Posted by Tagged What Just Happened?, Volleyball Philosophy
In the previous episode in this series we saw you can play transition attack when the strategy of the team changes from ‘spiking’ to ‘attacking’. Here we will see what happens when that breaks down for just a second.
As we have often discussed here, the key to volleyball is the decisions the players make. The key to making good decisions is collecting the appropriate information. For the most part, that means the quality of the player’s final decision is very highly correlated with where he was looking. In the above video, we see what looks like a straightforward miscommunication. Someone should have called and someone should have played the ball, probably the receiver who was too fast to transition. But what does a more detailed analysis of the video reveal? Where are the players looking?
If we remember the video from part 7 (I’ll wait while you check 😉 ), the transitioning spiker watches first the ball, then the setter to get his cues. Just like Soundgarden told us, the setter and spiker making eye contact for playing together effectively. In this video, the spiker makes one fatal assumption. As soon as the ball is covered, he looks straight at the setter, because normally the setter would play the ball. But the setter’s path is blocked by the covering player. Only when he sees the setter not moving does he look for the ball. By then it is too late. That simple fraction of a second looking in the right place at the wrong time makes all the difference, and the moment, and point, is lost.
Where, and when, to look is the key.
The total of 82 practical Coaching Tips can be found here and here.
Read about the great new Vyacheslav Platonov coaching book here.
At Home On The Court 