Serving is a very important part of the beach volleyball game. There are some players that try to serve the ball as hard as they can every time in hopes of getting an ace like Phil Dalhausser, Casey Patterson, Ty Loomis, Anthony Medel, Brad Keenan, Jeff Carlucci, Russ Marchewka and Austin Rester on the mens side. The best ace servers on the women’s side are April Ross, Ashley Ivy, Katie Lindquist, Elaine Youngs, Nicole Branagh, Brittany Hochevar and Dianne DeNecochea. If you notice, the best ranked teams in the AVP have 1 or 2 people that serve a lot of aces. So if you are planning on making it in the AVP, you need to learn how to serve aces.

Not all aces are super fast serves like Phil Dalhausser, some of them are just really well placed or they float. A good float serve is harder to pass than a hard serve because it can move up down or to the side before you make contact with the ball. A hard serve will have a lot of top spin and it will be dropping every time, the difficult thing with a fast serve is that you don’t have as much time to react to where the ball will be. You need to find where you excel and work on it. If you have a descent float serve, work on it more until becomes great.

Are you not sure how to make your serve float? In order for a ball “move” you need to serve it with no spin on the ball. This means that you do NOT snap your wrist when serving a floater, you want it to stay float over the net without spinning forward or backward. Doing some slight variations when you are practicing serves can make a huge difference. I found that my serve moves in a different way if I lean back when I serve. Try serving in a lot of different ways until you find a serve that is hard to pass and then perfect it by practicing it over and over again.

Related posts:

1. Beach Volleyball Passing Drills
2. Beach Volleyball Terms
3. Beach Volleyball Drills

Hitting Drills
If you have seen indoor volleyball you have noticed that the person will throw the ball to the setter and then the setter sets the ball for the person to hit. In sand volleyball you add another step. The hitter will set the ball to the setter and then the setter will hit it back at them which is followed by a pass and then the set and hit. It’s kind of like one round of peppering before the hit takes place.

Volleyball Passing Drills
In beach volleyball passing is the most important play of the game following the serve. If you are a great hitter you must be able to pass well before you can get the nectar set to hit. Let’s take a look at passing form and common mistakes made by beginners. The perfect form to pass a volleyball is with your arms completely straight. You want to ball to contact both your arms simultaneously write above the wrist. Make sure not to let the ball hit the thumbs when passing. A perfect beach volleyball pass will go the middle front of the court even though your teammate might not be there yet. You don’t want to pass the ball to high because then it will be more difficult for your partner to set without doubling it. Keep the pass fairly low but still allow it to be high enough for your partner to get under it and set it with his/her hands. A great drill is to have your partner practice serves while you pass them to an imaginary teammate that is in the front middle ready to set. A common mistake that many beginners make is that they put their hands together while their arms are still bent and then straighten them. You want your arms straight before your hands come together.

Related posts:

1. Beach Volleyball Passing Drills
2. How to Play Volleyball on the Beach
3. Understanding the Beach Volleyball Game