Posted by Thirteen years ago, I wrote about all the examples of running in volleyball that are functionally pointless, and yet somehow always praised as valuable activity. To avoid repeating myself, have a read of it here. The running = activity seed has taken root so strongly in volleyball that to try telling a player that they should run less and think more creates a fairly large cognitive dissonance. But already I digress. This current European Championships has provided plenty of examples of pointless activity, but this one jumped out at me. I can’t post the video because it is copyrighted, but here are a couple of screenshots.
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At first view, the player in red makes a valiant chase for the ball, gets a good touch but no player is available to keep it in play. Indeed, the commentator, who we can’t hear, complains that no player followed him. But if we add another screenshot between A) and B) we will learn something new.
In actual fact, two players did follow their teammate. They ran. They put in the effort. They showed support. They did stuff. And yet somehow the ball still landed even though everyone, apparently, did everything right.
If you look at the photos again though, you might feel something doesn’t quite seem right. If you did think that, you would be right. The contact by #4 is the second contact. The next contact has to go over the net. #23 ran like crazy, but even if the ball went to him, he couldn’t actually get the ball over the net. The story is essentially the same with #13. So now #3, the third player up, who actually didn’t need to get involved in the play realises that he’s the only one who could theoretically play the ball over but it is too late.
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Two players did the thing that they have always encouraged to do, and praised for doing. They ran. And you never get in trouble for running. Unfortunately, they ran into a space from which they could not play the ball successfully. They ran, without thinking about what the play actually required. To play volleyball you don’t need to run. You need to be in a position to play the ball. To do that, you have to think first. The analogy I like to use is when you want to go somewhere you’ve never been before. Do you drive as fast as possible out of your driveway, figuring the faster I drive the quicker I’ll be there. And then fumble with your phone while you’re driving to find out exactly where that is? Or do you put in the address into the GPS before you leave home and quietly and simply go the right place in the most efficient manner?
Running without thinking will, if you are randomly lucky, get you to the right place every now and again. You will feel good and be praised for your ‘reading’ or some such thing. But most of the rest of the time it is at best a pointless activity, something you do for others. Playing volleyball without thinking is, well, not volleyball.
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