Volleyball Hand Positions: What to Do for Each Skill

Join your hands for a forearm pass; separate and shape them around the ball for a set; use an open hand for an overhand serve or spike; and present two firm hands for a block. There is no single hand position for every volleyball contact.

Start with serving and passing. Learn to control those contacts before spending most of your practice on setting and hitting. The checkpoints below are suggested practice targets—not official skill standards.

Serving: a flat hand for the float

For a beginner’s overhand float serve, open your striking hand and keep it flat and firm at contact. Strike the center of the ball with the middle of your hand rather than your thumb or fingertips. Hugh McCutcheon emphasizes this in his contact-first jump-float guidance for USA Volleyball; use the same contact cue for your standing float.

Do not try to create topspin by rolling your hand over the ball when practicing a float.

Cue: “Middle of hand, middle of ball.”

Drill: Stand at a comfortable distance from the net, closer than the end line if needed. Use a small, repeatable toss and serve toward a broad target area. Have a partner watch the ball’s panels for rotation.

Checkpoint: Put eight of ten serves over and in with little visible spin before moving farther back. Add distance before adding a jump. If contact keeps shifting to your fingers, check whether your toss is drifting beyond your reach.

Passing and digging: joined hands, level thumbs

Your hands connect your arms; the ball contacts your forearms, not your hands.

Try this starting grip:

1. Stack your open hands, both palms facing upward.
2. Curl your fingers together to hold the grip without interlacing them.
3. Bring your thumbs alongside each other, level and pointing forward.
4. Straighten your elbows to form a flat forearm surface, called the platform.

USA Volleyball’s beginner curriculum teaches side-by-side thumbs, straight elbows and contact between the wrists and elbows. Use the same basic platform for a controlled forearm dig against an attack.

Cue: “Level thumbs, flat platform.”

Drill: Work with a partner about three meters away. Receive gentle underhand tosses and pass back high enough for your partner to catch. Hold your platform briefly after contact so you can inspect it.

Checkpoint: Deliver eight of ten passes that your partner can catch with no more than one step. Then add tosses one step to either side. If passes repeatedly fly sideways, check for uneven thumbs or a bent elbow before changing grips.

For the full movement progression, see how to bump a volleyball.

Setting: separate, volleyball-shaped hands

Raise both hands above your forehead, fingers comfortably spread and curved around the shape of the ball. Keep your thumbs back toward your face rather than pointing straight upward. Contact with the pads of your fingers and thumbs, then extend toward the target. These are the starting positions taught in USA Volleyball’s setting cues.

Think curved hands around a ball, not a rigid triangle made by pressing your thumbs and index fingers together.

Cue: “Shape the ball above your forehead.”

Drill: Stand about two meters from a partner. Receive a gentle toss, set back, and let the partner catch and reset. Move your feet underneath the toss instead of reaching sideways with one hand.

Checkpoint: Return eight of ten sets that your partner can catch above their forehead with no more than one step before adding movement. If the ball arrives near your nose or chest, prepare your hands earlier and adjust your position.

Continue with setting technique and the first partner drill.

Hitting: an open hand with full palm contact

For a basic spike, spread your fingers and contact the ball with your palm—not just the fingertips. Coach Jim Stone teaches this through a gentle contact progression.

Cue: “Open hand, full palm.”

Drill: Hold the ball in your non-hitting hand and rehearse a relaxed swing, gently contacting it with your hitting hand. This is a contact rehearsal, not a power drill.

Checkpoint: Make five consecutive centered contacts before trying easy self-toss hits into a clear court area. Keep power low until contact is repeatable.

Blocking: two firm hands, not a slap

Keep your hands separate, with palms presented toward the opponent’s court. For a simple starting block, raise them together rather than swinging them out wide and closing them late. Mike Sealy’s blocking lesson emphasizes close elbows and a direct upward path. At the blocking surface, keep your hands firm without making them uncomfortably rigid; do not slap at the ball, advises Heather Bown in USA Volleyball’s blocking guidance.

Cue: “Make a wall; don’t slap.”

Drill: Away from the net, rehearse five standing extensions while a partner watches from the front. Keep the hands moving together without a large gap opening between them.

Checkpoint: Repeat five controlled extensions before adding a small jump and balanced landing. Use the blocking drill progression before adding live attacks.