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Whose ball? Seam responsibilities
In the post On player communication I talk about the challenge of players communicating with each other on the court. It in part brings up the question of whether players really need to talk during play. That’s from the perspective of player responsibility. In other words, whose ball is it? With that in mind, I will share my own personal basic philosophy on seam responsibility. I’m happy to hear…
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Setting up your starting rotation: 5-1
Setting up your starting rotation: 5-1
How should I set my line-up? I’ve addressed this in broad strokes in the Putting together a starting line-up post. Here, though, I want to drill down. I’m going to look specifically at how you place the players on the court by position. Here’s the most common way teams line-up when playing a 5-1 system. Let me explain the abbreviations. S = Setter M1 = Stronger Middle M2 = Weaker Middle O1 =…
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Teaching center-line passing vs. platform angle
Teaching center-line passing vs. platform angle
My partner on the Inside College Volleyball book, Matt, recently answered a question on his blog about passing technique. The question came from a mother and is as follows: For years, my 13 year old has been taught to “get around the ball” to pass, rather than reaching left or right for it. So today, she went to a high-powered libero training clinic where the teacher told her essentially the…
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Having a pre-serve process
Having a pre-serve process
Serving is the only closed-chain skill in volleyball. By that I mean it’s the only skill which is no reliant on someone else first doing something. Setters need a pass. Hitters need a set. Blockers and defenders need an attack. The server, though, is in full control of their own execution. That allows them to develop a routine before they put the ball in play. Having a pre-execution routine is…
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Fixing bad passing mechanics
Fixing bad passing mechanics
A reader of the blog has a problem with one of their players, specifically in terms of bad passing mechanics. Here’s the note I received: “I am a relatively new coach and this is my first season coaching boys. I have one boy on the team in particular that I’m having a hard time with his passing skills. He is doing what I call butterfly arms (Looks like he’s swimming the butterfly stroke) and…
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More on servers vs. passers games
More on servers vs. passers games
Following up on my serve reception scoring philosophy post, I experimented with a different scoring version the other night. This was motivated by a discussion with Mark from At Home on the Court. The scoring was as follows: Pass is a 3 or 2 (positive pass in DataVolley) = point for passers Pass is a 1 or overpass, or get aced = point for servers Missed serve = -1 for servers Game starts at 3-0…
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Coaching Log - Jan 25, 2016
Coaching Log – Jan 25, 2016
This is an entry in my volleyball coaching log for 2015-16. Along with our Saturday match, the weekend’s Elitserie fixtures included Hylte hosting RIG and Örebro hosting Lindesberg on Sunday. The latter match was the more interesting of the two as it was far more likely to have implications on playoff standings. With both teams virtually assured of 12 points from their four matches vs RIG and…
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Philosophy question: serve reception scoring
Philosophy question: serve reception scoring
One of the things I’ve started doing recently, as I discussed in my recent log entry, is incorporate more competitive servers vs. passers games. Basically, I’ve put the three primary passers (Libero plus the two OHs) out receiving against the rest of the team. Each server gets 2 serves. The goal of the passers is to average a pass rating of 2.0. For example, let’s say I have 7 servers. At 2 balls…
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