Posted on: November 15th, 2024

Last Updated: November 15th, 2024

Author: Thalia A. U.

Common Volleyball Terms that Every Athlete, Coach, & Beyond Should Learn

There are many Volleyball Terms that athletes are constantly learning about. There are so many terms within the sport that this post includes 10 words/phrases but still doesn’t cover all of them!

In this blog post I will go over the terms ace, shank, kill, pancake, donut, serve receive + serving possession, joust, shag, base/ideal spot, and rotation position.

1) “ACE”: 

An “Ace” is a term used when we’re talking about serving the ball, and how it was received. A serving “ace” is accomplished by serving the ball and having the ball hit inside the volleyball court lines without any touch, or only one touch by the opposing team (on their opposing side of the court). 

I’m a visual person, so let’s give a storyline example of what that could look like: 

Your team just won the ball back and it’s now your turn to serve in rotation. You go behind the service line and hear the whistle from the referee. You toss the ball up, hit it strongly, and see it go over the net straight down onto the opposing team’s side of the court (inside the court lines). They get no touch on the ball, and the whistle is blown. You just got a serving ace and a point for your team! 

The amount of aces a player has can give great statistics for how strong their serve is, how difficult it is to receive it, or how great the opposing teams passers are.  

2) “KILL”: 

A “kill” in volleyball has similar attributes to how we categorize a serving ace while still having its distinct differences.

A “kill” is when a hitter hits the ball over the net, and the opposing side gets 1, or no touch on it. Hitters can get a kill if the ball touches the opposing side blockers prior to hitting the floor.

Let’s do another story for visual imagery of what this could look like. 

Your libero serve receives and passes the ball to your setter. You’re in the outside position, and you’re transitioning to hit. Your setter pushes the ball to you on the outside and you hit the ball over the net. The opposing side gets one touch on it but that pass goes into the bleaches where a second touch is impossible. You just received a “kill”, and a point for your team!

Sometimes you can also receive a “kill” by hitting a ball, and it goes off of the opposing side's block and then touches the floor. This is important to note for higher-level teams who are going against a tough blocking team! 

3) “SHANK” (OR) A 0-BALL PASS

A “shank” (0 ball pass) is when a pass is attempted, but another touch/pass afterward is impossible due to the quality of the initial pass. This also means our setter has 0 options to set, resulting in the “0 ball pass” name. This means the “shanked” pass was the last touch on the play , and the “shanked” pass resulted in an immediate loss of point for that team. This could look like the example I said for the “kill” section where the serve went up, but the receiving pass went into the bleachers.

As a coach who takes live game statistics this is a volleyball term I use daily. There is a system to rank volleyball passes, and it goes from a 3-ball pass (also known as a perfect pass) 2-ball pass, 1-ball pass, and then finally a 0-ball pass (also known as a “shank”).  

Here is our full blog post about how volleyball coaches rank passes statistically if you want to learn more about the topic:

https://defyinggravityvolleyball.com/blog/how-to-rank-passes-statistically-in-volleyball

4) “PANCAKE”

A “pancake” in volleyball is usually known since it’s a silly phrase with a cool action to follow alongside it. 

When we are passing there are many ways someone can dive, or go for the ball to ensure it doesn’t touch the ground. A “pancake” is just another way for a passer to get a ball up as a last resort. 

During a pancake, you will see a passer “layout” meaning their body is spread on the floor, stomach down. They extend one of their arms out (adjacent to their ear) with their palm facing down to the floor. They hope to estimate where the ball might hit the floor, and place that extended hand there. This creates a “pancake” look as you’re using your flat hand to (hopefully) have the ball bounce off your hand and it still be playable. 

This is most often seen at the professional levels due to the difficulty to execute properly, but is so fun to watch when it’s done successfully! 

5) “DONUT” 

I first heard the term “donut” when watching NCAA volleyball and a few announcers said “She served that ball right in the donut!”.

A “donut” is a spot on the court that is often not covered/hard to cover effectively. It’s a circular area just behind the 10ft line on our volleyball courts. If you were to find the center point of the 10 ft line and then step back once, you’d be in the donut area. 

Shown below is a picture of where the donut relatively is on the court (red circles drawn in place): 

The difficulty of defending this spot is that it’s so close to the front-row players, but also some of our back-row players. This can cause miscommunication resulting in some points earned from aiming to the donut spot. There are a few spots on the court similar to the donut where it’s very hard to defend, but the donut is well-known to the volleyball community!

6) JOUST

The Joust is best explained as when two opposing players on opposite sides of the net “battle” each other for a Volleyball that is falling on top of the net. They do this by jumping simultaneously with their hands up hoping to push the ball to their opponents side.

This battle happens more often than athletes presume but especially to middle blockers who are constantly on the net waiting for those exact plays. A seasoned “Jouster” will see the Volleyball heading towards no mans land (AKA the net/top of the tape) and know to jump up for a joust and where to place it.

7) SHAG

I’m sure your coach hopes you know this term but shagging in Volleyball is known as retrieving a volleyball, and placing it back where is belongs (like a ball cart).

This could look like in the middle of a drill coach freezes and says “Shag the balls, I’m all out!” and your entire team will run around the gym grabbing any of the Volleyballs you used so it can go back in the ball cart to continue the drill.

It could also look like your coach saying “Shag your own ball during hitting lines” which means after you hit/serve/etc the ball you are responsible for grabbing that same ball and immediately putting it in the ball cart. So the term shag/shagging is a cool way to say “clean up!”.

8) ROTATION POSITION

Knowing your rotation position during a volleyball match is a vital part that helps ensure you will not lose points for your team by being out of rotation or running to the incorrect base/ideal spot due to not knowing your rotation position.

Your rotation position is the spot on the court that you are in (1-6), concerning your turn in serve. This means that one person could go on a long run for serving but once their team loses a point then the serve possession is back in their opponent’s hands. The next time the team earns a point back they will need to rotate to get a new server, and your team has serving possession back.

Knowing your rotation position is important not only to ensure you do not cross bodies with the players to the left/right of you, but also helps you understand where to go for your base/ideal spot (which we will go over later in this post).

9) SERVE RECEIVE + Serving Possession

Without overthinking this, the volleyball term serve receive means exactly what it implies… serve receive is when your team is receiving a serve from your opponent. This also means your opponent has possession of the serve/service. When your team is on serve receive you are on defense because your opponent has serving possession of the ball.

Following the definition of serve receive we move into the opposite term which is called serving possession. When your team has serving possession your team either won the coin toss and chose to serve first (indicating your player starting in position 1 will have the games first serve) or has won a point and earned serving possession back.

When your team has serving possession you are serving the ball to your opponents. Having serving possession (and also keeping your team with serving possession) is a vital part of winning sets in a game of volleyball.

10) BASE/IDEAL SPOT

Your base/ideal spot is the spot on the court that your position ideally wants to set up in for offense and defense. This involves what side of the court (left, middle, right) you’re running to, and if you’re currently front or back-row (rotation position). Your rotation position helps us figure out where your base/ideal spot is

For example: If you’re an outside hitter starting in position number 4 for your starting line up your base/idea spot is the left side of the court, in the front-row.

Here’s why: Outside’s base/ideal spot will be the left side of the court. Since position 4 is the front row, that explains why their base/ideal is left side front row. Once the outside rotates to position 1 their base/ideal spot would likely be left side back-r (unless changed by their coach).

Here are all the positions base/ideal spots (some coaches may change these base spots):

Setter + Opposite’s: Right side of the court

Middle + Libero: Middle of the court

Outside’s: Left side of the court

IN CONCLUSION…

Learning these volleyball terms is a helpful way to improve your knowledge of the sport, and can make the process much easier when the time comes to learn from your coach + during high intensity matches.

If you have any additional terms you want to learn more about let me know in the comments below!

See you in another blog post!

-Coach T