Walk onto any court and you will hear a language all its own. Whether you call it beach volleyball or sand volleyball — as the game is known across much of the country — the vocabulary can feel like a secret code: cutties, pokies, six-packs, jumbos, husband-and-wife balls. I have spent my career as a professional beach volleyball player and coach, and this is the glossary I wish someone had handed me on day one. Bookmark it — and if you hear a term at our classes or camps that is not here, tell me and I will add it.

What do you call an attack in beach volleyball?

An attack is any intentional offensive play that sends the ball to the other side — and players use half a dozen words for it interchangeably: spike, hit, swing, and attack all describe going after the ball; a kill is any attack that directly wins the point; to sideout is to win the rally when the other team is serving; and to terminate is to end the rally, usually with power. A hard-driven ball is a bang; anything off-speed is a shot. If you want the full technique, read our step-by-step guide to spiking a volleyball.

What are the different shots in beach volleyball?

A shot is any off-speed attack. These are the ones you will hear called out on every court:

Cut shot (or cutty): a sharp off-speed angle shot meant to land 2-3 feet off the net on the opposite sideline. Pinky down on the right side, thumb down on the left.

High line: a loopy shot over the blocker down your own line, aiming for the sideline or deep corner. Best against a blocker who is taking angle.

Jumbo: a very high, loopy shot over the defender to the backline — the tennis lob of beach volleyball. Rarely used, much celebrated.

Pokey (or pokie): an attack with the knuckles — most players use the index and middle fingers, contacting between the first and second knuckle. Also used defensively as a pokey dig.

Tomahawk: hands pressed together overhead to play (or attack) a high, hard ball.

Cobra: a stiff-fingertip attack.

Deep middle / the seam: a flat, fast ball into the corridor between the two defenders. The deep middle will win you more points in your career than you would believe.

At Better at Beach we also have our own shot names you will hear at practice: the short waterfall, the waterfall over the block, the chop cross, the slime line, and the pit sizzling seam. And if you want to know exactly where to aim every one of them, our 27 hitting drills and spiking tips guide puts all of these shots to work.

What are the passing and serve receive terms?

Pass / bump: the first contact, played on the forearms.

Platform: the flat surface your forearms make when passing.

Serve receive: the whole skill of handling the opponent’s serve.

Shank: a badly missed pass that flies somewhere your partner cannot reach. You will hear “shank you very much” from the peanut gallery.

Free ball: an easy, non-attacked ball given to the opponent — what you never want to hand a good team.

In system / out of system: whether your team’s pass allows the offense you planned, or forces you to improvise.

Target: the ideal spot to put the ball — used for serving, passing, setting and attacking alike.

What are the setting terms?

Set: the second contact that puts your partner in position to attack — a hand set uses the hands, a bump set uses the platform.

Double: an illegal double-contact on a hand set, usually visible as spin off the hands.

Lift: an illegal held or lifted ball, often called on deep-dish style sets.

Deep dish: a set held long and low in the hands — legal in some refs’ eyes, a lift in others’.

Butter: a perfect set. “She was dishing out butter all match.”

Fixing set: our term at Better at Beach for a set that rescues a difficult first touch and still gives the hitter a real swing.

What are the defense and blocking terms?

Dig: keeping an attacked ball off the sand.

Six-pack (or facial): taking the opponent’s attack straight to the face. It happens to everyone once.

Stuff: a block straight down onto the attacker’s side.

Kong: a one-handed block, named for how King Kong swats planes.

Seal the net: a blocker pressing over the net so nothing sneaks between their arms and the tape.

Joust: two players pushing on a ball directly on top of the net. Push second and you usually win.

Peel (or pulling): the blocker dropping off the net into defense mid-rally.

Line vs angle: the two halves of the court a defense divides between blocker and defender; a 1-block means the blocker takes line, and a 4-block means the defender sprints to cover line late.

On-2: attacking (or defending an attack) on the second contact instead of the third.

What are the serving terms?

Float serve: a no-spin serve that wobbles unpredictably and drops fast.

Jump serve / top-spin serve: a high-speed serve loaded with topspin, usually with a grunt included.

Sky ball: a serve hit absurdly high so the receiver has to track it through sun and wind.

Trickle serve: a serve that clips the tape and dribbles over — nearly impossible to pass.

Ace: a serve that wins the point outright.

What are the scoring and rules terms?

Rally scoring: a point is awarded on every rally — the modern system. Sideout scoring, where only the serving team could score, is the old one, and it survives in the cheer “sideout!”

Sets to 21 and 15: matches are best two of three: sets to 21, a deciding third set to 15, always win by 2 with no cap.

Technical timeout: the mandatory timeout when the combined score reaches 21.

Side switch: teams switch ends every 7 cumulative points (5 in the third set) so nobody owns the good side.

Three touches: a team gets up to three contacts — and on the beach, a block touch counts as one of them.

Antenna: the striped poles on the net; hit the line and you are in, hit the antenna and you are out.

What slang will I hear on the sand?

Husband-and-wife ball: the serve that drops untouched between two players staring at each other.

Block party: what fans call it when one blocker keeps stuffing balls.

Spatch (or paintbrush): a mishit that comes off the hand soft and lands somewhere nobody intended.

Pepper: the classic warm-up rhythm of pass, set, hit with a partner. Our drills library has a dozen ways to make it game-like.

Butter, dirty, chowdah: a perfect set, and two names for an ugly, spinning one.

French fries on the board: announcer-speak for an 11-11 score.

Vegas line: a hard-driven line kill from way off the net — named for Sean Rosenthal’s famous swing in Las Vegas.

How do I learn the skills, not just the words?

Knowing the vocabulary is step one; owning the skills is the fun part. The fastest way is coached, structured training: start with the $1 seven-day trial of our online training membership ($49/month or $497/year after) — every course, drill and practice plan we have is inside, plus live meetings with pros and video analysis of your play. Prefer to learn in person? Our beach volleyball camps are essentially multi-day classes: 3 days for $599 with no more than 10 campers per coach.