Italians are known for their sense of style, and beach volleyballer Adrian Carambula is certainly not lacking in that department with his unique serving technique.
On full display for the world at the Olympics in Rio, Carambula has quite the interesting strategy for serving the volleyball to his opponents. In a somewhat rather unorthodox way, Carambula serves with his left hand and his body actually bending opposite of the direction of his opponent. He then launches the ball like a rocket high into the sky — he claims it goes roughly 100 feet up in the air — before falling down on his opponents’ side of the court.
Observe…
https://youtu.be/czGbizdDdvc
Why serve it this way? Though it may not look like a challenge for his opponent, there is something to be said about a volleyball coming fairly straight down from such a great distance. It gives the opponents time to overthink how they will handle the ball, which may be the point of the serving style. He calls it “Skyball.”
“Skyball is pretty much a serve that I use to get people off rhythm,” Carambula told Wall Street Journal. “I think it’s part of my game because it’s different and people don’t really train against it.”
It must be working, because Carambula and his partner are undefeated so far in the Olympics.
[Deadspin]