Speed, success, starting points and destinations of serve in male volleyball teams of the Estonian championship league in the matches of 2024/2025 season

The aim of the study was to find which factors influence the success of serve in volleyball, considering the starting point, speed, trajectory and destination of the serve. The following research questions were set: 1. From which starting point are the serves the most successful? 2. Serves into which zone are the most successful? 3. Do the serves to different lines of the court (the front line, middle line, back line) fly at different speeds? 4. Serves into which line are the most successful? 5. Are diagonal serves more successful and faster than the serves flying along the sideline? Four Estonian teams of the Cronimet Baltic League of the 2024/2025 season participated in the study – Bigbank Tartu Volleyball Club, Pärnu Volleyball Club, Barrus Võru Volleyball Club and Selver x TalTech Volleyball Club. Parameters such as the starting point, destination, speed and success of the serve were evaluated. The starting points, destinations and success rates of serves were assessed according to the methodology used in the Data Volley program. The serve speeds were measured with a Pocket Radar SD2000 on a kilometre per hour scale. Serve success was assessed on a five-point scale. A total of 1737 service-related activities were analysed. The data were analysed with Microsoft Excel and Jamovi programs. To find statistical significance, Student’s t-test was used. The level of significance was set at p<0.05. The analysis of results revealed that the greatest number of balls were served from zone 9, and their mean success rate was the highest – 1.95. The most successful serve destination zone was the middle zone of the front-line zone where the success rate was 2.5. The mean speeds of the balls served to the different lines of the court were different. The fastest balls were served to the back line (81.179 km/h) and the slowest to the middle line (60.109 km/h). The most successful balls were served to the back line where the success rate was 1.936. The comparison of means between the back line and the middle line revealed statistically significant differences between the serve speeds (p<0.05), serve destinations (p<0.05) and serve success rates (p<0.05). Thus, it can be said that statistically significantly more balls were served to the back line than to the middle line. In addition, the mean speed of the balls served to the back line was statistically significantly higher than the speed of the balls served to the middle line, and the success rate of the balls served to the back line was statistically significantly higher than the success rate of the balls served to the middle line. No statistically significant difference was found between the success rates of the balls served diagonally and along the sideline. The success rate of the serves along the sideline was higher than the success rate of diagonal serves. In the case of service errors, the mean speed was higher than in the case of ace serves