Skills & Techniques
Serving, passing, setting, attacking, blocking, digging and the footwork that underlies every one of them.
7 articles
Skills & Techniques
Serving Types: Float, Jump and Jump-Float
Every rally starts with a serve, and the three main modern serve types — the floater, the jump serve, and the jump-float — trade off power, spin and unpredictable movement in different ways.
June 16, 2026 · 2 min read
Skills & Techniques
The Forearm Pass (Bump)
The forearm pass, or bump, is the platform players use to control a serve or a hard-driven attack — built on a flat, stable arm platform and legs that do most of the work, not the arms.
June 13, 2026 · 2 min read
Skills & Techniques
Setting Technique
Setting is an overhead, fingertip touch that must be quick, consistent and disguised — placing the ball precisely for a hitter without carrying or double-contacting it.
June 10, 2026 · 2 min read
Skills & Techniques
The Attack Approach and Spike
A spike combines a timed running approach, an explosive vertical jump, and a full-arm swing that strikes the top of the ball to drive it down and away from the block — with tip and roll shots as softer alternatives.
June 7, 2026 · 2 min read
Skills & Techniques
Blocking Technique
Blocking is a timed jump at the net meant to intercept an attack before it crosses — built on reading the setter and hitter, quick lateral footwork, and hands that penetrate over the net rather than simply reaching up.
June 4, 2026 · 2 min read
Skills & Techniques
Digging and Emergency Defense (Pancake)
Digging is defensive ball control against a hard-driven attack, ranging from a standard forearm platform to the pancake — a flat-hand save used when there is no time to get the arms under a ball headed for the floor.
June 1, 2026 · 2 min read
Skills & Techniques
Footwork Fundamentals
Nearly every volleyball skill is won or lost by the feet first — the shuffle step, the crossover step, and the attack approach all exist to get a player's whole body, not just the arms, in position before contact.
May 29, 2026 · 2 min read