Improving Serving Speed for the Volleyball Athlete

Although many KPIs can be debated from sport to sport, serving speed is one that truly matters in the sport of volleyball—and one that we can improve as coaches. When an athlete has a faster serving speed, it is more difficult for the opponent to control their passing and run their offense, therefore putting the team with the faster serve at a significant advantage. Rather than just looking to improve top speed, we must also aim to improve the repeatability of serving at higher speeds (same concept as sprinting and speed reserve), since being the faster-serving team is of little value without the ability to repeat it consistently. In this article I am going to describe the program that I utilized to improve our volleyball players serving speed in only eight weeks of training.

It is often debated which KPIs in sports have the greatest impact on player success. In my opinion, there are two that are the most important to determine the future success of an athlete:

1. Skill level/genetics
2. Health and injury history

That doesn’t mean there aren’t any other athletic traits that contribute, but when it comes to success in the sport itself, no one can argue that skill isn’t the most important factor. As sports performance coaches, we have control over the latter of the two biggest performance indicators as well as the task of improving those athletic qualities that will improve the physical level of the athlete. The whole point of our training program is to develop skills that we believe can elevate the level of our players.

The whole point of our training program is to develop skills that we believe can elevate the level of our players, says @bigk28. Share on X

The Results

First I would like to share with you the testing that we did in order to ensure consistent testing results. The following standards were implemented for each testing period:

1. Each player performed a serve they were comfortable with and one they would use during competition (jump float, standing float, and jumping top spin).
2. Each serve had to be in the court of play for it to count (there is little value in having the fastest serving speed that will cost you a point because it bounces off the back wall).
3. We recorded five serves from each athlete.
4. All recordings were taken from behind the serving player with a Pocket Radar.
5. A total of 10 players participated in fall training.

Here were the results pre- and post-testing. We looked at three key metrics:

1. Average serving speed.
2. Top serving speed.
3. Players above 40 mph.

As you can see from the table above, we had great improvements in serving speed in a very short period of time. There was an overall change in average serving speed of 4%, an increase in average top serving speed of 5.72%, and the entire team was serving at or over 40 mph post-testing, an increase from only half the team pre-testing. Our training only spanned a total of eight weeks, with the first three of those weeks being predominantly outside due to COVID training restrictions. Below, I will highlight the training we performed to elicit these improvements and the training you can implement easily with your volleyball team.

Overall Training Philosophy

We have to get away from the traditional thinking of focusing on muscular development when trying to garner specific athletic improvements. To keep it simple, our muscles are ‘dumb’; our nervous system controls everything we do. When we think about training, we must focus on nervous system demand and how we can improve its firing rate and efficiency.

We have to get away from the traditional thinking of focusing on muscular development when trying to garner specific athletic improvements, says @bigk28. Share on X

This is where my training has shifted since I got into collegiate athletics. Even when you perform an exercise that may primarily be an upper body movement, there is still demand on the entire system. Learning how to undulate throughout the week and balance high central nervous system (CNS) days with low CNS days will be critical in maximizing development of the athlete. Although many think in order to improve a quality such as serving speed that one must strictly put focus on upper body develop and put even more focus on muscular development of the deltoids, I am here to tell you that it is simply not the case. If you want your athlete to hit a harder serve, we must develop their nervous system to fire at a high rate.

The above graphic from Charlie Francis and Derek Hanson should give you a good outline on how to structure your high/low days. If you are looking for guidelines, start with this chart to structure your week—but always modify where necessary for your individual players.

Sprint Training in Volleyball

Volleyball is a really amazing sport to work with. In seven years of working with the sport, I have worked with teams that brought 100% to what we were doing and gave everything they had, both during their in-season and off-season training plans. I always knew that, in sports, we need to train speed and we need to train it year round. The residual for speed is five days with a two day window depending on the individual (three days on the short end and seven on the long end).

I always trained one day of speed with volleyball, but no timing was involved—a critical mistake I made that hindered speed development). I was lucky enough to hear Mike Boyle talk at the College Strength and Conditioning Conference Association in Missouri two years ago, where he spoke about the benefits of timing sprints on a frequent basis. Ever since then, I have been on the never-ending journey of learning how to improve speed and power. Since restrictions earlier in the year didn’t allow us in the weight room, we had a 100% speed-focused start for our eight-week plan (three weeks exactly).

Even in a sport dominated mostly by acceleration, we needed to develop an all-encompassing sprint plan that included max velocity work. I spoke in my previous article about the benefits of training max velocity as a stimulus. Max velocity training (any exercise that allows an athlete to reach their max speed) is more powerful than any other exercise that is used in the weight room and must be included on a weekly basis. These are just some of the tools I use for max velocity work:

1. Fly 10s/20s/30s (varying build ups).
2. In & outs.
3. Any sprint greater than 30 m.

Max velocity training is more powerful than any other exercise that is used in the weight room and must be included on a weekly basis, says @bigk28. Share on X

There is nothing fancy here; in order to increase max velocity, you must sprint fast. Athletes will vary in the rate at which they hit their top speed, so I recommend experimenting with your build up. I have found that my athletes need a 25-30 yard build up when doing flying sprints.

Sprint Program

This was the breakdown of our week in regards to our sprint work on a three-day split of Monday/Wednesday/Friday:

MONDAY (MAX VELOCITY FOCUS)

Reflexive Performance Reset (10-20s each zone) 

• Belly Breaths x10
• Zone 1
• Belly Breaths x10

Spring Ankle Drills (2×20-60s) (Cal Dietz & Chris Korfist)

• Drill #1 and #2

Ignition Series (2×10 yards each)

• A Series (March/Skip)
• Quick Gallops
• High Knees

Bounding Series (2×20 yards)

• Speed Bounds
• Bounds for height
• Straight Leg Bounds

Speed Drill

• 3x Wickets (10 with 6’ spacing)

Timed Sprint

• Fly 10s

WEDNESDAY (ACCELERATION FOCUS)

Reflexive Performance Reset (10-20s each zone)

• Belly Breaths x10
• Zone 1
• Belly Breaths x10

Spring Ankle Drills (2×20-60s)

• Drill #3 and #4

MB Throws (3×4)

• Underhand Behind Throws
• Underhand Forward Throws

High Knees Ankle/Hip Action (2×10 yards)

• Boom Switch Variation
• Ankle Jumps
• Crawl Variations

Acceleration Drills

• Hill Sprints 10x for 20 yards

Timed Accelerations 

• 3x Timed 10 yard sprints

FRIDAY (LATERAL MOVEMENT FOCUS)

Reflexive Performance Reset (10-20s each zone) 

• Belly Breaths x10
• Zone 1
• Belly Breaths x10

Spring Ankle Drills (2×20-60s) 

• Drill #5

Ignition Series (2×10 yards each)

• A Series (March/Skip)
• Quick Gallops
• High Knees

Bounding Series (2×20 yards)

• Lateral Bounds
• Diagonal Bounds

Acceleration/Deceleration Series (2×20 yards in 5 yard increments)

• Sprint
• Side Shuffle L/R
• Crossover run L/R
• Backpedal

Timed Sprint

• Fly 10s

I know what you are probably thinking: This is an article on improving serving speed, why is he talking about sprinting? Every single drill we implement and every single training day has a purpose in developing the nervous system. We are trying to improve the firing rate and synchronization of the nervous system. Have you ever seen someone who was serving a hard ball look uncoordinated and barely leave the ground? Didn’t think so. Serving speed is not just about upper body development, but rather total system development.

If you are going to be fast, explosive, powerful, strong, etc., then you must sprint and you must sprint often. We spent four weeks on this specific plan, but what I saw when we were able to transfer to the weight room was that there wasn’t much lost in the strength, power, and speed departments. With regards to sprint drills and workouts, they will also have to develop the lower body when it comes to the serving action in volleyball. How limited will an athlete be in serving if they lack the ability to transfer power from the lower to upper body?

If you are going to be fast, explosive, powerful, strong, etc., then you must sprint and you must sprint often, says @bigk28. Share on X

Remember, each day’s focus is to develop the nervous system. I like to treat two days with a max velocity emphasis because of how strong of a stimulus it is to run at full speed. When we sprint at max velocity we are also working on acceleration in order to get to top speed. I want to hammer home how important it is to sprint often and how nervous system development will get you the improvements in serving speed that we are looking for.

Sprint Program Breakdown

Every day starts with a reflexive performance reset to ensure proper nervous system firing. We all do zone 1 together, but if necessary athletes will do zone 2 drills on their own if they aren’t feeling ‘right’ for the day. Next we go into the spring ankle concepts I found through Cal Dietz and Chris Korfist. Remember what I said: Think of the body as a total system; if there is a kink in the armor, the whole system will falter. The body part that is in constant contact with the floor (and is the beginning of our armor) is our feet. We want to strengthen the foot-ankle complex to ensure the start of the system is firing properly. After that we begin our theme-based ignition series. Nothing special here but drills that teach us four main concepts:

• Punch the ground.
• Dorsiflexion of the foot.
• Violent arm action.
• Good upright torso position.

From there we move into bounding on our max velocity days; I don’t know if there is a better drill than bounding to teach an athlete power. I know a lot of my athletes struggled with this because it requires a high amount of force to do correctly, so don’t rush this. If I notice my athletes struggling, I slow them down and we break the movement down into separate parts. This might not be exactly what we are looking for, but regressions are necessary if the drills are not being done correctly. Then, depending on the day, we continue on to theme-based sprint drills and timing to correlate with the work we are doing. These are the average speed results we saw after eight weeks of training:

• 10 yard sprint: 1.91 —> 1.85
• 20 yard sprint: 3.30 —> 3.23
• 10 yard fly: 1.31 —> 1.22 (15.59 —> 16.7 mph)

As you can see, we had some great results with our speed-focused work. I know our speed development played a huge role in the improvement of our serving speeds.

If I notice my athletes struggling, I slow them down and we break the movement down into separate parts, says @bigk28. Share on X

Lifting

I knew we did not have a lot of time left to spend on lifting for the semester (five weeks once we were able to lift again), so I took a slightly different approach. I kept the weight room extremely basic: matching high motor neuron recruitment exercises for the max velocity days, and lower motor recruitment (or exercises that have a higher impact on acceleration) on the acceleration days. This is how the lifting program broke down for the five-week training program:

MONDAY

TIER 1 – Olympic Lift

• Clean From The Power Position 4×4

TIER 2 – Olympic Push

• BB Push Press 4×5

If you are looking for the benefits of the Olympic lifts, Carl Valle did a great job in this article. Posterior chain development of the upper body is crucial here and will aid in improving serve speed. Overhead Olympic pushes are one of the most underrated exercises that a coach can use for power development. The progression I follow is usually BB push press to power jerk to split jerk.

There are so many benefits of the overhead Olympic lifts, including total synchronization of the entire kinetic chain from the lower body to the upper body to complete a successful lift. The triceps and deltoids are needed to push the bar overhead after power is generated from the lower body, then the upper body is forced to stabilize the load; the value is incredible. 

Overhead Olympic pushes are one of the most underrated exercises that a coach can use for power development, says @bigk28. Share on X

WEDNESDAY

TIER 1 – Squat Variation + Vertical Plyometric

• Squat 5 RM
• Paused Squat Jump (3 second pause at the bottom) 3×4
• Trap Bar Jump 3×4

TIER 2 – Horizontal Press + Horizontal Pull

• Bench 5 RM
• Pendlay Row 4×5

Here we are looking to develop absolute strength (squatting is highly correlated with initial acceleration). A set of five reps at maximum weight lets the athlete calibrate how they feel for the day. If you want to work on different qualities in the weight room, you first must develop a base of strength. Since my athletes get a lot of horizontal force development throughout the week from sprint work, I decided to add a vertical plyometric series in on Wednesday with both exercises having a strength focus (paused and weighted).

Horizontal pressing is not only necessary in regards to stabilizing the shoulder in the overhead position, but it is a multi-joint movement involving both the deltoids and the triceps to lock out the movement. Pressing is a necessity for overhead athletes—don’t let anyone tell you differently. Any horizontal row will do, as again we are working on posterior development which is crucial when looking at improving serving speed. Any horizontal variation will do here, but I like how Pendlay rows force the athlete to strictly use their back to complete the movement.

FRIDAY

TIER 1 – Olympic Lift – Snatch Variation

• Snatch From The Power Position 4×4

TIER 2 – Deadlift Variation + Horizontal Plyometric

• Trap Bar Deadlift 4×5
• Paused Broad Jump 3×4
• Resisted Banded Broad Jump 3×4

TIER 3 – Bodyweight Push + Bodyweight Pull + Rear Deltoid

• Pushups 3 x Sub-max
• Weighted TRX Row 3×8
• DB Reverse Fly 3×8

Yes, our volleyball athletes perform snatches. During my seven years of training volleyball, I have yet to have one shoulder injury. As long as you are teaching the correct technique, it is a huge tool for power development as well as for strengthening the posterior chain. Since I want to accumulate a little more volume on Fridays, we will add in a lower and upper body circuit.

Deadlift is a little less taxing on the nervous system due to the lower time under tension (TUT), and we are looking for some additional horizontal power development with our plyometric series. I think it’s important to be good at relative strength, so we include pushups every week in our programming. TRX rows and reverse flies are added in at the end of the week for some more posterior chain development.

We keep our post-workout really simple. We will finish with some thoracic mobility work and some guided breathing for five minutes to activate our parasympathetic nervous system. If you want to keep your athletes healthy, thoracic mobility work needs to be included frequently. In a normal year we would usually end workouts with a banded shoulder series including the following:

• External/Internal Rotation
• 90/90 ER/IR
• Shoulder Extension

We pick and choose what exercises to add here but these are staples for us. I believe if we were able to add this in, it would have increased the improvements on our serving speed even more.

If you want to keep your athletes healthy, thoracic mobility work needs to be included frequently, says @bigk28. Share on X

Practice Serving

The last piece of the puzzle (and the most important) is the actual practice of serving with maximal intent and effort. This involves your volleyball coach being on board with the plan of trying to increase the serving speed of the players (not sure what type of coach wouldn’t be on board with this).

You can be the fastest, strongest, most explosive athlete out there, but if you aren’t practicing your serving then you aren’t going to see the improvements you want. The same concepts that apply to improving maximal speed in sprinting also apply to improving serving speed.

An Untraditional Approach

This article was about developing the nervous system to maximize speed and power in your athlete which will help develop their maximal serving speed. What you did not see were gimmicky weighted ball exercises and “sport specific” exercises to improve serving speed. I wanted to convey the message that you do not need every exercise under the sun to improve serving speed. We had little training time and limited resources, and we still saw great results. Obviously there were things I would love to have added, but you have to be able to deal with the situation at hand and adapt if you want to be a great sports performance coach.

Don’t think about improving serving speed as a singular quality that you need to be locked in on. Aim to improve the firing rate and synchronization of the nervous system by training all aspects of speed (acceleration, max velocity, and repeated sprint ability if necessary). If you train consecutive days, think about a high/low training system model that will optimize each day you have with your athletes and avoid nervous system burnout.

Aim to improve the firing rate and synchronization of the nervous system by training all aspects of speed, says @bigk28. Share on X

Make sure the message is relayed to your athletes and coaches that, when practicing their serves, they should be doing so with maximal effort and intent if they wish to see the desired result of improving their serving speed. You should individualize the program to your specific population and athlete, but using this type of outline should give you a great idea of how you can design a program to help improve the serving speed of your athletes.

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