It needs to be a reaction such as by reflex, that's why you are also allowed to use this technique after a defensive blocking as long as your reaction is instinctive, and you can't really dig the ball with another surface.

only as a reflex- if it looks on purpose, you better have the most beautiful technical style bc refs will call double on that 95% of the time

There's another exception in the rules - you're allowed for a short catch of the hard driven ball. And this short catch absorbs a lot of potential double touches - making it legal.

We agree!

We recommend never using open hands. Open to way to much scrutiny.

no. use pokey

Only if it's a hard driven ball, otherwise you need to use tomahawk, pokey, etc

stacked flat or separate, but rigid hands - everything is fine.

Hi there! It definitely can be hard to have good control with the tomahawk, but we've found that this is usually because no one practices it! You can't expect to pull out a perfect tomahawk on the one play where you need it if it's your first tomahawk of the day, or even of the week! Throw some practice reps into your warmup routine and see if your opinions changes :) To clarify, definitely not disagreeing that open hand digging gives you more control; however, you can't open hand dig every ball - it has to be hard-driven!

I started to use tomahawk looking at this channel - and was provided with a really poor experience (exactly like you described). But it didn't stop me, I included this element in my regular routine. And after 2 months it changed dramatically. For soft and medium high balls it works perfectly - really predictable and high. I see players around me - and their double palm option works worse, with really low energy and mostly just above their heads, not in a proper direction for pass/set. It took me some time not to use tomahawk against serve (when I'm tired and don't move my legs) or high energy spike - because it not precise enough and provides an unpredictable result. In this case it's better to use two palms

Just an FYI, we have a FREE webinar today at 11am PST on just that topic that Mark will be leading! www.betteratbeach.com/bestvolleyballexerciseswebinarsignup?fbclid=IwAR0tVN4b3aH6TEhrPMVy2v-yRPn4LWhPFHEUBhgqKCjSVozX41KXok9wFfk

2.43 metre

2 cases: hard driven and not. In both you are NOT allowed for double touch when open handed. So you have to deal with both hands absolutely simultaneously which is really hard (impossible vs floating serve? especially in windy conditions) - soft serve (floating or beginners' simple serve). The ball has a lot of energy, not fully predictable trajectory and you should do a very quick contact and no double touch - it must be like a proper set. At the same time you, should return enough energy to the ball for the good set. 100% you'll get double touch or lift error even on professional level - that's why it is not used at all vs not power serves. Simply don't do it - or you'll get an inevitable call. - hard-driven. Ok, here you have an option. The rules allows you to make a short catch (actually it's inevitable against very fast ball when open handed). When you have a short catch - it eliminates a lot of quick double touch cases because it's just absorbed. So it becomes quite legal - and sometimes used by professionals. But against really fast ball... it works poor and unpredictable, our fingers are weak. What is hard-driven?... Hmm, it's up to the judge and he measures your possible time for reaction, not the quality of the spike/serve. If you have an option how to receive and choose a method - it is not hard driven. If you sort of instinctively protect your face - it is hard enough. Let's be realistic: you simply cannot properly pass soft serve open-handed, never. And you don't have hard enough serves on your level. And if you occasionally face the really hard serve into your face - ok, then allow your reaction to do any sort of protection and you have high chances it will be treated as legal

Haha

This summer I have learned a lot from your videos I am much better Player now thanks keep the good work going.