Video: How to Serve a Volleyball

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The three basic serves in volleyball are the underhand serve, overhand serve and jump serve. Learn how to serve a volleyball in this free educational sports video.

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Video Transcript

In this clip, we're going to be talking about how to serve a volleyball. The player currently positioned in the right-back must serve the ball. He must line up behind the back line, and he must remain there until he contacts the ball. The ball must be contacted with only one hand. Under-hand, over-hand, and jump serves are the three basic types of serves. To under-hand serve, you want to hold the ball with one hand so that your dominant hand is back and goes forward and you release the ball just before contact. You're going to hold your hand with your fingers tucked and hit on the base of the ball with your palm. For an over-hand serve, you want to hold the ball at head-height, then draw back your hand like you're drawing a bow. Give it a slight toss upward; you want to swing with an open, stiff hand. Two types of over-hand serves are floater and top-spin. On a floater, you want to hit the ball on the very back-side middle of the ball and you want to hit it in a way that there's going to be no spin on the ball. The ball is going to drift and it could just fall straight down, or it could go left or right...there's no telling. It could be really squirrelly, and it's real random. It could be real nasty for the passer of the other team. On a top-spin, you want to hit the ball just over your head at a high point. Follow through with your hand so that the result is there's a spin on top of the ball. A jump serve is the last type of serve. On a jump serve, you want to toss the ball up, take an approach like you're spiking the ball, and you want to jump before you reach the line. You can land over the line, but you must take off before the line. From hitting the ball at a high point, you've got a better angle at the court. You can hit it harder with less risk of it going over the in line.

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How to Serve a Volleyball

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