Spiking a Volleyball: Terms You Should Know
By April Chapple
Spiking a volleyball is the spectacular part of the game. That’s what everyone wants to learn and what everyone wants to see when they pay to watch a great game. To better understand some of the more commonly used volleyball spiking terms, I’ve given some explanations for the approach, the hit, the spike, and the attack.
Approach: The approach is the pattern or series of steps and/or strides a player uses to elevate themselves into the air so they can spike a ball over the net. The spike approach will vary in speed and in length according to the set a player receives. The spike approach can be compared to an airplane’s pre-flight takeoff because it needs to travel a certain distance forward in order to gain the momentum needed for it to lift itself up off of the ground.
Hit, spike: To hit or spike a volleyball requires a player to take a spike approach as described above followed by an arm swing that is used to bring the player’s hand above their head to make contact with the ball so that it clears the net and finishes in the opposing team’s court. Of the three attempts a team has, to get the ball into the opposing team’s court, the spike can be attempted on the second or third contact.
Attack: An attack is the offensive team’s attempt to get the ball into the opposing team’s court by either spiking the ball, tipping or dumping or using an off speed hit.
Kill: A kill is registered when a player has scored a point or a sideout by successfully attacking or hitting the ball against the opposing team.
Dink, tip: A dink or a tip is a slow speed hitting option for players to use to get the ball over the block to an open area of the court. In indoor volleyball, the tip is performed with an open-hand where the pads of the tip of the fingers contact the ball to push it over the block. In beach volleyball it is illegal to open hand tip the ball, but you are permitted to do the same type of shot with a closed fist making contact with the ball with your knuckles.
Cobra: The cobra shot is primarily used on the beach as a closed fist tip or shot where the player uses their knuckles to guide the ball either deep or short into an open area in the opposing team’s court. A cobra shot can also be used to tool the block.
And now I would like to invite you to get your Free subscription to the very informative and useful Volleyball Voices newsletter, that’s full of more volleyball spiking tips at volleyballvoices.com.
You’ll get access to free stories, news, and volleyball product reviews that you can use right away!
From April Chapple, creator of the volleyball news hub Volleyball Voices.com and author of the new ebook “86 Girls Indoor Volleyball Tips:How To Gain Confidence On the Volleyball Court.”
Article Source: April Chapple
Spiking a Volleyball: Terms You Should Know
This entry was posted on June 29, 2010 at 10:43 am and is filed under Spike. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.
