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The first time I saw the best players in the world up close was in 1986. I was competing for Australia in the World Promotional Championships, qualification tournament for the World Championships later that year. I wrote about it a while ago, and mentioned a spike from the Italian legend Franco Bertoli. I remembered him outside the court in position 4, jumping backwards, landing on his butt as he ripped a clean winner. The icing on the cake was that his own coach thought it was so impressive he stood up, at the time coaches were not allowed to leave their seats, and applauded. I figured that if his own coach thought it worthy of applause, it was probably something out of the ordinary. It was without doubt the best spike I had ever seen in my life until that moment and remains memorable 35 years later.
It is exactly as I remember it.
At 0:19 you can see the coach standing.
Click for more Matches From History, 1986 Volleyball World Championships
A collection of great Coaching Tips can be found here.
For even more coaching tips, check out the Vyacheslav Platonov coaching book here.
At Home On The Court 
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