I know that in our program, we have a progression plan that the players work on every practice. We want our players to focus on doing the correct procedure, and not worry so much if it goes over as long as they are doing the steps correctly. Many girls, especially elementary aged players, are very small and don't have a lot of arm strength. With time, strength will develop as they grow.

Our progression is as follows:
Have the players start on their knees and work on lifting the ball in front of their hitting shoulder. They should pick a spot on the gym floor where there is an an X and line that up with the hitting shoulder. The player should work on lifting the ball and having it land on that X. The hitting arm should be straight up when doing this.

From the knees, the player should progress to standing up and doing the same type of lift. The player can also work into stepping into the ball (transferring weight from the back foot to the front). The hitting arm should still be straight up and the ball should still land on the same X.

After doing this lift about 20 times, the player will next move to a wall and stand about an arms length away from it. The player will lift the ball as they did with the X but this time they will stop the ball on the wall as if they are going to serve it. We call this "hand stops". The players see if the lift is in the correct position, if their hand is contacting the ball in the correct position, and it helps them work on timing when it comes to the serve. The same form is always used for each step of the progression - the only difference is the hitting arm is now moving.

After doing about 20 hand stops, the player takes several steps back and serves at the wall using the same form. If done correctly, the ball should come directly back to the serving hand. If not, the ball will go in different directions and the player should be able to evaluate where the is being incorrectly contacted. After 20 of these, the player finds a partner and begins work serving over the net. Both players start about the 10 foot line and works their way back when serves go over the net. If the ball is not going over, they don't move back.

As I have said, repetitive movements that are done correctly help with serving more than conditioning do. We have the smallest girls able to serve overhand effectively because the correct form is being used rather than dropping the shoulder and elbow and "strong-arming" it over the net.

you can do ab exercises which strengthens your abs. that is what i did to get my overhand serve over the net because your abs are what makes you a strong volleyball player. that is what my volleyball coach tells my team everyday we go to practice. also make sure you are throwing the ball in front of you. if you are a right handed person throw the ball towards your right foot and if you are a left handed person same thing just your left foot. hope that helps tell me if it does. i am a volleyball player so if you want to talk about volleyball im here.

umm i no nothing about volleyball but my little sis has been doing it for her elementary and middle school now shes in 9th but she says she just serves the ball up and serves it normaly and she just keeps doing that and it gets better..also confidence is the key to any sport that u want to improve on (:

lift weights for your arm muscles (obviously) but do it often. you will gain more power and more ball control which will allow you to spot serve and serve it powerfully

As in some of the answers above, CORRECT repetition is the best way to improve your serve. I have been playing volleyball for 4 years now and i have played with girls who can't get the ball over the net because they did not learn the correct way to serve when they first learned. First, be sure you have learned the correct way to serve. Second, start repetition practice. Stand with your left foot forward (opposite if left handed) about shoulder width apart with your left hand under the ball and your right hand on top. First, just toss the ball up in front of your hitting arm. (it should land just about in front of you). As you do this raise your arm like you would hit the ball. After you get that down, you can move on to stepping "into" the ball. when you toss the ball up, take one step with your right foot and hit the ball. Don't worry if it doesn't go over the net right away. The power will come as you progress.

I was currently last year a sophmore playing varsity volleyball and i was one of the best servers in our league. People have said that your abs legs and arm muscles help and thats fine you can try those things. But while you are getting ready to server take maybe one or two seconds and just study the ball. Make your throw so it isnt very high and then when its right at the perfect height hit it. Snap your wrist and maybe just to get used to the feeling have your serving hand grab your opposite waist side. This will help with your follow through, and that my friend is key.

my coach always has us toss the ball up in the air in front of the wall and have our arms to our full extent then we hit it as hard as we can onto the wall. it helps you learn how to hit and helps your arm stay stable.

maby I'm on the varsity squad in highschool

make them start from half the court and serve over and after each one that goes over take a step bak

OK, I saw a few different answers here and some are the obvious and some are totally wrong. Weights are never good for younger athletes. So I would not suggest that. Serving is a combination of trajectory and arm speed. THe lower the balls trajecry the more likely it will hit the net or go under. Arm speed is different than arm strength. Like anything in sports, the more you do it, the more your body will respond to the action. Take a few of these steps and try them out.
1. Hold ball eye level
2. Find a spot on the opposite wall about 15 feet high and try to aim to it.
3. Toss ball 3 to 5 feet high and infront of you about 1 foot.
4. Step toward the ball, spot or reach with your non hitting hand and follow through with your hitting hand ( Think of a swiming motion- If you are right handed, Reach or spot with your left hand, and as you begin your arm swing with your right arm, you will begin to pull your left arm toward you left hip).
5. As you contact the ball finish with your left foot pointing toward the target and your wrist snap hould be facing target and down at the floor about 5 feet infront of you.

Try this and see how it goes. Putting it into word it tough. But if you can begin to feel comfortable doing it this way it will become easier and you will nolonger need to find that spo on the back wall. You will find a spot, step towrd the spot and finish the swing toward the spot....the ball will follow your direction.
Good Luck

yea you can take your ball and act like your gunna serve up against a wall or any flat service thats what we do to help some of the grls to get there overhand serves and i do it too just to warm up

in our practice for everything we miss we do 5 push-ups

I am a select player and i wondered that too. So i started doing push-ups and a lot of practice and also putting a spin on the ball really helps confuse your apponet.

what i do is pretend that the volleyball is somebodys head (that i don't like). i also just serve againest the wall and aim for the upper half like i was serving over the net

Patty,
The power behind a serve comes from properly shifting your weight from your back foot to your forward foot during the lift. Do not allow your hips to rotate past square to the net. You can prevent that by dragging the toe of your rear foot after the serve.Serving is one of the few volleyball skills that you can practice without a partner or even a net. A wall with a mark at net height works just fine.

my daughter wants to play volleyball! i dont know anything about it. there are not any places around here that teach it. she is going to be tall i think. she is seven and almost 4 foot tall. would she be great for this sport? how could i teach her the basics. should i even attemp this. Would she even get scholarships one day if thats what she wanted to do. please help how do i start?

Earline,
Seven is a bit young for formal volleyball training, but just becoming familiar with the ball would help. She will need some basic skills training though. You may want to check with your local YMCA or check the USA Volleyball website for clubs in your area.
Your daughter is way to young for you to even be thinking about scholarships. Right now the emphasis needs to be on having fun with a variety of activities.

I ALWAYS SPIKE THE BALL AGAINST THE WALL TO WARM UP MY ARM AT PRACTICE. AT A GAME I JUST DRIBBLE WHEN GOING TO SERVE.

i'm learning to overhand serve and something that has been really helpful is volleyballvoices.com. they have an e-book called how to stop serving like a wimp + it's free!

For my volleyball team, we do a lot of pushups. But we dont do them fast. we do them slow. so you take 5 seconds to go down., and 5 seconds to go back up with makes the muscle work harder. And do a lot of planks also stregnthens your arms

I have my girls serve basketballs over the net. This builds up your arm speed and strength. So when you get ready to serve volleyballs, they will go over the net more powerful and accurately.

In addition to getting many serving reps, I coach my players to use the elastic band exercises that you learn from almost any physical therapist who works with volleyball players. Pat Powers also has some great videos of these exercises on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6MMD5L7498). If that link doesn't work, just search for "Rotator Cuff Exercises vbclinics" and you'll find one with video and another with the text of Pat's explanation.

while i was doing gymnastics and playing volleyball i had bad back problems that left me injured and hurt, when i started conditioning for volleyball i had my back taped from physical therapy so my coach told me to use a medicine ball put one of my hands on the ball in a push up position when you do the push up have your hand follow the shape of the ball as if you were snapping the ball

U can partic w/ soup can (full) like waits it really works!!

Great responses here. I'm not sure why I'm weighing in, but really like the wall drill in the first response for teaching proper mechanics. I also like the idea of teaching "weaker" girls to generate the proper arm speed and mechanics by throwing the balls back and forth over the net using the "elbow high" while shifting weight concepts. The idea is to build "muscle memory" as the foundation for generating arm speed and proper mechanics.

I use all of these with my U12 and U13 programs, because they work. There's no substitute for repetition to build consistency, but you need to enforce proper mechanics first. Otherwise, you risk making the wrong things habit.

Of course, the Pat Powers video is awesome, too. I have my own daughters doing that when they're off-court to prevent injuries and build stability in the rotator cuff area. Here's that link again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6MMD5L7498

Good stuff coaches! I'm always glad to see people who know what they're talking about sharing their talents.

I play soccer but I play Volleyball for my school and I would look up some information on that on the internet or look it up and ask.com....that will help out alot

I say, take the ball and first try throwing it over the net like you would throw a soft ball (i say soft ball, cause it is heavier and bigger) to strengthen your arm and muscles.

well for the serve first u kind of like just whack it to the ground with your palm then hold it straight out infront of u and also stand sideways so u can use all your strength to hit it and a good technique is to put your hitting hand flat on your head with the back of your hand on your head and time it perfectly then step forward and use your hips and the palm of your hand, never try to hard or u will just miss cuz that is what happens to me atleast. and that's about it

well for the serve first u kind of like just whack it to the ground with your palm then hold it straight out infront of u and also stand sideways so u can use all your strength to hit it and a good technique is to put your hitting hand flat on your head with the back of your hand on your head and time it perfectly then step forward and use your hips and the palm of your hand, never try to hard or u will just miss cuz that is what happens to me atleast. and that's about it

just try try again

yes get a volleyball and serve it against the wall. do that everyday and you will get your serve down in no time. remember volleyball is a hard sport so practice everyday/

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medicine balls

push ups
medicine ball
just tossing and hitting it against the wall 100 times inly standing 10ft.away and hitting it right in front of their face
core strengthening
tons of practice
lifting light wieghts