Skills
Are the standards for hand setting stricter for indoor or beach volleyball?
Beach volleyball
As in indoor volleyball, there are several basic skills competitive players need to master: serving, passing, setting, attacking, blocking, and digging. Serving is the act of putting the ball into play by striking it with the hand or arm from behind the rear court boundary. The skill is similar on the beach and indoors, with the exception that on the beach the wind often has a significant effect on the trajectory of the ball. The pass is the first of a team's 3 allowed contacts, and is also very similar on the beach and indoors. However, the standards for hand setting (handling the ball overhand using finger action with the hands separated) are stricter on the beach. In practice, this means that players are effectively forbidden from setting the ball on serve receive; similarly, players seldom use a hand setting motion as the first (except on a hard driven attack) or last of the three allowed team contacts. Digging is a similar skill to passing, but the term is not used to describe receiving the serve or a free ball, but rather refers to an attempt to prevent an opponent's attack hit from touching the court. The set is the second team contact, and its purpose is to position the ball for an attack on the third hit. A hand setting motion is often used, but bump setting, an underhand motion in which the ball bounces off the forearms, is also common. When using the hand motion contact for the setting the ball has to come out "clean". This means that the ball cannot spin at all in the air once it leaves the setters hands. If a referee determines that it was not a "clean" contact then they will call a double contact and the point will be given to the other team. After completing the contact, the setter typically turns his attention to the defense and communicates to his partner whether a blocker is up and which area of the court is open. The second contact can also be used to attack the ball. Attacking includes skills such as spiking—hitting the ball hard with one open hand on a downward trajectory from above the top of the net; rolling—a similar motion to spiking, but softer and with an arcing trajectory; and dinking—directing the ball very softly low over the net. Attack hits are also frequently made with a poking motion with the knuckles or stiff straight fingers. Blocking is an attempt to direct an attack hit by the opponents back into their court by reaching above the top of the net. Players often decide against blocking (if the pass and set are not in a good position to produce a spike attack) and instead opt to Peel off the net and dig. This peeling action is a skill almost exclusive to beach volleyball.