How To Cover Your Spikers

Hopefully anyone who has spent more than three minutes talking to me about volleyball or reading my various outlets knows that the thing that bothers me most about volleyball in general is lack of readiness and specifically using the feet to play defence.  As you know, using the feet in defence is an emergency technique necessarily only when the player is not ready.

One game situation in which I see this a lot is the with the setter covering, or rather not covering, his spikers.  I could name three or four world class setters who rarely cover their spikers.  Perhaps their confidence in themselves (or their spikers) is so high that they don’t see the need to cover and are always surprised to see their spikers blocked.  Perhaps their is another reason.

Whatever the reason, the lack of covering by setters is so common that when I see a setter who always covers it stands out very strongly.  That setter is the Benjamin Toniutti.  He might be the best setter in the world right now. He is certainly the setter of the best national team and his club team is top of the Polish League.  After every single set he is facing his spikers with his weight forward ready for the next action.  Maybe his team’s success isn’t a coincidence.

But don’t take my word for it.  See if you can see a set here after which he is not ready.

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