Publication details
The effect of jump topspin serve speed on reception quality in men’s volleyball
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2024 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | PHYSICAL ACTIVITY REVIEW |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | https://www.physactiv.eu/index.php/in-press-2/ |
| Doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.16926/par.par.2024.12.17 |
| Keywords | elite players; serve speed; pass; performance analysis; team sports |
| Description | The essential activities contributing to winning a volleyball game are serve, offense, and block. The study aimed to determine if the increasing speed of the jump topspin serve negatively affects the reception quality. Methods: The serve speed was measured in sixty-five professional volleyball players. A total of 1270 jump topspin serves were analyzed. The quality of the reception after the serve was evaluated on a 6-level scale: (1) Serve error, (2) Perfect, (3) Good, (4) Negative, (5) Half error, (6) Ace. Results: The average speed of the analyzed serves was 88.2 km·h-1. The Kruskal-Wallis test points to a statistically significant difference between the quality of reception based on the speed of serve (p < 0.001; ?2 = 0.16). The large effect (Hedges’ g) between the quality of reception based on the speed of serve was: Perfect vs. Negative (g = -1.1); Perfect vs. Half error (g = -1.14); Perfect vs. Ace (g = -1.27). The chi-square test showed a statistically significant association between reception quality and serve speed categories (p < 0.001). Conclusions: The increasing speed of the jump topspin serve significantly affects the reception quality. If the speed of the topspin serve exceeds 92 km·h-1, it can be a great benefit for the serving team, although the risk of serve error increases. |