The dig is a technique that can save your volleyball game. If the ball is about to hit the floor it can be rescued with a dig and therefore, rescuing your team from the other side getting a point.

The idea of the dig is to bring the ball back up into the air so it can be volleyed or slammed into the other teams court. It is a brilliant way to set your fellow players up with an easy shot.

The technique is to lock your elbows with your hands together in front of you and hit the ball with the part of your hand between your palm or thumbs and your wrist, depending on whether you have your hands positioned wrists up or wrists together.

When you make contact with the ball. Do not lift your arms to hit it. This is very important. You must bend from the knees and use the force of coming up again as the power behind the ball. This way you can aim with your arms and control the ball so it doesn’t go to high. If you use power from your arms moving up to hit the ball, you have much less control and it is more likely to go backwards than forwards and upwards.

For making emergency plays, there are five common techniques:

Collapse

From a low defensive position, a player might collapse to the ground in order to make a last second move to play the ball. The collapse is used most often when a ball falls shorter than anticipated.

Sprawl

Anticipating the ball falling out in front of them, a defender might use the sprawling technique to take a lunge forward and reach to make a play.

Sprawling volleyball techniques are just like the collapse except the defender has time to take a step and reach.

The dive

This is similar to the sprawl except the body is more in an airborne position when making a the play.

Pancake

Defensive players can perform a pancake to save a ball from hitting the floor. The pancake is similar to a sprawl except the fingers are spread firmly and placed on the ground to meet the ball.

Pancaking can be one of the good volleyball techniques of playing a ball because if you perform a good pancake, you often will get a good bounce that will allow your teammates to keep the ball in play.

Shoulder or barrel roll

Defenders can often use a rolling technique by extending to the right, left, or forward in attempting to get the ball up by playing the ball close to the floor.

After playing the ball the players use their momentum to roll over their body and regain their balance in a position ready to move.

Rolling is probably the safest of the emergency volleyball techniques because players don’t really hit the ground hard.

The dig is a difficult technique to master, but once you’ve got it, your game standard will rise much higher and you will have the ability to play well in any position on court.