HOW TO PLAY THE GAME OF VOLLEYBALL

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1 Introduction HOW TO PLAY THE GAME OF VOLLEYBALL Over the past few years many volleyball experts have discussed the many roadblocks to placing the sport of volleyball at the forefront of the North American sport scene. One of the recurrent themes is that we must get younger athletes playing the sport. Sports such as soccer and ice hockey have had considerable success attracting participants as young as three years old, and basketball is able to attract athletes as young as 6. With this in mind, volleyball competitions have been organized for younger and younger athletes. Provincial and state competitions are now organized for 20 & Under (19-20 year olds), 18 & Under (17-18 year olds), 16 & Under (15-16 year olds) and 14 & Under (13-14 year olds) age athletes. To introduce the game to even younger athletes (9-12 year olds), mini-volleyball or relays, challenge tasks and modified games of 2 vs 2, 3 vs 3, 4 vs 4 on a smaller court have been implemented. It is hoped that children will enjoy playing the game and decide to pursue their interest in volleyball. Although these changes have made a positive impact, volleyball is still proving to be a difficult game to understand and master. Observing matches at the elementary school and even junior high school levels, indicate that there is overall minimal mastery of the basic skills and at best a rudimentary understanding of how to play the game. Some of this difficulty may be related to how the game is introduced and how it is taught by teachers and coaches. Although the Volleyball Canada Level 1 manual outlines that fun and games are the essential forms of learning (pg 8.2), the emphasis is placed on the acquisition of general motor patterns that will facilitate learning the basic technical fundamentals. It is implied that mastery of these fundamentals are required to play the game. Once the basic skills have been developed to a reasonable level, the coach must teach the players the concepts and a system of volleyball play (pg. 9.2). The Level 1 manual further outlines that basic movement skills should be taught to the novice volleyball player prior to the introduction of the specific skills of the game. It cannot be assumed that the players are capable of efficient, effective movement if not taught first (pg. 2.2). Dr. Carl McGowan, in his book Science of Coaching Volleyball, places an emphasis on having game-like (pg. 20) situations in order to develop motor programs. This is further stressed by Merv Mosher that athletes need to train in ways that simulate the game. (Volleyball Canada Level 2 manual pg. 7). However if athletes and coaches do not understand how the game is to be played, then effectiveness of developing appropriate motor patterns will be minimal. This section will attempt to outline a fresh approach to understanding the game of volleyball and more importantly how to play the game so that athletes of all ages will be able to increase their enjoyment of the sport by being successful at a more rapid rate. Objectives of the Game

2 Volleyball is a team sport played by two teams on a playing court divided by a net. The objectives of the game are for each team to send the ball over the net attempting to ground it on the opponent s court, and to prevent the ball from being grounded on its own court. Each team has three hits for returning the ball (in addition to the ball being contacted on the block). Thus every action in the sport should relate to these objectives or prime directives. A rally is initiated by a serve from the right back-row player who hits the ball over the net to the opponent s court. A player is not allowed to hit the ball twice consecutively, except when attempting a block. The rally continues until the ball touches the ground/floor or goes out of bounds by either team. A point is scored after every rally. When the receiving team wins a rally, it scores a point, gains the right to serve and its players rotate one position clockwise. Rotation ensures that players play at both the net and the back zone of the court (except for the Libero who is restricted to the back row). A team wins a set by scoring 25 points (21 points in beach volleyball) with a two-point advantage and wins the match by winning the three of a possible five sets (best two of three sets in beach volleyball). In a deciding set, the set is played to 15 points with a two-point advantage. There is no point cap. Review: Basic Objectives of the Game 1. ground the ball on the opponent s court 2. prevent the ball from being grounded on your own court Basic Concepts There are five basic concepts that are fundamental to understanding the game of volleyball: offense, defense, service, service reception and transition. Offense Offense in volleyball is related to the first outlined objective. Offense is an attempt to ground the ball on the opponent s court. Most people would indicate that a team is on offense when the ball is on their side of the net. Offense usually begins with the first ball contact and culminates with an attack. However, if the first ball contact is not controlled, every effort is made to firstly, keep the ball off the floor, and secondly to try to set up an attack. A team is on offense when they have control of the ball. Defense Defense in volleyball is related to the second outlined objective. Defense is an attempt to prevent the ball from being grounded on one s own court. Again, most people would indicate that a team is on defense when the ball is in the opponents court. This is not entirely correct. A more accurate view of a team being on defense would relate to control of the ball. A team is on defense when they do not have control of the ball.

3 Service The serve can be viewed as the act of putting the ball in play. Indeed many coaches at the younger levels stress to their athletes to just get the ball over the net. However, putting the ball in play is not one of the prime directives of the game. The serve is the first opportunity at scoring a point and a well placed serve can minimize the effectiveness of an opponents attack. It should also be noted that at service, the ball is totally under the control of the server. Service is a part of offense Service reception Service reception is considered the most important aspect of the game of volleyball. Initially, it can be viewed as a defensive alignment in that it defends against the offensive tool of service. If the ball is not controlled, the team scrambles to keep the ball off the floor and put it over the net after the third contact. If the ball is controlled, then the team can initiate offense cumulating in an attack. Service reception i) act of receiving serve (defensive action) ii) initiation of offense Transition Transition can be described as the movement from one phase of the game to another (i.e from offense to defense and vice versa). This is clearly illustrated within the concept of service reception. Initially, service reception is a defensive phase, as it must defend against the offensive tool service. If on service, the ball is controlled, then the team now is involved in running the offense. Once the offense has been completed and thus control of the ball relinquished, the team is once again in a defensive phase. These team play phases or transitions are considered the Basic Cycle of Actions. The Basic Cycle of Actions is outlined on page 14 of this guide. Transition changes from one phase of the game to another. service to defense serve reception to offense defense to offense offense to defense Basic Volleyball Play In accordance with the objectives of the game, getting the ball over the net is not a prime directive. Many a time, this is the end result when a team cannot control the ball to mount an effective attack. Thus getting the ball over the net should be used as a last resort. Unfortunately, many novice volleyball players utilize this tactic as a prime objective and thus the game deteriorates to what has commonly been called jungle ball - whoever touches the ball immediately sends it over the net. Unfortunately, this tactic has proven to be somewhat successful as these novice athletes do not have the skill set to return the ball properly. Perhaps they take the cue from other net sports such as tennis or badminton where sending the object over the net immediately is what is required.

4 It is imperative that novice volleyball players be ingrained in the notion that volleyball is a unique net sport where three contacts in a basic volleyball play is the expectation. The other notion is to ingrain in them what exactly are the elements in the basic volleyball play. Many believe that the basic volleyball play is bump, set, spike, and in general terms, they are correct. However, with the new passing rules and giving more guidance to what a team is actually attempting to accomplish, a better concept of basic volleyball play is that on the: on first contact the ball should be passed to the net on second contact the ball should be passed along the net on third contact the ball should be directed over the net. Based on the simple above mentioned principles and that the first objective of the game is to ground the ball on the opponent s court, the BVP becomes very simple to explain and teach to beginners of the game. Since the goal is to ground the ball and that this is done by using three contacts, the athletes must understand that the first two contacts are extremely important in order to build towards a successful third contact. A successful third contact is characterized by an attack, which is when a ball is contacted above the height of the net (i.e. the highest point possible) in a downward motion. An effective attack is the most difficult type of ball that can be defended by the opponent.. Therefore, in order for a team to build towards a successful third contact/attack, the first and second contact must be well executed. Drills can be developed using 1 vs. 1, 2 vs. 2, 3 vs. 3 or 4 vs. 4 situation in order to progressively initiate the young athletes to the game of volleyball. There are several advantages to using these situations. These situations allow more athletes to actively participate in a drill at once. This in turn, increases the volume, hence improves their skills faster. By limiting the court size (see Figure J.1 for examples), the athletes have a specific zone to cover which is less than the traditional 6 vs. 6 dimension, hence be more effective in executing the skill required. The use of a softer/beach ball is also recommended for beginners. With a beach ball, the pace is much slower giving more time for the athletes to move under it in addition to being much less hurtful on the arms. This type of ball is also very attractive to young athletes because of its bright colours. By improving the playing environment (i.e. court size and type of ball) based on the age and level of the athletes, they become successful at a more rapid rate which leads to increased confidence and enjoyment of the game. With younger athletes, success should be coaches and team leaders main focus

5 *Figure J.1 Different court sizes when initiating the game of volleyball to younger athletes. * Please note that the above diagram demonstrates 4 vs. 4 based on a traditional badminton court. This is mostly due to the fact that many schools have access to these types of court sizes and accommodate more athletes.