Practical Power Volleyball Strategy

I had once been told that if I wanted "really" good volleyball (in northern Indiana) I should go to the YMCA in Chesterton on a particular day. (I had already played in the USVBA Nationals twice.) Never wanting to pass up good competition, I obviously went! The men set up the net, but I noticed that they did it around 4" low. Being a guest and a visitor, I did not ask. But as people started to warm up, I noticed that no one seemed to have very good warm up drills (just the generic ones) and when they got hitting lines going, the setters did not know any set designations, only instead trying to set high ball sets (which turned out to be of rather differing heights, distances from the net and locations along the net). When the "strong player" men hit, they would hit hard (over the very low net) but always very horizontally, where the ball would hit near a back corner.

I asked if I could come again the next week, and if I could bring a friend. So the following week, my beach doubles partner showed up with me (we also always played on Tournament teams together, and we had each played for Purdue University but at different times). After we got warmed I offered to be the setter for one of the hitting lines. They didn't understand that because my partner and I were by far the tallest people there, both 6'1". But they let me set. I had previously told my partner that I would set him VERY close to the net, because I wanted him to hit nearly straight down, what we often called a "ceiling shot" when we did it right. When I gave him the set, he hit it down, and hard enough to bounce up to hit the ceiling, but at too much of an angle, so it never hit the ceiling. We would always consider that a failure. But immediately, everyone from both teams came up to him like he was a rock star! He probably could have given out autographs! The next time he was to hit, after things settled down, I asked him if he was ready to do it right this time! And this time he did hit it nearly straight down and it did bounce back up hard enough to hit the ceiling/roof hard enough to possibly put a small dent in the metal YMCA building roof. (Later, he said he was ashamed at having hit that first ball where it was not a ceiling shot, especially on such a low net!)

Since we pretty much had the attention of everyone, I then told the men there that I brought him to show them the advantage of hitting DOWN. Since they always tried to hit hard but nearly horizontally, so the ball always went fully across the court, I told them (and we later demonstrated by many digs) that THEIR hits were very easy to dig, that they only were of any benefit at all if the receiver was intimidated, and that the only reason they were working was because some of the players were scared because of the speed. I mentioned that I intended to help all the players there to have enough confidence to dig anything like that, so the value of those kinds of hits were minimal, and were going to get less.

I chose to never point out that they had intentionally put their net 4" low! But my partner and I demonstrated far faster hitting speed, and I tried to get the other players to not be afraid, and we both helped coach individuals to dig hits. We assured the women and some others that we would never hit at them, unless they asked, and even then the hits would be gentler! I also told them that we were accurate enough hitters that NO ball should ever be toward their face or head, that we intended to spike to a point on the floor just in front of them. But, only to the better hitters/players. I asked them who could dig those balls that we were hitting nearly straight down! They saw the point. But mostly, I just wanted them to realize that they really were nowhere near good enough to talk and act as arrogantly as they had done before!

Over the following weeks, those players also certainly saw the value in being able to be accurate about where you were hitting the ball. Even the very weak players realized that they were never in any danger of being hit because we simply just put the ball down in an empty spot on the floor! I can assure you that in my long career at playing competitive volleyball, it is immensely valuable to be able to know an exact spot where I wanted to put the ball down, as if I selected well, the chance of anyone upping my hit was usually slim. I had been on many teams where at least one of my teammates could hit harder than I did (a guy called Killer stands out, on the Purdue team), but commonly, those hits of his were still dug. By simply adding one more step of logic in my VB, of trying to find a spot where no one should be able to get to dig it, I often had the highest kill percentage on the teams. NOT from brute force but just some thinking!

A variant anecdote comes to mind here. Regarding situations where less experienced players were on opposing teams, including many years of Spring Breaks in Fort Lauderdale and elsewhere, I would generally try to quietly mention to girls who might be on the court that they were safe, that I would never hit any ball that might hit them, but that if they had that concern, I asked that they not move around too much while I was hitting. As long as I knew (and remembered) where such girls were, not one was ever hit by a ball I hit. In contrast, especially each afternoon on each day of Spring Break each year, there were generally a few of the guys who considered themselves to be impressive players. (During each morning, we stronger players would play Beach Doubles, because the College kids were still sleeping after the previous night of drinking and partying, so we got to have two or three hours of good games, from about 10 am to noon or 1 pm when the college students would start showing up. This often resulted in some interesting applications of my strange sense of humor! WWhen the College students would show up, as a "pack" they often would "order" us doubles players to get off the court so that "good" games of full teams could play, meaning them. I guess I have never been impressed by arrogance, but that seems to be part of a lot of college men. So I came up with a response! I would tell them that there were "beach rules" where winners stayed on the court (which they were familiar with) but I would say it also had to apply regarding different numbers of players on teams. Often, they would insist that it would not be fair, as six players obviously were going to beat two players. I would often say that they were probably right, but that rules were rules.

So the college guys would clearly not be trying to play very hard, to not hurt us, but to simply comply with that beach rule. You probably already know the next part of the scene, where the six of them did not even get a single point in the first game, while we would win 15-0. A different group of college guys was always waiting by then and laughing at their college friends regarding having lost a game to TWO people! So this second group would immediately get on the court, to immediately get rid of the two so that they could play their sixes volleyball. But of course, they lost 15-0 also. (I'm getting to the anecdote!) We were always very nice and very friendly, and none of the college guys ever got any impression that we were making them look bad, but most of them were probably learning that good volleyball players were simply a whole lot better than they had realized. After about half a dozen games of Doubles against Sixes, all of which ended with the usual 15-0 score, there were usually a LOT of college guys around the court, and they often started trying to form all-star teams among them to try to beat us. In any case, my partner and I would always hold the court for three or five hours until we would get hungry and thirsty, and we would leave (without having lost any games). (Finally the anecdote). Some of the groups of college guys got into the spirit of having fun on the beach, and so some of them would come up with different ideas, such as grouping all six players right at the net to block my hit (since they realized that with doubles, they KNEW who was going to hit the ball, and it was often me!) The whole court was then empty of players except for a tightly packed group right in front of me. Of course, again in the spirit of having fun, I would call for a SLIDE set or a SOFT SHOOT, where at the last moment, I would need to run sideways several steps to get to the ball. If we did it well, the group of six guys would fall all over each other as each of them separately realized they had to run sideways. As the six guys were lying on the sand, and I had just buried a spike in the open court's sand, I would tend to offer a comment, such as That plan did not seem to work too well!

Finally this anecdote! There were sometimes one or two guys who got in the spirit of the fun where they told me that my hits only worked because I avoided hitting to HIM. I would then generally look at all his friends and ask whether he just WANTED me to hit the ball at him? By then, they all had already seen that I could hit the ball a lot faster than they had ever seen before, but I had carefully aimed at empty areas of sand for the ball to go. I would ask the guy's friends whether he often asked to be a victim, and we would all laugh. I DID point out that I had the capability of clipping his left ear or his right ear if I had wanted, but that I rarely see cause to actually scare anyone. So I would describe to the target guy that I would hit the ball DOWN where if he did not dig it, it would hit the sand about three feet in front of him, that he did not have to worry about being hit in the face. Often, there were many guys who quickly volunteered to try to dig such hits, and whenever any of them upped a ball, a big cheer would go up among all his friends. You probably have already figured out that there were generally a bunch of very cute college girls watching the games, and I would (selfishly!) talk to the girls about joining a team to win since the guys clearly were not ever winning a game. I would explain that I would remember each players regarding whether they would want not to receive any hits or to only receive gentle hits, and that some of the girls would ask for more of a challege. Now, the result of this was that the college guys rarely even upped any ball we hit, so they never earned any points, but since the girls were getting easier hits to dig, they often got plays going and they earned some points (or at least side-outs). The girls liked that I was giving them a chance to be the stars!

When it was my turn to play, the "strong players" didn't want to let her play. They told me I was guaranteed to lose. I said that would be fine if it happened. So they finally relented and let her be my doubles partner. (They also had their net around 4" low, which must be a disease around there!) I was pretty motivated, so I was really hustling and making sure I gave her the best passes I could. The very, very first play (they got to serve, of course!) they served to me. She gave me a cherry set, and I hit it down hard enough for it to be a ceiling shot. The men just stopped! They later told me that they had not only never SEEN a ceiling shot before, but none of them even realized it was possible! During that first doubles game of her life, I believe we had at least five ceiling shots, and more that were close. The alleged A-players never once even touched any ball I hit in that game, and we won 15-1. Interestingly, I was the one to shank off a serve and give up the one point!

Since we were winners, we had the court, and we won succeeding games 15-0, 15-0, and maybe a couple more 15-1s. The girl who had never even played doubles before, and who was chased off the court so that the GOOD players could play, never came close to losing any doubles game that night! I LIKED that! She is 5'3" and had not ever thought of herself as very good at volleyball. But in following weeks, I taught her how to soft-set and all the numbering system for sets, and she was soon one of the players in highest demand of any player anywhere! What I loved best was when THOSE SAME hot-shot men would call her to be the setter for some Coed OR MENS tournament team they were making. They had come to realize that she was SUCH a good and consistent setter that she was a better choice than any man that might have been willing to play on a team with them! As far as I know, she always turned them down, because there were so many other teams that also wanted her to play in every Tournament!

The point of these anecdotes is that no matter how incredible you think you are as a volleyball player, unless you are ranked among the top hundred players in the world, you may just not be as incredible as you think you are! And, if you don't know how to run Slides, Tandems, Back-Xes, Cs, Ds, 9s, or the more complex plays, try to control your ego! There might be someone around who might be able to put you in your place! On the converse, if you believe you are a weak player, or a short player, or both, BUT YOU LOVE VOLLEYBALL, you may not be nearly as weak as you might think! (Remember that girl who, in a matter of two months, became one of the most in-demand setters in northern Indiana!)

Then the ten girls came charging up into the stands to ask me to help Coach them. I declined answering but I promised to come back a couple days later when they had their next practice. In the meantime, I learned a lot about Knox High School from my ex-wife. Every year for many years, the boys basketball team would hope to win ONE game, to avoid going winless. The boys football team was the same. In fact, my wife was not aware of ANY boys team that had every won more than one or two games or track meets or anything else, for quite a few years. I thought about what I had seen among the girls and volleyball, and I smiled as I came up with an idea!

When I met them again, after their second practice, they all came over to listen to me. I offered them a choice, which I insisted that they all vote on! Choice one was that I would teach them what I called actual volleyball, where they would learn some basic skills of the game. But I told them that I doubted that they would be able to ever win any game against any other girls high school volleyball team in the area. Choice two was very different! I told them that I would NOT teach them most of the skills of actual volleyball, but that I thought I could make sure they could win several games and even matches. When they came back to me a few minutes later, after voting, they pointed out that the girls volleyball team had NEVER won a game against any other school, and virtually all sports were also generally goose-eggs for both boys and girls teams. (At that time, 1972, there were extremely few boys volleyball teams, only girls.) So they said that they did not care very much about actually learning much, if they thought I thought they might win ONE GAME during the season. For them, that would have meant a successful season!

I only actually taught them about underhand serving and the most basic of serve-reception. I told them that we would have TWO PLAYS. One would be called ZERO, where whoever received a serve would simply pass the ball back over the net to the opponents. The other would be called ONE, where we tried to use three hits of the ball. In that first meeting with them, I explained my thinking to them, that if each play needed to have three successful plays on the ball, that meant that three different things could go wrong. But simply lobbing the ball back over the net to the opponents, I thought we had a chance to let the OTHER TEAM have three chance to foul something up. I was actually rather shocked when they WON their first Match, and even having won both games of it. And Match after match, they won them all! A team that had gone winless in each of the previous four years, was now unbeaten during their entire season, something like 12 wins and zero losses!

I had created a monster! I would try to remind them that I had never actually taught them real volleyball, but just a simplified version that relied on competing teams making lots of mistakes. But they clearly thought they were ready for the Olympics! So after the unbeaten season (where they became BWOCs far above the boy's basketball team players and football team players and everyone else), the traveled to the Sectionals or Regionals or whatever, and they won that Match as well. So now they insisted that I come to watch them play in the next competition, where if they would win they would have gone to Indianapolis to play for the State Championship! So I am back up in the stands again and they are warming up on the floor. But when they saw the opposing team come out, all ten of them came up into the stands to ask me what they should do! I guess it was due to Title Eight regulations, but the opposing girls team (from South Bend) had a boy playing on it, and not just a boy, but a very tall boy, who was fairly good at volleyball. The fact that he was allowed to spike over a net that was 8 inches low, clearly changed everything about high school girls volleyball. The Coach of that team had taught the five girls to all be Setters, where every play resulted in the boy spiking from either the front row or the back row. The Knox girls knew that this had no good end!

I suspect that even today, 40 years later, those Knox girls probably still believe that they might have been able to play for the State Championships, if it had not been for an unfair and bizarre rule which allowed that boy to have become the center of that opposing team. But they lost both games of the Match rather badly, partly due to them all being terrified!

OK. I admit that with what the Knox girls brought to the table, it was probably wrong for me to have enabled them to win so many games, but they were certainly the happiest group of young girls I had ever seen! But if I had displayed more ethics at the time, of actually teaching them good skills, and they then lost every game and match as had happened in every previous year and in every other sport, would that have actually been better? I wonder!

Once I started being a regular Setter, I ADDED something! I consider it to be VERY IMPORTANT! AS the three Hitters are showing their hand signals, as Setter, I would say "Yes, yes, yes" to confirm that I was able to SEE a total of THREE hand signals. IF the hitters only heard "Yes, yes", that informed them that I had not seen or could not understand one of the three hand signals and I was requesting them to show me again. We almost never had failures to communicate, but I DO admit to rarely forgetting one of the three signals and sending a wrong set to somebody, but that was VERY rare. This "audio feedback" also allowed me to say "No!" if all three were requesting quick sets or where two players were expecting to cross behind each other where it was impossible. The NO also requested a repeat of the hand signals, but now where I was expecting at least one of them to change his request into a FIVE, as an escape for if I got a bad pass.

In my opinion, this rather simple modification probably saved us an average of four points per match, due to better communications, and certainly getting our team a win sometimes when the games were very close.

How to become a STAR!

It is actually very simple to state, "be more observant and focused than anyone else."

If you watched the Olympic Men's Team win Gold in Beijing, you know that they are all 6'8" or 6'9" or so tall. I am just a little guy, around 6'1". But I have always been able to really jump, usually nearly a foot higher than any usual teammate in the Sergeant's Jump. So I was often used as Middle Blocker between two much taller guys! Sort of funny looking, since the Middle Blocker on the other side was usually at least six inches taller than me!

Yes, being able to jump was helpful. But I really believe that my REAL strength was in being extremely observant! BEFORE each match, while teammates were warming up or whatever, I would ALWAYS watch the other team's hitting line. I would study each hitter to see if there were any patterns to where he wanted to hit, or if he moved his shoulder or body in specific ways when he was approaching for a specific hit. So during the Match, I would often SEE such cues, and I would KNOW where he intended to hit the ball! (It is quite an advantage!) So even though I am not very tall, I became nearly universally known as one of the very best blockers around!

There are various anecdotes in the following text regarding being observant and thoughtful. But there is one anecdote that stands out beyond all the others. It is not even about me but instead a (different) 5'3" setter (Sherry)! She was the most observant volleyball player I have ever been around. She was also an extremely good setter, but her short height seemed to limit what she might ever be able to do. But, no!

She was still in High School when this anecdote occurred. I had been on many very strong teams before that but always as a Strong Side Hitter and never as Middle. So I had never needed to try to hit a Middle One set. SHE taught me what I needed to know! She had WATCHED and knew how high I could jump, and she told me to jump just BEFORE she received the pass, and start to swing. She was such a remarkable setter that she would then simply PLACE the ball exactly where my hand would hit it. I even closed my eyes once to confirm that and still buried the ball!

I'm getting to the anecdote! So, over a period of maybe an hour, I must have hit 50 Middle One sets during our scrimmage. I was getting incredibly spoiled, and was just flailing away and she always put the ball exactly where I would hit it. SO! About this time, I am merrily swinging away and one time I discover that the ball is about 4" to the left of where it should have been! I made the adjustment and still buried the ball. So I looked at her and smiled and said "you messed that one up, it was several inches off!" Her response boggled my mind! She said "the blocker was going to block you, so I had to adjust it to where you could hit it through!"

HOW could a Setter KNOW such things? Even I, the hitter, did not realize that! She not only knew exactly where the ball was, and I was, and my arm and hand were, but she also knew where the defenders were!

I had always thought that I was really aware of things on a volleyball court, but that really astounded me!

And even being so tiny, when she then went to the small and insignificant St. Joseph's College (in Indiana), she was their starting setter for all four years and they were essentially unbeatable! She had her three hitters ready for her sets, and since she was constantly aware of what the defending team was doing, she would virtually always set the one teammate who had only a single block or often no block at all. Most teams INTENTIONALLY double-block a strong opponent. But doing that against her meant that one of her hitters had no block at all, and she made all of her teammates look ferocious as hitters! I believe that at one point, St. Joseph was Nationally ranked around sixth (after five California teams, Pepperdine, Southern Cal, UCLA, etc!)

The point being made here is that even though she was extremely short, her amazing observational skills made her a Nationals level player! More than that, she was so OBSERVANT as a setter that she made ALL her hitters look like stars! EVERY good team wanted her as Setter! SO! Say you are short, you cannot jump very well and you are maybe even out-of-shape! IF YOU decide to truly focus on Setting, and you can pay attention to a thousand separate things at once, YOU could become the STAR player around! And, yes, that would require a LOT of practice at Setting, to make sure your sets were CONSISTENT, but I believe it is even far MORE important to remember the strengths and weaknesses of each of your Hitters, so that, even without their knowledge, you can tweak your sets to be exactly what they EACH need to have. By the way, MANY Hitters do NOT know what kinds of Sets they hit best! Many strong Hitters are very arrogant and they claim to be able to hit ANY Set! That might be true, but there are some Sets that they can hit even better! It would be YOUR job to watch that Hitter a hundred or a thousand times, to see those few times when they truly destroyed the ball, and YOU then figure out what was different for those hits that might have enabled them to do that. Getting back to YOU, IF you can get your brain focused on all your Hitters, and always remember the exact Sets that each have called for in THIS play, and then be focused enough to actually get the ball to where they need it, you WILL be a Star! A RARE Setter might then also be able to be aware of what the Defense is doing, and if your selection of sets is then adjusted where you usually set whichever of your Hitters has the least block in front of him/her, then I GUARANTEE that College Coaches will notice that ability and you (if of suitable age, of course!) would be very likely to be offered a Full-Ride College Scholarship! Not bad for simply trying to become REALLY observant!

I was also sometimes on Co-Ed teams that played against that amazing girl Setter in Tournaments, and it drove me crazy to KNOW that she was always aware of where I was and that she would never set any teammate where I might block it! Psychologically, she is the ONLY person who has ever intimidated me in volleyball! Sure, there were 6'10" Hitters that I watched warm up before a match where I wondered if I would physically survive the Match, but I always considered them to be CHALLENGES that were worth confronting. But NO ONE ever actually got INTO MY HEAD like that little Setter would do!

What I am saying is that YOU can do things like that. But you have to TRY to pay attention to the tiniest details of what is going on at all times. So even if you are not a particularly good setter or hitter and you are not the world's best jumper, and maybe you don't even run very fast, but if you KNOW what is going to happen, you can have wonderful advantages. Better, no one will figure it out! They will just think you were LUCKY that night! And the next week! And the next!

I trust that YOU have shot some freethrows in your life! IF you simply went up and tried to throw the basketball through, you probably did not do very well. But IF you took a few seconds to FOCUS your mind at what you want to do, that CONCENTRATION and FOCUS probably greatly improved your free throw percentage. Watch the eyes of a Michael Jordan or any other really good free throw shooter, and you will SEE that concentration. Watch the eyes of a Shaquille O'Neal or other POOR free-throw shooter, and you will never see that FOCUS. THIS is the reason I would Set twenty or thirty volleyballs to a basketball basket before a Tournament! I wanted to get my brain FOCUSED on ACCURACY and CONSISTENCY, such that when I actually needed to make a set in a game, I wanted THAT BALL to be AS GOOD A SET AS I AM CAPABLE OF. Was ANY Set I ever made as good as ANY Set that the Star Setter mentioned above made? Not even close! SHE had spend all day, every day, developing her Setting skills, from when she was a little girl. Through much of my VB career, I never even THOUGHT about Setting, as I was a Hitter! Duh! So I was always very aware that my SKILLS at Setting were limited, but I tried to make up for that by an almost scary level of focus and concentration. I like to think that it generally worked, as I became to be even more in demand as a Setter than I had been as a Hitter (although the fact that I was actually known for BLOCKING FOR POINTS was actually probably even more important!)

Again, the point (I know, I POUND it in, over and over and over) is that limitations of PHYSICAL SKILLS is not necessarily too important, as long as the person can develop AWARENESS, FOCUS and CONCENTRATION. Actually, those abilities probably also describe every outstanding employee, and even outstanding father, mother or spouse, as well!

People who have gotten selected as a Coach for Junior High or High School teams have virtually never played any really competitive volleyball themselves. Some have never played at all and it is simply a Job requirement to Coach VB! I guess I am supposed to have tolerance for such people, especially since I am a Christian Minister! Many horror stories exist regarding really stupid decisions by such inexperienced Coaches, but this suggestion is something that would even benefit them! Why? Because for DEFENSE, there is immense value in consistency! When YOU are Middle Back on a team in an Industrial League, what is going to happen when an opponent hitter hits a ball that is exactly halfway between you and your neighbor teammate? This is commonly called a Husband-Wife shot, and very good players know the value of hitting to such spots. Now, if the person to your left has never been to your left before, then the two of you have never learned which of you happens to be more aggressive a player, and you may both let a ball drop in. But IF you and your left neighbor have played next to each other (in the same order) for many previous games, then you have established either a spoken or unspoken pattern of which of you is to make the move for that hit. All the MYSTERY is gone, and the chance that ball will be upped is tremendously increased. NOT because either of you suddenly got to be a lot better at digging, but because the two of you KNOW which of you should go for such a ball. The TEAM PERFORMANCE can improve tremendously with this simple guideline!

Extremely few Coaches of lower level teams ever think about this, or apparently care about it. They should! In most games, probably about three points can be saved that the opponents would have gotten. Doesn't it seem good if your team gets an advantage of three points in every game? Duh???

High-level teams (A or AA) do not need this, as EVERY player on such a team is a fine digger! It can still be beneficial for two players to discuss any ball that had just dropped in between them, like My Bad or some other indication to establish which of you would up any future balls there. So this suggestion has more and more value the lower the skill levels are of the players involved. From my experience, I am convinced that MORE THAN HALF of all organized volleyball teams would benefit from this aid toward consistency.

A Sergeant's jump is meant to measure the ACTUAL VERTICAL JUMP ABILITY of any person. Nearly everyone can jump much higher if they have a running start. That is actually simple Physics, where the horizontal Kinetic Energy of the running can (partially) be converted into some vertical Potential Energy of being higher up. A Sergeant's jump intentionally eliminates this possible advantage by insisting on a STANDING START. No, not even a single step like many people feel they can add to it. Standing still! Next, BOTH hands have to be used! People seem to think they can use one hand to touch as high as they can, but that then includes the effects of twisting the body where the shoulders are at different heights.

So a Sergeant's jump starts off with the person standing flat-footed with both arms and hands stretched upward and the very highest ends of the middle fingers are measured for height. For me, 6'2" tall, that two-handed standing reach happens to be within 1/4" of exactly 8 feet. I often would precede Tournaments and matches with a walk along the net, confirming the height of the net at half a dozen places, so I would know what the situation would be for both my hitting and my blocking during the Matches.

OK! NO running start and not even a step, and you just jump straight up, and reach with both hands, with fingers extended.

A LOT of Coaches do this wrong! They put marks on a wall and have the players touch as high as they can. That is wrong for two different reasons! First, being right against a (concrete) wall, the player must be very aware of the wall to keep from hurting knees or elbows during the process. (I know this because either a knee or an elbow would hit the wall and it HURTS!) Second, in order to touch the wall, your arms have to be angled forward and are no longer straight up! High School Geometry or Trigonometry shows that! The result of this is that there is value in being as close to the wall as possible, which then has the knees/elbows issue, because otherwise, the wall measurement tends to be several inches LESS than the actual Sergeant's jump should have been!

Because of these factors, I tended to measure my own Sergeant's jump, and that of players on teams that I have Coached, with a basketball rim, net and backboard. There is NO wall nearby to get hurt on, and it is possible to reach straight up for a maximum measurement.

A basketball rim is always exactly at 10 feet height. The height of the very bottom of the net and of the bottom of the backboard can either be estimated from that or actually measured. Usually, the very bottom of a basketball net is pretty close to 9 feet high.

For me, for several years in my prime, while I was College aged, I could always touch both my forearms against the basketball rim. For some bizarre reason, I often tended to SWING my arms so they HIT the rim, and I would come down with red marks across my forearms! Duhh! In my case, a number of times, I could do that standing jump and touch both my elbows against the rim. I quickly realized that the swing part was really bad as there is no fat to protect the elbows from being hurt! In any case, for my body, I measured and found that my elbows happen to be nearly exactly 20" from my extended middle fingers. That meant that when both my elbows were at 10 feet height (touching the rim), the ends of my middle fingers were both at 11'8" high (20" higher).

Therefore, in those jumps, my Sergeant's jump was the difference between that 11'8" and my standing vertical reach of 8'0". This was therefore 3'8" or 44", which was very accurately my Sergeant's jump.

For you, say your standing reach with both hands is 7'6" and your standing Sergeant's jump can just barely touch the bottom of a basketball net with both hands (at 9'0"). That would mean that YOUR Sergeant's jump was the difference or 18", which is nothing to be ashamed of!

I actually have what I believe to be a far more accurate and consistent method of measuring a Sergeant's jump! One that is a lot more functionally appropriate to volleyball, at least the Blocking part! Imagine an adjustable height platform with a small exercise mat on top of it (for cushioning). Say that platform was adjusted so the the top surface of it was exactly at 8 feet high. In my case, 6'2" tall, when standing with my arms extended forward, the height UNDER my arms (and armpits) is very close to 5'0 high". This distance would be measured for each player (and recorded). Then the player would do a standing jump (complying with the Sergeant's rules) with the intention of slapping both HANDS on the top of the mat at least a foot back from the edge of the mat. There could be two pressure sensor switches there, or something that could ring a bell, or simply an observer that confirmed that BOTH hands hit the surface. THAT would then confirm that the player had jumped high enough so that the armpits had gotten up to at least 8'0" height. In my case, that would confirm that I had jumped AT LEAST 36" vertically.

From my personal experience, and especially regarding the 8'0" top CABLE of volleyball nets during many practices, this sort of pike blocking thing can cause serious abrasion to the armpits, which is why the cushioned mat would be used on top of the test platform.

I feel this particular situation has a second benefit, of causing each jumper to synchronize the arm motion to the jump motion, because you do not have but an instant to slap your hands down on that mat, before having to quickly raise them straight up to avoid winding hung up on the platform (or net cable!)

When I was in College, I did not have particularly great skills at volleyball, even at blocking, but that very high jump allowed me to seem far better than I actually was! With a 44" standing vertical jump, where only about 36" vertical was necessary to get my armpits above the top of the net, I was able to nearly always "Pike-block". That is to be above the net high enough to be able to extend my arms horizontally toward where the hitter was going to spike the ball. Since few College players then respected any blocker, nearly all Sets tended to be around 18" to 24" back from the net. This was wonderful for me, as I could therefore Pike block where both my hands were virtually touching the ball as the Hitter contacted it! There was NO chance that ball was ever going to come over the net, unless he could break off one or both of my arms! The harder he would hit it simply meant the faster it went straight down to the floor under him. And, for me, the unlimited arrogance of nearly all Strong Side Hitters and Middle Hitters simply meant that they would keep doing it over and over and over!

In one Tournament near Detroit, we watched a truly scary hitter warming up before we were to play them as the very first Match of the Tournament. I admit that my hands were hurting some after a while, but his brain seemed never to work! He got the very first set of the Tournament and he allowed me to block it down. He then DEMANDED that his Setter set the next seven sets to him, which resulted in our team getting an 8-0 lead to start off the Tournament's first game! I believe we won that game 15-2 (old-style scoring) and the other game of that Match by about 15-4. We later learned that that team had not lost ANY Match in around two years in ANY Tournament! In the Finals that day, we met that same team for the Championship. He had apparently thought about the early experience, and he NEVER ONCE even tried to Spike! Their Coach had even tried to rotate their initial starting lineup, but our Coach did the same, where I was always in the Front Row when he was! Pretty cool. We may not have deserved to win that Tournament that day, but that one player enabled us to!

I realize that relatively few players jump high enough to do Pike blocks. THAT was not really the point here. But a related point IS intended. Early in my volleyball career, I had little idea about how to Spike very well, or Dig or Serve or almost anything. At the time, I seemed to only have ONE possible advantage, which in my case was a very high standing jump. YOU probably have some ONE characteristic that is superior to other players. Maybe you are lightning quick and could dig virtually any Spiked ball. Maybe you can Serve aces! Maybe you can Set really consistently. What I am saying is that YOU CAN LEARN THE REST, but trust your specialty and work at making it even better!

I feel that competitive 'B' and most 'BB' teams should initially use an offense and defense based on the 6-2 configuration, (All SIX hitters / TWO of whom are designated as setters when in the back-row). Other offenses and defenses should be practiced from time to time, but I think it best to make sure all the players on a particular team are always "on the same page" as to strategy. Therefore a brief discussion of the main aspects of the basic 6-2 strategy will be presented here. It is highly suggested that each player locate a coaching textbook / guidebook in a library or elsewhere for a more complete discussion of all such matters. It is also likely that each team would gradually make slight modifications to the traditional 6-2 to their specific personalities and abilities. This usually happens with any team that uses the 6-2 for an extended time. Some teams that have used the 6-2 for a long time and at a very high level have come to incorporate so many modifications as to be almost unrecognizable as a 6-2. All the Olympic teams and most pro and semi-pro teams use such modifications of the 6-2. A few such teams happen to have one setter who has such outstanding ability that they use a configuration called a 5-1 (FIVE hitters / ONE permanent setter). This configuration acts as a 6-2 when the setter is in the back row, and as a 4-2 when he is in the front row.

I recommend that only VERY experienced teams and players use a 5-1. The reason is that all of the defensive and offensive responsibilities and positions for back row players, are VERY different in the 6-2 and 4-2 configurations. Continually altering between the two systems can lead to confusion and mistakes by back row players. As long as two decent setters are available, it is usually not worth the added chance of back-row mistakes to use a 5-1. In my opinion as a coach, the additional value offered by using a 5-1 with one impressive setter would have to overcome the various times when an inexperienced back row might make mistakes due to it. For almost any team below "A" or possibly some "BB", that means I would avoid it, except as a 'fun' experiment!

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Terminology

There is a DIFFERENT numbering system used for hitting locations in the front row, going from 1 to 8 from left to right (hitting location 1 is strong side very near the antenna; hitting location 8 is weak side near that antenna.) This numbering system can also include a second digit which describes the highest height of the ball set to this position. That second digit times 2.5 feet is approximately the height above the net. The two digit system was originally developed to describe any of 64 different sets! It was quickly discovered that many of those 64 were sets that had little actual value. For example, a 48 (middle, extremely high) set would give the opponents enormous amounts of time to assemble a triple block on our middle hitter. Nowadays, a shorthand version of this system is generally used. The full two-digit set description is seldom used except for requesting or describing refinement of some existing set. For example, if a particular strong side hitter calls for a '5' set (described later) [which is described in the two digit system as a '15', position '1', '5' high] and would prefer it to be a little more inside, he would have a private conversation with the setter that he would like it to look like a '25'. This helps the setter visualize the change he is requesting. If he instead wanted it just slightly higher, he might tell the setter to set it as a '16'. Both would still call it a '5'. The setter would then have to always remember that this particular hitter expects an adjustment to always be made to any '5' set to him by that setter. This sort of conversation seems most common and necessary regarding strong-side '4' sets where there are different understandings of just what a '4' is. Various hitters, setters and teams consider a '4' to be a '14', a '13', or a '12'. It is rather important that the specific setter and hitter are in agreement about the interpretation on such things, but that interpretation can be unique to the pair of them.

This is the proper description of the heights of sets. A ball that is set '2' high never gets much more than about a yardstick above the top of the net. (According to the description above, the top of the ball would get to about five feet above the top of the net, so 'a yardstick' is slightly off, but symbolically visualizable.) Most modern teams and players have come to SERIOUSLY distort this description! I have been on teams where setters set middle-'2' high sets that are well above double the height of the net, around 20 feet high. (Strictly, that should be called a '5' high!) I have been a setter on such teams, where hitters call for a '1' but I had to translate that to a '2' in my own mind to give them the set they were expecting. Until taught otherwise, as a setter, I consider a middle-'1' to be strictly that, a ball that is essentially hit at the top of its path! As a 6-2 setter, one will sometimes be setting any of the five other players, and so all those individualized modifications must always be remembered. If I would occasionally forget to modify a middle-'1' into a '2', the hitter can have to almost hit off of his ear, both looking bad and being less effective for the team.

When most teams first start practicing, setters and hitters SHOULD have to learn about each others' attitudes and capabilities, to define for themselves just what a Middle '2' or a Strong-side '4' is actually going to be. Interestingly, many hitters do not really know what kind of set they hit best! They just say "set it up there, and I'll hit it!" A team-centered setter will be attentive to each hitter during the warmup hitting line. Occasionally, a set might be slightly high or low, or inside or outside, and the hitter destroys it! An observant setter sees this, and attempts to make future sets just like that one. Even if the hitter isn't aware of that need, a really good setter should be. After a tournament, that hitter will feel pleased with his/her performance, without even realizing that the setter really enabled it!

Therefore, in general, it usually winds up to be the setter's responsibility to learn and remember the unique variations for each and every hitter. As it happens in real life, many allegedly 'good' setters never see cause to make such adjustments or tailoring of sets. They arrogantly feel that THEY are making 'perfect' sets and it is the hitter's responsibility to then hit that 'perfect' set. Those setters are WRONG! Every hitter has 'favorite' (also called 'cherry' sets) that he/she is confident he/she can destroy! An observant, flexible setter can recognize that an otherwise weak outside hitter happens to regularly crush balls that are slightly 'quick', even if the hitter is unaware of this. If the setter then always tries to supply slightly 'quick' sets to that specific hitter, the hitter's effectiveness greatly improves, his/her personal confidence grows, and the team wins more points. No one even ever knows or realizes that the setter enabled all that, and at the end of the tournament, teammates all congratulate the hitter for having such a great day. It may have really been a very observant setter, sitting quietly across the locker room who enabled it! In my opinion, a setter can be "great" even without special athletic abilities, if he/she tries for accuracy and consistency, and to continually tailor sets to the unique needs of each hitter.

On a personal note, during setting for a hitting line during warm-ups before a match, I would sometimes intentionally or unintentionally set a ball particularly close to the net or particularly back from it, or quick or slow. I would watch to see how adaptive that particular hitter was at still making a good hit out of it. Some hitters, even really strong ones, have virtually no adaptability at all, while others seem to always be able to create a valid hit. This is valuable knowledge for during a match. Who would YOU want to set when a critical point is at hand? On a related note, I have discovered that MANY setters become 'lazy' for good hitters who can make valid hits out of any sets; they just get sloppy and careless in their sets to that hitter. That's unfortunate for their teams! If a hitter is that good or that experienced, the odds are good that HIS favorite set/hit might be awesome. A lazy setter never allows that to happen, except by accident. An observant setter might privately ask such a hitter whether he preferred sets close to the net, or high, or low, or quick, or whatever. That observant setter could enable that 'flexible', 'dependable' hitter to put craters in the opponents' floor! Think about it!

This continuing discussion will stick with the original set-description system described above, where each height number times 2.5 gives the number of feet above the net. Therefore, a '1' gets to a height where the TOP of the ball is no more than about 10.5 feet above the floor (2.5 feet above an 8 foot high net), a '2' gets to about 13 feet above the floor, and a '5' peaks at about 20 feet high. Regarding Middle '1's, most middle hitters are plenty tall enough and jump high enough for the height described. It's roughly equivalent to slam-dunking a volleyball through a basketball basket, which anyone who is a serious (male) middle blocker better be able to do. In reality, the setter initially sets the Middle '1' so that it would get that high, but an experienced hitter actually usually hits the ball on the way up, so he hits it before it ever gets that high.

I actually took that as motivation, as he was the same height as me and his jump was roughly the same as mine then was (consistently Sergeant's standing jump of around 38" with an occasional one of around 44") that I decided that I could also break ceiling tiles loose with ceiling shots! In my career at Purdue, I believe I helped 24 or 27 tiles to become freed from the ceiling! That was a long time ago and I have forgotten the exact number!

OK. Getting to the anecdote! The Coach truly hated us and he made clear that he felt he was wasting his time with us. So he would have us run hitting lines for at least two hours every single day. That was a LOT of swings! After a couple months of that, my right shoulder would constantly hurt nearly continuously. It also seemed clear that he had no intention of stopping all the practice hitting. So I got an idea which turned out to be brilliant (personal opinion!) Many of the times that I had to go through the hitting line, I swung left handed instead of right. I was actually simply preserving my right shoulder, but my jump was plenty high and I started actually being able to make decently hard hits left handed.

In itself, that is not that big a deal I guess. But I soon altered my hitting approach. Since Coach dis-respected us so much, he never even paid attention to how many steps we used in our approach, or whatever flaws we had, so he may never have even noticed that I had changed such an obvious thing. When a right-handed player approaches Strong Side, he generally tends to hold his right shoulder back, so he can torque his body to add some extra speed to the hit. THAT is what I changed! When I would then approach the net, neither shoulder was ahead of or behind my body, I approached the net head-on. Next, I made a change that even I knew made my hits a little weaker, that I raised BOTH my arms up. Again, a right-handed player twists his body and holds his arms so that he can benefit from some aspects of a windmill motion (even though an actual windmill spiking motion is among the worst of all!)

Why was this a good thing? Well, I jumped quite high, and I actually had a lot of time while in the air. Where normally a strong blocking defender tends to wait for a spiker to commit to an exact direction to spike (I am NOT talking about TEAM area double-blocking here, but what is sometimes criticized as psych-blocking), I would generally wait for the blocker or blockers to commit to where they were going to block. Really good competition (such as Purdue played) generally had extremely good double blockers, and they were generally WAY taller than I am. I often realized that their block was so good that there was NO available right-handed spike available that they would not stuff-block back on me. I never liked to be stuff-blocked! So I discovered that once their block location was established, there were usually some wonderful left-handed crush spikes available, which would usually pass just to the right of the block and authoritatively hit the floor! The best, in competition and Tournaments, was when such top level blockers KNEW that they absolutely had me blocked, and they could not understand how I got the point on them! When one of their teammates would yell at them "he hit it left-handed" THAT was as good as it gets! As long as THEY didn't know which hand I was about to spike with, they not only could not set their block in the right location, but the (outside) person who had the responsibility of setting the block would sometimes become uncertain, and some blockers even knocked each other down!

For the record, the Outside Blocker is supposed to arrive a moment earlier than the Middle Blocker and center his block on the shoulder which the Spiker was going to try to Spike with. In other words, there are two different locations he would need to set the block at, depending on which hand he thought I was going to Spike with, around 18" different! And the Middle Blocker then runs over and plants his foot next to the near foot of the Outside Blocker and jumps vertically. So, depending on which hand the Outside Blocker thought I was going to Spike with, the entire double-block might be shifted 18" to the left or right! Since I made sure to not give away which hand I was going to spike with, the Outside Blocker never had a clue! And so I had affected the MINDS of both blockers, a lovely thing! Since even I didn't know which hand I would Spike with, I sort of waited until they decided where they were going to put the block. THAT usually caused me to decide, so that at least one of the blockers was entirely useless, if I selected the correct hand to spike with! Trust me, it is even better when their legs get tangled and the both fall down, and you have a free Court to place the ball anywhere! Sometimes, just seeing the expression on the Outside Blocker was a lot of fun, seeing all the confusion he was trying to deal with!

Volleyball is much a mental game, I think even more than a physical game. This anecdote is meant to show that. Players who were far taller than me might have an airtight block waiting for my hit, but that would only happen if I "agreed to play by their rules, right handed!" As long as I was alert to what they were doing, and adapted and made fairly good choices, I always felt that I was the one that was in control, and I certainly got a LOT of left handed kills. I don't think anyone kept good statistics back then, but I am tempted to think that I may have gotten more left-handed kills than right-handed, in the very highest level competitions, just because the double-blocks were SO good regarding a right-handed hitter. (In lower level competition, I tended to hit right-handed at least 90% of the time, although I can't actually say why).

Position Specialization

NOTE:

• There are many very high-level teams that have serve reception specialists; these teams will often severely distort the normal serve reception pattern to allow these people to receive most of the serves. This distortion invariably (intentionally) removes at least one of the players from participating in serve reception. When a team has only two true serve return specialists, the distortions become truly weird. In order to be legal at the moment of the serve this sometimes involves three of the players standing in various corners of the court. When a team has four serve return specialists (or one very weak serve receiver), there are distortions (often called Flip-Flops) that bring the setter and the remaining player to the net. On those very-high-level teams, passes to the setter are often very low and direct to get the offense going before the defense can react, and having the setter already at the net allows him to get to the setting spot in times for these bullet passes. (Such passes are sometimes called "clothesline" passes because they travel nearly directly from the serve-receiver to the location of the setter's hands. Virtually any team below 'A' that tries this discovers that a lot of bad things can happen!)

• Weaker teams sometimes use flip flops. They are either trying to be like the "big boys" or they are trying to "hide" a player who is a poor serve receiver. Even though this sounds like a good idea, it is not. Intermediate and weak teams should NEVER use flip-flops or other serve reception distortions. It is far better, for a team standpoint, to maintain confidence in each of the member players, and it is far better to maintain the same serve reception pattern, for consistency and fewer mistakes due to surprises.

  IF you have a player who is having difficulty in receiving Serves, there is nothing wrong with nearby players taking a step closer to that player (but only OCCASIONALLY). The player NEEDS to build the confidence of being able to receive Serves successfully! But as Volleyball is such a mind game, a really good Server IS a piranha when he finds someone having problems receiving serves. To try to force such a Server to aim at a smaller target seems fair to me! For one Tournament, we had to pick up a weaker player due to several injuries. He was tall and a good hitter, but very weak at Serve reception. Our team still won most of our games, until an opponent Server discovered our rookie. EVERY serve in both games of that match were aimed at our poor rookie. And he kept getting more panicked as it went. The other servers were lobbing balls over very tight patterns we were trying around him, where they STILL made him swat at the ball. We didn't have any extra players, and I even looked in the stands to see if I could recruit somebody! We survived long enough to get him in the front row, and we still won. But we never asked him again regarding a Tournament. He just had a bad day, but it was an impressively bad day because the opposing Servers fed on him.

  Occasional, or even regular, flip-flops cause serve receivers to have different responsibilities than they were normally used to, in the recommended 'W' serve reception pattern. Contrary to what a lot of players think, a flip-flop has NO intrinsic benefit regarding serve reception. It's only real value relates to higher-level teams which use clothesline passes, to permit a back row setter to actually get there in time to receive the pass! Otherwise, he/she would still be running when the pass arrives! So, unless your team is good enough to use clothesline passes, there is no actual value of trying to use a flip-flop. As an observation, some setters call for a flip-flop, in my opinion, out of laziness! Running back and forth hundreds of times during a tournament gets 'old' and such setters do not seem to realize that they are damaging their team's serve reception consistency just for their own personal laziness. (That was an editorial opinion! As a setter, I ALWAYS felt it was my responsibility to "be invisible" during the actual serve reception, so the other five could concentrate on starting things off with a good pass. Wherever the person in front of me chose to stand, I kept my mouth shut and allowed that person not to be distracted by my presence.)

Regarding serve reception or defensive passing, many intermediate players seem to be concerned about who they're passing to. In the 6-2 offense, these serve receivers do not see anyone as a target to pass to, and they get nervous! With decent setters, this is generally an unnecessary concern. Players should attempt to pass to a spot, generally about at the hitting 5 position, slightly right of the center of the net, and 2 to 3 feet from the net, with a fairly nice arc. A setter from the back row is theoretically supposed to miraculously appear at that spot, set the ball, and disappear, without affecting or distracting any of the other players at any point. This theory allows the remaining 5 players to concentrate on the defensive responsibilities of their own positions without distraction and without worrying about complicating factors. (Some coaches add modifications [like the flip-flops mentioned above] to simplify the very busy life of the setters and to allow regular double-quick and triple-quick offense. As mentioned above, for intermediate teams, these modifications generally represent complications in the minds of the serve receivers and passers. It is generally NOT a good idea to use such Flip-Flops or other distortions of serve reception or defensive coverage. The advantage of saving a couple steps for the setter is far offset by the disadvantage of possible uncertainty and confusion on the rest of the players on the team.) A 6-2 setter's life IS really complex, but after players get used to it, everyone else actually has a simpler existence. The 6-2 is very advantageous for most teams. And even though it can sometimes seem an impossible task to be a 6-2 setter, it eventually can become a very fulfilling experience.

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Serve Reception

There are some Coaches today who teach any of many assortments of this basic pattern. Many include what are called flip-flops, where one of the five receivers is removed from the reception pattern, with the single desire to make it so the Setter has a couple fewer steps to run to get to where he/she needs to set. IF the Setter is truly World Class, I would agree! But for virtually all Setters that I have ever seen involved with flip-flops, there was not the slightest value at all except toward the laziness of the Setter! Therefore, I very rarely see any merit in running flip-flops.

Many Coaches today simply decide to have a Serve Reception of fewer than five Receivers! Actually, I have played on truly high-level teams where there were two Receiving Specialists, who always received EVERY ball! In order to avoid illegal overlaps, the rest of the players were often bunched up in a corner! The result was that it resembled Beach Doubles, where you only HAVE two people to receive serve! Without having truly spectacular Serve Receivers, I have always seen value in having FIVE warm bodies receiving serve rather than four or three or two! I suppose their approach might be acceptable, as long as their specialists don't get hurt and don't have bad days! Still, I would rather be able to slightly adjust the pattern one way or another to reduce the size of the area of a player who is currently having some problems.

The reasoning that such Coaches give is usually minimal, and some Coaches do not even know why a flip-flop might even be appropriate. There ARE a few Coaches who have established their own approach toward this TEAM game, and their approaches may not always be fully compatible with these comments.

The logic of the 6-2 serve reception includes the following: About 60-70% of serves are expected to be taken by the back two players. These players are always legally back row players and cannot be front-row hitters. As soon as the three front row people are sure that they aren't supposed to pass this serve, this permits them all to begin to move to the spot to start their hitting approach. This is the reason for trying to have the two BACK ROW players receive most of the serves. On a short serve, one of the front three must pass the ball. If that hitter has a quick-set hit called, he may have trouble making his normal approach for that hit. That means that the setter suddenly has to improvise, which is often a bad thing! In principle, the 'W' serve reception is actually a 2-man serve reception pattern with 3 helpers on short or ferocious serves. The dependence on those two back row players to receive most serves relies on their passing ability. As long as all four non-setter players are equal passers, things are as good as possible. At high level play, however, teams require consistently perfect passes to run their double-quick and triple-quick plays. Such very high-level teams sometimes distort the 'W' beyond recognition in order to have their team's two very best passers ALWAYS receive the serve (even if they are front row hitters at the time). This system is usually called the 2-man serve receive. It eliminates all possible help the other 3 players could supply. (In a sense, it resembles Beach Volleyball doubles serve reception.) It also sometimes requires some of the non-passers to stand along the back line or in a back corner during serve reception! When watching nearly any country's Nationals team on TV, try to figure out the legal positions of each player! As a defender against such a team, I can state that it's a nightmare to keep track of who are the various front row hitters to block if you don't play close attention. Often, a setter on the team that is serving chooses to call out the three player numbers of the receiving teams front-row players. Without such help, I have occasionally been guilty of forgetting this and have gone up with a back row player's fake '1' allowing the guy I was supposed to defend to hit free. Coach was NOT amused! Intermediate teams should NOT use such distortions and Flip-Flops.

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Each Position

Strong Side Hitter

Offense

• Commonly gets about 50% of sets. Generally should assume he will be double-blocked. Assuming the defense has a good double-block, has 3 valid hits:
  • Hard line shot just outside block,
  • Hard Power Alley shot just inside block,
  • Roll shot (lob) over the block.
  Quicker sets (Fours, Shoots and 32s) are intended to surprise the defense and only have to deal with a single block.

• Most spiking approaches start out-of-bounds behind the 10-foot line with about a 45-degree angle into the court which allows strength in hits to any available direction.

• If the set goes to either of the other two hitters, turn toward that hitter and back off to about 8 feet from the net and get your hands low in digging position. This is so that if our hitter gets blocked, you are prepared to up any ball deflected in your direction.

• The Four Set is a unique set which has some variation among teams and players. Many 'B' teams set it as a "lob shoot" which isn't a lot lower than the normal Five Set. Most 'BB' and better teams set it as a "soft shoot" which is about '3' high. (There is also a "hard shoot" which is about '2' high and lightning fast.) For consistency, we usually treat Four sets as the "Soft shoot" variety. Individual hitters usually have unique preferences on this set which the setters should try to learn. Arc (speed), closeness to the net, and nearness to the antenna represent the X, Y, and Z coordinates, and most Four hitters have personal preferences on all of them.

• Specific sets:
  • '5' is a '15' and is designated by a hand with all 5 fingers out and spread.
  • '8' is an '18' and is designated by a closed fist (or a closed fist with the thumb pointed up). (We will not commonly use an '8', and will generally consider a '5' as the highest set we use. An actual '8' high set peaks out at around 30 feet, higher than the ceilings in many facilities. (For avoiding setter mistakes in seeing 4 fingers or 5 fingers, I like us to use a fist to describe a '5', even though it is technically wrong.) With this signal, it is still possible to call for an '8' by having the fist with the thumb up.
  • '4' will be a '13', a '14' or a '12' (depending on the specific understanding of the team members) and is designated by 4 fingers. (Again, to avoid myopic setters making mistakes here, I suggest designating this set with the 'shoot' hand sign of a gun (index finger out and thumb up, bent) The '4' that we normally tend to use is virtually identical to the 'shoot' or 'soft shoot' ('13') anyway.

    For the rare situation where a 'hard shoot' or '12' is desired, I like to use the gun signal but with two fingers out rather than one. We will never use that, as when the hitter cannot reach it, the ball lands around 5 rows back in the stands, and unless your team is National's level, you can expect that to happen a lot!

  • '3' or '33' is a '33', indicated by the middle 3 fingers (spread, so the setter can count them). This set does not go all the way out to the outside position, and the hitter angles inward even more than for hitting normal outside hits.
  • '2' or '32' is a mini-shoot or a quicker version of the '33'; two fingers (index/middle) and an understanding between the hitter and setter.
  • There is no realistic outside '1'. Setters are rarely strong enough and virtually never accurate enough to do this set. A setter can try practicing it. The ball must still be going upward when it gets to the sideline, the place where the hitter would be, so it requires very high speed to be put on the ball. It also has to consistently pass through a circle about 14" in diameter so the hitter could actually hit it. Some setters on Olympic teams are capable of reliably setting outside 1's. I only ever tried one in an actual competition, when the opposing team's two-man blocks were shutting down everything we had. But I aimed poorly and my hitter couldn't hit it. It went past the referee and over the bleachers and hit the wall! It was somewhat humiliating and I never tried it again except in practice!

Defense

• If blocking outside (their Weak-Side hitter), face hitter and stays centered on the hitter's hitting (right) shoulder, moving along the net as necessary; stopping and planting as it is clear this hitter is hitting. Feet 18 inches apart. This positioning must be done very quickly. The inside foot is the identifying target for the middle blocker to come to for double blocking. He is kind of busy and doesn't have time to determine just where to set the block. He totally trusts the outside blocker to already be planted in the proper place. He runs over to where his feet are 6 inches from the inside foot of the outside blocker and jumps straight up. As he extends his arms, he finally is able to make slight adjustments in hand position to "close the block". The back row defenders are also watching just where the outside blocker sets the block, since they assume the middle blocker will arrive and must then deal with the shot options available to the hitter past the double-block. It is critical for the team concept for the outside blocker to get in the habit of lining up early on with the hitter's hitting shoulder and to move along the net with him.

• If the other team's Middle hitter is hitting, the outside blockers are NOT supposed to block: he should quickly turn inward to hopefully up any severely angled shot toward him or any ball deflected off our middle blocker coming in his direction. There is only one exception to the no-block rule: If their middle blocker is hitting a high set (like a 5). A good opposing should never need to try that.

• If the other team's Strong-Side hitter is hitting, this position should quickly back away from the net almost to the 10 foot line, turn inward and crouch to be ready for a severe angle shot in his direction.

Common Strong Side Sets (Five, Four and 32)

(This is shown for a right handed setter. 4 and 5 are adjusted for a left handed setter.)

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Middle Hitter

Offense

• Commonly gets 20% of sets. Generally will be single-blocked. If a double block ever shows, the setter should option to whichever hitter is non-blocked. Only 4 valid sets exist: 1, 2, 3 and a deep 5. The 1 is intended to be so fast that it is minimally blocked, so an angle hit either way is a good idea. The angle is a good idea just in case the opposing middle blocker happens to be in the right place, to avoid accidentally letting the ball bounce off his hands. That 1 has a more useful purpose. A credible 1 threat holds the opponent's middle blocker long enough so he cannot consistently get out to double-block our outside hitters on reasonable quick sets. Therefore, many teams will ONLY consider 1s or 2s for the middle hitters, with the requirement that the middle hitter make a full, valid, believable approach and jump EVERY TIME WE HAVE THE BALL. This decoy action helps loosen up the defense on the outside hitters.

  Even though the defending middle blocker only expects you to get set 20% of the time, he has to respect the possibility that it could be this time, if your approach and jump are believable. Dogging it when you know you are unlikely to get set hurts the team effort because the opposing middle blocker feels freer to commit earlier to the outside double-block. Even if you get stuff-blocked on a middle 1, there is team value in the necessary respect their middle blocker must then give you to keep you from doing that unblocked. Most team offenses should NOT depend heavily on hitting for points by the middle hitter. That's usually a sign that the overall offense has major problems. If the team is in an offensive lull or if the other team is on a blocking roll, a deep 5 could be called, 5 feet back from the net. (This is NOT a hit that most teams consider for a middle hitter, because it violates that idea of forcing the opposing middle blocker to hesitate in the middle before heading out to double-block the side hitters.) If hit at an angle (generally toward the opposing setter's spot), the single middle block can't stop it, and a standard organized defense doesn't really have a plan for this hit.

• If the set goes to either of the other two hitters, turn toward that hitter and back off to about 5 feet from the net and get your hands in digging position. This is so that if our hitter gets blocked, you are prepared to up any ball deflected in your direction.

• If the pass causes the setter to set from a slightly different position, the middle hitter must adjust his position and approach accordingly. On a pass that causes the setter to be standing in the 7 hitting position, the middle hitter should approach just in front of him in the 6 hitting position.

• Specific sets:
  • '5' is a '45' and is designated by a hand with all 5 fingers out and spread (or a fist). It is very seldom used because it develops so slowly that it would likely be triple blocked. If it is to be used, it should be set back about 5 feet from the net, so our hitter can angle the hit downward past the expected triple block.

  • '3' is a '43', indicated by the middle 3 fingers (spread, so the setter can count them). As with the '45', this set should probably be set 3 to 5 feet back from the net, because the defense will have time to establish a solid block, and our hitter needs to have room to angle the hit past it.

  • '2' is a '42'; two fingers (index/middle). If this set is hit straight, often it will accidentally hit the blocker's hands. I find substantial value in generally angling this hit (either direction). Against a standard defense, I personally tend to hit it at about a 30 to 45 degree angle toward their setter (depending on how close the set was to the net). If I can make their setter play the ball, even if he gets it up, their sophisticated plays are gone because the setter will not be setting the ball.

  • '1' is a '41'; one finger (index) The hitter jumps an instant just BEFORE the setter touches the ball! It's weird to learn!

  • 'back 2' is a '52', two fingers (little/ring) set just behind the setter's head. This is another ball that I tend to hit at a 45 degree angle toward either side, so the blocker doesn't accidentally block my hit.

• There is no middle '4' or '8'

Defense

• Middle hits: If the hitter approaches for a 1, you HAVE to go up with him since there is no time to jump later. You both actually wind up jumping BEFORE the ball is even set! In this case, only jump 6 inches high or so, because generally he is a decoy and you have to get back down on the floor to run over to where the real action is likely to develop, at an outside hitter. If he has a delayed approach (for a 2 or 3), you can watch the setter to try to figure out just where the set will go. If it is then actually a middle set, you should have plenty of time to put your block up. Sometimes you can get clues for where he intends to hit it from where the hitter looks, his approach angle, or small differences in his arm, shoulder or upper body positioning. Since you're blocking ALONE, you need to be alert for these clues to pick the most likely spot to block. A Middle-Blocker is really very lonely on a middle hit since absolutely no one is in a place to help.

  In my experience, there is value in VERY slightly delaying a jump on anything higher than a middle-'1'. The advantage is in avoiding letting the hitter know exactly where you are intending to block. Even though I am rather short (6'1") for a Middle Blocker, that instant of hesitation has allowed me the luxury of making the hitter make a decision about where he intends to hit before I have to make any commitments. It is hard to describe in words, but I always have felt that that momentary delay gives me a tremendous advantage in blocking.

  On more advanced teams, a middle blocker is taught to "area block". Rather than trying to figure out where the hitter is intending to go, you would always block in exactly the same place. Obviously, this makes it easier for a hitter, once he figures out that you will never adjust your block. The reason that this is actually a good idea for advanced teams is because your own back row defense knows where your block is going to be and they can position themselves to best cover the remaining target areas. On less advanced teams, a very good blocker might do those "adjustment blocks" or "psych blocks" to get a lot of blocks, but such adjustments makes organized back row defense almost impossible! I have played on both types of teams. In my opinion, extremely organized, very well coached teams should use area blocking, while most lesser teams might sometimes better benefit from a very alert, observant, and effective psych blocker. Sometimes, that decision is a tough call!

• Outside Hits: after you've come down from blocking the middle fake hit, you need to quickly get over to the outside hitter who is actually going to make the hit. Always look for the location of your outside blockers inside foot. He has the very important responsibility of ALREADY being at the correct lateral position. (He CANNOT be wandering around or waiting to get to his blocking location.) The Middle Blocker generally has VERY little time to get out there and absolutely needs this consistent information of that foot's proper position to be able to participate in the outside double-block. Plant your outside foot 6 inches inside his foot and jump straight up. At high level competition, all this often happens without even actually having had looked at the opponent yet! You are TOTALLY trusting the outside blocker to "set the block" by being in the right place. Extend your arms and AREA BLOCK. It is usually necessary to make slight hand adjustments to close any gaps between the two blockers' hands. As long as you and the outside blocker consistently block the same angles (areas) with no gaps between, the back row diggers will become familiar with the few specific options still available to opposing hitters, and they will up nearly everything that gets by the consistent double block.

common Middle (1 and 2) sets and

common Weak-Side (Back 2 and 5) sets.

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Weak Side Hitter

Offense

• Commonly gets about 30% of sets. Generally will face a double-block. Assuming the defense has a good double-block, has 3 valid hits: Hard line shot just outside block, Hard Power Alley shot just inside block, Roll shot (lob) over the block. Quicker sets (Back Twos and 72s) are intended to surprise the defense and only have to deal with a single block. Most approaches start on the out-of-bounds line behind the 10 foot line with about a 30 degree angle into the court which allows strength in hits to any available direction.

• If the set goes to either of the other two hitters, turn toward that hitter and back off to about 8 feet from the net and get your hands in digging position. This is so that if our hitter gets blocked, you are prepared to up any ball deflected in your direction.
• Specific sets:
  • 'back 5' is a '85' and is designated by a hand with all 5 fingers out and spread (or a fist).

  • 'back 3' is a '63', indicated by the end 3 fingers (spread, so the setter can count them).

  • 'back 2' is a '52'; two fingers (little/ring is best, otherwise spread apart)

  • 'back 1' is a '51'; one finger (little) The hitter jumps just BEFORE the setter touches the ball! A very tough play to pull off!

  • '1' is a '41', one finger (index) this set obviously requires the agreement of the middle hitter so there is no crash. This is often the first half of some of the more exotic combination sets such as 'tandems' and 'X'es. In response to this, the middle hitter will often take a middle '2' which is automatically shifted out strong-side about 3 feet, making a standard 'tandem.' We will seldom try these maneuvers in matches, but they're fun to practice!
  • 'C' is designated by a hand cupped like the letter C. This is a newer set designation, and different teams have different interpretations of it. Many treat it as a 'back 5' ('85') or a '74'. An arcing, wide back set.
  • Another set has joined the pattern for weak-side hitters, called a Slide. I am not aware of any hand-signal for a Slide.

• There is no back '4' or 'shoot.' A 'back 8' (very, very high) does exist but is seldom used. It would use the fist symbol that we have confiscated for the 'back 5.' If you are ever around players from stronger teams, they have some additional calls such as the 'C' and 'D'. These types of symbols (except the 'C') cannot easily be shown as a single hand signal. Such calls are usually parts of combination set plays or higher-level teams where the setter specifies a play number or designation and all three hitters have specific sets due to the play. These setter-initiated plays are necessary for very high-level teams which regularly run Xes, tandems, double-quicks and triple-quicks. We will seldom do such plays, and I prefer to let each of the hitters have some input into our team's strategy.

  The Slide has become very popular with many modern teams. So some discussion of it is appropriate. What is called a Slide today is NOT the same as what a Slide originally was! I was there and I know! The set of today usually resembles a soft shoot to the weak side. Technically, the Setter is still supposed to be facing the opposite direction, but many Setters turn around in order to make this set. Any intelligent Defense can see that some Sets are NOT going to be made, and they tend to abandon at least one of the blocking positions to double up for the Slide. The Hitter is usually the Weak Side Hitter who has wandered in to be standing right behind the Setter. As the Setter begins to set the ball, that Hitter runs and does a sideways broad jump. The common way it is done today is that the Hitter catches up with the ball around the usual 8 position.

  That somewhat defeats the purpose of the concept! You wind up bringing the hit right to where the Blocker(s) are already waiting! More than that, the Blockers know that the Hitter is having to somewhat look backwards to see where the ball is coming from, and in my opinion, the Blockers get an advantage!

  The ORIGINAL Slide was very different! And FAR more effective! BUT it requires a quality of Setter that is extremely rare! Similar to what was described above, the Hitter has wandered to a location just behind the Setter. However, the Hitter actually starts running FIRST, before the Setter even receives the Pass. And it is CRITICALLY IMPORTANT that the Hitter make the SAME jump each time, same height, same width, same position!

  Here is the logic: When that Hitter jumps, he/she follows a parabolic path through the air. If the hitting arm is held up for the whole trip, then the hitting hand is following that parabolic path (along maybe 5 feet of net). Now, say that the Setter is SO good that he/she can set a volleyball which will follow exactly the same shape parabolic path, but a few inches toward the net from the hand. Ah HA! The hand and ball will then be flying in formation! As long as both parabolas are identical, then the Hitter can CHOOSE to hit the ball early or late! He/she and the ball will be cruising through the air, passing blockers AND GAPS. Instead of having to be at the mercy of a Block, all you have to do is wait a fraction of a second until you have flown PAST the Block, and there is an open court in front of you. When done correctly, it is nearly a 100% kill shot! If there were a lot of really good Setters around, this would be wonderful! Unfortunately, in real life, few Setters seem to be able to do the necessary Physics mental calculation for the ballistic trajectory of the Hitter and then to do the needed things to duplicate that for the ball! And when the ball is NOT where it is needed, this can often turn into a really ugly situation!

  Even in the high-level play that I was then involved in, probably HALF the time the set was NOT where it needed to be! IF the Hitter could hit it at all, it was then usually just a poke to try to get it to go over the net, and the other team then had the advantage.

  A True Slide is truly impressive when done well! And virtually a 100% kill. Unfortunately, until more Setters take Physics Courses, I am not sure that the True Slide will really be all it might be.

  In the mean time, there is the set that is CALLED a Slide, which seems to get a LOT of interest! I am not sure it merits it either!

Defense

• If blocking outside (their Strong-Side hitter), face the hitter and stay centered on the hitter's hitting (right) shoulder, moving along the net as necessary to stay lined up with that shoulder; stopping and planting as it is clear this hitter is hitting. Feet 18 inches apart. This foot placement is the identifying target for the middle blocker to come to for double blocking. He is kind of busy and doesn't have time to determine just where to set the block. He totally trusts the outside blocker to already be planted in the proper place. He runs over to where his feet are 6 inches from the inside foot of the outside blocker and jumps straight up. As he extends his arms, he finally is able to make slight adjustments in hand position to "close the block". The back row defenders are also watching just where the outside blocker sets the block, since they assume the middle blocker will arrive and must then deal with the shot options available to the hitter past the double-block. It is critical for the team concept for the outside blocker to get in the habit of lining up early on with the hitter's hitting shoulder and to move along the net with him.

• If the other team's middle hitter is hitting, the outside blocker is NOT supposed to block: he should quickly turn inward to hopefully up any severely angled shot toward him or any ball deflected off our middle blocker coming in his direction.

• If the other team's weak side hitter is hitting, this position should quickly back away from the net almost to the 10 foot line, turn inward and crouch to be ready for a severe angle shot in his direction.

Setter

• For setters: A crucial aspect of being a 6-2 setter is to never interfere with or even distract a server-receiver or digger. Therefore a setter should loop around (out-of-bounds, if necessary) to get up to the net during serve reception and finding the least disruptive path back to his nest afterward. Each receiver should be encouraged to stand anywhere he wants to best prepare to receive the serve - - - those receivers should not have ANY concern about potential overlaps (totally the setter's responsibility) (except with other serve receivers, a minimal problem with the 'W' pattern) or about getting in the setter's way on his path to the net. Such concerns should not even occur to the receivers, to allow them to get entirely focused on making a good pass. As to the sets themselves: consistency is the first requirement. If your sets aren't actually 5s or 4s or 32s, but are consistently the same, most hitters can adapt. Diversity is nice but consistency is better. My personal practice is to stand at a free-throw line and set toward a basketball basket. I try for consistent arc shape and height and hope to have the ball land on the rim 50% of the time. Since basketball baskets are always present wherever a volleyball tournament is held, I always have a consistent target environment. The 15 feet from the free-throw line to the basket is roughly like the distance from the setter spot to a strong-side hitter (#1) spot. For no particular reason, I virtually always practice '3'-high sets, that go two to three feet above the top of the backboard at their highest. I am convinced that if I can visualize this well enough, I can duplicate the arc during actual setting in a match.

  Many "B" and "BB" teams use serve reception distortions during serve reception. I used to wonder why that was. I'm now pretty sure it's exclusively because they want to copy and play like "the big boys." Such teams don't seem to understand the reason why those "big boys" use Flip-Flops and such. The reason is almost entirely because they ("AA" teams) generally make "clothesline" passes to their setter's hands so that they can then run double-quick and triple-quick plays to get the best possible advantage on the defending team, which will consistently double-block otherwise. In such case, the setter must get to the setting spot very quickly, and so Flip-Flops and other serve receive distortions are necessary. If you are ever on a team which passes directly on a clothesline to the setter's hands, then you are already part of a "AA" team and beyond the realm of most of these comments. Teams which generally intend to "lob" passes to their setters cannot benefit in this way. The only potential advantage of such distortions for lob-passing teams is that the setter has fewer steps to run to get to the setting spot. This advantage (for lazy setters) comes at the cost of making inexperienced serve receivers even more insecure than they were to start with, and compounding this by only letting 4 of them receive instead of 5. My opinion is that virtually all teams should avoid such things, to allow constancy and consistency in the receivers' environment. If a setter insists on having a flip-flop for such a team, he's probably displaying a selfishness and should re-consider what would be best for the team effort.

• For non-setters info: Appreciate your setters! A great setter is effectively invisible most of the time, making sure to stay out of the way of all teammates while they are doing their things. He magically appears, remembering all three set requests of his hitters. He evaluates the pass coming to him and determines whether any of the exotic quick sets asked of him are still possible. Then he evaluates the strengths of his three hitters, the game situation, and the defensive strengths of the individuals in the opponents' front row. He then adds in factors for making sure he is distributing sets reasonably among his hitters so none feel left out and for unique, temporary situations such as a hitter being in a slump. He totals all this up to decide who to set to. Now, he has to become aware of just where that hitter is and whether he is making a good approach, whether he needs to adjust the set for a player who normally makes an early or late approach. He makes adjustments due to what he sees the defense doing. Finally, he adds in the personal preferences of that specific hitter to put the ball a few inches closer, further, higher, lower, inside, quicker, etc, to increase that hitter's performance. As soon as he has made the set, he is supposed to be ready to dig any balls blocked straight down. If that doesn't happen, he is supposed to disappear from the face of the earth!

• The setter is defensively positioned such that HE SHOULD VIRTUALLY NEVER HAVE TO TAKE A FIRST BALL. This is done to make sure he can run whatever offensive plays his hitters are looking for, because he is the only person who knows what they have just requested. If the setter has to take a first ball, he normally passes to the Weak-Side hitter position, who is the automatic alternate setter in this situation. Usually, the other back row setter is in this position, but if not, the pass still goes there for consistency. In such situation, only two hitters are now available, and neither should expect any set other than a generic high ball (5). Most of our significant offense has evaporated if our setter has to take the first ball.

• Another subject which is related:
  
  • Remember that all of the 6-2 offensive strategy is geared to generating the most firepower possible, since a strong defense generally dominates over a similarly strong standard offense. There is another version of the 6-2 which you may see from time to time. A number of women's high school coaches regularly seem to teach this variation as the only and true 6-2. It is not! I often call this variation the "women's offense" (even when men's teams use it!) The main variation is in where the setter is on defense. In the "true" or "men's" 6-2, the setter stays out-of-the-way, covering the tiniest area possible, to make sure he will not play the first ball and therefore will be available to set the advanced plays the hitters are expecting.

    The "women's" 6-2 has the setter "float" back and forth across the court at the 10-foot line, just behind wherever the block develops. The upside of this is that the setter sometimes ups dinks just over the blockers, but there are two tremendous downsides to it. First, the setter then has to pass to the alternate setter (who was supposed to have been one of the hitters) which reduces the offense to two hitters, as mentioned above. These hitters will now have to swing at generic high ball sets, which are very blockable. Second, the fluctuating presence of the setter floating across continually affects the coverage areas of the back row defenders. This adds to the uncertainty of those players of doing consistent plays.

    The "women's" version of the 6-2 is reasonably effective when defending against teams with very limited offense and who often dink or roll (read this as "weak" teams.) The "men's" version is much more versatile and is far more effective against strong opponent teams. Most really strong women's teams use the "true" or "Men's" version described. Generally, only intermediate women's teams use this variation of the 6-2.

Back Row - Power Alley

Offense

• If our strong side hitter is hitting, you are to move forward to be directly behind him and a half-step behind the 10-foot line and be ready to react and dig. This is in case he gets blocked straight back.

• If our weak side hitter is hitting, you go toward the center of the court, again just behind the 10-foot line, again ready to react and dig. This is in case he is trying to angle his hit inward and it gets blocked - it would generally come right in the direction you will be waiting at. In both cases, your quick reactions are essential.
• If our middle hitter is hitting, the play generally develops so fast that no one can move very far, so you just turn and crouch, leaning and advancing forward as possible to get near the 10-foot line.

Defense

• The standard 6-2 defense expects a high percentage of the hits to come from the opponents' strong side hitter. If he IS the hitter, this is what you are supposed to do. As he is starting his approach, you are just inside the sideline about 3 feet in front of the back line. You move forward a small step and a bigger one, building acceleration. At that point you turn 45 degrees right to head directly toward the hitter, getting lower and lower as you go, with your arms already extended in digging position. You should time this procedure to the hitter's movements so that your arms and the (expected, spiked) ball arrive exactly in the center of our court, 1 foot above the floor at exactly the same time. This obviously means a sprawl or similar dive on EVERY opponent strong side hit!. You get low to give yourself a few additional milliseconds to make small arm adjustments. You get to that exact location because that is the only place that the hardest hit ball can normally be hit into the court past our double-block. That hitter is actually given a thin stripe down the line (about a foot wide) to go outside the block, but few hitters regularly try that because many hits might then land out-of-bounds. So most hard hitters aim exactly at YOU! I sometimes refer to this position as the human sacrifice position, since you're only about 15 feet away from and unprotected from their biggest, scariest hitters, and you're running directly into the area of greatest danger! Sometimes, I'm convinced my life has flashed before my eyes as I realized a particularly strong gorilla was zeroing in on me!

• If their weak side hitter is hitting, you advance directly behind your double-block to almost the 10-foot line, for any potential dinks or any balls that were partly blocked and dribbling over.

• If their middle hitter is hitting, you are supposed to try to advance to near the 10 foot line. Some coaches want you to be directly behind the single block for dinks; I tend to think that 5 feet left of being behind your blocker still allows you a shot at those dinks but also gives you a chance of upping a hard-driven ball just past your blocker. The odds are that you would never get there anyway, if the opponents' middle hitter just hit a 1, but you will be in the general area.

Middle Back

Preliminary comments

• If you've looked at where everybody else on the team is, IN EVERY SINGLE CONTINGENCY both on offense and on defense, you have noticed that they are ALL either inside or on the 10 foot line at the time of a spike. That leaves the remaining 2/3 of the court for YOU! Now, exactly how you are going to cover it somewhat depends on the playing level of your opponents and how totally you can believe in your front row to consistently double-block.

• With strong double blocking and strong opponents, you should always play MIDDLE DEEP. This means that you back up to (or for "A" and above, even behind) the back line in the middle of the court as the other team's play is developing. If their hitter lobs the ball ANYWHERE, our defense is considered a success, and you MUST up the ball, ANYWHERE in your 2/3 of the court. Both back corners and middle short are all yours. If our block deflects the ball ANYWHERE, in-bounds or out-of-bounds, YOU are the only one expected to play it. (This is why you are behind the back line against extremely strong teams; as deflections often go beyond the back line or outside either sideline.)

• If the opponent team does not demonstrate such crushing hitting, you should consider playing MIDDLE UP. If few balls are ever likely to be deflected that far off of our blocks, you don't need to worry about that possibility until they prove the power is there. Intermediate and weaker opponent teams tend to lob and dink many more balls into the very center of the court, which, again, of course, are YOURS. With Middle Deep, there is a theoretical weakness against roll and dink shots to the exact center of our court, but most strong power teams' hitters usually choose a spectacular hit rather than a dink or roll, so this weakness seldom shows up at that level of play, and is less worth covering than the long and wide deflections.

• If your blockers are inconsistent on creating solid double blocks, then middle up is also better. Since our teams will probably seldom play against teams capable of the ferocious attacks referred to above, this represents a second good reason for considering Middle Up. Playing Middle Up DOES NOT relieve you of the responsibility of upping most lobs and roll shots, across the entire width of the court, including both back corners. Sometimes, with Middle Up, the Power Alley player is willing to slightly modify his positioning to help cover lobs and rolls back over his head, but it really isn't his job! The Middle Back player obviously needs to be able to cover a lot of distance quickly.

• Your responsibilities on offense are similar to those on defense. Again, since everyone else is occupied up around and inside the 10-foot line, you have the other 2/3 of the court. If our hitter gets blocked and the ball goes a long way IN ANY DIRECTION, it's yours.

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Various Other Subjects

'X'es

An 'X' is ONLY used when the opponents are serving to us, and only played ONCE immediately at the serve. It is also ONLY used when front-row serve receivers are not already in their "specialist" positions where a switch will eventually be necessary. The 'X' combines this switch within the offensive play itself. All serve receivers receive in their (original) normal positions. After the pass, the two hitters who will 'X' make angle approaches to the necessary hitting spots (their normal "specialist" spots). An 'X' ALWAYS involves a 1-high hit (first) and a 2-high hit second. The hitter for the 1 always crosses in FRONT of the other in order not to be delayed on his hit.

Under any other conditions, an 'X' is undesirable. If hitters are already in their "specialist" spots, an 'X' would move them to wrong positions where they would need to re-switch. Generally, the setter does not try the 'X' if either of them passed the serve, again for timing reasons.

There are actually three possible 'X'es, only one of which is usually logical to use. A Strong-side X could be used if the Middle and Strong need to switch (Index and Middle finger crossed). The Middle hits his normal '1', with the Strong hitting a '2' with a foot between their shoulders. A Weak-side X could be used if the Middle and Weak need to switch (little and ring fingers crossed). The Middle hits his normal '1' and the Weak hits a Back '2'. The third variety of X is virtually never used by teams at any level. It is the Wide X, where the two outside hitters need to switch. This X is so rare that no consistent location is even established for where it is to happen and there is no hand signal for it. There is also no consistent plan for where the Middle Hitter might hit at. In my entire volleyball career, my teams have only tried it 3 times. In each case, it got screwed up and failed.

A primary hoped-for effect of an 'X' is that the opponent blockers don't switch or shift coverage to still block both hitters. This is identical to the reasoning behind a "pick and roll" in basketball, where you're trying to get both defenders occupied with (either) one of you which leaves the other undefended. Adding a little confusion in the opponents often helps the team cause. Even an unsuccessful 'X' should cause them to have to be continually thinking of that contingency for the future. I have noticed that in tournaments, some teams run 'X' plays in their warm-ups but then never use them in the actual matches. There is value in this in that opposing coaches who see this may inadvertently add new distractions to their teams when commenting on this possibility just before a match.

The circumstances for the possibility of using an 'X' occur only about 20% of the time. 'X'es should probably be rarely used at intermediate levels of play.

Tandems

• The Middle hits his '1', and the Strong comes in for a 2-high set right along side the Middle (with a foot between their shoulders). The hand sign resembles a '2'. For a '2' the fingers are supposed to be clearly separated, partly so the setter can count them to distinguish from '1' or '3'. The Strong Tandem signal is the index and middle fingers tight together.
• A Weak Tandem would involve the Middle Hitter hitting a 'back 1' (a difficult hit unless the pass is absolutely perfect) with the Weak-Side Hitter hitting a '72' right next to him. This 72 is a blind set, and it is also a set that few setters ever practice, or that Weak-Side Hitters practice hitting. Bad idea!
• A Stacked Tandem is a variation on the Strong Tandem. Instead of the Strong coming up alongside the Middle, he actually approaches directly behind him, with his '2' hit coming from about 4 feet back from the net. The value is in timing. The block that went up with the Middle Hitter is now nearly back on the ground so there is effectively no block. Sometimes, opponent blockers get confused as to who is supposed to try to block each hitter (thinking an X may be going on), and neither blocker goes up! I have also noticed a minor additional advantage. I was usually the front half (Middle) of such Stacked Tandems, and my arm during my now-fake swing was sometimes in the way of the actual hit from behind me. This often deflected the ball at an unexpected angle into the opponents' court, making their digging efforts wasted. Of course, my arm also occasionally accidentally blocked my teammate's hit back to him!

Flip-Flop comments

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Serving Comments

1. In all normal game situations, you would virtually always use your intermediate serve which must be in bounds 80-90% of the time. It is meant to make sure the ball is put in play but allows the opponents a chance of making a bad pass.
2. Your ferocious hard, topspin serve should still be 60% or better. There are only a few situations where you should consider using it. NEVER in a close game, whether you're ahead or behind. Seldom when you're way ahead, since that comes across as unsportsmanlike and non-Christian. NEVER right after your team has invested heroic effort into getting a sideout. NEVER when your team is presently playing well and just getting bad breaks. This only leaves the circumstance of being in the desperate situation of being far behind in a game where your team's spirit has been (temporarily) broken. In this desperation situation, a ferocious serve to try to get an ace could be your team's best hope. If you fail, your team was probably going to get snuffed anyway. If you DO get a couple aces, hopefully the team optimism returns which should enable ensuing team play, so you should go back to your normal serve rather than rolling the dice again. This is true even if you are still well behind. After all, you must get the ball in play to score points.

3. If you have total confidence in your team's play (compared to the opponents), knowing that we will prevail in any extended rally, you can use a creampuff (dead-ball, non-rotating) lob serve (98% or better). The lack of ball rotation (less than one-half rotation by the time the ball crosses the net) can cause some quirky jumps in the ball. And it gives your team a chance to win the play.

   Such a serve can even be served under-hand. In all cases, the trick is to make sure that your hand is slightly cupped (as it should always be for serves or spikes); the entire perimeter of your hand must contact the ball at the same instant; and you make a VERY conscious effort to keep your wrist from doing its natural snap. Many people will try this a HUNDRED times before getting ONE serve that is not spinning in the air. As you watch the ball leaving (which is extremely important, for feedback), you will see balls spinning in every imaginable way, but usually either backspin (because you let your wrist be too weak at the moment of the impact and it snapped backwards) or topspin (because you let your wrist do the forward snap that all hitting coaches always try to teach spikers). After you get one to fly with no spin, you will start to fully realize the importance of no wrist movement during a dead-ball serve.

   The value of a dead-ball serve is RELATED to the fact that it flies so slowly! The person who is to receive it has plenty of time to watch it come. More importantly, he/she also has plenty of time to watch it zig and zag in the air due to wind currents! This is especially true of indoor play, where the lighter ball is used. It does serious mind-games to you as the receiver to see the ball shifting several inches sideways or up or down and then back. IF you use this and get a point from a bad serve reception, YOU MUST make absolutely sure that you allow the same person to receive the next serve. If he/she shanks off that one, then you must make sure to serve EVERY following serve to that person, as long as they are not on the bench! It gets to a point where your serving ability is no longer the issue. That person is beginning to doubt if they are even capable of returning your serve, and all kinds of psychological problems are occurring inside their head. I have seen cases where I wondered if "professional help" might be appropriate after a match!

   OK. Say you had a little success at this. You already know WHO you are going to serve to next time. The best part is, so does he! Since there are already psychological things going on inside his head, I consider it fair to emphasize that! So, you are allowed several seconds before being required to serve, right? I get back there as quickly as I can, and I just stare at that person. It actually motivates me to make sure of accuracy, but some opponents almost seem to have a breakdown. I recall at least 20 who, after realizing that I was going to stare right through them, would make a point of not even looking at me! Here, I am the person with the ball, about to serve, and about to serve to him, and yet he wouldn't even look at me. Can you see some advantages in that? (I must admit that I am not sure what the Lord would think about that maneuver. Is it sportsmanlike? I don't really know for sure. But I know that I am allowed a certain number of seconds before having to serve, and so I discovered an advantage of taking nearly all of that time. And I have to look somewhere, and I truly did think I got better focus and motivation to serve to that same person.

   By the way, in Beach Doubles, nearly all stronger players will explore the hubby-wife spot. There is some dividing line between where the two opponent players have previously determined specifies who receives the serve. In general, the strong-side player tends to take the middle, to be able to play a higher percentage of plays and then spikes. Nearly everyone has been around when a really accurate server keeps making slight adjustments toward the weaker player. For a while, the stronger player keeps reaching farther and farther, but then starts making poor passes. At some point, the weaker player chooses to take one. On the very next serve, it must go to that exact same spot. If you have found it, each of the two opponents assumes that the other will play that ball, and it just drops in, easy as pie. And then they yell at each other. I suspect the hubby-wife spot has caused some divorces, and it certainly has caused many competitive teams to break up. There is also the situation where BOTH decide to play the next ball, and there is no one to set the ball.

   Finally, still considering mush-ball or dead-ball serves, there is value in practicing a very high, underhand-served version of it, often called a Moon ball. Just serving high can have a tiny benefit, but usually not out-weighing the number of times that the ball lands outside the court. But if the very high serve is not spinning, the receiver has an extremely long time to watch the ball jerking around in the air. It is amazing how many really strong players will shank off some Moon ball serves!

Blocking

First of all, there are two overall approaches or concepts regarding blocking. The technically "correct" approach is called Area Blocking or Team Blocking. The other approach does not actually have a respectable organized name. The two systems will be discussed separately here.

Area Blocking

As long as these two blockers are consistently in the precise same positions, the two very strongest hits available to the hitter are discouraged. This only allows one remaining very strong hitting direction, that at about a 45 degree angle toward the middle of the court. But our team concept has arranged our Power Alley back row player to be exactly right at that one remaining spot. This now accounts for ALL of the ferocious hits. A somewhat weaker hit is possible at a more severe angle (say 60 degrees), but we have the opposite side front row player placed to receive this hit.

This now accounts for ALL significant hits (downward hits). The only remaining possibilities for the hitter are upward hits, dinks and roll shots (lobs). If a strong side hitter makes a dink just over the double block, this is a symbolic victory. The other team's strongest hitting position didn't even try to actually hit! In this single situation, our back-row Setter receives the ball. For absolutely any other UPWARD hit ball, aimed ANYWHERE beyond the 10-foot line, the Middle Back player HAS TO up it.

As long as BOTH of our blockers consistently present their blocks at the correct positions, our entire team concept works very well, and nearly every ball is either blocked or upped. Notice an important fact. The two blockers are Area Blockers. They are NOT necessarily actually trying to block everything they could reach. Their consistency of positioning is actually more important to the team concept than their individual blocking skills or effectiveness. The back row players can develop confidence in them of being consistent, so they soon learn exactly where they need to be and what they need to do to do their part in the team defense. I have played in games where I did not block a single ball, but I know that I contributed greatly to the team's defensive effort. Since hitters chose not to challenge my blocking ability, and I was consistent in precise placement of my attempts at blocking, they consistently hit balls that my teammates invariably upped. Even without being ever blocked, opposing teams get demoralized when they just can't seem to put the ball away!

There are a couple additional factors that affect how well this works. Specifically, the skill of the opposing setter and the ability of the opposing hitter. All this logic is based on the opposing setter being good enough to regularly set the ball around two or three feet from the net, and the opposing hitter then knowing what to do with it. If this strategy is used against a really terrible team, it works terribly! Our team commits two people to block when no actual hit will occur! And if their hitter can accurately lob the ball to the back corners, we really wind up having five bystanders and only one person actually being the defense! So, if you ever wind up playing against a really bad team, I recommend forgetting all this strategy and simply backing off into a serve-reception W pattern. Let them hit, and practice your serve reception skills! They're not going to win, are they?

The Alternative, regarding Blocking

There are several other possibilities for this same situation to exist. On a Men's Team, sometimes the setters are really short and cannot significantly block. On some 'C' teams, the person judged weakest in the front row is shoveled over to the Weak Side Hitter position, where he/she never gets sets! That person is seldom a great blocker! In any case, it is a consistent and serious problem to be dealt with.

My solution is this. (ONLY for weak teams and for teams with circumstances as described here!) If there is a good blocker in the front row, then put him in the middle, and allow him to freely improvise in 'Psych-Blocking'. Only a single-block is even planned, where he is free to go sideline to sideline to block, with the other front-row players being either diggers or hiders! My thinking is this. Without a valid consistent double block, all the rest of the team strategy becomes somewhat irrelevant, since strong hitters are going to continuously bury balls straight down the line. In that case, of a free-hitting hitter, the BEST we can hope for is that he accidentally hits one out of bounds! NOT a very good plan! Since the lack of a solid and consistent double block has disabled nearly all aspects of the defense anyway, why not let a decent blocker freely range back and forth along the entire front row. With this concept, there is not even any attempt at making a double block! The short outside blocker actually normally assures a hitter of somewhere to aim! Instead, with this premise, those 'outside blockers' would step back (not so far as to be hit by a hard driven ball), to allow the Middle Blocker to go freely antenna to antenna.

OK. I admit that this is a really bizarre concept! Worst of all, our back row players do not have the slightest clue as to where a block might appear, so they have no possible information on where to place themselves. They are sometimes VERY distressed at the hot-shot psych-blocker! My thinking is that they weren't going to be much use anyway, not from THEIR fault, but from the lack of a solid and consistent double Area Block. Since we're in deep water anyway, why not let our one good blocker see what he could do.

Yes, he does get a reasonable number of blocks. But there are two side benefits from this weird strategy. Opposing teams are sometimes distracted by the oddness of what is going on, so their offense might make some extra mistakes. Better, if our blocker manages to get a few blocks, their hitters might panic and decide to do a dink or lob. We've got LOTS of people standing around for that!

In any event, I personally have seen great advantage of trying this for the sorts of weak defensive teams mentioned above, where a solid double block is not a reality. It has contributed to teams that I was on getting many thousands of points from blocks I managed to snag. From a team point-of-view, (for those teams!) that seems like a good thing!

There IS a dark side to this! IF a strong male blocker (such as me!) chooses to participate in BOTH strong Men's competition (where Area Blocking is absolutely mandatory) and also in Co-Ed competition (where the lack of valid double blocking encourages this peculiar strategy), I know from personal experience that there soon develops a great tendency to want to Psych-block when Area Blocking is the ONLY acceptable method. I have watched opposing hitter eyes and shoulder movements and approach, and have known that he was going to hit the ball just inside of my block. On a Co-Ed team, I would just slide my block over to simply block the hit for a point. But on a strong Men's team, even knowing that, it has often taken all of my self-restraint to NOT adjust my block, totally trusting my back row teammates to up that ball! (They nearly always did!) To KNOW that you could do something, but to intentionally hold back, for the benefit of the long-term team concept, is sometimes really tough. But those back row players have to KNOW that they can trust me to be where I am supposed to be. Even if I would be a hot-dog and block a few extra balls, the long-term effect on our back row play would not be worth the price.

These last comments should encourage great thought before you try using this approach. It may help you win a few extra games, but if your team is attempting to build a structured team, with mutual trust, it wouldn't be worth it.

Personal Blocking Skills

Watch ANY hitter go through a hitting warmup ten times. You will soon see very consistent patterns that even he may not be aware of. Depending on where he intends to hit, he may approach at a slightly different angle. He may have his shoulder differently, like more forward or farther back, or lower than usual. REALLY beginning players tend to look in the direction they intend to hit, but even experienced players often make a quick glance, or turn their head very slightly one way or the other, for different hits. As the arm motion begins, most hitters display all kinds of clues as to what they are about to try.

Have you seen that TV commercial where Bill Russell commented that he got most of his blocked shots / rebounds BEFORE the opposing basketball player even took the shot? He was being extremely observant, watching for the exact same sorts of clues. A volleyball blocker can do this, and it is a LOT easier than most people think.

It's funny. Most hitters believe that THEY are in charge of whatever is about to happen. I never felt that. By being observant like that, I already had a lot of information about the likely tendencies of most opponents. (When at distant tournaments, against teams and players I had never seen before, while the other team was warming up with a hitting line, I would generally watch their hitters very carefully, looking for any patterns or clues. Many times, during the following match, I knew what their biggest hitter was going to do and was able to block him. At a tournament near Detroit, during warm-ups for the very first match of the tournament, one opposing hitter hit half a dozen balls down so hard that they bounced up and hit the very high roof of the building. Pretty intimidating! But he seemed to be extremely consistent is certain movements. In the first game, he allowed me to block him for eight consecutive points! Being ahead 8-0, we easily won the game and match. He was SO easy to read it was amazing! After those eight, he never even tried to hit again against us, even when I was in the back row! In the rest of the tournament, he and their team annihilated all of the other teams. So, we met them again in the tournament finals. Fortunately, he remembered me, and just dinked for the whole match, and we won! Their team [and he] were FAR stronger than we were, but his rigid consistency of hitting allowed us to beat them twice.)

There have been players who are so consistent and obvious like that, that even when they would hit back row hits (from ten feet back from the net), I could go down a specific distance and jump up, and he'd hit the ball right to me! Everyone would congratulate me for such things, but they really occurred more due to the stupidity of those hitters allowing me to look good!

I want to mention one other area regarding blocking. This is more logic. The hitter. The blocker. One-on-one. The hitter has to COMMIT to some plan, and then jump and hit. You, as the blocker have several advantages. First of all, YOU have not yet had to commit to anything (again, this is referring to single-blocking and NOT Area Blocking). So you have freedom to use that little bit of time after he has committed to his hit, to decide what you want to try to do. You can even increase the time you have for this by VERY slightly delaying when you jump. You can't wait a long time, but if you can jump even 0.1 second after he did (and you both jump the same height) you will be in the air (and capable of blocking and thinking) for 0.1 second additional. That isn't a lot, but it is sometimes REALLY helpful!

Between such a hesitation, the fact that you have time for observing and thinking and choices AFTER he has had to commit to a hit, and your 'scouting report' on that hitter, I believe that YOU have a tremendous advantage over most hitters! Let them THINK that THEY are in control! Let them be bewildered when you block a shot of theirs, or three hits, or five hits! If they never understand how or why you block them so well, you will OWN them! In future tournaments, they will remember your blocking effectiveness and be intimidated before you ever even do anything! It's GREAT!!!

Nearly everything discussed here has been mental and logical, being observant, and virtually no mention has been made of physical ability. A certain amount of ability is necessary, of course, but these comments are to suggest that almost anyone could greatly improve their blocking performance.

On most of the Men's teams I have ever played on, I was used as Middle Blocker. That's pretty unusual, because I'm just a little guy (6'1"). Often, the guy across from me was 6'6" or 6'8" or taller. It is always sort of fun to block such giants! In the locker room after tournaments, when we are all congratulating each other's teams, a number of times people would say (about my size), "Well, I could block pretty well, too, if I was 6'5". I take that as an awesome compliment. When I stand up next to them, and they see that I am no taller than they are, they say little else!

Be observant. Be logical. Use whatever skills and abilities you have. You can probably be at least three times as good a blocker as you think you are! And consider that, when YOUR team serves, the opposing team gets the first attack, so your blocking is often for POINTS, even better than side-outs!

In modern Beach Doubles tournaments, with the different scoring system, teams choose to receive rather than to serve. With every serve counting as a point, and if a team has decent serve receivers and strong hitters, it makes sense. But still, a blocker who is observant can occasionally get a nice block, and that one block can make the difference between winning and losing.

Ambidextrous Hitting

At Purdue, the first Coach we had was somewhat cruel and even inhumane. Every day, we had to go through hitting lines for hours, hitting many hundreds of balls as hard as we could. There were some mornings when I woke up barely being able to raise my right arm. But, showing up later for practice, I was expected to hit hundreds of spikes. In a self-preservation move, I began to regularly take left-handed swings in the hitting line. It turns out that we hit so many balls that I eventually got really good at lft-handed spikes!

This has been a good thing for me! With all those thousands of hits, my left-handed hitting developed fairly quickly. Within a few months, I could bury a left-handed spike virtually as hard as my right-handed spike. Not quite as precisely though, maybe ±3 feet instead of ±1 foot for right-handed hits.

When ANY hitter is approaching the net for a hit, the defense builds its double-block based on the location of the shoulder of the hitting hand. That places the block to cover the correct angles for the Team Area Blocking strategy. I soon discovered that, in many such situations, when I realized that a double-block was about to snuff me, I could hit the ball left-handed, hard, to a spot where no defender and no blocker was! From the Strong-Side position, there is an impressive angle crush shot that hits the opponent's floor about 5 feet back from the net and in the middle of the court. No defender is anywhere near that spot (because it is a spot virtually impossible to get to right-handed) and the Area Double Block is irrelevant. I quickly found that it was gold, nearly 99% down balls! Since it made me look PRETTY good, I started really using it a lot. A side benefit was that, sometimes, the opposing oustide blocker couldn't decide whether he should set the block on my right shoulder or my left shoulder, and I could sometimes hit without any block at all! There is also a new available hit down the line, because there is no blocker in front of it. One can sometimes really terrify the setter that is standing there, with a very hard-hit and unblocked left-handed line shot! I found the same benefit to exist on what is called the Weak Side. In that case, blockers had to respect my left-handed power, which allowed me countless impressive right-handed severe angle kills! Pretty cool!

There is a downside. A right-handed hitter is asymmetric while approaching the net, with the hitting shoulder slightly behind and the body somewhat turned. Those things are necessary for maximum power. Some of the power in a Spike is developed in torquing the torso. Since I was regularly hitting with either hand, I discovered that there was an advantage for me to make my approach pretty much face-on to the net. The good part is that, even after I had jumped, I still had the option of hitting with either hand, and I usually decided that based on where the double block was. The slight downside is that a face-on approach eliminates some of the physiological twisting, torquing movements that add power to a spike. Therefore, my spikes (unfortunately) were reduced in speed to between 80% and 90% of my initial right-handed spike. Few people ever seemed to notice this slight reduction of spiking speed.

In my opinion, the tremendous advantage of being able to select which hand to spike with, AFTER a defense has committed itself, FAR outweighed the fact that the ball flew slightly slower. My number of kills greatly improved with the ambi-hitting. Maybe it wasn't as showboaty for fans, but innumerable sideouts and points arose from it. As a result, I encourage all players to investigate hitting ambidextrously.

.

The Team Concept:

• Offense:
  
  • If we hit from either side, a circle of 4 teammates effectively surrounds the hitter to up any ball that gets blocked downward, with only one person (Middle Back) for all other blocked (upward) deflections.

  • If we hit Middle (quick), all teammates try to get prepared to up anything blocked toward them.

• Defense:
  
  • If the opponents hit outside, we will have a double block controlling the action. The remaining players effectively rotate one direction or the other to cover the dinks and other various available shots available to their hitter.

  • If they hit middle, our one block does his best with the rest of the team closing in from all sides (as much as possible) to up any deflections or angled hits.

In every situation (except one), the setter DOES NOT ever play the first ball. This is to allow running all the set plays the setter has arranged with his hitters. If he would play the first ball, an alternate setter would have to set, which eliminates all the quick sets or combination sets (like tandems and Xs), eliminates one hitter, forces high sets and allows the opponents the time to ensure a double-block. The one exception is if the opponents strong side hitter dinks over the block. In that one situation, the setter always passes to the weak side hitter position, where the other setter usually is. Even if the opponent does a high lob 2 feet behind the setter, the Middle Back person is supposed to get it, again to still allow running the pre-set plays. It's weird to be a setter, seeing this easy-to-play high lob coming directly to me, and to leave the area! I must count on the Middle Back getting to that ball, to pass it to me up at the net! It's sometimes pretty spooky!

You can see from all this that if all the players on the team understand and play the same defense, there are very few weaknesses. Consistent defense can up virtually every ball that isn't blocked. That minimizes the likelihood of the opponents making points. Then our offense, by using all three hitters and some quick sets, make enough points until we have 15. Simple, isn't it?

Once all the team members are comfortable with the same offense and defense strategy, the only likely downfall tends to lie in sloppy passing. With intermediate-level ('B') players, such a team-spirited approach, would allow regularly winning 'B' tournaments and being very competitive in 'BB' tournaments. If passing consistency is developed, a team could play at even higher levels. In my opinion, if a team consistently passes to within 4 feet of the setter's hands 90% of the time, such a team could be very competitive at 'BB.' If to within 2 feet of the setter's hands 90% of the time, the same team could decently compete in 'A' tournaments, although I don't know about winning there! This is all with fairly standard hitters!

A friend of mine (Charlie, 5'7 tall) once moved to a new city and looked for serious volleyball to get involved in. The better teams there disrespected him for not being tall enough. He wound up playing in pickup games at a local YMCA. Eventually, he collected a set of very motivated athletes (mostly basketball players) that were all about his same height. None of them had ever received much recognition as athletes because of how short they were. Charlie took these people, none of whom had ever played any serious volleyball, and who therefore didn't know any strategy, and taught them to all think and act exactly as HE did.

It was an interesting team to watch! They never made mistakes! There were never any holes in the defense because they all thought with the same brain! For several years, they won virtually every tournament they entered, against teams that all averaged more than 6 inches taller than them! That proved to me how much volleyball is a team game, where the sum of six short players consistently won over opponents that were far taller and more athletically proficient. Keep that in mind!

Unfortunately, with this "team" concept where everyone is dependent on everyone else, if even a single team member is unfamiliar with his responsibilities and duties, the whole team suffers immensely. This is equally true of a single player's lazy effort. So all members must remember this onus in order to not let the teammates down.

Whenever a team has a new player or players who are not used to showing hand signals to the setter, I like to encourage the setters to say "yes" when he has seen the signal. This helps both the setter and the hitters to remember to do this. After a while, it become second-nature to automatically do it, but remembering at the start is hard. The hitters are supposed to be getting focused on the opposing server or the opposing hitter and shouldn't feel the need to turn around to make sure the setter has seen the signal. The hitters are supposed to show their hand signals until they hear the word "yes" three times which means that all three signs have been seen. When hitters only hear two "yeses", all three need to keep displaying the hand signal. The setter may not have yet looked at all three, or one signal may not have been readable, or somebody may have forgotten to show a signal. The three yeses approach reminds the one who forgot to be spurred to show a sign; the other two hold their sign until certain it has been seen. From the hitters' points-of-view, it is reassuring to hear that your desires have been noted, and you can then get fully focused on the opponent server.

There is one other observation I have to share. I have sometimes noticed that players new to the 6-2 who suddenly have the option of calling their own sets, seem to go berserk. On every single play, they each call for a random assortment of sets. It's understandable to get carried away with a new toy, but this sort of thing is often a nightmare for some setters (including me!) The setter has so many things to be thinking about, that he's pretty much occupied. When he also has to deal with new and exotic set choices from all three hitters on every play, life gets even more complicated. SO, in appreciation for your setters, I request your indulgence for setters everywhere to stay within reasonable bounds with your requests. Setters on teams who pass poorly enjoy seeing "5 - 2 - 5" pretty often. In general, these are the default sets anyway. Optimistic hitters on such a poor-passing team sometimes call for "4 - 1 - back2" (triple-quick offense), none of which can be set on a bad pass. What is a setter supposed to do in such a situation? He soon tends to ignore all of those requests and just set high balls. If a hitter expects to get good sets from a setter he needs to consider just what the setter has to work with. The ideal situation from most setter's points-of-view is for each outside hitter to generally choose between a high ball (Five) and one single quicker option. In the middle, the equivalent is the "2" and the "1". Occasional variations from this sort of pattern are fine, but hitters should generally repetitively practice and refine just a couple options, to have confidence in them "at crunch time."

The 6-2 includes the most consistent offense and defense against reasonably strong teams. There is an odd aspect about it though. If a team uses the 6-2 against a very weak team, it can look pretty bad. If the opponents' efforts at sets are often 8 feet back from the net, our double-block is seldom effective. If that opponent hitter becomes intimidated by our big blockers, he may not even hit but just consistently dump the ball over the block into an area that is pretty vacant. (This is especially true if we are running the high power version of the 6-2 defense, where the Middle Back plays very Deep.) If that opponent team accidentally or intentionally dumps a first or second ball over the net and just over our front line, we can look pretty bad! If your team regularly finds itself in this situation, you're in the wrong league! Find better competition! If it occasionally happens, make temporary adjustments. Maybe don't block; back off and cover rolls, lobs and dumps. Maybe play Middle Back "UP" against weak opponents to be in position to up all these dumps. (I personally find that in strong Men's play, Middle Back "Deep" is best, but for most Co-ed teams where there are a lot of single blocks, Middle Back Up is more advantageous. Use common sense in such situations. Don't let dogmatic belief in the 6-2's strengths blind you from recognizing that it also has a few weaknesses under some circumstances.

I recommend that ALL of the team players read ALL of the strategy sections and learn the position-appropriate sections of the above. Even the sections about positions other than their own "specialty" position. If each player develops confidence and respect for all of the teammates, it will be possible to concentrate more fully on his own responsibilities. The team effort will benefit from that!

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C. Johnson