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Serve Receive: Keep it Simple

-By Tom Houser

A Question for Coach Houser:

I'm in my 5th year coaching volleyball, all of
them as an assistant.  There seems to be as many
serve receive strategies out there as there are
colors of balls.  There may be a best way, but can
you tell me what your teams do?

Coach Houser's Reply:

Yeah, I know what you mean.  One of our club
coaches is teaching his team to pass everything
that's to their left.  On a college team this past
fall, all the serve receivers were standing at a
45 degree angle, facing the left standard.  I've
seen each of these before, but it had been 10
years.  They're both interesting and, I'm sure, if
drilled adequately, they are both effective.  

My serve receive concepts are pretty simple:  we
pass with 3, they are shoulder to shoulder and
they know who has the seam/short/deep serves
before the opponent ever contacts the serve.  Let
me expound on each.

Pass With Three, Or Less: 

You can pass with how every many players you
choose.  However, the more serve receivers you
have, the more seams there are.  "Seam" here is
used just like a seam in a garment.  A seam is the
area between passers where balls often fall or are
fought over. 

So if you pass the court with two, there's only 1
seam.  If you pass with three girls in a
shoulder-to-shoulder formation there are only 2. 
If you pass with three in a triangle formation,
there will be three seams -- that's one reason why
I don't pass in a triangle formation!  Regardless,
that's a manageable number of seams.  

But if you pass with 4, there are 4 seams and the
"campfire".  Five receivers have 7 seams plus two
campfire balls.  

So, one of the earliest dilemmas of a young
volleyball coach is how many serve receivers will
be used.   Choosing fewer receivers requires them
to be responsible for more area.  Choosing more
receivers will lesson each player's area of
responsibility, but it will also create more
confusion.  

I watched one Division 1 college team this past
year play several matches.  It became apparent to
me (and to the opponents) that the team didn't
have three strong serve receivers.  One of the
receivers was a DS, the other was the libero.  So,
their opponents feasted on the weaker passers.  In
my opinion, the team should have dropped down to 2
serve receivers in the 3 rotations where both
strong passers were on the court.  The team should
have also allowed the libero to pass at least 50%
of the court in the other rotations.  Sure, 10% of
the tough serves may have aced those two; but that
would have been no worse than what was already
happening!  Meanwhile, the other 90% would have
been much better passes than the team was getting.
 

My opinion on serve receiving:  Pass with as few
passers as possible.  Your strong passers want to
take more area, your team wants to be successful,
your poor passers really don't want to be aced,
etc.  

In basketball, you really don't expect the weaker
players to take the same number of shots as your
stronger players.  So why ask your weaker passers
to share in the serve receive load?   But at least
in basketball, it's the players' choice as to who
shoots.  In volleyball the opponents decide who
receives serve!  So, if you expose weak passers,
then you're asking for it!  

Shoulder To Shoulder:

In just the past few months, I have seen 3-person
serve receive formations with 2 short and 1 deep. 
I also see formations where the receivers are very
deep or very short.  

Here's my advice:  Place your 3 serve receivers
shoulder-to-shoulder.  In this way, what's served
at one of your players is hers, what's served in
front of her is hers, and what's served behind her
is hers.  That's very little confusion.  

The only exceptions I can see that makes sense are
when you have one girl who, for some reason, has
extreme difficulty passing a short serve, you have
one girl who, for some reason, is horrible at
serve receiving with her hands, etc.   Then I can
see you instructing your passers, "Jenny take the
short in front of Cindy.  Cindy take what's behind
Jenny."  

A few years ago, my team won the Region Bid
Tournament.  My libero was asked the next fall to
serve receive from a deep middle position, while
the other two passers took the short and middle. 
My libero was asked to pass all balls that were
served in the 1, 6 and 5 zones.  She asked me what
I thought.  I told her, "That'll be really
challenging, but the coach knows you can do it." 
Inwardly I was thinking, "That's almost asking the
impossible!"  She dove and sprawled and hustled,
but just couldn't pass those tough serves in the
corner.  I felt sorry for her.  

Your Players Will Know Who Has The Seam Before The Serve:

Most teams I watch are told to "CALL IT!" by their
coach.  So the coach wants the girl with the most
attitude to pass the seam?  The girl with the
loudest voice?  The most skilled?   My wife is a
science professor, so we watch a lot of the Animal
Channel.  What I just described sounds like the
males in a group of animals working out which are
the top males.  Do we really have time for our
players to likewise figure out the serve receive
hierarchy?  

OK, let's say after a few weeks the girls finally
get the pecking order straight.  Then what happens
when you make a sub?  Oh, my, now the receivers
have to figure it all out again!   You really
expect the sub to have a successful experience? 
You really expect the team to play like they
haven't missed a beat?  

No, we're not a team of male monkeys.  I decide
the hierarchy:  

My players are instructed to take the seam to
their right PERIOD.  The only exception:  when
we/they decide otherwise before the serve is
contacted.  

Some coaches require that one girl takes the short
part of the seam, while the other girl takes the
deep part.  I've never required this from my
players, because -- like other ideas in volleyball
-- I want to see it done successfully before I
implement it.  And after sitting in the bleachers
the past 5 years more than I've been coaching,
haha, I have yet to see a team do the short/deep
seam receiving successfully enough for me to
believe in it.   In fact, I don't even recall a
team even attempting it.

Here's more about passing the seam.  I expect my
players to, "Take the seam with your body, not
your arms.  No, we don't reach into the seam."  My
passers may have to stand on the court and say to
themselves, "The seam is mine.  It's mine."  Seam
brain-cramps cannot occur; else, easy points are
given away.   "You will pass your seam because we
decided it was yours before the serve was
contacted.  So do it!"  

I also tell my players, "We don't fight over the
seam.  If the passer on the left is hollering for
the ball, and she actually crosses the seam into
the next passers ‘area,' then the passer on the
right should give it up.  All seam passers do this
occasionally.  They're not being greedy; but, they
misjudged the ball, they're trying to make sure
the ball gets passed and they don't want to be
taken out of the game for not passing the seam! 
haha"  

Let Your Serve Receive Evolve:

But I do tell my players the following:  "You are
free at anytime to change my seam rules.  But the
pass isn't made, or if there's confusion, I will
overrule your changes and require that you do it
my way.  Clear?  And I may have to take you out of
the game for a while to discuss your seam
decisions!"  

Are there reasons to change my rules on seams? 
Sure.  I can think of several reasons.  The girl
on the right side of the seam is passing great! 
The girl to the right passes great every night! 
The girl on the left is hurt, flustered, passing
poorly, etc.  The girl to the right passes well to
her left.  I'm sure there are others.  

When my players are young, they don't change the
rule much.  I guess when a girl is 14 and is in
middle school, she's just accustomed to following
directions.  But as they get older, develop more
self-esteem, and realize their own strengths and
weaknesses, they start changing my rules a little
more.  In fact, you'll hear my varsity players
saying, "I'll take what's behind you."  "I'll take
this middle ball."  "You got that?  OK, take it!" 
 

Warning:  If you're a coach who allows your serve
receive to evolve, take a few minutes several
times a season to look for overlaps.  (I check my
formations by using the video of matches!)  Yep,
as the year goes on, and one of your receivers
sneaks up, or one sneaks to her right, overlaps
can occur that you didn't envision.  Then, in the
conference semi's, the referee will blow the
whistle, and you'll go, "What?  Who?  Huh?"    
Your serve receive just evolved into an illegal
formation.  The easiest overlap to evolve is the
one where your left back or right back crosses
over your middle back setter as she's pushing the
middle front to the net.  You didn't teach it to
them, you didn't give them permission.  It just
happened.  

Final Things I've Learned About Serve Reception:

First, I encourage you to protect the left
sideline.  This is a very difficult area to serve
receive from unless the passer is very talented,
or your serve receive formations are specifically
intended to deal with balls that are to your left.
In my formations, that area is our most
vulnerable.  Therefore, I expect my left-side
passer to take a step to her left, and make sure
she doesn't get beat on the left sideline.  

Also, don't allow your serve reception to bunch up
in the middle of the court.  As your girls get
older:

a) It's no longer necessary.  Your players are
quicker, stronger and they anticipate better.  I
have even been known to encourage my left side
passer to put her left foot on or close to the
left sideline.  

b) Opposing servers will take advantage of your
formations by serving in the short and/or deep
corners.  Hey, if your passers get beat in the
seams, the problem isn't in the quickness of your
players!  It's in their decision making process. 
So don't allow your passers to cheat into the
seams.  If your left side serve receiver's
athleticism is just average, passing the 2-zone
serve or deep corner 5-zone serve will be much
more challenging than stepping into the seam.   So
encourage your passers to spread out and cover the
court.

Finally:

Sure, serve receiving is the most critical skill
in the sport.  Sure, your players need reps.  In
fact, today at practice, while the MB's and
setters are on another court, I will be ripping
serves at the other girls.  

But your passers also must be smart, anticipate
and disciplined.  During today's drill, I will
tell them the same things that I've told you here.
"Don't cheat.  Watch and anticipate.  Take the
seam with your body.  If you start for the ball,
follow it!  Don't cheat up or I'll beat you deep."
   

-Tom Houser
Head Coach, 2007 and 2008 Roanoke Juniors 15's Open 
Director, STAR Volleyball Camps
Author, "I Can't Wait" Drill Collection and Ebooks
www.coachhouser.com