The diagrams below show how it works.

Start with player 1 and 2 next to each other at one end, and player 3 opposite at the other end.

Step 1

• Player 1 sets to player 3, then runs to the other end (following the set)

Step 2

• Player 3 hits at player 2, who digs the ball back.

Step 3

• Player 3 sets the ball back to player 2, and follows the set, running to the other end
Player 1 is now ready to step in for the dig
• Player 2 hits at player 1

Continue in this sequence until you are warm, or bored, or both

Each player performs this sequence of skills:
Set
Run to the other end
Wait
Dig
Spike
Set
Run to the other end
Wait
Dig
Spike
etc…..

Draw a line about two thirds of the way back in the court and use that as your service line.

Practice jump serving from this reduced distance. You should find that you can hit it harder, with more angles.

Work on the short cross court serve and the hard line serve. Keep the ball low across the net.

Gradually move the service line back until you are back to the baseline, but try to keep serving with the same speed and angle.

This drill is designed to help you to develop a wider variety of service, and to push the boundaries of speed and angle that you are jump serving at the moment.

This jump serving drill is also great for receivers. If you have more players around, put a receiving team at the other end, and play a side out drill.

The high deep jump serve

This jump serve is one idea that might be useful to some of you out there.

Obviously serving an ace against the wind is easier than without a wind. You can hit harder, and your top spin will be much more effective. It also creates other opportunities, one of which is the high deep jump serve.

The idea with this serve is to go over the receivers head, and drop the ball on or close to the baseline. If you hit it right, this jump serve should be almost impossible for the passer to touch without moving right to the back of the court, because the ball will be dropping almost vertically.

This serve gets easier as the wind gets stronger, but in a strong wind, you really need to hit it hard.

Here’s how to do it.

Put the ball toss closer to yourself than with a normal jump serve, so that you can over run the ball a little bit. You want to hit the ball slightly behind your head, and with a bent arm. I.e. you contact the ball earlier in you arm swing, while your hand is still moving up. (Not at the top of your reach as you normally would)

This allows two things to happen. Firstly, the trajectory of the jump serve will be higher. You will need to clear the net by about 2 or 3 metres for this serve to work. (depending on the strength of the wind). Secondly, it will allow you give the ball a lot more spin than usual because you can start the contact from further under the ball, and bring your hand over as you hit it.

And that’s a bout it. Just practice really ripping that jump serve with as much spin as possible.

A word of warning! This jump serve can put a lot of pressure on your back. Because you are hyper extending more than usual to contact the ball behind your head, you really need to be careful that your abdominal muscles are in good shape, and you are nice and balanced. Always start with a good posture, and keep your abs tight throughout the serve. Don’t go and hit 50 of these in the first training. Ease into it and make sure your body is ready for the new movement.

Martin ROHRER throws down three aces in a row in his second round match - A Cup Wolfsberg Austria 2009

As I mentioned in a recent post, serving an ace is usually a matter of placement, rather than power. Having said that, the ace is often set up with a couple of powerful serves followed by a slower, more accurate serve.

This diagram shows the areas on the court where you are most likely to hit an ace.

The three across the back of the court are pretty obvious, and usually require a fairly fast serve, having said that, the closer you get to the line, the less speed you will need. The middle ball in particular often causes confusion, and is more often left with a hopeful “out” call, when both passers hesitate.

How to jump serve an ace under pressure. If I want to jump serve an ace, but also need the serve to go in, aiming at the cross court side of deep middle is my preferred option. It gives me a good length of court to work with, and allows some room for mishitting the ball left or right.

The three zones across the front of the court are where I hit 70% of my best serves. Not necessarily aces, but serves that cause my opponents problems. Notice the two arrows showing the cross court short serves. These serves need to be hit low across the net, with more spin and a little bit softer than your standard jump serve.

The reasons that I really like these two serves are that when you hit them just right, they are clean aces, and even if it’s not an ace, it is usually a very hard ball to pass well. Moving the passer forward and outwards, away from his or her partner.

So, getting back to the topic at hand: “How to jump serve an ace”

Here are a few ideas to try out next time you play a training match.

1. Jump serve two or three good deep serves to the middle zone, then follow up with a short cross court serve. Try to make the cross court player pass the two middle balls, so that he gets used to stepping to the middle.
2. Jump serve two or three high deep line serves then follow up with a short line serve. It is often hard to judge depth on a ball when it is coming straight at you. The line serve is harder to read because it is a shorter distance so the reaction time is less.
3. Aim for a different area on court every time you jump serve, so that your opponent doesn’t get into a rythm. This might make them more likely to make an error
4. Just keep bombing away at the deep middle as hard as you can

In 1999 I watched Karch Kiraly playing at a World Tour event in Lignano, Italy. He was jump serving at about 60% for almost the whole game, and I couldn’t work out why? it looked like he was just rolling the ball at his opponents so they could smack it back at him.

Since then I have played a lot of beach, and played a couple of seasons indoor, and I now have a pretty solid theory on why the worlds greatest beach volleyballer would be hitting what seemed to be a 60% top spin serve at his opponents on the World Tour.

The bottom line is that hitting an effective serve is 90% placement, 10% power. Unless you have a cannon in your shoulder, (which I don’t) even your hardest serve, will be a pretty easy pass if it’s hit straight at your opponent.

On the other hand, a slow loopy jump serve right to a deep corner is very likely to produce a bad pass at the very least.

Here’s an idea for your next two weeks training.

Develop a 50% jump serve that goes in every time.

Use that server every time you hit a serve in training, even in drills where you are just serving for another guy to work on side out. (This will help you to find a comfortable speed to hit that ball that produces a reliable serve.)

Start to experiment with a deep roll, a short serve, deep cross corner, line corner, and anything else you can think of. Work on moving the passer rather than hitting aces.

Once you are happy that you can roll a jump serve in whenever you need to. (I.e. as consistently as a safe float serve) start experimenting with a little more pace and a flatter trajectory.

Things to remember:

• Keep the ball toss directly above your hitting shoulder
• Stay nice and relaxed, with a smooth arm swing
• Contact the ball as high as possible
• Don’t try to hit the ball hard, just focus on a clean contact. (Power will come easily once the timing is good)