5 common volleyball terms and what they mean (ace, kill, shank, donut, pancake)
Posted: 1/9/24
Last updated: 5/26/24
Written by: Thalia A. Urena
Some of my favorite memories during my high school volleyball career was celebrating on the court with my teammates. You may notice some teams have coordinated chants/cheers that occur after certain plays. Without knowing what we volleyball players are cheering for, it can be confusing when trying to know when to cheer, and what for.
In this blog post, we’ll be going over five frequently used volleyball terms, and when we typically use them:
1) “Ace”
2) “kill”
3)“shank”
4)“donut”
5)“pancake”.
Once you have these key terms in your back pocket, cheering can become a vital part of your team/fan section's success!
It’s hard to ignore how hungry… or scared these terms can make us feel but the volleyball terms used in our community are fun and unforgettable! I’m not sure how they came up with “kill” and “shank” while also having “pancake” and “donut”, but that’s just another silly reason to love volleyball!
Of course, these aren’t new words, they are words with separate meanings attached to them already in our English dictionary. However let’s start explaining what these words also mean for volleyball players!
“Ace”:
“Ace” might be a volleyball term you hear often even if you just watch the sport. “Ace” is a term used when we’re talking about serving the ball, and how it was received. A serve is how each set point is started (by either team), so an “Ace” is something that can happen numerous times in a full match of volleyball.
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 wait for the whistle from the referee telling you to serve. 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 try, but 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 of a passers the opposing team is.
“Kill”:
The term “kill” is a great segue from just learning about the term “ace”. A “kill” in volleyball has similar attributes to how we categorize a serving ace since we are looking for the ball to hit the opposing side’s floor (inside the court lines) immediately following a hit, or only seeing one touch on the kill.
A “kill” is when a hitter (typically outside, middle, opposite) hits the ball over the net, and the opposing side gets 1, or no touch on it. However, any of the six players on the court can receive a kill if they meet this criteria of 1 or 0 touches on their hit.
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, you go up to swing and hit it hard. 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!
“Shank” (or) a 0-ball pass
After learning what a “kill” is, it made sense to move into a “shanked” pass since a 0-ball pass is often seen alongside “kills”.
A “shank” ball happens with passing, or the attempt to pass any kind of ball.
As a coach who takes live game statistics (I’m scoring my team statistically while they are actively in a match) 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
While these numbers can seem meaningless, they do have a purpose to them! A 3-ball pass (aka a perfect pass) is when a pass gives a setter three options to set. This means a pass is high, to the setter’s position where she/he can choose the middle, outside, or right side to set because the pass allows them the ability to do so.
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 could look like the example I said for the “kill” section where the serve went up, but the receiving pass went into the bleachers. If nobody can get another touch, it’s most definitely a “shanked” pass!
“Pancake”
Moving on from our “scary” volleyball terms, we move into hunger! 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. This can sometimes look like people sticking one arm out, or using any part of their body (these are a last ditch resort, so try to utilize your passing platform always!).
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 straight out with a flat hand (palm down to the floor) estimating where the ball might hit the floor and placing their 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.
This is a difficult skill to master, but is so fun to watch when it’s done successfully!
“Donut”
Moving into our final key term, we are still hungry! I first heard the term “donut” when watching NCAA volleyball and a few announcers said “She served that ball right in the donut!”. Of course this caught my attention, and made me rewind a bit to see what spot they were talking about.
A “donut” is a spot on the court that is often not covered/hard to cover effectively 100% of the time. 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):
While my drawing isn’t exact, the donut is in those general areas.
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!
In conclusion…
There will be many volleyball term posts I make, but starting with these five seemed right! I use all five of these terms daily during volleyball season, so I hope this helped you get a better idea about what we are always yelling/chanting during a match!
Remember it’s always okay to ask “What does that mean?” when starting in volleyball, it's not bad to admit you’re unfamiliar with our numerous rules and terminology!
Consider forming cheers when your team gets an ace or a kill. Get your team chemistry moving with just that small change and it creates a huge difference in team morale. Try it and stay consistent at it!
I hope to see you in our future blog posts, take care!
-Coach T.