coaching

I'm trying to help myself and my team improve so I bought this game action drills book. There are no pictures to demonstrate proper stances, only X's and O's. I felt like I was in a Pro Football locker room. The book is obviously aimed at the experienced coach who understands the jargon and the diagrams. I found my help at the local library in the kids volleyball section. [....]

Introduction: The following article is about a high school physical education project that has impacted the Federation International de Volleyball to change its rule of play for volleyball. Before the invention of Rocball, a game developed by high school students in Saipan, volleyball had no significant rule changes from 1895 to almost 1995. The developement of Rocball in 1980, its 18 years as an organized sporting activity and its subsequent media coverages, is the game that has changed the way this kind of team net sport will forever be played. NEWS RELEASE: 6/16/01

A SPORT'S CORPSE

AFFLICTION: (1:5) When the Federation International de Volleyball (FIVB) disemboweled volleyball of its side out scoring system, they eviscerated volleyball of some of its most prolific and unique competitive features. Now, what FIVB is presently promoting as volleyball, under the malefic influence of rally point scoring, is nothing more than the reanimated corpse of what W.G. Morgan created as a team net sport back in 1895.

SYMPTOM: (2:5) The fact is, if the FIVB had any sense of balance, insight, intuitive perceptions, or integral rational when they attempted to remold volleyball's scoring system, they would have benefited far better, if they would have taken advantage of what potential volleyball had to offer, and should have put more mental effort into working with the intrinsic values of volleyball's side out scoring system's competitive nature. But, they didn't and in their attempt to develope an equitable offensive and defensive scoring system, they failed miserably. The FIVB, either by ignorance, by fault of thought, or suffering from acute vacuity, neglected to recognize the importance of the serve and the significance of the service team's position in this kind of team net sport, as the game's catylists.

DIAGNOSIS: (3:5) Under the rally point scoring system, the team in service is handicapped with the serve, and the receiving team is in the dilemna of having the scoring advantage for the disadvantage of the serve. The team in service has one hit to send a ball over the net on the serve to score points. The receiving team has the advantage of three hits to set up a counterattack and numerous different types of opportunities to score points off the serve. So, under the rally point scoring system, it would seem that the serve has become more of a sacrfice than a challenge.

What is the source of origin for rally point scoring? The following is a description of the rules of play for ping pong with inserts in parenthesis to highlight its rally point connection: "hitting the ball back and forth over the net until one player (team player) missess the ball, or hits it onto the net or off the table (court); in each of these cases, the opponent scores a point. When a serve touches the net (hits the net and slides down on the opponent's court) but otherwise a good serve, it is called a "let". Ping pong is a game where each player has a paddle and one hit to bounce the ball off the table, on serve or in play, to send it over the net in an attempt to score.

Under the influence of ping pong via the rally point scoring system, in a scenario where team "A" and "B" start a game with team "A" in service: If team "A" makes a bad serve like a line fault, team "B" will earn a point. Then team "B" earns the right to be disadvantaged with the serve: If team "B" serves the ball into the net for a bad serve, team "A" will earn a point and then they will be burden with the serve again. When team "A" makes their second serve, if they hit the ball over the net and scuccessfully score a point against team "B", team "A" will have to make a third serve. If team "A" then hits the ball over the net and out of bounds, team "B" will earn another point.

In the four serves just described, the ball was only served over the net once. Team "A" served the ball three times and was the only team that hit or served the ball over the net. Team "B" served the ball once and they never hit the ball over the net. Four points were scored and as incredible as it is, truth being stranger than fiction, team "A" and team "B" are tied at two points each. If that isn't an inflated and gross misrepresentation of the net value of competitive action in an offensive and defensive scoring system for a team net sport, it will have to do unless something worse comes along, if that's possible.

And if all of that isn't bad enough, if team "A" and team "B" have scored a game to set point 23 to 24, and team "A" is at service with 23 points and makes a bad serve, team "B" wins the set. The ball doesn't have to be served over the net and a team doesn't have to be challenged to hit the ball off the serve to win a set.

The rally point scoring system's anemic, self inflicting, unearned error point's system and its anticlimatic methods of winning a game, are not examples of how anomalies may be created when working to develope an equitable offensive and defensive scoring system for a team net sport. These are two different stages of how and when rigormortis sets into a team net sport that has been unbalanced, become redundantly repetitive, is suffering from stress, competitive convulsion, and shock. And, they are the direct results of the Fallacious Indolent Vertiginous Blounderers (FIVB) efforts to make a team sport out of ping pong and displace it onto a volleyball court.

THERAPY: (4:5) Under the side out scoring system, a served ball is a challenge and a threat because it can't be penalized error points to the advantage of the service team's opponent. However, It is also the responsibility of the team in service to provoke a competitive situation of cause and effect. When a team in service fails to fullfill the character of its role, a penalty situation would be defined and enforced. And, a service penalty where a point would be lost instead of awarded to a team by error would be more the proper judgement of an offensive and defensive scoring system's competitive nature for a team net sport.

In a game like volleyball, the service team's exclusive advantage to maintain earned points off the serve should remain inviolate. If the service team fails in its responsibility to successfully challenge its opponents off the serve, it should be penalized a point. The service team would lose one point off its score. From this method, a service team's opponents would benefit by either increasing its lead, reducing the service teams lead, or gaining the lead if both teams are tied. But, most important of all, there would be no unearned points awarded, non competitive action would be devalued, and each team would have to gain set/game point off the net value of its own competitive scoring strategies and skills.

However, in order for the serve to be valuable enough to compete for in a offensive and defensive side out scoring system, the receiving team would be limited with two hits off any serve. When the receiving team is then able to successfully hit and send the ball back over the net in two hits, the service team would be the first team to have the three hit advantage of setting up an attack to score. The receiving team could earn the service off their two hit defense of the serve, but they would not be allowed to score unless they successfully defended against the service team's three hit attack. The third time the ball is hit over the net, is after the service team has had first opportunity to set up an attack off three hits. The third time the ball crosses over the net, is also when the receiving team would have its three hits to set up a counter attack and score points. Then both teams would be under equitable competive circumstances and whichever team scored first, would win the advantages of the serve.

And, only the first serve of the person occuppying or rotating into the service position would be subject to penalty. Otherwise, all that would have been created, would be an inversion of what has degenerated the game of volleyball under the rally point scoring system; where every non-competitive action off any serve, is an unearned error point for the service team's opponent. It is enough that a team loses a point and the scoring advantages of the serve, off the first serve. Making a bad serve on any subsequent serves, would cost the service team its scoring advantage, but any further non-competitive serve would remain neutral.

The serve, in a team net sport, should create an atmosphere of anxiety not conditions of anticipation for the service team's opponents. The competitive environment in a situation where there is offensive and defensive scoring system, requires adjustments in order for the service team to maintain its scoring advantage. The service team would have the advantage of two point aces and an optional scoring technique to offset its own penalty in service. The two point ace occurs when, off the serve, a receiving team player hits a serve

Though this book seems to boast ideas for self-improvement, the title "Individual Skills" is misleading. I was looking forward to discovering some drills I could do on my own to improve my performance but when I got the book, I found nearly every drill listed requires full team. There are some good ideas for teams, but as far as individually, the book lacks in suggestions for self-improvement independent. I would not recommend this book to anyone who is playing recreational volleyball and looking to improve on his/her own time.