Is a long volleyball rally more exciting than a point won by one clean serve? Argue which you would rather watch.Angle: one is a story. One is a surprise.
Six people share one volleyball court for a whole season. Write the map of who stands where when the other team serves, and why.Angle: who takes the short ball, who dislikes the deep corner and who talks the most.
Volleyball makes every player rotate through every spot. Is that good for a team or hard on it? Argue one.Angle: the rotation sends even the shortest player to the net and the shyest to serve.
A volleyball match ends on a serve into the net. Write the server's own account of it as a fair sports report in the third person.Angle: a fair reporter would mention her other serves that night. What else?
At match point a volleyball hits the top of the net and rolls along the tape. Write the second before it falls.Angle: both teams are looking up. Which side does it choose?
At match point the setter can send the volleyball to the team's best hitter or to the one nobody is watching. Write her choice.Angle: she has less than a second. Give the reader her whole argument anyway.
It is match point, and the serve is yours. Write only the toss: the volleyball going up, hanging and starting down.Angle: the hand has not hit it yet. Everything is still possible.
The last point of the volleyball match is a block: two pairs of hands above the net and the ball straight back down. Write it as one of the blockers.Angle: you jump before you know. When do you find out it worked?
Match point against you, and the other team's hitter spikes the volleyball at the back row. Write the dig as the player who gets her arms under it.First line: Mine, I said, before I had decided anything.
Match point is won on a serve that no one touches. Write the ace from the side of the volleyball net that watched it land.Angle: who should have moved? Each player has a different answer.
The volleyball coach calls a timeout at match point. Write the huddle: what is said, and what is drawn on the little board.Angle: one instruction is all anyone can hold. Which one?
The whistle blows for match point, and the gym goes quiet enough to hear shoes squeak. Write the sounds of the volleyball court in order.Angle: whistle, the slap of the serve, a shout of mine, the floor. No sights at all.
Write match point as the referee on the stand above the volleyball net, the one person looking down on both sides.Angle: one whistle, one arm out. What does she see that neither team can?
Write match point of a volleyball game as the line judge, who hopes the ball lands nowhere near the line.First line: Please be a yard in or a yard out, I thought. It was neither.
Write the longest rally of a volleyball match, at match point, as the ball: passed, set, hit, dug, and again.First line: Nobody would let me land.
Write the pancake that saves match point: one flat hand on the floor and the volleyball bouncing off the back of it.Angle: the player is lying down and the ball is back in the air. What happens next?
Your volleyball team has match point, loses it and gets it back. Write the two minutes in between.Angle: what the huddle says after the lost point decides the next one.
Your volleyball team plays the last set from the far end of the gym. Write how the same court feels from the other side at match point.Angle: different lights, a different wall behind the server, the other bench's noise.
The serve 15
A beginner serves underhand while the rest of the volleyball team serves overhand. Write the underhand serve that wins a point.Angle: low, soft and exactly where nobody is standing.
A serve clips the top of the volleyball net and drops over. Write what each team thinks of it.Angle: the server lifts a hand to say sorry. Is she sorry?
A volleyball server picks a target: the deep corner, the short spot behind the net, the gap between two players. Write how she chooses.Angle: she reads the other side like a map. Where is the soft place today?
A volleyball team has one server the whole gym dreads. Write her run of serves from the other bench.Angle: the score climbs and the coach looks down the bench. Who is sent in to stop it?
Describe three volleyball servers on one team by what each does with the ball before the whistle.Angle: one spins it, one bounces it, one only stares at it. What does each habit tell you?
Each volleyball rotation moves you one spot closer to the back corner and your turn to serve. Write the waiting.First line: Two more turns and it would be me. I started hoping for long rallies.
Explain a volleyball serve to someone who has never held the ball, in words alone.Angle: toss, step, hit. Find a comparison for each that a beginner would know.
The serve is the one moment in volleyball when a player is alone with the ball. Write it as someone who loves being on a team.Angle: nobody to pass to and nobody to blame. A relief, or a weight?
Write a float serve as the volleyball: hit flat, no spin, a wobble in the air and no idea where you will come down.First line: I was sent off with no instructions and left to make up my own mind.
Write a letter to the volleyball serve you cannot get right, as if it were a stubborn friend.First line: Dear overhand serve, we need to talk about the net.
Write a serve from the other side of the net: you are the volleyball player in the back row, and it is coming to you.Angle: arms out, knees bent, half a second. Where do you want your pass to go?
Write a volleyball jump serve in three parts: the high toss, the run, the hit at the top.Angle: the ball leaves the hand long before the feet leave the floor. Keep the order clear.
Write the first volleyball serve you ever got over the net.First line: It was not pretty, and it was over, and I looked around to see who had noticed.
Write the sound of a gym before a volleyball game, when every player is practicing serves at once.Angle: slaps, squeaks, balls rolling under the bleachers. Find the rhythm in it.
Your volleyball serve hits the net ten times in a row at practice. Write the eleventh.First line: I stopped aiming at the net, which turns out to be what I had been doing.
A team of six 15
A volleyball drops to the floor between two teammates who each thought the other had it. Write the next five seconds.Angle: a look, a laugh or a silence. Then somebody shouts mine twice as loud.
A volleyball team invents its own names for its plays. Write the list, and the story behind the strangest name.Angle: a number, a color, a food. The other side of the net must not guess.
In volleyball nobody may touch the ball twice in a row, so every player has to give it away. Write what that does to a team.Angle: the best player on the court still needs two other people to score.
The libero wears a different color jersey from the rest of the volleyball team. Write what it is like to be the odd shirt.Angle: every other shirt on the court matches. What is hers alone?
Only five volleyball players show up for the game. Write how five cover a court made for six.Angle: where is the hole, and who keeps drifting toward it?
Pass, set, hit: write one volleyball point as the setter, the player in the middle who touches it second.First line: My job is to make someone else look good, over and over, all night.
Six people share one volleyball court for a whole season. Write the map of who stands where when the other team serves, and why.Angle: who takes the short ball, who dislikes the deep corner and who talks the most.
Six volleyball players, six spots on the court, and everyone rotates through all of them. Write the spot you like least.Angle: front middle between the tall blockers, or the back corner with a serve coming?
The tallest and the shortest players on a volleyball team stand side by side at the net for one rotation. Write that rotation.Angle: one blocks, one cannot reach the tape. What can the short one do better?
The volleyball team huddles after every single point, won or lost. Write three huddles from one game.Angle: one after an ace, one after a mistake, one near the end. Who talks in each?
Write a thank-you note from a volleyball hitter to the passer whose perfect pass nobody clapped for.Angle: the crowd cheered the spike. Describe the pass that made it possible.
Write a volleyball team as six voices: what each player shouts during one rally.Angle: mine, help, outside, free ball. Lay it out like a script with six parts.
Write the volleyball bench: the players waiting to go in, on their feet all game, loud for every point.Angle: a substitute waits at the line to be waved on. What does she tell herself?
Write the volleyball rotation as a clock: six players moving one place at a time, clockwise, all game.Angle: what stays the same on a team where everyone keeps moving?
Your volleyball team wins a point, and every player tries to give the credit away. Write the argument.Angle: the passer says the setter, the setter says the hitter, the hitter says the pass.
An opinion to argue 15
A volleyball serve that touches the net and drops over still counts. Should it? Argue yes or no.Angle: is luck part of a game, or a hole in its rules?
A volleyball set ends on points, not on a clock. Is that better than a game that ends when time runs out? Argue it.Angle: nobody can run out the clock. But nobody knows when they will get home.
A volleyball team gets three touches to send the ball back. Would four make the game better? Take a side.Angle: would a fourth touch make longer rallies or lazier ones?
A volleyball that lands on the line counts as in. Argue why the line should belong to the court, or why it should not.Angle: the line has to belong to someone. What would change if it were out?
At match point, would you rather be the volleyball server or the player waiting to pass the serve? Choose and explain.Angle: one holds the ball and the quiet. One can only wait and react.
Is a long volleyball rally more exciting than a point won by one clean serve? Argue which you would rather watch.Angle: one is a story. One is a surprise.
Is the setter the real leader of a volleyball team, whoever the captain is? Argue it.Angle: she decides who gets to hit. Is choosing the same as leading?
Is volleyball harder for a tall player or for a short one? Argue the side people do not expect.Angle: think about the floor as well as the net.
The libero may not block, and may not spike above the net. Is it fair to give one volleyball player so many limits? Argue it.Angle: she gives up the loud plays. What does the team get in return?
Should a volleyball player shout mine every time, even when it is obvious whose ball it is? Argue for or against all the talking.Angle: think of the one time nobody said it.
Should a volleyball server who misses get a second try? Argue yes or no.Angle: picture the nervous beginner. Then picture the game taking twice as long.
Should a volleyball team huddle after every point, even the ones it loses? Argue yes or no.Angle: is the huddle for cheering up, for planning or only a habit?
Underhand or overhand: argue which volleyball serve a new player should learn first.Angle: one goes over the net sooner. One is the serve she will want later.
Volleyball makes every player rotate through every spot. Is that good for a team or hard on it? Argue one.Angle: the rotation sends even the shortest player to the net and the shyest to serve.
Which is the most important touch in volleyball: the pass, the set or the hit? Argue for one.Angle: take one away and see what is left of the point.
How it works
In volleyball nobody may touch the ball twice in a row, so every point is shared. These volleyball writing prompts start there: match point, the serve, six players on one court and fifteen things to argue.
Read the full guide
Match point, from every place in the gym
Fifteen prompts stop the game at its last point and change who is looking: the server at the toss, the ball rolling along the tape, the line judge, the referee on the stand above both sides.
Three touches, six people
A team may touch the ball three times before it crosses the net, Wikipedia's volleyball article says, and usually that is a pass, a set and a hit. The team prompts are about that handing on: the setter who touches it second, the libero in the odd jersey.
Write a rally in short sentences, one for each touch. Let the last sentence be the floor.
Questions and answers
What is a good volleyball based writing prompt?
Write a float serve as the ball: hit flat, no spin, no idea where you will come down. Or write the game when only five players show up to cover a court made for six.
How many players are on a volleyball team?
Six on the court for each side, Wikipedia's volleyball article says. When a team wins back the serve its players rotate one place clockwise, so the rotation carries each of them to the net and to the serve.
Are these volleyball writing prompts for kids?
Yes. They are set in a gym, with a beginner's underhand serve and a bench that stands all game. Nobody is hurt, and no team, league or player is named.
Which volleyball rules make good opinion writing?
The serve that touches the net and still counts. The ball that lands on the line. The limits on the libero. Whether a server who misses should get a second try. Each one is a prompt in the opinion group.