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Overhand Serve to Zones

Serve overhand into the left, middle and right thirds of the court.

By Coach Evan Waechtler Youth coach (U11, Cache Valley, Utah) and founder of SSTracker Updated October 30, 2026

Set up

Mark three zones across the far court.

Core: Medium. Beat your own best out of 10.

Ages
11 and up
Time
12 min
Players
Just you
Space
Gym or court
Bring
Volleyball, net, cones
Level · skill
Developing · Serving

The steps

How it works

  1. Mark three zones across the far court.
  2. Serve 5 balls to each zone.
  3. Count how many land in the right zone.
  4. Repeat your weakest zone.

Coaching point

Same toss, turn your hips to aim.

Safety: Warm up your shoulder first, keep serve and hitting sets short, and stop if your shoulder hurts.

Make it fun

Play it, don't drill it

Game version

Target-zone serving: two teams of two take turns serving into zones. Each team counts only its own zones hit.

Challenge

Pick a zone: Less (big), Core (medium), More (small). Beat your own best out of 10.

Story

You are opening the match with a serve that lands exactly where you aim.

My best

Beat your own count

Beat your own best out of 10. Only your own number counts: today against last time.

Practice makes progress

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