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Stats & Benchmarks

Volleyball Recruiting Benchmarks: Approach Touch, Block Touch, Reach

The touch and reach numbers college volleyball coaches filter on — by position and division — and why approach touch, not vertical jump, is the number that matters.

Volleyball recruiting is a reach-and-touch market for hitters and a skills market for setters and liberos. These are the filters staffs actually apply.

Approach touch: the number that matters

Standing reach plus approach jump — the height you attack at. It is the first-pass filter for outsides, rights, and middles because it maps directly to hitting over a college block. Coaches want it measured at a club combine or event, not self-reported. The full position-by-position story is in our volleyball measurables deep-dive.

Block touch

The companion number for front-row players, and the one middles are held to hardest. Read together with lateral speed along the net.

Height and standing reach

Height opens doors but reach plays the game — long-armed players regularly out-recruit taller ones with shorter reach. List both; coaches will do the math.

Setters and liberos: different rulers

Setters are evaluated on hands, tempo, and location under pressure; liberos on platform, range, and serve receive. Touch numbers are secondary for both — full-rotation film is primary.

How to use these

Get reach and touch measured at a club event, list them with position and grad year, and pair them with full-set film and your qualifier schedule in a Lightning profile coaches can scan in thirty seconds.

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