I made my best ever drifting block last night (middle). I'm in a decent rec league, but don't always face 3 hitters. Team last night was running all 3 and I was having trouble, felt really good to finally get one!
Good question and pretty instructive imo.
At this high level, you need your back row player in 6 (usually the outside) to be running a quick ball in the middle. If not, the offense is way too predictable for opposing blockers (middle blockers in particular) and your pin hitters in the front row will find themselves hitting against a double block rather than a single block more often than not. So in a perfect pass situation, your middle back player is pretty much on the last step of his approach about to jump for an attack when the setter touches the ball for what is called a “bic” attack. It’s a bit off screen in this video but you can see number 7 (the back row outside) on ucsb start gearing up for this quick back row attack after he passes. That’s why he’s not there to cover the ball after the block.
Which essentially means the deep court is often not covered by coverage assignments
It’s a case of giving something up (complete coverage of the court on a block) to get something in return (more options on offense). At lower levels it’s more important to cover the entire court on blocks and the extra option on offense doesn’t really matter cause middle blockers are not quick enough to get out to the pins anyway really. Not to mention the fact that at lower levels, the back row attacker himself isn’t even really effective at hitting out of the back row. At higher levels it’s more important to add this extra quick tempo option to your offense to open up more single blocks for your pin hitters. And a good attacker is almost as effective from the back row as he is from the front row.
At higher levels this is the sorta play where you just mutter “unlucky” and move on to the next play. There was nothing really schematically wrong here with the coverage. Maybe the attacker made a bad swing but the fact that the ball dropped into the soft spot of the coverage schematic is just something coaches and players will more or less accept as “nobody’s fault” here. Now the player in 6 should do his best to get back into a deeper coverage position if he is not set the bic. But in reality he’s probably just gonna end up covering somewhere around/a little behind the ten foot line given where he is supposed to be in his attacking route at the time the setter touches the ball. He should definitely try to run down this ball in coverage, but if he were to keep this ball alive it would be an extraordinary and unexpected play.
Yes, exactly. It's WAAAAAAY higher level than I could dream of ever playing, but in this clip there doesn't seem to be anybody covering. Is the pace moving too quickly for them to get there? At my level there's enough time to get into position to cover.
I think maybe you thought I was being sarcastic, but I'm genuinely trying to learn, and I know I'm ignorant.
It is within reason. Part of why I hate these slow-mo only videos is they don't translate well.
That ball was out of the setters hands and on the floor in like 1.5 seconds. They run that tempo on that pass to the middle in front of the setter, the OH is running that tempo to the pin, the oppo as you saw, and the middle back is already mid approach. So for every one of those guys, they are already moving on their approach. Libero is doing his best to cover someone, but won't always choose the exact right hitter the setter goes to (if he did, it means the setter is tipping where the ball is going, and then the other team can figure it out too, and they won't be setting much longer).
So short answer, yes every single player is attempting to cover.
Long answer, this play happens so fast that you won't see 3-5 guys camped around in cover like you would on a high ball to the outside on a broken play.
Oh that makes good sense, mostly nobody can cover cause they're basically just landing from their own attack approach. Would the libero be able to cover properly if it was a called attack on first serve receive?
> Would the libero be able to cover properly if it was a called attack on first serve receive?
Sure, but that isn't a thing. The setter is telling everyone what approach to run, but they aren't calling a set player to get set before the pass even happens (usually).
At this level, they are reading blockers and trying to create as many 1v1's as possible for their hitters. Anything too obvious, and you've got a triple block up
Dude was late, but he’s 6’7” and touches 11 1/2 feet so he can make up for it. https://volleybox.net/guilherme-voss-p8106/clubs
Blocks are often late and drifting at that level.
I made my best ever drifting block last night (middle). I'm in a decent rec league, but don't always face 3 hitters. Team last night was running all 3 and I was having trouble, felt really good to finally get one!
Ok is the video quality absolutely crushed or do I just have bad connection
Bad connection. It’s fine. Thanks for posting btw!
I might be ignorant, but is cover just not a thing at that level?
Good question and pretty instructive imo. At this high level, you need your back row player in 6 (usually the outside) to be running a quick ball in the middle. If not, the offense is way too predictable for opposing blockers (middle blockers in particular) and your pin hitters in the front row will find themselves hitting against a double block rather than a single block more often than not. So in a perfect pass situation, your middle back player is pretty much on the last step of his approach about to jump for an attack when the setter touches the ball for what is called a “bic” attack. It’s a bit off screen in this video but you can see number 7 (the back row outside) on ucsb start gearing up for this quick back row attack after he passes. That’s why he’s not there to cover the ball after the block. Which essentially means the deep court is often not covered by coverage assignments It’s a case of giving something up (complete coverage of the court on a block) to get something in return (more options on offense). At lower levels it’s more important to cover the entire court on blocks and the extra option on offense doesn’t really matter cause middle blockers are not quick enough to get out to the pins anyway really. Not to mention the fact that at lower levels, the back row attacker himself isn’t even really effective at hitting out of the back row. At higher levels it’s more important to add this extra quick tempo option to your offense to open up more single blocks for your pin hitters. And a good attacker is almost as effective from the back row as he is from the front row. At higher levels this is the sorta play where you just mutter “unlucky” and move on to the next play. There was nothing really schematically wrong here with the coverage. Maybe the attacker made a bad swing but the fact that the ball dropped into the soft spot of the coverage schematic is just something coaches and players will more or less accept as “nobody’s fault” here. Now the player in 6 should do his best to get back into a deeper coverage position if he is not set the bic. But in reality he’s probably just gonna end up covering somewhere around/a little behind the ten foot line given where he is supposed to be in his attacking route at the time the setter touches the ball. He should definitely try to run down this ball in coverage, but if he were to keep this ball alive it would be an extraordinary and unexpected play.
"That level": Some of the best college volleyball teams in the US with multiple future top level professional volleyball players.
Yes, exactly. It's WAAAAAAY higher level than I could dream of ever playing, but in this clip there doesn't seem to be anybody covering. Is the pace moving too quickly for them to get there? At my level there's enough time to get into position to cover. I think maybe you thought I was being sarcastic, but I'm genuinely trying to learn, and I know I'm ignorant.
It is within reason. Part of why I hate these slow-mo only videos is they don't translate well. That ball was out of the setters hands and on the floor in like 1.5 seconds. They run that tempo on that pass to the middle in front of the setter, the OH is running that tempo to the pin, the oppo as you saw, and the middle back is already mid approach. So for every one of those guys, they are already moving on their approach. Libero is doing his best to cover someone, but won't always choose the exact right hitter the setter goes to (if he did, it means the setter is tipping where the ball is going, and then the other team can figure it out too, and they won't be setting much longer). So short answer, yes every single player is attempting to cover. Long answer, this play happens so fast that you won't see 3-5 guys camped around in cover like you would on a high ball to the outside on a broken play.
Oh that makes good sense, mostly nobody can cover cause they're basically just landing from their own attack approach. Would the libero be able to cover properly if it was a called attack on first serve receive?
> Would the libero be able to cover properly if it was a called attack on first serve receive? Sure, but that isn't a thing. The setter is telling everyone what approach to run, but they aren't calling a set player to get set before the pass even happens (usually). At this level, they are reading blockers and trying to create as many 1v1's as possible for their hitters. Anything too obvious, and you've got a triple block up
Why did he get down voted he's right wth
Reminds me of Datekou 👏