A Three-dimensional Kinematic Analysis of the Volleyball Jump Serve

INTRODUCTION The serve is the first attacking weapon in the modem game of volleyball. Since the late 1980's (although pioneered by the Brazilians a decade earlier), the most powerful form of service has been the 'jump,' or attack, serve. As its name suggests, this serve consists of the player throwing the ball into the air from the baseline, and then jumping into court to smash it towards the opponents. The potency of this serve is mainly due to its speed, giving the receivers only 0.5s to react. In addition, it is hit with heavy topspin (and often sidespin) which also makes it more difficult for the opponents to direct the ball accurately to the setter. There has been a considerable amount of biomechanical literature concerning the volleyball smash (or 'spike'), both in training (Samson and Roy, 1975; Oka et al., 1976; Samson et al., 1978) and competitive matches (Coleman et al., 1993). However, there has been little information comparing these techniques with those required for the attack serve. There has been one previous study examining this type of serve, but this has been concerned solely with its tactical uses (Katsikadelli, 1996). Therefore, it was the aim of this study to provide descriptive kinematics of some of the biomechanical factors involved in the 'jump' serve. Furthermore, these data could then be compared with results from studies examining the attack smash (spike).