Serve Reception
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Austin Volleyball

Serve receive is an integral part of an offensive system's tactics. Teams can choose among three possible formations: five, four, and three passers. Advanced teams almost never use five players to serve-receive. Using four passers is not unusual, but many top-level teams use three passers to receive serve.

How a team positions its players to receive serve influences passing accuracy. Teams must decide how to cover 900 square feet of court with a maximum of five receivers (one player normally is assigned setting responsibilities and is not part of the receiving formation.) When designing serve-receive formations, three variables must be considered. First, each player's passing skills must be evaluated. Second, how much territory can each player cover and how accurately can each player pass. And third, what reas of the court should be covered or left open.

The traditional philosophy of serve receiving is to cover the court with as many receivers as possible. All receivers need to be able to see and face the server. Every space on the court is covered by a player who can position herself to receive the serve and accurately pass the ball to the setter. Players simply adjust to the server in their respective positions, keeping the server in sight and making distance adjustments based on the particular server's tendencies.

The W-formation represents the foundation of the serve-receive system. The W pattern can be easily applied to virtually any offensive system. With the five-player serve receive pattern the court is covered. No player needs to move very far to receive the ball. Each player is assigned to a particular area of the court. Normally, the two back row passers receive the majority of serves. Front row receivers guard against the short serve. Seam responsibilities, receiving a serve directed at the area between two receivers, are predetermined.

On paper, it is virtually impossible for a ball to drop untouched. However, there are some disadvantages. The more serve receivers there are on the court, the more targets to which the server can serve and the more confusion as to who receives the serve can occur. Also, rarely does a team have five or six equally capable receivers. If there is a weakness, the server will eventually find it.

In advanced offensive systems, the W pattern does not lend itself to running certain prescribed attack patterns. In this case, the thinking is to hide the weak serve receivers and let the more consistent and accurate serve receivers pass the ball. This permits the hitters to be placed into their attack routes without worrying about serve reception. While this philosophy has its advantages it does have at least one glaring disadvantage. Mainly the large amount of court space available to the server to drop a well placed serve. Because the passer may have to move great distances to pass a ball, serve receive errors involving three- or four-player patterns are often terminal. In contrast the W pattern allows players, who are at best average passers, to get the ball up because they do not have to move very far to receive the serve.

Technically, each of the six rotations could use a different serve receive pattern. In fact many advanced teams combine various serve receive patterns using different formations in each rotation. The goal for each serve receive pattern is to place a team's best passers in the high percentage receiving positions. Weak passers are placed in the low percentage, front row positions or are moved out of the receiving formation altogether.

Teams need to have a working knowledge of the variety of different serve-receive formations. Teams should be able to quickly change to different serve-receive formations to recover from passing breakdowns and achieve the goal of an accurate first pass to the setter.



Offensive System

Receiving Service

Team Formation

Team formation of receiving service can be different according to the number of players at the net.

W + 1 receive pattern
U receive pattern
Three-person receive pattern
Two-person receive pattern
W + 1 receive pattern

It is also known as five-person receive pattern. It is the most common serve reception because it can be used with all offenses. The setter waits to the right of center front facing the receivers until the first contact is made. There is a player positioned at each point of the W.


Wing Players
The two wing players should stand about an arm's length away from the sideline. Any ball passes more than an arm's length to the side of them is passing out of court. The outside foot should be the forward foot so that the body is inclined into court and the dig pass will be more accurate.

Back Players
The two back players should stand about mid-way between the wing player nearest them and the center player. It is essential that they are able to see the server.




When the setter has rotated to the left or right front position, a slight alteration to the basic formation is needed.


The service receive formation will also vary with the individual serve.



Receiving powerful serve
Since powerful serve will "fly" for a longer distance, it almost never drops near the net. Therefore, the team should adopt a shallow W.





Receiving weaker serve
The ball may land on the front or back court. So, the team should adopt a deeper W in order to prevent the ball landing. The players near the sideline should also be alert to the ball served to the side areas.






Advantages

There are few holes for the opposing team to attack on the serve.
There are more passing opportunities for all your players than the other receive patterns.
The potential of overlaps is minimal.
This receive pattern works well for either a 4-2, 5-1 or 6-2 offensive system.



Disadvantage

A weak passer can be exploited by a good serving team.
The middle hitters may have trouble getting to their attack positions if they are hitting a quick set in the middle.





U receive pattern

The U formation is also known as the four-person receive pattern. This receive pattern involoves four potential passers in the receive pattern. the two players not involoved in the service receive are the setter and one other player. The positions of the players on the court resemble a "U." There is more court for each of the players to cover in order to pass the ball. for this reason, this pattern is usually not recommended for the younger team.





Advantages

It gives the middle hitter more time to position for the middle attack.
If a player is not passing well, this pattern can be used as an adjustment to eliminate that player from the receive pattern.



Disadvantage

There is a big hole for the opponents to attack with the sere in the center front of the court.





Three-person Receive Pattern

The three-person receive pattern can solve the problems of the W+1 & U receive patterns and is becoming more popular at the high school and college levels. In this pattern, three passers are responsible to cover the whole court on service receive. Usually one person is on the enline, and another is at the net. The setter comes in as usual to the target area. The three people who are passing should obviously be your best passers and should be able to move to the ball quickly.





Advantages

There are no holes for the opposing team to exploit.
You can get your poor passers out of the receive pattern.
You can get your middle hitters into position faster.



Disadvantage

Each of the three passers has to cover a lot more court than in the W+1 or U receive patterns.
The overlap potential is very high. Players need to be aware of their court position before the ball is served.





Two-person Receive Pattern

This receive pattern uses only two people to pass the serves. This pttern can only be used if you have two people who can move quickly to the ball and have excellent passing technique. This pattern will not work well with marginal passers.

Passers must cover the whole court on receiving a serve just like a doubles team would on the beach. Court responsibilities are cut in half.





Advantages

There is no confusion about who is responsible for passing the ball.
The passers tend to get into a rhythm from passing so often.
The weaker passers do not have to worry bout receiving the serve. Instead, they can get ready to hit (which is probably what they eant to do the most anyway.)



Disadvantage

The short serve is harder to receive with only two people in the pattern.
The passers are often at a disadvantage to get into their hitting positions if they are passing all the time. Their hitting rhythm can get off.
The overlap potential is very high.