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 important aspect of the game. Every coach should be specifying where their players are serving the ball. Whether you use your serving game to target a poor passer, take away an option for the receiving team, or you simply have a dominant server score points, your serving game should have a purpose.

The serve is the first line of attack. It should be viewed as an aggressive skill. It is also a highly mental skill; just ask one of your players that has served at match point. My old coach used to make us give her a dollar if we missed our serve on game point and 5 dollars if we missed on match point. The pressure was on! One of my players missed her serve in the fifth game when we were down 13-14. It was devastating to her. The trick is to train your players to have confidence and to be aggressive. If you always emphasize serving as having a purpose and train these skills in practice your players will respond positively. 

The most frequently used serving tactic is to target the opponent's poor passer. This requires a good scouting report In scouting you need to watch for tendencies in the passers. Do they miscommunicate on deep balls in the middle? Does one of the passers have a hard time judging deep balls or have trouble getting to the short balls? Is she consistent to her right, but erratic to her left? Giving your servers information like this and training them to use it in the serving game builds confidence. If you have found that one of their players can be broken down if consistently served to then have your servers serve her repeatedly. It isn't personal, it is the name of the game. Another tactic which can be used against an average or slow setter is to serve to her approach path. If your opponent is running a 6-2 offense this tactic will always be effective because the setter will mainly approach from the back row.

Again, scouting becomes important in this tactic. You should know the opponent's serve receive pattern and know where the setter is coming from and going. Usually a short ball in front of the setter's home base (usually right front) will disturb her rhythm. Serving a bullet to her pathway will cause her to run out of her usual path. Again, it's not personal.  If you take a little away from the setter then she will be unable to run a fluid offense.

You can serve a ball to area 4 so that she may be forced to pass the ball and will be unable to make an affective approach. You can serve deep area 5 so that the ball has to be passed from the farthest distance from the setter (more room for error). If she is stacked to the right front you can serve short to area 2 or a mid-speed serve to the area between areas 1 and 2. This should either force her to pass or it will cause congestion in the setter's home base.

We face a lot of opponents who like to serve the outside hitter that is in the front row. The thought is that you can break her down or tire her out. Some outsides get into a great rhythm when serve receiving. Scouting is the key to deciding whether that tactic would work or not.

Purposeful disruption is the name of the game. We have a player who is not exceptional at serving the different areas on the court, but is extremely exceptional at serving aces. In this case, I give her the signal to serve area 6 (the middle of the court) and let her swing away. The majority of the time she will serve an ace or create a free ball situation for our team. I am purposeful in letting her serve wherever she wants. In most levels of volleyball a server like this one can dominate a match. Don't treat this player differently. Give her serving signals just like the rest of your team, but you may want to signal area 6 unless she can hit the other areas consistently. If this is the case with one or more of your players, make her dominance a choice and make it purposeful.

The serving game should be a skill that is trained every day in practice. Make sure that all of your players are familiar with the hand signals. Use these signals in drills. With the possibility of volleyball moving to a new scoring system the serve becomes more and more important. In a timed format an ace does not take any time off of the clock and could be the difference in coming from behind. In an all-rally-scoring format a lollipop serve (an easy one), or a serve without a purpose could lead to a point for the opposition. Preparing and training your team for a specific serving game-plan will not only give your players confidence, but could possibly give you the edge over your opponent

Hand Signals:

Serving Areas: