- Improve Your Volleyball with Coach April
- How To Play Volleyball
- How To Serve A Volleyball
How To Serve A Volleyball A Step By Step Tutorial For Beginners
With this step by step tutorial I teach beginner players how to serve a volleyball because having a tough overhand serve may increase your playing time.
When you learn how to serve a volleyball, even though it's your hand that makes contact with the ball, the following elements are super important...
- the correct positioning of your feet
- the movement of your core and lower body working together,
- a consistent volleyball serve toss and
- where your hand contacts the ball when serving are four things that will help determine how successful your overhand serve is.
Toni with the float serve during
Happy Hour Class Training
That should help explain ahead of time why much of my advice on how to serve a volleyball is concentrated on the correct positioning of your feet and lower body.
But first...
How To Serve A Volleyball
Decide Where You're Going To Serve
When you learn how to serve a volleyball you should first decide exactly where you want your serve to go.
Are you a tough volleyball server?
As a tough volleyball server, your job is to be comfortable serving anywhere and anyone from behind the service line with pace and precision in order to score points.
When you do your volleyball drills for serving practice you want to do tons of reps to every single one of the six positions on the court.
You want to be able to hit those targets from anywhere behind the service line.
Targets to aim for during your volleyball drills for serving:
-serve seams
-serves the sidelines
serve outside hitters deep in the court
Some players think that being a tough volleyball server means you need to really be sneaky and try and fake out the serve receive by not showing where you are going to serve.
On the contrary I say...let everybody know where you are going to serve.
Face Your Target.
Ready to take your serving to the next level?
I help college-prep players who've mastered basic serving but want more impact elevate to next-level serving strategy without losing fundamentals through elite training that transforms good serves into game-changing weapons.
My private training sessions are specifically designed for college-bound athletes who refuse to settle for "good enough" serving.
Limited spots available for serious players only.
When you're first practicing your serve, your ball may not always go where you want it to but no matter what, you always want to serve the ball with a purpose.
Remember that you want to have a place or a person to aim for when you serve the ball in the opposing team's court.
Identify a location on the opponent's court where your serve creates the most difficulty for the opposing team to run their offense.
For players learning how to serve a volleyball, serving with a purpose is an important part of the process.
- Are you going to serve the ball cross court?
- Will you serve down the line?
Decide what you're going to do with your serve before you serve.
How To Serve A Volleyball
What To Do With Your Feet
In order to begin the serve we first start with how your feet should be positioned.
If you are a right hander you should place your right foot parallel to your left foot so both feet are parallel to each other.
Yes, this makes them parallel to the net AND the service line also.
This means your left hip and left tossing arm should be pointed straight ahead and aimed at the target you want to serve.
Your body should be opened up and perpendicular to the net, facing the wall on your right with feet and hips parallel to the service line and the net.
If you decide to serve cross court to the opposing team's zone one (1) area, then your hip should be pointing cross court and so should your tossing arm.
You should have all your body weight equally distributed on both feet.
This should be a very comfortable position. Even though your feet are pointed towards the wall on your right, the heels of both of your feet should be on the ground.
The only lower body movement needed when you serve the ball will be a very very slight step with your left foot, in place, required when you pivot your body weight from your right foot to your left foot, after you toss the ball two feet in the air.
How To Serve A Volleyball
What To Do With Your Upper Body
Your non-serving arm should be extended straight out to the side of your body, parallel to your hip and holding the ball that you will toss in the palm of your hand.
This is the arm that you will be tossing the ball in the air with.
This would be the left arm for right handers and the right arm for lefties. It needs to be held comfortably straight out to your side and pointing directly at the target you intend to serve to.
Make sure the starting position for your left arm is straight out in front of you, not down by your waist.
Ready to take your serving to the next level?
I help goal-oriented players who struggle with float serve consistency master next-level technique without endless frustration through personalized training that makes your float serve a reliable point-scorer for recruitment videos.
My private training sessions are specifically designed for college-bound athletes who refuse to settle for "good enough" serving.
Limited spots available for serious players only.
I teach players to eliminate all extra unnecessary body movement and to be very aware of what their body is doing at all times.
(Coach ApChap)
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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.
The Volleyball Serve:
Where Do You Go From Here?
Where do you need to go now? Here are three options:
- Learn more about How To Play Volleyball.
- Follow the suggested reading on our Sitemap page Learning How To Play (Sitemap)
- Or visit the pages to learn more about the volleyball serve in the Related Links below.
Meet Tatoo the Tiger, Serving Specialist on VolleyBragSwag's All Beast Team
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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 $17.99 and start building the passing confidence that keeps you on the court—and gets you seen by college coaches.
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.
- 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
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Invest in your improvement while preepping for your next level and college goals while working hard and training smart.
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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.
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From Lady Vol to Legend: Coach April Produces Powerful Passionate Players...is that you?
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!
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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,
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Gold Medalists, 18s Premier DivisionWhat Are You Looking For?
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