Subject: Wallyball service
From: Lawrence F. Warnken " Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, USA vball@aloha.net

Our dominating servers are blasting in with an overhand volleyball type serve which smashes into the deep side wall and down. In 2 man, it's tough to pick it up off the wall and very tough to nail it on the rise before it strikes the side wall.

Since squash and racquetball are true indoor court originated games and they require underhand serves, according to the rules, we wondered if wallaby had a similar underhand service requirement.

I suppose we could try to throw up a block on the serve but in 2 man that might be risky. Any other comments would be welcome. There are 8 of us in Pearl Harbor who try to play 3 times a week and we are becoming more proficient. However, since none of us have played it before and are all novices, we're not always sure we're doing it right. We are originally and still to some degree volleyball players and thrive on the reflex and foot speed workout in the 2 man game. It just seems like recently some of our games get a lot of points from the serve and that's not what drew us to this great sport.

Thanks again for your help. Aloha, Larry Warnken

Answer...

Larry,

Serving over, under or side arm are a legal, as long as it is not a throw, lift and/or paint brush and yes, your right, it would be risky to block the service in doubles (but I have heard of it being attempted).

Here are some considerations:

1. Make sure that the net is 8 feet (this will help bring up the service).
2. If you don't already have a service line, be sure that everyone understands that it is a boundary that all need to abide by.
3. The service must be struck clean. Rolling off the fingers is to be call as a paint brush and is not allowed.

Otherwise, this is why triples is enjoyed far more around the world than doubles. Doubles does not allow the mixing of division levels as much as triples. In triples, you can protect the weaker player and still have a good team. A weaker serve receiver in doubles will kill a good team.

To sum it up (but don't take this wrong), having good servers at your facility will help train better serve receivers. In a way, your facility is lucky, some facilities, the serve receivers never have the change to be introduced to a good service and do not have the change to work on their serve receive. Then when that team goes to a tournament or another facility (like you guys can just get into a car and drive to California), they are lacking in that talent.

Your players are doing the right thing. Just keep working on it.

Good Luck

Eric Swanson