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: 9/1/2007 Subject: serving
Question okay so its the summer and school is coming up and i'm trying to improve on my overhand serving. i have a long back yard in which i've been practicing, however i am finding it difficult to get the ball high enough. so i'm wondering if you can give me some tips on how to get it higher, and also my dad seems to think that its more accurate to hit the ball on its way down but my volleyball coach says hit it on the way up so if you could clear that up that would be great.
sorry its a little long but i hope you can help!
Answer Avery,
This may be the question I am asked most by young 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 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 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).
I believe your father is right. It is much harder to hit the ball on the way up. If you want to give the ball a little height hit the ball a little bit behind your ear. You are taught to hit the ball in front of you but this gives the ball a straighter line. If you hit the ball a little behind your ear your hand is up (towards the sky) and this will give you some height.
