The basic skills needed to play volleyball are serving, passing, setting, spiking, blocking and digging. Proper technique and form are essential to getting the ball in the desired location and to building up speed and power. Teamwork is also a vital part of volleyball as the rules of the game dictate that no one player can touch the ball consecutively.
Serving can be a difficult skill to learn and is often struggled with. Beginners will often start with the underhand serve and work up to the much more powerful overhand serve. Once the overhand has been mastered, serving techniques can be used to make the volleyball "float" and spin, which increases the chances of the opposing team to miss the serve.
Setting is another skill that is specific to volleyball. In order to avoid holding the ball, a set is a brief hit with tops of ones fingers that sort of bounces it up in the air. Not a good offensive hit, setting is most often used when a player's team member wishes to spike the ball. The player setting will set the ball to the spiking player, aiming to set the ball in a way that will make it the easiest for the teammate to spike it.
Spiking is a swift hit to the volleyball that puts its on a fast, downward trajectory. Along with serves, spikes can be the most lethal hits in a game because of their speed.
