Can You Jump Serve?

[VBLIStaff]

Can You Jump Serve?

If the answer is yes, lets see you in action, post a picture!

[coachmanzi]

no, white people can't jump. It's a scientific fact.

[set10]

Originally Posted by coachmanzi

no, white people can't jump. It's a scientific fact.

yes, but i guess its more of a hop-serve then, right?

[thew0nginator]

Good thing I'm Asian. That means I should be able to jump serve. Good thing I can. On my Playdate team, one of the girls nicknamed me "Springs"...haha. I guess I've got good ups then?

[DougHillman]

Yes, and fairly effectively despite manzi's professed curse of being white.

That being said, I haven't jump served in a tournament in years. Experience has shown me that a quality float serve (an actual no-spin flat-trajectory floater, not a lollipop) results in more sloppy passes than do most jump serves. (Note that this applies only to indoor tournaments. A good jumper is a much more effective weapon in doubles than it is in 6's.)

I've got some pics of me jump serving around here somewhere. If I can dig up the archive disc, I'll post one.

[mycena]

Originally Posted by set10

yes, but i guess its more of a hop-serve then, right?

I have an awesome hop serve. Ok well it isn't awesome but I am getting better at getting it over the net. LOL And it might be more of a skip even then a hop. But I swear that both feet simultaneously leave the ground for some amount of time.

[Mako448254]

Originally Posted by coachmanzi

no, white people can't jump. It's a scientific fact.

You can't jump yet there are pictures of you jumping quite high...

And no I cannot jump serve, at all. And if I tried, I'd just embaress myself

[BrianZ]

I can jump serve and only use it if there is enough insurance in a game due to the fact that it's a high risk serve and I lead by example. A few years ago, there was a feeling that if you couldn't jump serve, you weren't a good player. This is unfortunate, because I see tons of good players look like crap when they lose a point for their team.

As a coach, I can't stand when players use a jump serve in a close game when they are only average at it. I'd rather they serve 1 floater then 2 good jump serves and put the third in the net.

Floaters are difficult to do correctly as well, but the chances of hitting the net on a bad floater are much less than that of a jump serve.

The point being, there are too many variables involved in a jump serve. The most common mistake being a bad toss.

I've seen defenses handle jump serves very simply, but have fits with the floater when done right.

[nmsvbteam]

Yes, but it gets a little higher at increasing levels. I've retired to only playing in the sand now, and with the smaller court and lighter ball, you get a lot more float. I live at 7,000 feet, and anything up from there makes it difficult because the ball takes off, you really have to contact it from the top. Every 1,000 feet increase in elevation over 5,000 feet and it becomes an issue, in my opinion. Going down to the beach at sea level, jumpserving is a blast. Was able to fire off points out in California, seems like the moisture and lower elevation and the ball comes down much better even with a good hard swing. Throw in a steady wind, and you've got a weapon again. The few times I played indoors in the last few years, jumpserving was pretty good because the court is larger and the ball is much smaller. Then, there's always the skippy jump floatie which works nicely (sometimes) in the higher reaches with thinner atmosphere. If you coach kids, though, you become a master of moving floaties anywhere you want, so that becomes pretty effective too, in my opinion. Anf anybody can jump, just takes more work for some than others, in my opinion

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[set10]

Originally Posted by BrianZ

I've seen defenses handle jump serves very simply, but have fits with the floater when done right.

I've been a HUGE supporter of this mindset for a while, I developed a jumpserve in high school, but soon abandoned it when I realized my floater was just nasty and much more successful. However recently with the intro of rally scoring and the refs being more and more lienant on ugly hands, the floater has become less lethal. Liberos will just step up to any floater with open hands and be able to make a good pass no matter how ugly their hands may or may not be. Because of this I went back to my jump serve and its worked out well because it forces the old fashioned bump pass. So with that said I'd have to say that outdoors in 2's the floater is better than a jump because of the rules involved and the fact that you have so many holes you can pick at.