15 club volleyball tryout tips from a Tennessee Hall of Fame inductee and elite club coach who's helped hundreds of athletes navigate tryouts successfully.

3 Exercises To Improve Spike Skills By Hitting With A Faster Armswing

These 3 volleyball drills to improve hitting more balls in the court with a much quicker armswing and an aggressive spike approach to help reach over blockers.

I recommend these three exercises to improve spike skills if your problem is that you have a slow spike approach and a slow arm swing. (photo Erik Drost)

Watch as outside hitter Jacob Ceci swings hard and purposefully wipes the ball against the outside arm of Tommi's block to score a point in this rally during volleyball practice.

On the court for Breakfast
Club class Kate Prior (BYU), Kamry Baily (Utah), Brooklyn Weidenheft (Univ of Connecticut), Tommi Stockham (Cal Poly) Sierra Leone Sanchez (Adam State), Ken Buen (Vanguard Univ), Jacob Ceci (GCU)

If your athlete struggles with consistent serve receive, gets subbed out, or is overlooked for playing time—this is the fix you’ve been looking for.

Struggling with passing consistency?

I help talented passers tired of getting pulled from games because of inconsistent serve receive skills BUILD passing confidence without expensive private lessons using the same 3-step system that's helped dozens of my athletes get recruited.

Download my eBook for $7.99 and start building the passing confidence that keeps you on the court—and gets you seen by college coaches.

I recommend these three exercises to improve spike skills if your problem is that you have a slow spike approach and a slow arm swing.

First you fneed to speed up the last two steps of your three or four step spike approach in order to

increase your vertical jump and
gather speed in order to create power

These exercises to improve spike approach technique focus on hitting approach speed and review the three step and four step spike approach techniques that create the power for your spiking attacks.⁠

If your athlete struggles with consistent serve receive, gets subbed out, or is overlooked for playing time—this is the fix you’ve been looking for.

Struggling with passing consistency?

Download my eBook for $7.99 and start building the passing confidence that keeps you on the court—and gets you seen by college coaches.

3 Exercises To Improve Spike Skills By Hitting With A Faster Armswing

Your hitting or spike approach is a set number of steps, usually a three-step approach or a four-step approach that you make

to gather the speed
gain forward momentum

needed to get in the air to make contact with the ball at its highest point. ⁠

Think of it this way, a hitter needs a runway to take off just like an airplane does.

When an airplane is ready for take off, it makes its approach down the runway to gather speed and velocity so that it can lift itself up in the air.⁠

Well, a player learns to do the same thing, before they can hit a ball and before they begin to initiate their volleyball spike technique. ⁠

These 3 volleyball exercises to improve spike skills focuses on you learning to hit more balls in the court with a quicker armswing and aggressive spike approach to beat blockers.

Problem: If you find yourself hitting balls out

because you’re underneath the ball that’s been set to you and
if you’re looking for ways to get the most power out of your spike approach jump… this drill could help you solve those to issues.

Hadley works on:

Solution:

👉🏾attacking the last two steps of her spike approach .. while also

👉🏾working on staying behind the ball she bump sets to herself without drifting under it.

1. Bump to yourself then

2. bump set to yourself..

3. take the last two steps of your spike approach… combined with your aggressive well timed armswing.

With your armswing..

👉🏾Keep your elbow high as you reach to hit the ball ..

👉🏾contacting it at the 12 o’clock spot on the ball.

In this version I had Hadley start with her back to the net.. just to make it more challenging.. but you don’t have to do it that way.

Good luck!

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I share alot of individual, partner and easy-to-do volleyball serving drills we do in class with my followers.

Many of these volleyball practice drills you can do at home by yourself or try at your next practice with your teammates.

If you're a B team or JV player trying to make varsity next year...your goal should be to complete 1000 reps a day of at least three of the basic skills on your own...volleyball passing, serving and setting should be at the top of the list.

From Lady Vol to Legend: Coach April Honored At UTK Champions Weekend

Lady Vol volleyball legend and record holder Coach April Chapple a University of Tennessee, Knoxville Hall of Fame Inductee, 3-time All American, 3-time SEC Champion, SEC Tournament MVP, 2-time All SEC Team is celebrated with her 1984 SEC champion teammates at Neyland Stadium during Champions Weekend on November 1-2, 2024.

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Tennessee Hall of Fame inductee, Coach April Chapple is

the first First Round Draft Pick for the first American pro indoor women's league
named to the first First Team All-Pro team for Major League Volleyball in USA volleyball history
former USA National team member
one of the few American women players named as an Italian Pro League D-I Championship Finalist, Italian Cup Finalist and Cup of Cups Tournament Finalist

April Chapple The first First round Draft Pick For Major League Volleyball the first American Women's Pro League Honored At Athlete Unlimited Pro Volleyball Match

Coach April's 2025 Private and Semi private Volleyball Training

Pre-Registration now open for 2025 Private and Semiprivate Training Sessions with Coach April . Get prepared for club tryouts or train with me during club season!

Email now for information on semiprivate or private indoor skills, individual or small group training volleyball classes and my Breakfast Club for College Players training for 2025.

Invest in your improvement while preepping for your next level and college goals while working hard and training smart.

Email me right now to register or for more information.

info@improveyourvolley.com

Serving slang is not just about individual techniques; it also relates to overall game strategy. A coach might instruct a player to serve a "short serve" or a "deep serve" to target specific areas of the opponent's court or exploit weaknesses in their serve receive formation.

Ari, my private training client and I are working specifically on serving on jump float cross court serves ...short to Zone 2

There's so much we work on to get to this point where she can contact the ball with

the same toss height and same toss location
the same armswing speed
the same timing for when her serving hand contacts the ball
the middle of the hand contacting the middle of the ball every single time
getting use to watching her serving hand contact the ball at the highest point of her jump ...before she starts to land
and finally contacting the ball in the precise spot on the ball so it goes where the coach wants the player to put it so in this case ..a short serve in the farthest short right corner on the court also called Zone 2.

kamiminerpac12setteroftheyearformercoachaprilchappleprivateclient3years

Tommi Stockham All Big West Conference sophomore former Coach April Chapple private client 3 years

katepriorallwestcoastconferencebyufreshmanformercoachaprilchappleprivateclient3years

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Dear Vegas Parent

Read my open letter to Las Vegas Jr high/high school volleyball parents about my predictions on individual and small group volleyball training trends for 2019/2021

Tennessee Athletics Honors April Chapple at Champions Weekend for Legendary Volleyball Achievements

From Lady Vol to Legend: Coach April Produces Powerful Passionate Players...is that you?

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Congratulations to my seven Boys-18s Vegas Volley club players who played in two state championship finals yesterday, the 3A and 5A State champinship finals at Sunrise Mountain High School.

TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS!

A-1 Vegas Volley VBC

In It To Win It Tournament

May 2 - 4, 2025 Tournament

Gold Medalists

18s Premier Division

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Making A-1 Vegas Volleyball history as the very first TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS! In the In It To Win It Tournament, May 2-4, 2025 Tournament, A-1 Vegas Volleyball Club Gold Medalists, 18s Premier Division