Volleyball Serve Receive – Going Beyond Perfect Passing Form

In the previous volleyball serve receive and volleyball passing drills pages, you have learned the very basics of passing. You were taught how you should keep the ball in front of your body when passing. Volleyball Pictures - Passing

That’s what you probably have heard from your coaches over and over again.

And your coaches are absolutely right: "perfect volleyball passing form" is your ultimate goal.

So that’s how you should receive the serve - every single time.

However, very often in the match it is simply not possible.

Advanced Volleyball Serve Receive Techniques

When you take a closer look at top players’ techniques they repeatedly end up passing the ball from the right or left side of their body, high above their waist level, maybe even above their head etc.

Since players are forced to use these "odd" serve receive techniques frequently, players absolutely need to practice those techniques also. We say those passes happen as often as the “perfect passing form”.

This is not teaching players to use wrong techniques; these techniques improve player’s capability to pass the ball. They absolutely are as accepted as “the perfect passing form”.

For sure it is easier to pass the ball with “perfect passing form”. Volleyball Passing Skills Techniques

And of course the goal still is to perform “the perfect volleyball passing form”, but because serving has become a very dominant and powerful in the recent years, players often don’t have enough time to perform that perfect passing form.

That is the reason why volleyball players have to learn to pass the ball all around their body.

When?

A player should use these serve receive techniques: Volleyball Techniques - Serve Receive

when passer simply does not have enough time to move behind the ball
some great outside hitters (wing hitters) use these passing techniques to their advantage. They maybe saving a step or two, which allows them to go to swing the ball quicker after ball is passed.

Why?

to increase the passing percentage, being able to pass up also the most difficult serves

How?

The similar principles compared to “perfect passing form” apply: Volleyball Serve Receive Techniques

Movement to the ball (by shuffling)

Stop the movement

You might have to turn your body away from the target.

For example when passing the ball from the right side, you’ll turn your body towards right side line and take a step back with your right foot.