Spikes Dominate Service Game

Service Aces which make one point are mostly from spike serves. That is why spike serves are preferred in spite of their low rate of success on the court. A coach, Shin Chi-yong mentioned, “It boosts players’ morale trying power serves than allow quick attacks from common serves.” Spike serves are more effective in the rally point system.

When only considering speed of serve, LG Fire’s Lee Kyoung-soo is at the top. His serve speed reaches 110km per hour. Samsung Fire’s Chang Byoung-cheol uses the so-called “objective serve” freely, which is hit down on a poorer receiver with a speed of 100km per hour and above. In serve ranking, Samsung Fire’s Shin Seon-ho marked 0.25 serve aces with a total of 15 to surpass Lee Kyoung-soo (0.24).

According to this, coaches conduct special training and spend 20 percent of team training time on spike serves. Power servers exert themselves for individual training as well.

In the women’s league, Korea Highway Corporation’s Lim Yoo-jin, Han Song-ii, and Hyundai Construction’s Yoon Hye-sook are famous for spike serves. Yoon made 16 aces for 48 sets to place first with a 0.33 average per set.

Choi Cheon-sik, the commentator of KBS and a teacher at Inha middle school, commented, “The importance of spike serves is getting bigger because they are the supreme skills which can destroy an opponent’s teamwork. Especially the Samsung Fire, who acquired excellent defensive players through training because it possesses many power servers. That’s how the Samsung Fire keeps its top position.”

Jong-Koo Yang yjongk@donga.com