FAQs

Here are a few things you all can do to help you in your quest to become a champion beach volleyball player. Be sure to ask your parents to help you access YouTube for some of the tutorials.

Here are a few differences that you will need to be aware of before you begin your mastery of the game.

Adjusting from Indoor Volleyball

1. Although it is legal to receive serve with your hands, it is most likely to be called illegal. We will learn how to get into position to platform pass and avoid using your hands to receive serve.

2. There is no open hand tipping in beach volleyball. We will learn how to become proficient with our knuckle pokey (toe) and use that technique in place of open hand tipping.

3. In beach volleyball a block counts as a contact. Be aware that when you block the ball, and it stays on your side of the net, you will only have two contacts after the block touch. In indoor we are allowed three contacts after the block touch.

4. The court in indoor volleyball is 9 meters (29 feet 6 inches) on each side of the net. A Beach Volleyball court is 8 meters on each side (26 feet and 3 inches). This means the court is 19% smaller than indoor.

Passing

1. Where to stand to receive serve in doubles~ Typically we want to stand towards the endline approximately 6 feet inside of the court. We will pinch in towards the middle to not allow teams to attack our middle seam.

2. Where to pass the ball~ We are trying to pass the ball towards the net approximately 6 feet from the net. An optimal pass would be 6 feet from the net, antenna height and 3 feet from the center of the court on our half of the middle.

3. Who is responsible for the middle? In general the person who has an angle on the ball should be the one that takes the middle ball.

4. Refer to the McKibbin brothers tutorial How to Pass – Serve Receive Tutorial

Setting

Because of the differences with the elements, like wind, rain, and sun, we will primarily platform set the ball. It will be tempting to try and use your hands to set every ball, but I want all of you to resist the temptations and to work really hard on mastering the platform set. Why? Beach volleyball has a higher standard when it comes to handsetting; many sets that are legal indoors will get called on the beach. Therefore, I want us all to become proficient with the mechanics of the platform set. Once we are proficient, I will encourage you all to begin working on your hand setting.

How do we become a great setter in beach volleyball? Here are a few tips to try and develop.

1. When you recognize that your partner is going to be the passer, release 2 steps towards the middle of the court to get into preparation to set. We call this position the Point Of Preparation (POP).

2. Stay behind the ball and try to face the net when you are setting. This will allow you to see the other side of the net and will potentially allow you to deliver more predictable sets to your partner.

3. Drop your hips low and get a nice lift on the ball by using your legs every time you set.

4. Try and set the ball in front of your hitter leading them on an aggressive path allowing them to be explosive into the hit.

5. Communicate to your partner by calling the ball in or out for them when they are serve receiving. Communicate to your partner by telling them where you are by announcing “here, here, here”.

Hitting

It is typically harder for most people to become an effective hitter when playing beach volleyball. However, remember that there are only two people playing defense so you don’t have to hit with tremendous power, but you do need to know how to hit with amazing accuracy.

1. Remember that after you pass you need to get into a position quickly to become an effective hitter. This is known as staging or preparing to hit (POP-point of preparation). We do this by moving our feet and communicating to our partner where we would like the set.

2. Footwork Please watch a tutorial on approach footwork, the McKibbin Brothers do a fantastic job teaching and they have a whole master class for the kids to study if the kids will take the time to do so.Beach Volleyball Hitting Footwork by Taylor Crabb

3. Arm Swing mechanics Again, if you are unfamiliar with how to properly hit a volleyball please have the kids sit down and do some of the tutorials so that they have a working knowledge of what we will be teaching them.How to Hit a Volleyball – Arm Swing Mechanics

4. Feet to the ball If you are able to get your feet to the ball after the set goes up you will be in a really good position to score with your hit. If you think about the best places to hit a volleyball are usually the four corners of the court. How do we hit all four corners consistently? Step one in this process is, get your feet to the ball.

I recommend all of you become familiar with approach footwork, even the parents. Watch the McKibbin brothers tutorial on Footwork and then set up a place in your home where the kids can practice on mastering the approach. We will be teaching the kids a 3 and 4 step approach in our training. Have the kids watch and rewatch the tutorial and then have them try and emulate the mechanics.

Defense

Most of the kids will start out playing “two-down defense”. What is two-down defense? This is a style of defense where nobody is up blocking. The kids will begin to do more blocking once they get into intermediate and advanced training. Remember that when you are playing doubles that there are only two people involved so you need to concentrate on knowing where you need to pass the ball in all situations.

1. In doubles we are constantly adjusting based on what is happening on the other side of the net. Being aware of what the other team is doing or not doing is a great way to predict where and when the ball will be coming over the net. The kids who have the most success are the ones that are anticipating the play before it happens. This comes with experience but it also comes with having the right attitude. If you make up your mind that you are alert and eager to go get the ball good things will happen.

2. Where do you pass the ball on defense? We will be going over these details at great length in our practices but here are a few defensive principles that might help you understand the game a little bit better.

3. Where should you pass the ball if you are on a full run to the back of the court? Ideally your partner will be communicating to you in that situation, if that is the case you would pass the ball up to yourself or towards your partner who is communicating where they are. Ideally, you would like to reduce the distance between you and your partner, increasing the likelihood of an accurate set.

4. How high do you pass or dig a ball? For the purpose of this document I will say that we are going to try and keep the passes and digs to be around antenna height or a few feet above the antenna 10-15 feet high. We do this to make it easier on the setter to control the location of the set.

Serving

For most of our training we will have the kids working on two basic serves. The float serve and the spin serve. You can choose to stay grounded on your serves or you can choose to involve jumping into the mechanics. I highly recommend that all the kids learn the mechanics of both types. Once again, for consistency, please have the kids refer to the McKibbin brothers tutorials on how to serve. How to Jump Serve – Beach Volleyball Tutorial

We will teach them these two types of serves, and potentially others depending on their levels.

1. Here are some of the basics to help the kids prepare to become great servers.

2. The toss~have the kids learn the mechanics for a float serve toss as well as a spin toss.

3. Have them practice tossing the ball to their hitting shoulder.

4. Be sure they are hitting the ball cleanly on their hitting hand.

5. Remember that we are going to focus on control first power second

6. For doubles we need to know how to be able to serve half of the court

Blocking

for the intermediate and advanced kids please make yourself familiar with the blocking terms 1s, 2s, 3s and 4s.

Other basics~ Please bring these things with you to all practices.

1. Sunglasses

2. Water

3. Snack or fruit

4. Sunblock

5. Hat

6. Towel

7. Journal and pen or iphone (digital journal)

8. Approved ball if you have one (Molten bv-5000 or Wilson Optix) you don’t have to buy one but Tandem Sports have both options and Anne said she would give our kids a discount. They are across the street from Baxter Jacks

9. A great attitude and a willingness to learn

10. Respect for the coaching staff, the club, the facilities, and each other.

If you have any questions regarding this document please let me know.

Thanks!

Joey McDonald

Joey’s Beach Volleyball Academy