Serving Drills

Partner Serving
- Students are paired up with a ball between two.
- Partners serve the ball to one another, one at a time
- Students are to begin in close, completing 5 successful serves.
- After 5 serves, students take a step back with each consecutive
successful serve
Progression
- Have students serving between three students
- Increase speed of serve
- Change direction/angle of serve
KTPs
- Front foot facing partner
- Ball in front of hitting shoulder
- Transfer of weight

Figure of 8 serve
- In groups of 4, students serve to each other following a figure of 8 rotation (straight to
diagonal to straight to diagonal)
- After several successful serves, students are to change direction to go the opposite way
Progression
- Increase distance of serves
- Increase speed of serves
- Change angle/direction of serve
- Have teams compete against one another to see which group can get
back to the beginning server the quickest
KTPs
- Front foot facing the target
- Ball beginning in front of serving shoulder
- Transfer of weight

Around the world

- Targets are positioned on one side of the court, numbered 1 through to 6 on each court
- Students line up on the other side of the court with a ball each (spread across all courts)
- One at a time, students serve at the number 1 target. If they miss the target, they go to the
back of the line and continue aiming for number 1 until they hit it.
- If they hit the target, they go the back of the line, but aim for the next number.
- Students continue rotating through and aiming to hit all targets (in
order)
Progression
- Increase difficulty of targets
- Have more targets
- Increase distance and speed of serves
KTPs
- Front foot aiming at desired target
- Ball in front of hitting shoulder
- Feet spread and transfer of weight
Over the net
- Students to line up on either of the service lines each with a ball.
- Students are to serve their ball over the net, focusing on getting the ball over, rather than
serving with too much force/power
- Students on one side of the net all serve at the same time. Once all
students have served, students on the other side pick the ball up
and serve back to the other side
Progression
- Change area/angles of serves
- Increase speed at which serves are done
- Rotate between courts
KTPs
- Ball in front of the hitting shoulder
- Contact made in the middle of the ball
- Front foot aiming at target

Serve
- Students are divided into groups of four and are lined up on the service line at each end of
the court. 2 groups per court
- Each team has the responsibility to serve the ball to the other
side, and the first one to ten serves in wins. This is a king of the
court game – so the winner stays on the court.
- Each team will have one player serve at each time, and then
rotate between players and alternate with the other side. The
first team to 10 serves in stays on the court.
- After each team has determined the winner, the winning team
stays and the ‘losing’ team rotates to the next court
Progression
- Change direction and speed of serve
- Have the receiving team return the ball
KTPs
- Contact in the middle of the ball with solid surface
- Front foot towards target
- Ball in front of the hitting shoulder

(Reid, L., 2008: Volleyball Tasmania, n.d)