Learn the three-step approach in volleyball: short orientation step, long plant step, closing step. With milestones, typical mistakes and timing tips.
How many steps does the approach have in volleyball? The honest answer: In the classic approach it is three steps. A short orientation step, a clearly longer, explosive plant step and a closing step that brings both feet together for take-off [1]. For a right-hander the pattern runs left, right, left. Left-handers mirror it.
The approach is not a side issue. In a movement analysis with 16 experienced players, jump height in the spike jump was strongly related to the horizontal speed of the centre of mass at the end of the approach. The authors write about the importance of an optimal approach [2]. And a group around Fuchs showed with twelve elite women over one season that targeted training of approach and arm swing details raised jump height from about 0.44 metres by 11.9 percent, which is roughly 5 centimetres, about the width of three fingers [4]. That was not a randomised study, but it shows how much is in the approach.
First learn only the step sequence. For right-handers: a short, relaxed step with the left (orientation step), then a big, flat step with the right (plant step), then pull the left leg next to the right. The plant step is clearly longer and more explosive than the first step [1]. The association recommends syllables as an aid, for example "jam-ta-dam": push-off, heel down, close and take off [1]. Milestone: 10 approaches in a row with the same rhythm.
Put the heel down first and roll over the foot. The plant foot is placed with a clear heel contact, not flat [1]. Practise at the markings or over two mats with a gap. Milestone: you land the plant foot in the marking 8 out of 10 times.
During the short orientation step the arms swing forwards, during the plant step both arms go back, and at take-off you swing both arms up at the same time [1]. The arm swing really does something: in elite volleyball players it raised the height of a standing countermovement jump by 38 percent, a finding from a different jump (TRANSFER, no approach) [5]. In women, a wide, dynamic arm swing was one of three key factors of jump height [3]. Milestone: 10 approaches in which both arms go up together.
On the closing step you place your left foot closer to the net than your right. That opens you up sideways to the ball and lets the hitting shoulder go well back [1]. As a beginner you take off about one arm length from the ball [1]. Milestone: from five different starting points you always land about half an arm length from the net [1].
On a high set you start the approach with the push-off to the plant step when the ball is just before its highest point. On a one-metre ball you start when the ball is in the setter's hand [1]. At first begin with a short approach of plant step and closing step [1]. Milestone: you meet 7 of 10 sets at the highest point of your reach.
The risk is at the net: if you take off too close you easily land in the opponent's court. In a video analysis of ankle injuries in world-class volleyball, the attacker landed in the opponent's court in 11 of 12 situations in which he came down on an opponent under the net [6]. So keep your distance to the net and land close to your take-off spot [1]. Practise the approach first without a jump and without a ball [1]. This guide explains and motivates, it does not replace supervised training.
Imagine you want to "stamp" yourself into the floor from the heel. The association describes the plant step as a jump over a wide ditch in front of a high bar [1]. This picture helps you make the step long and flat instead of steep.
A second aid: let a confident partner call the start. This trains your timing without you starting too early [1].
As a right-hander you plant with your right foot, so the approach runs left, right, left. The teaching material explains that planting with the left often leads beginners to place the right foot closer to the net and turn the hitting shoulder forward too early [1].
On a high set, with the push-off to the plant step when the ball is just before its highest point. On a short one-metre ball, as soon as the ball is in the setter's hand [1].
The teaching material recommends running so that you land about half an arm length from the net, and as a beginner taking off about one arm length from the ball [1].
Yes. In elite volleyball players the arm swing raised the height of a standing jump by 38 percent [5], and in women a wide, dynamic arm swing was a key factor of jump height in the spike jump [3].
Serve Receive: Position, Feet, Platform and Who Takes the Ball