Hitting Velocity Of High School Female Volleyball Players

What is the average and peak hitting velocity of high school female volleyball players? How might these change based on age, size, strength, skill and vertical jump height? For players who have committed to play in college, do they hit significantly harder than non-college players? These were all questions we sought to answer when we toted our Stalker Radar guns into Illini Elite Volleyball club. After getting radar readings on 85 girls ranging in age from 15-18, we had some answers.

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Factors Affecting Hitting Velocity in Volleyball Players

As a baseball pitching coach, I watched form just like I do when I watch my pitchers. It quickly became apparent which factors strongly correlated with higher hitting speeds. These were:

1. Age

Older players hit harder, but age wasn’t a factor once age 16 was reached.

We saw the biggest difference in average and peak velocity between the 15U players and 16U players.
15U players hit 3-4mph slower, on average, than the 16U players.
The jump from 16U to 17/18U was less significant – only 1mph on average between age groups.

One possible explanation for the 15U to 16U gap is that it’s a year for physical maturity. A big physical growth factor happening somewhere between age 15 and 16 that results in increased strength, size, or height, could explain the velocity jump from age 15 to 16.

Another possible explanation is that the increased volleyball prowess gained from one year of being in Illini Elite’s program is the cause of the jump. 15U is the youngest age allowed into their Elite program, so this year of skill development is likely to be a major factor.

From simply looking at physical maturity, my opinion is that it’s likely a mixture of both – the girls grow in that year AND get much more skilled at striking the volleyball.

2. Strike Quality

It’s obvious that the more squarely the ball is struck with the palm, the faster it will travel. But, mis-hits don’t have to be significant to take a significant amount of velocity off. I watched as just slight mis-hits resulted in velocity drops of 3-5mph. Big mis-hits – balls that hit on the very edges of the hand – registered 6-10mph slower and had lots of sidespin, a concomitant of a poor strike.

3. Set Quality

The timing of the player’s jump had to be just right so that they could apply their best, most efficient arm swing. Poor sets always resulted in lower velocities because the player had to adjust in midair and apply a less efficient swing pattern. When the set was good and the player timed it properly, velocity was optimized.

4. Jump Height

This one is simple physics – the higher one jumps, the harder they can hit the ball without it going out of bounds. If one can’t get high above the net, a very hard hit will go out out bound because the trajectory will be too high. The higher one jumps, the more force they can apply because the downward trajectory will be greater, allowing for hard hits to still stay in bounds. Being closer to the net also optimizes trajectory and allows for harder hits.

Jump height affords the volleyball player two things – increased downward trajectory while hitting and increased ability to block opponent’s shots. But, what’s interesting is that jump height effectively governs the player’s maximum hitting velocity. If a player is capable of hitting 50mph, for example, but can only jump high enough to barely clear the net, 50mph might always go out of bounds from that low trajectory; he or she would have to slow hitting speed down to keep it in bounds.

So, though 50mph might be on tap, in this example the player might have to slow the arm down to 40 or 45mph to keep the ball in bounds. Increasing the vertical jump would then allow for higher trajectory, which would keep harder hits in bounds, effectively increasing hitting speed with no real change in arm strength.

5. Aggression

The bigger girls consistently hit harder than smaller girls. But, there were numerous outliers – very thin girls who hit as hard or harder than their larger counterparts. The common denominator was what I call, “Screwyouism.”

Most youth athletes struggle with their intent to move themselves and objects at maximum speeds. Inexperienced lifters don’t fight the bar hard enough; young pitchers don’t throw the ball like they’re trying to kill someone with it; many volleyball players hit at 80-90% of what they’re capable of – they don’t have enough aggression – they don’t try to crush the ball hard enough.

The smaller girls who hit hard all had high arm speed – they were perhaps a little gifted with natural arm speed. BUT – every outlier showed increased aggressiveness in their hits. They swung harder and followed through harder, and really hit the ball like they were trying to kill someone with it.

What was fun for me was watching lightbulbs go off as the girls started to compare hitting speeds. No one had ever done radar on them before, so none of us knew what a good velocity was. But, they started to compare their numbers to the numbers of their teammates, and competition started to ensue.

What we saw were velocity patterns like this:

35 – 36- 38- 40 – 41 -42

Did they gain 7mph magically? No – they just reached deeper into their potential. Girls who started off hitting in the mid-30s saw their numbers beaten by teammates. What did they do? They hit harder, trying to save face. Numbers went up consistently over the course of the 5-6 hits we recorded, mostly because girls got a little angry that they weren’t hitting as hard as others were. When the competitiveness came out, numbers went up.

The Data

The following is the data we collected. We’ll re-test later in the year to see how these speeds have progressed under an offseason of training. Click Here: volleyball hitting velocity to see the full PDF of the velocities.

Exercises To Increase Velocity and Reduce Shoulder Pain

Shoulder pain is prevalent and maximal muscle strength is reduced in the presence of pain and injury. Volleyball players often complain of shoulder pain, and strengthening the rotator cuff should be a major priority for all players.

In my academy we really like the Theraband CLX.

We like them so much that we bought 100 yards of it, and cut a 4-foot strip for each of the players in our organization. As a heads up, I do get a commission if you buy from one of the links here. But, don’t let that change anything. I use these every day with our clients at Warbird Academy and they’re awesome products, which is why we use them and I think you should too.

Theraband CLX [affiliate link] is versatile, durable, lightweight and can roll up to fit in the back pocket. It’s latex-free, which is also a plus for those with allergies. I recommend the GREEN resistance for anyone starting out.

I recommend grabbing a single band for yourself (about $10), or buying a roll of bands for your team (ends up being about $10 per player but you’ll cut about 20 bands from a full roll, so you’ll have extras or could split with another team).

Volleyball Arm Strength Exercise #1: The No Money

Volleyball Arm Strength Exercise #2: Pull Apart T

Volleyball Arm Strength Exercise #3: Sword Pull

Volleyball Arm Strength Exercise #4: External Rotation

Sets and Reps

For the sake of simplicity and motivation, I recommend the following:

8 minutes per day
For all four exercises, perform one one-minute timed sets
- Focus on going slow, and in one minute between 12-15 reps will be performed. Don’t count, just use the timer and go SLOW.
Repeat the whole circuit of exercises twice
Shoot for 3-5 workouts per week
Perform one set as a warmup before all practices, and one set after as a recovery/cool-down session

Grab a band here if you don’t have one. [affiliate link]

Work Hard, Get Strong, Hit Harder.

There’s more velocity in any volleyball player’s arm, especially if she has never done arm care exercises before. Work hard and hit even harder!

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