Setting & attack

Setting: the window and the tempo

The overhead set (la passe, das Pritschen) has a fixed shape and a timing:

• Hand shape: the ball window above the forehead, contact on the finger pads, elbows out.
• Footwork to the ball: beat it to the spot, stop square to the left sideline.
• Tempo 1/2/3: quick, medium, high — the speed of the set to the hitter.
• The setter's read: face outside to hide the back-set; the jump set buys time and disguise.

Drills: the setter footwork-and-tempo drill (u17/sen) and the overhead juggle-to-self warm-up (u9/u13).

Attack: approach and arm swing

The spike (l'attaque, der Angriff) is an approach, a swing and a landing:

• Approach footwork: slow to fast, the last two steps are the one-two plant, both arms back then up.
• Arm swing: high contact in front of the hitting shoulder, a wrist snap over the ball.
• Lines and tips: the line, the cross, and the open-hand tip to the open floor.
• Landing: a two-foot soft landing protects the knee (jumper's knee is a jump-load injury).

Drills: the toss-and-hit over a low net (u9/u13), the approach introduction (u13/u17), lines-and-cross-and-tip (u17/sen) and the first-tempo/slide/transition (sen).

The back-row attack and transition

A back-row player may complete an attack on a ball entirely above net height only if the take-off is behind the 3 m line (Rule 13.2). After an attack, transition is the key habit: get off the net and re-approach, ready to hit again from the dig.

The first tempo and the slide are late-u17/senior timing, trained once the approach and the set connection are reliable.

Frequently asked

Sources

• FIVB, Official Volleyball Rules 2025-2028 (Rule 13.2, the back-row attack).
• OFSPO/BASPO mobilesport, volleyball technique pages (Passe, Attaque), mobilesport.ch.
• Paak volleyball corpus, files 03 (technique) and 05 (landing and the knee), verified September 2026.