I have been playing volleyball for a number of years now. I have stuck with the underhand serve, as I can do so fairly accurately and am able to get many points this way. Last night I was playing, and one of my teammates (a player with more experience) that said my style of underhand serve was illegal.
I don't understand what about my serve is illegal though? I am not carrying it, and I will hit the ball with a variety of methods (getting different results).
This other player said that I HAVE to hit the ball from the button and come from underneath. I, will sometimes hold the ball out farther from my body with a height above my waistline. A clean hit, that go fast and break after crossing the net.
I have looked on the net and haven't really found any official stances for underhand serve. I have seen people demonstrate the underhand serve, but I have never read that deviating from this stance constitutes an "illegal" serve.
?2008-11-01T23:17:31Z
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Two things will make your serve illegal (and it doesn't sound like you are doing either of these)...
First you can't hide the ball during the serve. It can't be behind you prior to your serving motion.
Secondly, the ball has to leave your hand before you strike it with the other. In other words, you can't use one hand as a tee for the ball and hit it with the other.
I have been playing volleyball for 3 years and i have never heard that underhand serving is illegal. I play on Varsity and i have played against teams that serve underhand. The reason most people serve overhand is because they tend to be more powerful and harder to dig up, but some girls can underhand serve better- and theres nothing wrong with that. But before you start freaking out about this, talk to your coach, because if anyone, they should know. The girl who told you that its illegal might not have her facts straight. So go talk to your coach and go from there, but as far as I know, underhand serving is legal. Good Luck :)
Unless your playing sand volleyball and the sun is out, you do not want to serve underhand. You have been playing for a number of years, you should be serving over hand. In high school, most coaches do not let their players serve underhand, and defiantly not in a game. You need you hand open when you serve over hand, but it should be closed when serving underhand. It could be illegal, I can not tell by the way you are describing it. Your coach may be thinking that since you have to hit it over hand with an open fist, that you need to do the same underhand, which is not correct.
There is nothing illegal about it, but everything you can do with an underhand serve, you can do better with an overhand serve. In high level play you will never, ever see someone serve underhand.