Impact of Rally Score upon Coaching/Recruiting

A number of years ago, the change was made to Rally Scoring for College Volleyball. I knew that if we changed the way college Volleyball was scored, then we would change the sport. As programs adjusted to Rally Score, the impact of this change has become apparent upon the Coaching and Recruiting areas of College Volleyball.

Coaching - College Volleyball programs no longer train for the long matches. Because of this, physical endurance conditioning is not as important as it used to be under sideout scoring. Rally Score places a premium upon two areas - PASSING AND SERVING. If you pass well, then your are able to sideout at a higher percentage. If you serve tough, then the other team is not able to sideout at a higher percentage. Of course, anyone could argue that this has always been the case - yes it has, but not to this degree.

Passing and Sideout - With this rule change, the value of a Sideout is equal to that of a Service point. Since you have more control over a sideout, than a service point, the ability to sideout becomes more important than the ability to score points on serve. Passing dictates how well your team will sideout, simply because it allows your hitters a better opportunity to attack against a one person block. With this philosophy, a much greater percentage of limited practice time (either because of NCAA limitations, gym space, class time, etc.) should be allocated to passing and offense attack series, than to defense.

Serving - A tough, consistent serve is the best friend that your defense can have. If you can force the other team to pass the ball at the 10 foot/3 meter line, then you have made your defense 66% better. The block and back row only has to focus upon one attack option, versus three. In College Volleyball, an Outside Hitter who attacks at a .350% ratio is considered very good. If we apply this high attack percentage to the lower statistical reality of attacking a high outside set against a 2 person block and a defense that is already waiting, the defense has almost a 2 to 1 advantage that they will be successful.

While there may be times that a coach wishes to focus training effort upon some specific weak areas, I suggest that 30 percent of practice be on serve receive or a grouping of skills that serve receive is the priority, 40 percent on sideout attack series (hitting, pass and release footwork, attack patterns and combinations, coverage, free ball attack, etc.), 20 percent on serving or serving related drills and 10 percent on defensive positioning or individual defensive skills. Coaches have a tendency to spend too much time purely on defense. Remember, that while training serve receive and offense attack series, the players will receive plenty of opportunities to practice ball control and movement. Defense is great, but if your hitters are making errors, then a team is dropping points on sideout and scoring attacks!

Recruiting - The change to rally score has overemphasized the Outside Hitter position and de-emphasized the middle blocker position. The setter is still about the same. With passing and offensive attack being paramount, the outside hitter is the prime number in this equation. With good passing you can set the middle, but half the time on good passing you will set the outside hitter. On bad passing, the outside hitter will get all the sets. In simplistic addition, the outside hitters will take 75% of the attack swings on sideout and that number will just climb on defensive transition attacks.

The outside hitter that can pass very well is the Golden Goose of College Volleyball. Sure, everyone loves the Libero and how great she makes the team, but a good serving team will just not serve the Libero. If the outside hitters can pass well, in addition to attacking well, then the serving team is at a disadvantage. A small but significant consideration is the idea that the outside hitter just needs to attack well and not worry about passing, because there are 15 substitutions in college volleyball and you can just rotate in a good defensive specialist in back row. This sounds good in theory, but now there are two players that are playing half time - even though they can rest (remember that conditioning is no longer such a big deal in Rally Score volleyball), they also can get cold and lose the rhythm of the game. I never liked leaving the match for any amount of time and I know that my outside hitters do not like to leave because they lose the feel for the game. I have to make this substitution because their passing and defense is a liability for our team, but their attacking is needed.

My recruiting philosophy, which is the same as a number of coaches, is to search high and low for that Golden Goose. Even if I give up a bit of height or physical power, I need to bring pure pass/attack outside hitters into my program. I have learned the hard way not to recruit the tall outside hitters that cannot pass or play defense, but to stick with the pure outside hitters.

Recruiting middle attackers is easier - the number one priority in recruiting a middle blocker is blocking. It used to be offense attacking, but now I want a player who has very good blocking technique. Once again, because of the percentage breakdown of what position is taking the attack swings, blocking is more important than hitting. A bad blocking middle blocker is a silent point killer - especially if you have a tough serving team that must now play defense around a middle blocker who is poor.

The setting position has changed just a little when it comes to recruiting. The new priority for setters is to always make sure the outside hitter has a good set to take a maximum attack swing at - no matter how good or bad the pass. Running an effective and variable offense around the middle blockers used to be important, but not now. In today's game, if your setter is taking whatever pass is given to them and can consistently put that ball 3-4 feet off the net and just inside the antennae, then she will put her team in a position to win. The setters that keep their outside hitters at the 8 foot line are just allowing the other team the opportunity to score points on transition attacks at a very high rate.

While I have been referencing college volleyball, these ideas should also be applied to the high school programs. Practice passing and sideout attack, put your best passer/hitter in the outside hitting position and make sure you train the setter to deliver that set to 4 feet without fail.

VOLLEYBALL RECRUITING - Part II - Sophomore

OK, now that a PSA (Prospective Student Athlete - NCAA speak for recruit) is in their Sophomore year of High School, it is time to get a bit, just a bit more serious about the recruiting process.

First thing, is to just enjoy the high school season. Being 15 or just having turned 16 is still very young for college coaches to get a good feel about your future abilities, so don't worry about college yet. Work hard in practice, play your best in games and enjoy being a Sophomore in High School and let your parents worry about the fact you will soon be driving a car on your own!!

A volleyball playing suggestion that I have, would be to learn to focus and compete. If you have the desire to someday play college volleyball, then now is a good time to begin the mental part of the game. What I mean by that, is to be more serious about focusing and getting the most out of each playing/training opportunity. I am not saying don't have fun, but I am saying that a player who wishes to play at the next level should start to focus a bit better and concentrate on the task at hand - practice or a match. Too often, I will be at a high school match and see an almost recreational mentality among the players - they are going into the stands to say hello to family or friends during the warm-up, they are singing and dancing to the music on the speaker system, etc. To me, this shows a lack of focus and seriousness about the upcoming match.

After the High School season is finished, then it is time to begin the first part of the recruiting process. This first part is selecting a junior volleyball club team. The reality is that junior club volleyball teams are the best way to physically prepare for college volleyball and the best venue to expose your abilities to potential schools. This time period, from your sophomore winter to your junior winter, tends to have the biggest impact upon the development of high school players into potential college players.

On a top 16's junior club team (open to players 16 years old and younger), there may be 9 or 10 players who could have potential to be a Division I college volleyball player - by the time the next year comes around, on that same top team that is now at the 17's level, the number of potential Division I players has dropped to around 4. It is not that the other players have gotten worse, but since this age range includes such changes in height, strength, coordination, applying advanced skills, that a few players elevate to a higher level, while a number of players stay the same. If you don't play club volleyball at all, those players that do will absolutely zip past you in ability.

When selecting a junior club volleyball team, you must be cognisant of the specifics of that club team. Is the junior team a regional club team (just play local/regional tournaments and maybe one big national tournament) or are they a national - travel club team (they play in a number of national qualifier tournaments, along with the stronger elite tours and regional tournaments). As a sophomore, this is an important decision, but not yet a critical decision. The financial difference between these two levels of club teams is significant - anywhere from a $3,000 to $15,000 difference.

A player will be seen by more college coaches if they play on a national club team. The national qualifier tournaments and the elite tour tournaments have a larger number of club teams in the field or the participating teams have already established themselves as top flight. By going to such tournaments, the college coaches can get the most 'bang for their buck'. Only just a few of the top level DI programs have the budget to scout at any and all juniors tournaments of their choosing, but it is also these elite DI programs that don't need to be at every tournament, because they can just recruit from the very top flight players from the long established junior volleyball club teams.

Now, don't get me wrong - college volleyball coaches are hard working and driven by a desire to succeed, so there will be coaches at the smaller, regional tournaments. But, at the smaller regional tournament, there may be 5 coaches, while at the national qualifier tournament there will be 250 coaches (no joke!). When the larger tournaments can set-up 80+ volleyball courts in a convention center, it makes sense that more colleges would attend such scouting opportunities.

After a player has selected their junior club volleyball team and received their playing schedule for the junior volleyball club season, then it is time for the player to send out a brief Introduction Letter to colleges. I specifically said Introduction Letter, not e-mail. The reason why, is that Division I college volleyball coaches (and other level college coaches) get HUNDREDS of e-mails a week from a variety of sources - recruits, parents, sponsors, athletic directors, general campus educational e-mails, current players, conference matters - because of this, your single e-mail can easily get lost by accident. A letter has physical substance, it will be opened and reviewed by a college volleyball coach or staff member.

This Introduction Letter should contain the following and be all within 1 page - it can look like a flier: Name, mailing address, telephone number, e-mail address, year of graduation, club team name and age group/specific team name, position(s) played, height, weight, approach touch and block touch, along with a listing of the tournament playing schedule.

While it may be cool to send your information to the Stanford's and Penn State's of the college volleyball world, it is important to be realistic. If you are a 5'9" outside hitter, with an approach touch of 9'3" and you are from North Dakota (nothing against North Dakota, but it is not a hot-bed of junior volleyball) - your letter will be put into the round file; also known as the paper product recycling bin.

I encourage the player/family to be open and send the introduction letter to a variety of schools - large, small, 4 year college, major university, local or cross country, but to be VERY realistic of a potential level of playing ability. If you are not sure about that potential level of ability, ask someone you trust who may have experience with such a question - maybe your high school coach has had players go off to play college volleyball, the club director of your junior club team, maybe you happen to have a family connection with a college coach. If you are a potential low Division I, upper Division II player, save some time and money by not sending your letter to every PAC 10 school.

All you are looking to do, is just get onto the list of players that college coaches may want to check out among the 16 year old age group. For many coaches, the last thing on the 'to-do' list is to gather/evaluate the younger age groups, but if they have time after scouting the 17's age group, then they will move the 16's courts.

I caution families not to get too high if there a few college coaches sitting on a court that your daughter/son is playing on. I also will tell you not to be concerned if coaches don't come by at all - it is still very early and there are many, many opportunities that will come.

As the junior volleyball club season progresses through winter, spring and into summer, then a secondary letter or possibly an e-mail, if you have previously sent a letter, informing the colleges of your junior volleyball season championship plans - there are a number of season ending events (Junior Olympics, the AAU Championships, the VolleyFest, etc.). By the late spring, early summer, many college programs have secured their 17's age bracket recruiting class or are near to finishing it, and are ready to spend more time and focus on the 16's age teams. By providing the college programs specific information about your season ending competition plans, you are enabling yourself to be seen by coaches who are making some serious evaluations in consideration of their next recruiting class.

The goal of the sophomore year of the recruiting process is two fold - develop your physical and mental volleyball abilities, and to get on the preliminary recruiting lists of a number of selected schools.

The Death of the Double

The latest, greatest change that will elevate the sport of volleyball to the pantheon of prime time is the end of the double hit! A recent rules survey (which is NCAA speak for new rule change coming) asked, among other things, would we (the coaches) be in favor of eliminating the double hit call on 2nd contacts and/or 3rd contacts.

Last time we (the coaches) filled out such a rules survey, it was with regards to question of eliminating 1st contact double hits. The rules survey before that concerned a proposal to change to Rally Scoring. What college coaches learned the hard way, is that we have no collective voice in the changes that are being made to college volleyball. When the rally score rules survey results were published, the majority of the coaches surveyed DID NOT want to change to rally score and a majority of the Conferences (Division I) surveyed DID NOT want to change to rally score. And yet, we changed.

While a return to sideout scoring will not happen, my hat is off to those few teams in the outer islands of Hawaii that refuse to play by the new rules.

Back when there was a lot of discussion about the proposed change, I argued that if you change the way a sport keeps score, then you change the sport. The rationals given for the scoring change were many - better format for more television because of predictable running time, more excitement for the fans and thus more fans at matches, better experience for the student-athlete, better administrative management for matches - read the first comment again - it was all about getting on television because the Volleyball Politburo felt this would be the magic bullit to return the sport to the glory days of the 80's and early 90's. I am rather certain that has not happened - I actually think the amount of television time for college volleyball has decreased - I refuse to accept the argument that volleyball is on TV more just because a couple of almost insolvent cable sports channels carry a match or two.

But, I must return to the Death of the Double. This newest rule proposal is driven by a simple observation - Volleyball Officials cannot call double hits with any consistency, so let's just remove the obligation to call double hits at all.

Just boggles my mind!! We are Dumbing Down college volleyball. Volleyball once was a sport that took coordination and dexterity, combined with power and explosiveness to play at the college level - now you just need to jump high and hit hard. At least the FIVB beach tour won't let you double hit a set - You can catch and release the ball like a trout, but you can't touch it twice when you set.

We are legalizing ugly volleyball - you don't need to set correctly, you can touch net, the center line is just for looks, and the hitter needs to get a leather burn on their hands before lifts or carries are called (by the way, keep an eye out for the elimination of lifts on the next rules survey).

I am not too old, but I can't remember all those tight rules everyone used to play under hurting the sport. Double hits were not so difficult to call and there were not too many of them to call during a match. Players learned to set without making a double contact and when they did, they were called by the Referee. Our Olympic Teams were among the worlds best, the NCAA Championship was on CBS, regional sports networks televised numerous college matches, and the AVP was a prime time weekend lead in for NBC sports.

In light of all the changes that our sport has gone through (so many in fact that there was actually a request from coaches to put a 2 year hold on any more rule changes) how is the elimination of calling double hits going to benefit Volleyball? The FIVB is not going to eliminate double hits - so any players gifted enough for our National Team programs or a professional career are at a disadvantage. The High School Volleyball Associations will eventually adopt any rule that we have, so now an even younger set of players can learn to not set the ball correctly.

The fans get to see sets flying around at unique tangents while spinning fast enough to loosen the paint on our multi colored volleyballs (which by the way, NO OTHER NCAA sport uses) - as much as our recent rule changes have catered to making the matches more exciting or fan friendly, even the most neophyte spectator groans when the referee does not call an ugly double hit set - even they know enough to understand that there is a certain level of dexterity needed to play college volleyball.

If you don't have to worry about a negative consequence, what is the motivation to improve? Think about it - if you don't have to spell correctly, why bother to learn? When a player has a set called for an illegal contact, there is instant motivation to better their skills. With this new rule proposal, the only motivation to set better is the 'stink eye' from the hitter and a coach begging them to set the ball higher and straighter.

Once again, this is a great potential rule change for the Referees - it eliminates a huge part of being a Referee - JUDGEMENT. Soon, the Referees will just need to make judgement calls on lifts and how long before that is also eliminated?

All my Friends and all my Foes - the game is not too far away from becoming an indoor version of Old Man Throw Ball at State Beach - everything is legal until it hits the ground.

VOLLEYBALL RECRUITING - Part I - Freshman.

The recruiting process for college volleyball has significantly changed in the last few years. Coaches and recruits are commenting upon the accelerated pace of the process and pressure to recruit/commit in a much earlier time frame. Many folks feel that this is a result of the Internet and all its ramifications - Instant Messenger, Text Messages, e-mail, college athletic web sites with interactive features, etc.

In addition, some prospective student athletes (PSA's - the NCAA term for any athlete that has entered 9th grade) are current with the NCAA rules because of research or just having had a sibling or friend go through the process. These rules, which I will make note of in an upcoming entry, allow for unlimited phone calls placed by the PSA, unlimited Unofficial Visits to a campus, unlimited e-mails (but no reply from the college coach until September 1 of the Junior year of High School), unlimited interaction while on campus (provided it is not a Quiet or Dead Period), etc.

With all of this information being exchanged and the visual reference of having college coaches scouting the earlier ages of Junior Club Volleyball, there is the false impression that PSA's may be left out in the cold if parents don't get with it! The reality is - not really.

Let's start with a time table to effectively prepare for the world of college volleyball recruiting.

Freshman Year - The most important thing to do as a freshman volleyball player is to NOT think about college recruiting - this should be the LAST thing on anyone's mind. What all freshman in high school should be doing is just having fun playing volleyball and trying to improve each time they go to practice or a competition.

What may happen, if someone is a tall, coordinated volleyball player as a freshman, they might get an introduction letter from a school(s) that wishes to get them into their database for the future. As college programs become better supported (full assistant coaching staffs, secretary, Director of Operations, etc.) they may have more time to send out early letters to make an initial impression, just in case the freshman turns out to be good, but one cannot put too much stock into such letters - in two years time, who knows what that college will need to recruit? Injuries, red-shirted current players, academic issues and coaching changes all affect the building of a roster.

Not too long ago, players made a verbal commitment to Division I schools after taking an Official Visit to the college when their volleyball season had finished during their Senior year. That seems like a long, long time ago, because we have now moved to the point where players are making verbal commitments after paying their own way on a Unofficial Visit sometime before or during their Junior Year of High School. This is a very tough decision to make while a player is 16 years old and trying to interact and project a future with 22 year old college kids.

Don't get me wrong, it is special to get that 1st recruiting letter (I still remember mine and I think it is somewhere in my parents stuff), but it is nothing more than a piece of paper. I cringe every time I hear a parent talking about a letter their daughter got from a Big Time Program and how she is being recruited; the odds of their child actually attending that Big Time Program on a scholarship are very, very slim. In a sense, it is a false illusion that can really taint a relaxed year of volleyball.

The focus of the player and family should be to just play ball and enjoy this special time of being young, healthy and athletic. Please don't spoil the experience of just having fun and playing volleyball by worrying about the recruiting process. The future will get here soon enough - enjoy the freshman year of high school and club volleyball.

WHY?

Such are the questions that have concerned folks since Day 1. But, don't worry, this site is not going to go THAT deep. For now, we will just start with "Why" am I doing this?

Two answers, 1) I wish to help players, parents and coaches by sharing the knowledge and experience that I have attained through 20 years of being deeply involved in this sport, 2) I wanted a venue to express some of the frustrations and concerns about the current state of college volleyball.

While providing information, I also want to answer any questions that readers may wish to ask about volleyball and post these questions/answers on this website. One of the problems that our sport faces, is a lack of useful communication and sharing of information.

Thank you for taking time to visit and please do not hesitate to e-mail me with questions (of which I will post answers to on the website) - collegevolleyballcoach@gmail.com