Volleyball Glossary
The words you hear from the first practice, when listening to the announcers during a match, and references when talking about the game
A
Ace
A serve that scores the point by itself. The ball lands in and nobody touches it, or the other team passes it so far off the court that nobody can keep the rally going. People sometimes nickname a team's best player the ace. On the stat sheet, the word means the serve.
Approach
The steps a hitter takes to build speed and jump into the attack. A right-handed hitter usually finishes left, right, left. That can be three steps, or four if they add a step for more speed. The last two steps turn the run into a jump, so you meet the ball high instead of floating into the net. Left-handed hitters mirror the pattern and finish right, left, right.
Assist
The last touch by a teammate before a kill. Almost every assist is a set. If the hitter does not score, nobody gets an assist, even if the set was perfect. The passer and the digger do not get one either. In a 5-1, one setter takes every second ball, so their assist total shows how often the pass was good and the hitters scored.
Attack
Any try to score by sending the ball over the net, other than the serve. A hard spike, a roll shot, a tip, and a setter dump are all attacks. The stat crew records the swing whether it scores, gets dug, or goes out. The usual offensive order is pass, set, attack. When the attack wins the rally right away, it is also a kill.
Attack Line
The line 3 meters (about 10 feet) from the net on each side of the court. It splits the court into a front zone and a back zone. Front-row players can attack from anywhere. A back-row player who attacks a ball that is completely above the top of the net has to jump from behind this line. Landing in front after the hit is fine. The same idea is used in FIVB, NCAA, and high school play.
B
Back Row Attack
An attack by a back-row player who jumps from behind the attack line while the ball is completely above the net. The rule cares about where you leave the floor. Landing in the front court after you hit is allowed. Teams use these swings so they can score from the back row, usually through the middle (a pipe) or from the back-right corner.
Block
A front-row player jumping at the net with hands up to stop the other team's attack. You can block alone or next to a teammate. A block that sends the ball straight down on their side is a stuff. A block that only slows the ball still helps, because your defenders get a chance to dig it. Reaching over the net is legal once the hitter has swung, as long as you do not touch the ball before they attack. A block does not count as one of your three team hits. Back-row players, including the libero, are not allowed to block.
Bump
The everyday name for a forearm pass. You put your arms together and let the ball rebound off the flat surface of your forearms, called the platform. It is usually the first skill players learn, and it stays useful at every level. Most serves and a lot of hard-hit balls are bumped, because that surface stays steady when the ball is moving fast.
C
Carry
A ball-handling fault. The referee decides the ball stayed in your hands, even for a moment, instead of bouncing off in one clean contact. You will hear this call most often on a tight set or a rushed hand pass. Carry and lift are two names for the same whistle.
Coverage
Where the other five players stand while a teammate is hitting, so someone can play a ball that comes off the block. The shape is a shallow pocket around the hitter. If the block stuffs the ball and nobody is home, the point is over. If someone is there, you can dig it and swing again.
Cut Shot
A sharp-angle attack that lands in the front corner, just inside the antenna, instead of traveling the long way across the court. For a right-handed hitter on the left, you contact the left side of the ball and turn your wrist so the ball cuts across. It is a useful shot when the blocker has slid over to take away the line and left that short corner open.
D
Dig
The first touch on the other team's attack. A pass is the first touch on a serve. The technique is similar, usually a forearm platform, sometimes a one-arm reach or a dive, but a dig gives you less time because the ball is coming harder and from closer. A dig to the setter lets you run your offense. A dig that only stays in play still keeps the rally alive.
Dink
A soft fingertip shot over, around, or off the top of the block. It is the same family as a tip. You use it when the blockers jump early and the defenders are standing deep, so the open floor is the short space behind the block. Beach announcers say dink a lot. Indoor coaches usually just say tip.
Dive
A defensive play where both feet leave the floor, you reach for a ball you cannot play standing up, and you land on your chest or side. You use it when the ball is too far for a normal dig. If you get it up, your team still has the rest of its contacts.
Double Contact
The ball hits you twice in a row, or leaves your hands in two separate motions, on one play. On your team's first contact, a serve receive or a dig, a double hit is allowed if it is one try to play the ball. On the second or third contact, especially a set, the referee expects one clean touch. A ball that visibly rests in your hands is a carry, which is a different call.
Dump
The setter's own attack on the second contact. You show a set, wait for the blockers to move with your hitters, then tip, push, or one-hand the ball into the open space. A front-row setter can dump a ball that is completely above the net. A back-row setter can only attack a ball that is partly below the top of the net, unless they jump from behind the attack line. That is the same rule as any other back-row attack.
F
Float Serve
A serve with little or no spin, so the ball drifts and dips on the way over. You toss it with almost no spin, contact the middle of the ball with a firm hand, and stop your arm instead of snapping your wrist. Once you add spin, it is no longer a float. Passers struggle with it for the same reason batters struggle with a knuckleball: the path changes late.
Foot Fault
Touching the end line, or the court past it, before you contact the serve. You also have to be inside the service zone, the area behind the end line between the two sidelines extended. If you jump from behind the line, your body can be over the court in the air when you hit. The fault is touching the floor too early. Jump servers run into this a lot because the approach pulls them forward.
Free Ball
A high, easy ball the other team sends over because they cannot attack it. Someone usually yells "free" so the team stops playing defense and gets into a passing formation. Treat it like a serve you can see coming. Pass it to the setter and run the offense you would run on a good pass. At higher levels, failing to score on a free ball is a missed chance.
H
J
Joust
A ball both teams play at the same time above the net. Play continues. If you push it onto their floor, you score. If it comes back to your side, your team has three hits to use. Pulling or pushing the net while you fight for the ball is a fault.
Jump Serve
A serve you contact while you are in the air. You toss, take a short approach, and jump, a lot like a hitter. A jump float has little spin and moves around. A jump topspin serve is faster and drops. Both are jump serves. The pace can bother passers, and the toss is less forgiving, so these serves also miss more often. You can be over the end line in the air. You cannot touch the line before you hit the ball.
K
L
Let Serve
A serve that touches the top of the net and still crosses into the other court. The ball is live. Play it. The net can knock the serve off its path, which is why a let serve is awkward to pass. If the ball hits the net and does not cross, or it hits the antenna, it is a service error. Let serves are legal under current FIVB, NCAA, and US high school rules.
Lift
A ball-handling fault where the ball visibly rests in your hands instead of rebounding. It is the same call as a carry. The referee judges that you caught the ball and threw it. What gets whistled can vary by referee and by level, so a contact that plays in one gym may get called in another. Clean sets leave the hands right away.
Line Shot
An attack sent straight down the sideline, with the antenna as the edge of the target. The window is narrow, so line shots miss more often than cross-court swings. When the defense has shifted toward the middle, the line is often the open shot. For a right-handed hitter on the left pin, you contact the right side of the ball and keep the swing from opening toward the court too early.
M
N
O
Off-Speed
An attack that looks like a full swing until the last moment, then comes off the hand slower. Tips, roll shots, and dinks are all off-speed shots. You use them when the blockers are in the air and the defenders are standing deep. The slower ball drops into the open floor between the block and the back court.
Overhand Pass
A pass with your fingertips, held above your forehead, in the same hand shape as a set. It is easier to aim than a bump when the ball is high and you have time, which is why you see it on free balls and all the time in beach volleyball. On a hard serve, most indoor passers stay on their forearms. Referees watch finger passes closely for a double contact or a lift.
Overlap
Being out of order at the moment the server contacts the ball. Each front-row player has to be closer to the net than the back-row player lined up with them. Players in the same row have to keep their left-to-right order. The referee checks this only at serve contact. After that, you can move anywhere.
P
Pancake
A last-chance dig. You slide your hand flat on the floor, palm down, and the ball bounces off the back of your hand instead of the court. It counts as a legal touch. You use it when you cannot get your platform under the ball. If the pancake is your team's first contact, you still have two hits left.
Pass
Sending the ball to a teammate, usually on the first contact. On a serve, the pass should go to the setter, a few feet off the net near the middle of the court. Many coaches grade that pass from 0 to 3. A 3 reaches the target and lets the setter use every hitter. A 2 is playable but takes some options away. A 1 is a scramble. A 0 cannot be played. Some gyms use 0 to 4 instead, so ask which scale your coach means.
Pepper
A partner warm-up that cycles through dig, set, and hit. You face each other and keep the sequence going so your hands, timing, and ball control wake up before practice or a match. The hits stay controlled. The point is touch, not a kill.
Pipe
A set to a back-row hitter attacking from the middle of the back court, which coaches call zone 6. The hitter comes in behind the front-row players, so the block often sees the ball late. The setter is usually facing the net and setting forward, into the middle. A back set goes behind the setter, which is a different play. The hitter still has to jump from behind the attack line.
Platform
The flat surface you make by putting your forearms together to pass or dig. Lock your hands, straighten your arms, and show that surface before the ball arrives. You aim by changing the angle of your arms and the height of your legs. Swinging at the ball sends it off target.
Q
R
Rally
One play, from the moment the server contacts the ball until the whistle or the ball hits the floor. Under rally scoring, which has been the standard since 1999, every rally gives one team a point. That is true of a one-touch ace and of a long rally full of digs.
Rally Scoring
A point on every rally, no matter which team served. FIVB switched to it in 1999 so matches would have a more predictable length, and the NCAA followed. You still play to 25, win by two, with a fifth set to 15 indoors. Before that, only the serving team could score. If the receiving team won the rally, they got the serve back and no point. That was side-out scoring, and a set could go on for a long time.
Roll Shot
An off-speed attack with topspin. You swing, but you do not snap as hard as you would on a spike. The ball clears the block, dips, and lands in open court. It has more pace than a tip. A tip is mostly fingertips and almost no arm speed. A roll still looks like a swing, which is why a defender waiting on a hard hit is often a step late.
Roof
Gym slang for a stuff block. The ball hits the block and drops straight down on the hitter's side of the net. On the stat sheet it is still a block. On the floor it is the play that usually gets the loudest reaction, because the hitter did the work and the point ended at the tape.
Rotation
The clockwise move your team makes before you serve, after you win a rally on the other team's serve. Everyone shifts one spot. The player in the front right becomes the server. Everyone else moves with them: back right to back middle, back middle to back left, back left to front left, front left to front middle, and front middle to front right. You only have to be in that order when the serve is contacted. After contact, you move to your playing spots. Your rotation is the spot you occupy at the serve. Your position is your job: setter, libero, outside hitter, and so on. The spot changes. The job stays.
S
Serve
The first contact of every rally, hit from behind the end line. Nobody else can help you with it. Common types are a float, a jump float, a standing topspin serve, a jump topspin serve, and an underhand serve. All of them are legal under FIVB, NCAA, and high school rules if you are behind the line when you contact the ball, and inside the service zone.
Serve Receive
The formation your team uses to pass the other team's serve, and the pass itself. A pass to the setter's target lets you run quick sets, pipes, and high sets. A poor one turns the rally into a scramble. Most teams use two or three passers, depending on the rotation and who they are hiding from the server.
Service Error
A serve that never starts a live rally. The ball goes into the net, lands out, hits the antenna, or you foot-fault. A rotation fault on the serve ends the rally the same way and gives the other team the point. Aces and errors belong in the same conversation. If the misses give away more points than the tough serves take, the coach will usually ask for a simpler serve.
Set
The touch that puts the ball where a hitter can attack it. It is usually the second contact, and usually with the fingertips. A bump set still counts when the pass is too ugly for hands. A good set is a comfortable height above the net, far enough off the net for the hitter to swing, and in line with their approach. The word set also means one game inside a match, the race to 25.
Shank
A pass that misses so badly that no teammate can play it. Into the stands, into the net, or off the court. It usually comes from late feet, a platform that is angled the wrong way, or contact on the edge of the arm. On a serve, the scorekeeper records a reception error, and the server gets an ace.
Side-Out
Winning the rally while your team is receiving. You score the point, you rotate, and you serve next. Under the old side-out scoring system you only got the serve, not a point. Coaches still say side-out for that play, and for the offense you run off serve receive, even though every rally is worth a point now.
Slide
A middle attack behind the setter. The hitter runs sideways along the net and jumps off one foot as the setter back-sets the ball. A regular quick is in front of the setter, with a two-foot jump straight up. The slide goes the other way, so a middle blocker who jumped with the quick is often still coming down when the hitter swings.
Spike
A hard swing that sends the ball down into the other court. You approach, jump, and contact the ball above the net. In the gym, spike and hit mean that swing. On the stat sheet, the swing is an attack. It becomes a kill only if it scores. At the top levels, spikes often leave the hand somewhere around 50 to 80 miles per hour, depending on the player.
Sprawl
A long, low reach where you push forward and slide on your torso without a full jump. You use it for balls a few steps away, often in the front half of the court, when a normal dig will not get there and a full dive is more than you need.
Stuff
A block that scores the point right away. The ball goes straight down on the attacker's side and never comes back to the blocking team. If one blocker touches it, that player gets a block solo. If two or more touch it, each one gets a block assist. In the gym, people also call this a roof.
T
Tip
A soft, fingertip shot over the block or off the blocker's hands. Indoor players usually say tip. Beach players often say dink. The read is the same: find the open floor where the back-row defenders are not. The contact has to be quick. If the ball rests in your hand, the referee can call a lift.
Tool
Hitting the ball off a blocker's hands on purpose so it deflects out of bounds. When the block is formed and you cannot find open court, you aim for the outside of their hands and the ball flies wide. You still get the kill. Wipe means the same play. Tool is the word you will hear most often indoors.
Topspin Serve
A serve you snap over the top of, so the ball spins forward and drops. It is faster and easier to read than a float, and the drop helps it land in. A lot of players learn a standing topspin serve after the float, before they add the approach of a jump serve. You can hit topspin standing or in the air. In the air, people usually just call it a jump serve.
Transition
The move from defense to offense in the middle of a rally. You dig their attack, the setter gets to the ball, and the hitters leave their defensive spots to approach. It is messier than serve receive, because everyone starts from wherever they just dug or blocked. Hitters also transition after a block, dropping off the net so they can approach to swing.