind the serve and be able to clear the net.
Jump Serve
This is the most advanced serve of all the volleyball serves. For this particular serve, the player will jump into the air while they serve the ball, which helps provide more power behind their serve.
By using the Jump serve, it will either cause the ball to “float” across the net or give the ball topspin, depending on the player’s technique.
The player begins with a 2 to 3 step lead up to the end line of the volley court, and then they jump while simultaneously tossing the volleyball, carrying out their serves in a single swift motion. This specific move takes a lot of practice to perfect the technique, but is definitely the most effective at delivering a very strong serve.