Volleyball Rotation Basics: A Beginners Guide
Posted on: 9/4/24
Last Updated: 9/4/24
Author: Thalia A. U.
Volleyball rotations explained
One of the most important parts of Volleyball is ensuring you know the mechanics of the sport so you, and your team, don’t lose points for being “out of rotation” by the referees.
In this blog post I will go over the basics of Volleyball rotations, step by step.
That will include:
What are Volleyball rotations + Why do we do them?
When do we rotate?
Positions Base/ideal spots + When to go to base spot
The difference between your Rotation position VS. your Base ideal spot
What are Volleyball rotations & Why do we do them?
Rotating in Volleyball is associated with the sports serve, which is when a player on a team goes behind the serving line to hit the ball over the net for the other team to receive.
For each new service you need to have a new player to serve. That means out of the 6 players rotating on the court, you need to have 5 other players serve before the first server can serve again… or you’ll be called out of rotation!
This is associated with the rotation spots on the court, which are numbered 1-6 for the 6 players allotted on the court at a time. Knowing your rotation position is knowing your turn in serve (If you’re in position 2, the next time your team rotates you are serving… etc).
Below is a picture of the spots on the court (1-6) and which way they rotate:
When do we rotate?
Now that we know that we need to rotate each time we earn a point back (indicating the start of a new server/service) lets use an example to better understand when we know we have to rotate… because it’s not after each point your team earns!
For example:
Your team won the coin toss and has the first serve of the set. Starting in the serving spot (position 1 on the court) is a setter on your team named Carly. Carly serves the ball, and the other team receives it well and gets a kill instantly. Now, Carly has lost her service, is still in position 1 (on defense) and Carly’s team is on serve receive. Carly’s opponent goes up to serve, and it goes in the net. Now, Carly’s team is going to rotate in order to get a new server from that point earned because Carly cannot serve 2 rotations back to back. The player who was in position 2 when Carly was in position 1 will now rotate to the serving spot… making them now in position 1…etc!
A key point to remember is that you rotate only when your team needs a new server. Carly could have went on a serving run if her team kept winning points, keeping her on service. There are many different scenarios that can happen, but the most important fact to know is that you only rotate when you need a new server after you won a point of possession back. So, when your opponent is serving at you (your team is on serve receive) and you win a point back… expect to rotate!
Positions base/ideal spots
Now that we know about rotation positions and how they are a vital part of knowing your turn for serve within your team, we can learn about each positions base/ideal spot on the court.
A positions base spot is defined as the ideal area on the court (left/middle/right) + (Front/back) that a position wants to play from defensively and offensively.
Even though we know the importance of rotating, and rotation position in volleyball in connection to our serves, that doesn’t mean that positions best opportunity to excel in offense and defense is in that same spot as well.
To simplify it, would it make sense for a middle hitter/blocker who is technically in rotation position 4 to hit out of spot 4 on the court… no! They are called middle blockers/hitters for a reason… thus, base/ideal spots!
In order to ensure players stay in rotation position, players can run to their base/ideal spot during these times:
When their team is on serve: Once your teammate makes contact with the serve (NOT on the ref’s whistle)
When your team is on serve receive: Once your team sends the ball BACK over the net
It’s important to remember that you cannot cross the person to your left and right before those two points of play when considering your base/ideal spot. You may “stack” in order to make these scenarios easier, but you still cannot cross that person until contact with the ball has been made, or your team has sent the serve receive back over the net (so you can focus on defense first instead of running).
Each positions base/ideal spot:
Outside hitter: Left side of the court
Middle hitter: Middle of the court
Libero: Middle of the court
Opposite/RS hitter: Right side of the court
Setter: Right side of the court
Below is a picture to better show how the positions base/ideal spots look on the court:
In the next section we will go over how your rotation position will help you figure out if your base/ideal spot is front or back row.
The difference between rotation position & Base/ideal spot
It’s very important to remember that your rotation position is different than your positions base/ideal spot. Your rotation position is your turn in serve, and your base/ideal spot is where your position wants to end up in order to have an ideal offense and defense run.
However, knowing your rotation position helps you better understand if your positions base/ideal spot is front or back-row.
For example, If I’m an outside hitter and my rotation position is in spot 1, I would know that my base/ideal spot is going to be the left side of the court, in the back-row (AKA position 5).
However, If I’m an outside hitter and my rotation position is in spot 3, I would know that my base/ideal spot is going to be the left side of the court, in the front-row.
So, your rotation position helps us understand if your base/ideal spot is front or back-row.
If your rotation position is 2, 3, or 4 then you know your base/ideal spot will be the front row. If your rotation position is 1, 5, or 6 then you know your base/ideal spot will be the back-row.
This is why knowing your rotation position, position, and base/ideal spot is a vital part of ensuring your volleyball team doesn’t lose a point for being out of rotation.
In conclusion…
Being called out of rotation is a tough point to lose, so ensuring you fully understand rotations, and the base/ideal spots is a vital part of having success in volleyball.
Once you have these fundamentals of rotations understood, you can better understand more experienced rotations like a 5-1.
Please check out my Youtube video for a deeper, and more detailed example of volleyball rotation basics!
Hope to see you in another blog post!
-Coach T