Serving

We already learned that serving is how you bring the ball into play, but how do you serve? There are three types of serves that are typically performed. Again, we will explain as if you were right-handed.

First is the beginner type of serve, the underhand. To do this serve, hold the ball in your left hand, low and to the right. Make a fist with your right hand, where the area around your thumb and index finger make a flat surface. Take a step forward with your right foot while swinging that arm. Make contact and continue the arc. The harder you hit it the further it’ll go. Make sure you swing straight, and if you have issues with it flying to the side, end your swing with a point to where you want the ball to go.

Next we have the overhand serve, which is a lot like a spike without jumping. In fact, it’s the exact same arm movement, except just don’t hit it as straight down. So as a recap, your left arm down quickly, rotate your right shoulder while bringing your right arm forward to swing through, hand on top of the ball, and follow-through. The footwork matches up with the underhand’s method. Toss the ball up in front of you. The goal is to throw it it a little higher than your max arm height and have it land in front of your left foot.

Overall, here’s some pointers: make sure you don’t cross the line before hitting the ball or you’ll lose a point. Also, if you don’t like your toss you can have one re-toss if you let it fall without touching it. Now let’s move on to do when the ball is too tight to the net to spike it.