How to Use Hand Signals In Beach Volleyball
Beach volleyball can be a very challenging sport to play. To those that have never played competitively you might thinking two players cover the entire court with a lot of luck. The reality is the partners cover an entire court with communication instead of luck. The two players in a beach volleyball game on the team always know where each other will be, based on hand signals.
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Instructions
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How To Use Hand Signals In Beach Volleyball
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Signal to your partner to the type of serve you will make when you are the server. After you receive the volleyball before walking behind the back line of the court to serve, give your partner a hand signal to indicate which side of the court you will be serving to and if the serve will be short or long.
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Placing one finger on your back indicates you will be serving to your side of the court, placing two fingers split apart on your back indicates you will be serving to the side of the court that your partner is on.
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Use your fingers to indicate how deep you will serve the ball into the opponent's side of the court. If the finger or fingers you use is facing up to the sky on your back that indicates a short serve in the front half of the court. If the finger or fingers point down to the ground that indicates a long serve into the back half of the court. If your finger or fingers are placed sideways that indicates you will be making a sky ball serve and the location will vary.
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Indicate how you will defend against a spike if you are the non serving player. Typically the player that is not serving is the blocker if the opponent spikes the ball. If you place one finger on your back before your partner serves you are indicating that you will block the line. This means you will be blocking to keep the spiker from hitting the ball directly over you or towards the boundary line on your side of the court. Your goal with this block is to get the opponent to hit to your partner's side of the court.
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Placing two fingers on your back spread apart as the non serving player indicates you are going to block the angle. That means you will allow the opponent to hit the ball over you or towards the boundary line on your side of the court. The reason for this is to take away the power spike. Typically spikes have more power when hit on an angle allowing the spiker to draw his spiking arm back further.
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If you signal with two fists this means you are not going to block at all. Instead you will drop back and try to dig the ball along with the server.
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Communicating through hand signals is also used when the ball is on the other team's side of the net in case you decide to change your blocking strategy after the ball is served.
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Tips & Warnings
Flash the signals quickly to your partner during the volley so your hands are always ready to play the ball. If the signal is before the serve ask your partner to give a verbal indication such as "ok," to indicate they saw your signal and agree.
Be very careful when signaling during a volley, the opponents might try to hit the ball over quickly on one or two hits to catch you unprepared.
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Comments
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Jessica DeVales, study up!
