How to Get Kids to Serve Over the Net in Volleyball

Five kids in a line and three out of five balls do not make it over. The reflex is to start fixing technique, and that is exactly the wrong first step. Work through this order and most serves are over the net within two sessions.

Conditions first, technique later

A child who does not have the strength for the distance will compensate: swing harder, toss the ball up to get more speed into it, rotate the whole body into it. Every one of those compensations is a fault you will have to remove later. So solve the strength problem first by making the task easier, and only correct technique once the ball is going over consistently. The order is: distance, net height, ball, technique.

Step 1: bring the serving line forward

By far the fastest intervention. Have kids start three or four meters from the net instead of on the end line. Work with a criterion rather than a clock: eight out of ten balls over and in, then a meter further back. Mark those distances with cones or lines so every child stands on their own line and nobody has to serve from a distance they are not ready for.

This has a bonus: kids see their own progress literally, because they move up a line every few weeks. That motivates more strongly than any amount of encouragement.

Steps 2 and 3: the net and the ball

If the net is at the height for the youngest age group and the ball still will not go over, drop it ten to twenty centimeters temporarily — which heights belong to which category is in the overview of net heights. Then work back up with the same eight-out-of-ten criterion.

The third dial is the ball. A lighter ball travels the same distance with less force and gives a child the chance to execute the movement properly instead of yanking at it. Which weight suits which age is in which volleyball by age.

Only then: the five checkpoints of the underhand serve

Once the child is at a workable distance with a suitable ball, then you correct. Go through these five points in this order, and work on one at a time:

1. Foot position. The leg on the side of the non-hitting arm stands forward. Right-handed therefore means left foot forward. This is the most common fault and the easiest to fix.
2. The ball is held, not tossed. On the flat hand at hip height, slightly in front of the body. Whoever tosses has to time it; whoever holds only has to hit it.
3. Contact with the heel of the hand or a loose fist, not with the fingers. The hand stays firm; the contact point is under the ball.
4. The arm swings forward, not sideways. Have the child point their hand at the target after the hit — that corrects the flight path by itself.
5. Weight from back to front. The step forward during the swing produces more force than swinging harder ever will.

The full explanation of the movement is in the underhand serve.

The faults you see most often

• Tossing the ball. Kids copy it from television and then miss half of them. Simply let the ball rest on the hand.
• Standing right up at the net thinking it will be easier. Too close actually makes it harder, because the ball then has to go almost straight up.
• Facing the net square with both feet level. Without a front foot there is no weight transfer.
• Watching the ball instead of the spot it has to go. Have the child name the target zone out loud before serving.
• Trying harder and harder. If a child starts forcing it, you went one step too far — move the line a meter forward.

Give them a number to beat

Serving is the only volleyball skill that lies entirely in the child's own hands, and therefore the most rewarding one to make measurable. Count in practice how many out of ten serves landed in, or have kids count for each other in pairs. Whoever tracks serving stats in Koach during matches sees exactly how many serves actually went in, and that gives a young server a concrete target for the following week. How to read those numbers without making them too heavy is in serving stats and aces.

When to move on to the overhand serve

Only once the child gets eight out of ten underhand serves in from the full distance. Switching earlier produces a child with neither serve reliable. The overhand version demands two extra things: a consistent toss (straight up, roughly an arm's length above the head, slightly in front of the hitting shoulder) and enough shoulder strength, which most kids have around eleven. The progression is in learning the overhand serve.

Frequently asked questions

Further reading

The underhand serve: proper technique for beginners Serving drills: building pressure zone by zone Learning the overhand serve: technique and progression