Volleyball serve receive rating: the 0-5 scale and what is good

A volleyball serve receive rating turns 'that pass was fine' into a number you can follow over the weeks. Below you find the 0 to 5 scale for reception and serve, what each number means, how to calculate an average and convert it from the old 0-3 scale, and how Koach shows it.

What is a serve receive rating?

A serve receive rating (often called a pass rating) is a number for every pass off the opponent's serve. It does not measure whether the ball went up, but what your setter could do with it. A pass right on the setter's spot keeps every attacker open. A pass towards the end line only leaves a high ball to the outside. That is the difference between siding out with one attack and a rally you have to survive.

The best-known scale runs from 0 to 3; you also come across 0 to 4. Since October 2026, Koach uses a 0 to 5 scale, for reception and for every other ball contact. How to track reception in general, and why the pass is the most important ball, is in tracking reception quality with pass ratings; that guide still uses 0-3. How reception fits in among your other match stats is in understanding volleyball statistics.

The 0 to 5 reception scale

The middle column shows the word under the button in Koach. The right column is a description you can agree on with your scout, so everyone gives the same rating:

Serve ratings: the mirror image of the pass

You rate a serve by what it let the opponent do. The scale is roughly the reverse of the reception scale: the worse their pass, the higher your serve rating. American coach John Forman, who also uses a 0 to 5 scale for serving, describes it as largely an inverted passing scale (source, checked in October 2026).

What else to do with serve ratings, beyond aces and serve errors, is in serving statistics: aces and serve pressure.

Calculating a reception average, and why that is not enough

Say a passer receives twelve serves in a match: two 5s, four 4s, two 3s, two 2s, one 1 and one 0. Added up that is 10 + 16 + 6 + 4 + 1 + 0 = 37. Divided by 12 passes, the average is 3.1.

A second passer also receives twelve serves and gets a 3 every time. That average is 3.0, almost the same. Yet the two played a very different match. The first gave six passes with which nearly anything was possible (6 of 12 is half), but also gave up an ace. The second was reliable, but your middle never got a quick set after those passes. So next to the average, look at the spread: how many passes were a 4 or 5, and how many were a 0.

From 0-3 to 0-5: how to convert

You convert an average on the 0-3 scale to 0-5 by multiplying it by 5 and dividing by 3. A team average of 2.1 on 0-3 becomes 2.1 × 5 / 3 = 3.5 on 0-5. Koach does exactly that with reception ratings from matches played before the 0-5 scale, so old and new matches fit into one average.

For a single pass the conversion is not clean. A 2 on 0-3 (good pass) becomes 3.3, but on 0-5 you choose between a 3 (No quick) and a 4 (Good). So compare averages over a whole match or more, not single ratings.

What is a good serve receive rating?

There is no official standard. American coach John Forman writes that teams on the 0-3 scale aim for an average of 2.0 or better, and that the best passers end up around 2.3 to 2.4 (source, checked in October 2026). Converted to 0-5 that is about 3.3 for the team and 3.8 to 4.0 for the best passers. Treat that as a guide: the words behind the numbers differ per scale, and those benchmarks come from a higher level than most club teams play at.

Two questions say more about your own team than one number. How many passes were a 0, meaning an ace against? And how many were a 4 or 5, so you could attack in system? What those good passes earn in points is in first ball side-out after a good or bad pass.

How to give reception and serve ratings in Koach

You give ratings in Expert mode. You choose it on the start screen under Scoring, or during the match via the menu at the top right. In Simple mode you give no ratings. Expert is meant for someone who does nothing but keep track, such as an assistant; the whole workflow is in scouting your own team. The pillar guide on live scoring is tracking a volleyball match live.

• When the opponent serves, the rally starts at the Reception step. Under Who? Optional you tap the passer, or leave it empty; the rating then counts for the team. A 0 gives the opponent the point right away, as a bad pass by the receiver. A 1 (Back over) jumps to the Block step. A 5 is just a rating, not a point.
• When you serve, the rally starts at the Serve step, with the server already selected. A 0 is a serve error and a 5 is an ace: both book the point right away. A 4 (Free ball) takes you to the Free ball step.
• When the opponent misses a serve, tap Their error at the Reception step. You get the point without a reception rating being added.

Where do you see the ratings?

• After the match, under Stats, the Skill ratings block shows per skill the count, a distribution bar from 0 to 5 and the average. The weakest skill is the headline at the top, for example Reception was the weak spot. Under Per player, pick the Reception chip for each passer's average. In the Rotations table a Pass column is added, with the average per rotation and the share of good passes.
• In the player profile, under Stats > Ratings 0-5, each skill has one bar: the share of ratings 0 to 2 against 3 to 5, with the average next to it. As a coach you see the whole team's share as a marker in the bar, once the team has at least ten ratings. Players see their own bars, without that team marker. For a libero, reception gets its own Reception block with Avg. reception and a line over the season.

Note the difference in wording: after the match Koach counts a 4 or 5 as good, while the profile looks at the share of 3 to 5. Old reception ratings on 0-3 only count towards the average in the profile; if a skill consists of old ratings only, it says Only older 0-3 ratings. Expert mode is included in both plans; the prices are on the pricing page. To improve the pass itself, start with your serve receive formation.

Frequently asked questions

Further reading

Tracking reception quality: pass ratings per player First ball side-out in volleyball: what a good pass is worth Scouting your own volleyball team: a rating for every touch

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