Inside the Numbers - Service Pressure

In volleyball, the best defense is preventing your opponent from even having the chance to return the ball. And that’s the topic we are analyzing today: how strong serving impacts your block defense.

In the game between Poland and The Netherlands, tough serving pressure from Joanna Wolosz, Magdelena Stysiak & Claudia Alagierska resulted in some airtight Polish blocking.

Serves that force the setter to come off the net can make it much more difficult for the receiving team to score. Not only is the set more technically difficult to complete, but for most setters any first tempo balls or back row sets are no longer available as options. This gives the middle blocker more time to complete the double block, and sometimes even all three players can block together.

In the game against Poland, The Netherlands reception didn’t give up a lot of aces, but their sloppy passing made their offense far too predictable. 55% of their attacks came on the left side of the court, a lot of those were slow high balls.

While blocking and back row digs are what most people focus on when it comes to defense, a strong serve helps immensely. There aren’t any players in volleyball who can score efficiently against a well-formed double block, so forcing your opponent into high ball situations can make your defense from good to great.

Data provided by Hawk-eye Innovations