How to Improve Arm Swing
Spiking Tips

Use these arm swing tips to improve your volleyball hitting.

One thing to focus on when hitting, is to bring the chest forward first before the arm. The hips and chest come through before you bring the arm flying forward. 

For Hitting Line

Be sure to still show that you are going to swing hard. Take a big approach bring your arms through just like you would any other hit. 

For Hitting Shots

A shot is a ball that isn’t spiked with a lot of power. The key to hitting shots is you need to put spin on the ball. Spin helps you control the ball and place it in the court where you want. For shots, usually you aren’t swinging through the ball. You want to swing to make it look as if you are going to spike it hard, but at the last second you stop the arm to hit a soft shot. 

Be sure to keep the same mechanics so the approach and arm-swing looks the same. You want to be deceptive with your hitting. You don’t want the blocker or defender to read you and make an easy defensive play. 

Common Errors in Arm Swing

A common mistake when hitting shots is players trying to push the ball. You don’t want to push it, you want to swing and focus on wrapping your hand over the ball. For hitting shots, the ball usually will go up and down over the net. So if you are hitting the ball upward, your contact point is different than if you were spiking the ball downward. To hit upward, get your hand behind and maybe even under the ball. Be clawing the ball and get the entire hand on the ball. You should create spin. 

For swinging hard, you need to bring that arm back before it comes forward to hit. 

Arm Swing Positioning

Aiming arm is straight.

For the spiking arm…

The elbow is bent, hand is open, and wrist is straight. 

As you are swinging, you want your elbow high to get the arm in a vertical position at contact. You want a vertical arm so you contact the ball at the highest point possible. The aiming arm then lowers as you’re making contact. 

How to Generate More Power

To create power, you need to open up to the ball. Shoulders rotate opening up to the ball, then as you are swinging, you rotate the shoulders. 

When you swing, you want the arm as relaxed as possible and the elbow to be relatively high. 

If the elbow is low, you may end up spiking under the ball which may cause the ball to go out of bounds. 

Down Ball Spiking Drill

Practice the Down Ball Spiking Drill to help learn the arm-swing for spiking. 

Start in a standing position facing the net. Hold a volleyball in your hands with shoulders open. Toss the ball to yourself so you can hit the ball over the net. This is like serving a standing the topspin serve. Emphasize the shoulders rotating. Be sure to create topspin on the ball. To hit the ball up and over the net, you will need to contact the bottom half of the ball. If you hit the top half, the ball will go into the net. 

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