Literature Review of the Volleyball Attack

There are many skills out in the sports world that interest me. The skill that I have chosen to write my literature review on is the Jump serve and spike in volleyball. As a volleyball player myself, I am able to successfully do a jump serve. This did not come easily for me. I was able to pick up all the other types of serves (top spin, float serve, jump float serve, long and short serves) but the I always struggled with the jump serve when I was younger, which is why I have chosen to study this skill. Along with the jump serve comes a very similar skill call the volleyball spike. This is the other reason I chose the volleyball attack, because the attack and the spike are said to be the same exact motion, just at different places on the court and this really interests me.

Jump serving in volleyball is one of the most effective ways to score points in the game of volleyball. With this serves high intensity starting off a point it is hard for the opposing team to pass this serve up and run a play off of it. According to A Biomechanical Analysis of Service Motion for Elite Male Volleyball Players in Official Games, “The main objectives are to score an ace and to make the opposing team’s receiving and attack more difficult. Current thought is that applying great speed to the ball can turn the serve into the first offensive action in every rally” (Marquez, 2007, p. 518). This article, A Biomechanical Analysis of Service Motion for Elite Male Volleyball Players in Official Games, is a research article that completed a study done on elite male volleyball players who competed in the 2006 FIVA Volleyball World Championships in Japan. This study used two high speed VTR cameras that focused on 25 different points on the humans body while it went through the jump service motion at the serving line at the back of the court. Also the camera analyzed the players spiking the ball at the net as well. This data collected was then was use in a DTL or a three dimensional coordinated data to be studied. What the information collected had shown was the when serving at the back court allows the players to gain a faster arm swing, then spiking the ball at the net, thus allowing the player to hit the ball harder when serving from the back of the court opposed to spiking the ball at the net. The only difference between a jump serve and a spike at the next is besides the distance away from the net, is the server tosses the ball to themselves as a “set” where as when spiking a teammate sets the ball up to the attacker.

Another article that looks deep into the jump serve in volleyball is, A Biomechanical Analysis of the Attack Strike in the Volleyball Game. This article used classic image acquisition system on ten male and ten female subjects. All the subjects were high level volleyball players that were currently playing on the men’s and women’s national teams at the time of this study. This data collect was analyzed by a PC and charted so the information could be better understood. The information they were collecting was trying to find the answer to the following question. How the shoulder joint was used in the volleyball attack? The attack in volleyball is a skill that is found in the spike and in the jump serve. This study done by E.T Rinderu (1994), found that, “The main conclusion of this study is that all the joints of the shoulder girdle are intensively solicited during the execution of the attack strikes in the volleyball game” (no page listed).

Another study on the jump serve was done by Laura M. Schwab. Laura’s research was to evaluate the Humeral torsion and passive shoulder range in elite volleyball players. On top of this she also wanted to determine whether these changes related to training history, retrospective injury history, and volleyball performance. Humeral torsion refers to “the angle formed between the proximal and distal angular surfaces of the humerus” (Schwab, 2008, p. 1). The type of design she used for this study was a cross sectional design. This allowed her to compare all of the data that she collected easily. The participants in her research were twenty-four elite male volleyball players. How she did her research was to measure the humeral torsion while it was in the neutral position. She then did this for both the players’ dominant and non dominant arms. Then she had a skilled coach assess the players spiking ability, as well as recorded the players highest service speed. The results the Schwab found were that the humeral torsion angles found in the dominant hand were on average 9.6 degrees more retorverted then the player’s non dominant hand. The conclusion that can be drawn from these findings is that the dominant are of the elite male volleyball players is much more reconverted then the player’s non dominant hand. Furthermore according the research there was no significant correlation between humeral torsion and the performance of the players.

Shoulder injuries are seen a lot in volleyball athletes. Many players try to play through theses injuries. In the article “Armature Volleyball Attackers Competing Despite Shoulder Pain: Analysis of playing Habits, Anthropometric Data, and Specific Pathologies.” The objectives found in this article are to collect data and analyze the information on playing and spiking habits, anthropometric data and shoulder pathologies on players with shoulder pain, in order to understand the attack skill in volleyball. How this research was completed, was a four page questionnaire was handed out to all the players taking part in this research as well as each participant had to undergo a musculoskeletal exam. There were twenty-one male and nine female armature competitive volleyball players were chosen and used in this research. What this study found was that twenty-five of these players found pain in their should while attacking, seven of these players said they could swing there arm across their body while attacking and feel no pain, and the rest of the players found no pain in their should while spiking.

The last Article on the attack in volleyball that I am going to review is called, “ The Effect of assisted jumping on Vertical jump height in high-performance volleyball players.”
This article, much like mentioned in the title has to do with vertical jump and volleyball. In this research Article, research was done to see if assisting jump training helps with volleyball athletes skills in volleyball. This study included seven junior national team elite male volleyball players. These players were put into three sessions per week training with 10 kg assistance to see if it would improve their vertical and thus improve their game play on the volleyball court. The results of this article was that is does and it helps players gain anywhere from 2.7-.7 inches on their vertical.

The conclusions that can be drawn from the five articles that I founds are, the attack in volleyball can take a toll on the athletes shoulder. The attack whether found in the spike or in the jump serve is a downward hitting motion that involves all of the muscles in the shoulder girdle. Furthermore the attack in volleyball is demanding but also very effective in the game itself. Whether you are starting the game off with an offensive jump serve or finishing a rally with a spike the volleyball attack is the most demanding yet successful play in the game of volleyball.


Reference List
Benson, Cindy J. Jacobson, Ryan P. (2001). Armature Volleyball Attackers Competing Despite Shoulder Pain: Analysis of playing Habits, Anthropometric Data, and Specific Pathologies. P.112-122.

Marquez, Masanao. (1994). A Biomechanical Analysis of Service Motion for Elite Male Volleyball Players in Official Games. P.518

Rinderu, E.T. (1994). A Biomechanical Analysis of the Attack Strike in the Volleyball Game.

Schwab, Laura M. Peter Blanch. (2008). Humeral Torsion and Passive Shoulder Range in Elite Volleyball Players.

Sheppard ,Jeremy M. (2010). The Effect of assisted jumping on Vertical jump height in high- performance volleyball players.