About Steve Hagenlocher Expertise I am a Division I women`s vollegball coach. I have been coaching at the college level for the past eleven years. I am also teaching and coaching at the high school level and I have been doing so for the past sixteen years. In my spare time I;ve coach 11-12 year old girls in the CYO. I am also a certified high school referee for both varsity boys and girls. I have over 250 drills in my drill book and I believe I can be most helpful answering questions about running certain offenses and defenses.
Experience BS in Physical Education St Francis College 83
MS in Physical Education Brooklyn College 93
Expert: Steve Hagenlocher Date: 1/31/2008 Subject: overhand serves
Question I coach at an elementary school (K-8) with a volleyball team that allows 4th-8th
graders to play. We have an A team (7th-8th) and a B team(4th-6th) graders. I
would like to encourage the B team to serve overhand, but some are very small.
What are some good drills to get them serve overhand? Or....should I just stick
to underhand for the B team?
Answer Linda,
This may be the question I am asked most by young female athletes. The first thing you need to know is that serving will come. Work at it with confidence and you will soon see improvement.
The first thing I would have your players do (and had my younger players do) is serve from the 10' line. Get that over 25 times in a row. Take two steps back and get that over 25 times in a row (or when you feel good about the serve). Continue to do this until you are now serving from the end line with little problems. Some players don't like to do this but it will help.
The other thing you can have your players do, but it doesn't work as well, is try to serve the ball out deep. Don't aim for the court or for a zone; aim to hit the back board behind the end line. One thing I've noticed is that players who serve short try to hard not to serve long (as silly as that may sound).
You will get some grief from some parents because the other teams may score easier serving underhand but you are putting your players in a position to do well sooner over the next couple of seasons.
