Overhand Serving

Question
I am currently in 8th grade and have been playing volleyball for 3 years.
I have tried to do an overhand serve for so long but I cannot do it. Whenever I try, my serve always hits the top of the net, but doesn't go over. I have tried many times to do this but I can't. What are some ways I can improve my overhand serve on my own??
I only have access to a court once a week and I don't have access to a wall at all.
Thanks a bunch!

Answer
Good evening Kirsten:
It's great to hear from you!
Here is an article I wrote a few years ago that I think will help some.  
If this doesn't solve your problem, please follow up or email me directly at [email protected].
Hope you've having a wonderful week!
Coach Houser

p.s.  If you have a few moments, please visit us at www.coachhouser.com. I know you'll love the smiling faces.   :)  

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The Fundamental Errors That Players Make Serving
June 1, 2008

Coach Houser:
In an article you wrote a while back about serving, you hinted at some fundamental errors players make: throwing the ball too high, twisting, following through incorrectly, etc.  That's the type of fundamental mechanics guide that I need!  Can you tell me more?  

When players are young, they pick up serving habits that help them produce the power to get the ball over the net.  They often learn famous bad habits such as the stroll, the lean, the twist, the high toss, the softball follow through, etc.  

But as the player becomes older, these habits become useless, even detrimental.  They must be eliminated.  The analogy I use at camps is, "When you first started shooting a basketball, didn't you invent a shot that was just an effort to get the ball to the rim?  It was pretty crazy looking, remember?  Then as you got older and stronger, you had to change your shot.  Make it simpler.  Eliminate all the useless movement. Serving a volleyball is the same way."  

So as the player gets older, she and her coaches "trim the fat off" her serve.  She must rid herself of all the extra movement that will create inconsistency in her serve.  When I抦 working with a girl抯 serve, I抣l tell them, 揟he best compliment you can have about your serve is when someone tells you how simple your serve looks, yet how good it is!? No, having a simple serve isn抰 an insult!  It indicates that the player is efficient and strong!  

Here抯 what I mean.  For a strong girl, the stroll is useless.  Why?  The stroll was invented by the player (or encouraged by some well meaning adult!) to create more power back when she was a little 70-pounder.  But when the player reaches 14 or 15 years old, the power it created is not only no longer necessary, but the mistakes that it creates are no longer tolerable.  

The lean, twist and softballing are habits that also must be trimmed off.  They will create the inevitable "grandma serve"-- a serve that rifles into the bleachers, making the surprised grandmas duck for cover.  Why does a lean/twist/softball result in a grandma serve?  Because as a player turns her shoulders away from the ball, the hand will move away also (the hands and shoulders are attached, you know!), thus making it more difficult to keep the center of the hand contacting the center of the ball.  All three bad habits will create an occasion pulled serve (like a "pull" hitter in baseball) or a shanked serve as the ball hits the outside of the server抯 hand.  From my experience, these habits increase a girl's errors by 5% to 10%, and that抯 more than enough to necessitate a sub each time it抯 her turn to serve!   

Again, the errors these habits created when the player was 11 or 12 were tolerable.  At 14 or 15, those errors will get a player benched!  

I have a lesson tonight with a very strong 7th grader.  The last time I worked with her, I tried to trim off the bad serving habits that she no longer needed.  She asked me, 揥hat about my power?? This is where volleyball is like tennis.  A girl has to pick and choose the times when she keeps the ball in play, and times where she can let it rip.  Serving is a time where a girl has to harness her power, serve in the court and then concentrate on serving to location.  She must do whatever it takes to rid herself of the grandma serves.

True, if a girl eliminates all the above habits, she will lose some power.  And that's FINE!  I ask my players, "You want 20 mph in the court, or 30 mph out?"

Now let抯 talk about underhand serving.  Young/small girls have a tough decision to make:  overhand serve correctly and only get about 50% in the court, overhand serve incorrectly (that has to be relearned in a few months or years) and maybe get 70% in the court, or learn an underhand serve that抣l be 90% accurate.  Many kids think that serving underhand means you're a baby, a woss, etc.  But I tell my young players, "I want you to serve 90% in the court, I don抰 care how you do it.  If you can't, you will most likely lose the privilege of serving in a match."  So on my teams, an underhand serve is not a sissy serve.  It抯 like showing your work on a math test:  Do you want to give yourself the best chance of succeeding?  or not?  

Now the toss for an overhand serve.  Some girls have a toss that's way too high.  "But coach, if I toss it lower, I can抰 serve it.? "Well, Phyllis, that's because right after you toss the ball, you drop your serving hand.  Then you have to bring it back up, prepare it, then swing.  After all that, yeah, the toss I抦 teaching you will be too low to hit.  If I dropped my arm before I served, then my toss would be too low for me also!  If you were to merely 憈oss, prepare, step, hit,?then your toss could be much lower."  

The advantage to a low toss:  the ball is only traveling about 1 mph when a player contacts it.  Anybody can hit something traveling that slow!  haha.  But if you toss the ball higher, the dropping speed increases, thus increasing error.  I've heard some kids say, "If I don't toss it high, I can't hit it."  That's like saying, "The only softball I can hit are the ones that are moving.  I can抰 hit the ones that are sitting on a T.? HUH?  That makes so sense at all.  

Players?serves are regulated by their toss:  If the server learns my method of serving, then the only she has to do to make the ball go higher is to toss the ball closer to her, i.e. more over her head.  She uses the exact same serving motion!   If the server wants to ball to travel lower, then she should toss the ball more out in front of her.  But an out-in-front toss is risky!  It further in front she tosses, then the more arm speed is required to hit the ball.  Otherwise gravity will pull the serve down into the net.  Your players must practice and practice the toss of the overhand serve, until they抮e comfortable with the toss抯 location.     

In 1988, my team finished the season tied for 1st place in the conference and we had a one game playoff, best 2 of 3 to 15, old side-out scoring.  Well my team missed EIGHT serves in the first game.  My seniors were so pumped/stressed, their serving was out of control.  Susan, especially, couldn抰 keep her serve in the court.  Well, we lost the 1st game 8-15.  The 2nd game started the same way, as we missed 5 of our first 10 serves.  One of the seniors even asked me to put in someone to serve for her.  So we finished the night with 2 freshmen serving underhand in place of two of our star players.  The two freshmen had 11 service points and TWO ACES!!!  haha.  We'll never forget it.  We WON the match, were champs, and everyone was so proud!

So my final thoughts on overhand serving:  The mantra is "Toss, prepare, step, hit".  That's it.  No lean, no twist. A follow-through isn't even necessary.  "Toss, prepare, step, hit."  Shoulders are parallel to both the floor and to the wall behind the server.  The server hits the center of the ball with the center of her hand.  

If done properly, she will notice an added benefit:  The ball will FLOAT!!!  All right!!!