Citation: Cabarkapa, D.V.; Cabarkapa, D.; Fry, A.C.; Whiting, S.M.; Downey, G.G. Kinetic and Kinematic Characteristics of Setting Motions in Female Volleyball Players. Biomechanics 2022, 2, 538–546. https://doi.org/10.3390/ biomechanics2040042 Academic Editor: Francois Prince Received: 3 September 2022 Accepted: 15 October 2022 Published: 18 October 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). Article Kinetic and Kinematic Characteristics of Setting Motions in Female Volleyball Players Damjana V. Cabarkapa * , Dimitrije Cabarkapa , Andrew C. Fry , Shay M. Whiting and Gabriel G. Downey Jayhawk Athletic Performance Laboratory—Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance, Department of Health, Sport and Exercise Science, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA * Correspondence: d927c184@ku.edu Abstract: While being an integral part of both the offensive and defensive segments of the game, the biomechanical parameters of setting motions remain understudied in the scientific literature. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to examine differences in kinetic and kinematic characteristics between: (a) three types of setting motions (i.e., front, middle, back); (b) two types of setting approaches (i.e., stationary, step-in); and (c) proficient (PRO) and non-proficient (N-PRO) volleyball players. Twenty recreationally active females performed five stationary and five step-in setting approaches to Zone 4–2 in a randomized order. Uni-dimensional force plate sampling at 1000 Hz and high-definition camera recording at 30 fps were used to obtain kinetic and kinematic variables of interest. The total number of setting attempts performed by each subject was 30, accounting for a grand total of 600 attempts. PRO setters had less knee flexion, shoulder flexion, and ankle dorsiflexion at the initial concentric phase of the volleyball setting motion when compared to the N-PRO setters. Moreover, significantly greater peak concentric and landing forces, impulse, rate of force development, and vertical jump height were observed for PRO setters compared to N-PRO setters, while no significant differences were found between different setting targets and approaches. Keywords: biomechanics; female; team sports; force; overhead pass; coaching; performance 1. Introduction Volleyball is one of the most popular international sports in which two teams of six players are required to make quick decisions contingent upon the opponent’s strategic plan of attack. It is a fast-paced game organized into the attack and defense phases [1,2]. The attack phase consists of the reception, setting, attack, and attack coverage, while the defense phase consists of blocking, defense, setting, counter-attack, and counter-attack coverage [1,2]. By being present in both phases, the setting motion represents the essential part of the offensive and defensive segments of the game. It is one of the fundamental volleyball-specific skills defined as the second contact carried out by a specialized player called the setter [3,4]. Setters are required to have good on-court awareness since they make the majority of the tactical decisions during the game. Moreover, their primary responsibility is to organize the offensive play in order to put the attacker in the best position to score a point and ultimately help the team to secure the winning game outcome [3,4]. Every point in a volleyball game starts with a serve and is followed by a reception of a ball (i.e., receive) [5]. Despite not being a skill that directly translates into a scoring opportunity, an excellent receive allows the setter to efficiently organize a game and make it more challenging for the opposing team to predict the offensive play. González- Silva et al. [2] found that reception efficacy, setting technique, and tempo of the set were significant predictors of the setting performance in both male and female athletes competing in the Under-16 Spanish championship. In a follow-up study examining games played in the men’s world volleyball championship, the same group of authors found that reception efficacy was positively associated with successful setting performance, unlike variables Biomechanics 2022, 2, 538–546. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomechanics2040042 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/biomechanics