Serving technique is commonly diminished by coaches to a reasonably easy thought: discover the weakest passer and serve them. There are undoubtedly occasions that is smart. If there’s a clear weak passer, repeatedly placing them below strain may be very efficient.
However serving technique ought to be about greater than choosing the passer with the lowest ranking. You even have to consider what your server can truly execute, what impact you need the serve to have on the opposition offense, and the way the receiving crew is organized in a specific rotation.
After which there may be one other query – who ought to truly determine the place the ball goes?
Begin with what your server can truly do
Earlier than worrying in regards to the opposition, begin with the particular person truly serving the ball.
Totally different gamers have totally different serving capabilities. One could have a really efficient deep serve into Zones 1 and 6, however wrestle with Zone 5. One other could also be notably good at dropping the ball quick. Another person may generate sufficient tempo that merely hitting their most well-liked space aggressively creates extra issues than making an attempt to pick particular places. This issues.
Suppose your scouting tells you the opponent’s weakest passer is in Zone 5, however your server’s weakest goal is Zone 5. Does it make sense to ask them to place the ball there?
Possibly, if the weak point of the passer is massive sufficient. Very often, although, you’re higher off having the server use their strongest serve in opposition to a barely higher passer. I mentioned this in additional element in Is looking service targets helpful?.
There’s an inclination for coaches to suppose first in regards to the superb goal and solely then in regards to the potential of the server to hit it. I feel we should always possibly reverse that – whereas coaching our gamers to have the ability to serve successfully to any a part of the courtroom, and from wherever past the tip line.
What are you making an attempt to perform?
Serving powerful isn’t actually an goal in itself. You’re making an attempt to make the opponent’s offense much less efficient.
An ace clearly does that fairly properly, however most serves aren’t aces. The extra actual goal is to create a state of affairs from which the receiving crew has a decrease chance of siding out.
There are a number of methods you may accomplish that.
- Assault a weaker passer.
- Pressure a specific participant to obtain after which transition to assault.
- Put the setter in an ungainly motion sample.
- Attempt to get rid of or scale back the effectiveness of a center assault.
- Serve to an space which tends to supply a extra predictable set.
These targets don’t essentially result in the identical goal. That’s why merely saying “serve the weakest passer” doesn’t actually represent a lot of a serving technique.
Generally a nasty cross isn’t sufficient
I as soon as watched a males’s match the place a server repeatedly focused the opposition’s weakest passer. On the floor, it made excellent sense. The man was not a great passer in any respect.
The issue was that he was by far the opponent’s greatest attacker as an OH.
The serve continuously produced an imperfect cross, as meant, however the path of the cross truly made the ensuing set pretty predictable. The setter ended up placing the ball exterior to the participant they most wished attacking anyway.
The serving crew had succeeded at creating poor passes with out succeeding at creating a very helpful state of affairs. I wrote about that instance in When to not serve their weakest passer.
The essential level is that cross high quality is barely an intermediate consequence. In the end, you care about what occurs to the opposition’s potential to attain. A serve that produces a 2-pass adopted by a extremely environment friendly assault isn’t essentially higher than one which produces a 3-pass however disrupts the offense in another helpful approach.
Take into consideration the offense, not simply the passers
That is the place serving technique turns into extra attention-grabbing.
Think about an opponent whose setter struggles to run a quick offense when the ball is handed from behind them. You may subsequently goal Zone 1 even when the passer there isn’t notably weak.
Or maybe a crew depends closely on its center attacker. A brief serve that forces that participant into the reception sample or delays their strategy is likely to be helpful even when it doesn’t produce a nasty cross.
Serving deep towards a front-row exterior hitter can create related points. The target isn’t essentially to ace them, however fairly to make their transition into assault harder.
These are all examples of serving to affect what occurs after reception fairly than merely making an attempt to decrease the passing rating.
Serving technique ought to change by rotation
The perfect serving goal most likely isn’t the identical in all six rotations. Passers transfer. Setters transfer. Entrance-row attacking choices change. Reception formations change. Meaning the implications of serving a specific space additionally change.
Maybe Zone 1 is a robust goal in a single rotation as a result of it places the setter below motion strain. In one other rotation, the setter is already positioned otherwise and the identical serve accomplishes little or no. A brief serve is likely to be helpful when a specific center is entrance row, however much less essential when that participant rotates out.
That is why I want pondering by way of the issue you’re making an attempt to create fairly than merely assigning a hard and fast goal to a participant for your entire match.
Gamers are targets too
Coaches usually speak about serving zones, however there’s a distinction between serving an space and serving an individual. Generally you need the ball in a specific a part of the courtroom no matter who takes it. Different occasions the target is to power a selected participant to make the primary contact.
These aren’t at all times the identical factor.
You may even wish to serve right into a seam particularly since you’re making an attempt to create uncertainty between two receivers fairly than goal both participant individually.
There are many methods to outline courtroom places. Most coaches use the usual six zones and maybe add seam targets. You may get way more detailed if you need, as I outlined in Superior volleyball serving zones.
The extent of element isn’t the essential half, although. The gamers want to know what the goal is meant to perform.
Don’t sacrifice serving high quality for tactical precision
That is most likely the largest warning I’d provide. An optimum goal solely issues if the server can hit it with ample high quality.
A participant could also be able to placing a ball into a specific zone, however doing so may require them to take a lot off the serve that the tactical benefit disappears. I’ve undoubtedly seen this.
A coach alerts a brief serve and will get a tender ball that lands quick however causes no actual problem. Or the coach requires Zone 1 and the server delivers a snug standing float as a result of they’re so centered on accuracy.
Technically, the participant hit the goal. Strategically, the serve achieved nothing.
I usually need gamers to develop an aggressive comfy serve first. From there, we will increase the vary of areas they will assault with out sacrificing an excessive amount of serving high quality.
The power to hit targets is helpful. It shouldn’t come on the expense of truly placing strain on the opponent, although.
Who ought to select the serving goal?
Once I was a younger faculty assistant coach I at all times signaled serving zones from the bench. It was a part of the scouting course of, and it appeared completely regular that the teaching workers ought to determine the place the ball went.
In progressing my teaching and pondering, although, I stepped again a bit from that. As I wrote in To Name Service Targets, or To not Name Targets, that is largely a player-development difficulty for me.
Additionally, it’s laborious to keep away from the conclusion that calling service targets is a approach for a coach to really feel they will management one thing throughout a match when there’s a lot they will’t. We must always really feel like we’d like that sense of management.
I need gamers – particularly youthful ones – studying to determine what is going on on the opposite aspect of the web and make helpful choices themselves. Gamers always need to learn, determine, and adapt. Serving presents an excellent alternative to develop these talents as a result of there may be time earlier than each rally to evaluate the state of affairs.
If I’m always telling gamers the place to serve, they’ve little purpose to develop that a part of their sport.
That doesn’t imply coaches shouldn’t name targets
There are actually occasions once I give a selected serving instruction.
Maybe we’ve recognized one thing in scouting that I need strengthened. Possibly I’ve seen a change within the opponent’s reception sample. It would merely be that the server hasn’t acknowledged one thing I feel is essential.
Even then, although, I’d usually fairly level out what I’ve seen than simply give the participant the reply. As a substitute of claiming “Serve 1,” I would draw their consideration to the place the setter is beginning or the place a specific passer has moved.
That creates a possibility for the participant to succeed in the conclusion themselves.
There are additionally gamers and groups for whom extra path is smart. Youthful or much less skilled gamers could not but have the power to acknowledge helpful serving alternatives. In that case the coach can present extra steering whereas step by step shifting accountability towards the gamers.
On the different finish of the spectrum, you may take the serve decision-making away from excessive stage gamers to permit them to save lots of that work for issues like hitting and setting selections. I anticipate my groups to make use of their brains so much once they play. Lowering the cognitive load by giving them serving targets offers a little bit of a break in that regard.
Make serving technique a part of apply
In order for you gamers making good serving choices in matches, they want alternatives to make them in apply. Merely telling gamers to “serve powerful” received’t develop a lot tactical consciousness.
Whenever you’re taking part in 6v6, ask servers what they’re . Have them determine the reception formation. Ask what they suppose serving a specific space is more likely to accomplish.
You too can create particular issues.
Give one aspect a robust center assault and ask the serving crew how they could restrict it. Put a weaker passer in a specific rotation and see whether or not servers acknowledge the chance. Change the reception formation and ask what that does to their goal choice.
Now serving turns into a part of the tactical sport fairly than one thing that merely begins the rally.
Have a plan, however don’t turn out to be trapped by it
Scouting can provide you helpful serving targets earlier than a match. That’s a great place to begin. But it surely’s nonetheless solely a place to begin.
Possibly the participant you recognized because the weakest passer is passing extraordinarily properly that day. Maybe a distinct participant is struggling. We’ve all skilled that kind of factor with our personal groups!
Possibly the opponent has modified its reception formation or the setter is making totally different choices than anticipated.
Your gamers want to acknowledge these issues. So do you.
Serving technique ought to adapt to what’s truly occurring, fairly than proceed blindly as a result of one thing was written on the scouting report.
The perfect goal relies on the state of affairs
There isn’t one reply to the place you must serve.
The weakest passer is likely to be the precise goal. A seam is likely to be higher. A specific zone may disrupt the setter or take away an attacking choice. Or the very best resolution may merely be to let your server hit their strongest serve into the realm the place they really feel most assured.
The essential factor is knowing why you’re making the selection. For me, a helpful serving resolution comes down to a few issues:
- What downside are we making an attempt to create for the opposition?
- What can this explicit server execute successfully?
- What is going on on this rotation proper now?
If coaches and gamers are eager about these questions, serving turns into way more than placing the ball in play or aiming on the weakest passer. It turns into the primary tactical motion of the rally.