The mechanism of spiking is unique to volleyball, but its counterparts in other sports include slam dunking in basketball, smashing in tennis, or shooting in association football.

"Spiking" as it related to volleyball entered the international and American lexicon through video games, movies and the growing popularity of the AVP.

In 1916 the "set" and "spike" was created in the Philippines where the six-sided play and three hits per side rule were instituted in the following years.

As the spike requires highly coordinated movement patterns in the approach, the swing, and the landing, it is one of the more difficult skills to master in volleyball.

[2] Instead of the player swinging hard at the ball, they reach high with an extended elbow, contacting with only the fingertips.

[5] Similar to the dink where it is usually done to deceive the opposing blockers, the player starts with the complete aggressive approach, then near the jump, extends their arm forward and uses a circular motion to roll the ball over the blockers with top spin into the empty court space behind them, endeavoring to catch the back court defenders off guard.

[2] Following the normal approach, a spike which aims for the blocker's hand nearest to the sideline to bounce off of into out of bounds.

Different signals are used to convey what attacks they want to execute with the setter/team such as "A", "B" (or "pipe"), and "C", where they correspond to the left, middle and right side of the court respectfully.

Sometimes, the back-row player may receive the serve first, and then quickly position deep enough in the court to conduct a full approach.

The momentum of the player horizontally will often carry them out of bounds after the jump, so they have to quickly recover to get back into position for the next play.

[2] In the case of a middle attacker, they will move around the back of the setter and jump driving the knee on the same side as the preferred hitting hand, taking off the other foot.

[2] The significant amount of volleyball landings subject the lower limb joints of players to high forces, which may cause acute or overuse injuries.

[6] A review found 54 acute injuries, 30% of which were to the knee, 17% to the ankle, and 17% to the fingers in 178 professional beach volleyball players during a 7.5 week period.