Volleyball Basics - Offensive Tempo

Offense in volleyball can be said to be "in system" or "out of system". In the most fundamental terms, in system offense is when there is a perfect serve receive pass, and the setter can set any available hitter he or she wants. The basic volleyball offense will have the middle hitting in zone 3, the outside hitter in zone 4, and the opposite hitting in zone 2. The back row outside hitter will also be available to hit in zone 6. When in system the setter can set at a variety of tempos. This dictates the speed at which hitters make approaches and when they can hit. The objective of setting at different tempos is to force opposing blockers to make quick decisions about who to block and where. The desired outcome is that hitters will have at most one blocker to contend with when attempting to hit.

First Tempo

A first tempo set, also called a quick, is the first set that could be hit starting from the time of the set. This is an in system set requiring a good, usually perfect pass. Middles hit first tempo sets in zone 3 although some teams stretch the area of possible first tempo sets into zones 4 and 2. A first tempo set is sometimes described as a set where the hitter has to be in the air or jumping at the time of the set.

Second Tempo

A second tempo set is a set that is also in system. Second tempo sets are faster sets to zones 2 and 4, but sometimes a second tempo set could go to a hitter moving into zone 3 or the back row hitter in zone 1 or 6. A second tempo set is a set that is set at a fast enough pace that a blocker jumping on a first tempo attacker cannot also jump on the subsequent second tempo set. This is the key to second tempo sets. Even if the second tempo set is going to zone 3 or 6, a blocker jumping on the first tempo attacker cannot also attempt to block the second tempo attacker, even if the blocker doesn't need to move laterally along the net to be in the right position.

Third Tempo/Out of System

Third tempo sets are times when the setter is out of position or has a bad pass and the blockers will have an easy time determining who is going to be set. At the same time a set to zone 2 or 4 that is high enough will allow the opposing middle to jump with a first tempo attacker and still make it outside to assist with a double (or triple) block. This is a third tempo set even though the pass was good and there was a quick attempt. Third tempo sets with a good pass are not desirable when running a fast tempo offense.

The key (beyond the perfect pass to start things all) to running a fast offense is to keep the first and second tempo sets close enough together in pace that blockers cannot attempt to block both the first tempo attacker and the second tempo attacker. This by extension dictates that you limit the amount of third tempo sets.

There is a video on YouTube (loud music warning) of several in system sets that shows just how potent this can be. There are times where all three second tempo attackers are starting their approaches at almost the same time in their respective zones (front row outside in 4, back row outside in 6, and opposite in 1 or 2). There are some good examples of the first tempo attacker pushed out into zone 4 where blockers cannot block both. There are also some good examples of a first tempo attacker and second tempo attacker in 6 with virtually the same result even though the blocker would really only have to jump again immediately. In some of these the blocker is still able to attempt a block mostly by virtue of being tall enough to block without jumping.

Run as fast an offense as you can. The way it can limit and hinder opposing defenses can be significant. It can result in higher hitting efficiencies and more free balls when there are digs because defenders are more likely to be caught out of position.

See also:

Zones of the Court

Volleyball Basics are intended to present some of the fundamental volleyball knowledge that everyone serious about the sport should know.

Book Review - The Talent Code

I've been thinking about this one for a few weeks. I finished it a little while ago, and didn't know whether to do this all in one shot, or do a multi-part review. In that time I gave it another read. It's not that long, and it is worth it. I will probably give it a third read before too long. Ultimately I've decided to go a little light on what I could cover here. I might revisit it at a future date, or I might just suggest reading it yourself. Definitely read it yourself.

The Talent Code is a nice addition to any coaching library. There is a lot of great stuff here. The recurring theme of the book is that myelin is central to skill development, and that neurons are myelinated by repeated attempts at a skill. The proverbial 10,000 hours of deliberate practice required to become an expert at something is all about myelination. Even without all the talk of myelination, it is a very insightful and valuable book.

There are three parts of skill acquisition as described in this book. They are deep practice, ignition, and master coaching. Reworded they are the individual's work and effort to develop skill, the motivation to put in and maintain that work, and the coach or teacher who guides that work and effort. I could probably write a lengthy post about each of these three topics.

Deep practice is where all of the myelination happens. There are a lot of thoughts I had while reading this part about applying this to volleyball practice. One of the key points of this part is that simply rehashing a skill you have already mastered over and over is not going to help you improve. Deep practice is about pushing limits and trying to do things that are hard. A simple analogy can be found in weight lifting. If an individual can lift 100 pounds 10 times regularly, the individual is not going to increase in strength by continuing to lift 100 pounds 10 times at every training session. For a volleyball example, a player might first not be able to properly execute a jump serve. The player attempts to jump serve properly and makes adjustments until able to execute the skill. Then the player tries to successfully jump serve to a particular gap in the serve receive formation, or increase the speed or topspin of the jump serve. Deep practice is about fine tuning that control and ability.

Another aspect of deep practice that I thought about is the use of video in teaching. Video is often employed to show the player the performance of the skill and gives the coach the opportunity to show and correct technical errors. There was mention of a young tennis player in the book who performed a skill (I think it was a one handed backhand) in an unusual manner. The player, parents and coach didn't have any idea where that peculiarity came from. It turned out that the player watched a lot of a particular professional player's matches and was unconsciously imitating that player's technique. There was mention of how much more information can be communicated subconsciously visually. I don't remember the numbers but it was several orders of magnitude higher than verbal communication. A good collection of technically sound skill performance could be a valuable training aid. Modelling proper technique is a strongly established teaching method in motor learning. Providing a good video of a professional player performing the skill that the player can watch over and over at will could be a much more effective training aid than one of the coaches doing the same in the gym.

The book suggests deep practice can be accelerated. There is mention of putting in mental effort into thinking about what you just did, why the result is what it was rather than the desired result, and what needs to be done to get the result you want. It is an intensive effort. I long ago heard the suggestion to ask "how did that feel?" after a perfect execution of a skill. It's a way to help ingrain the right way to perform a skill in the athlete's mind. The book seems to support this concept. A possible volleyball application of this idea paired with the visual learning concept is to have players watch their opponents during warm up hitting lines. The goal would be to have the players guess which way the setter is going to set and make their first move to play the appropriate defensive play. Blockers would try to anticipate the set and make the first step to the right for a set to 4, or a step to the left for a set to 2. Just watching hitting lines when the other team is warming up for a match will give your team a lot of reps with immediate feedback on their results at close to game speed.

A very interesting example of deep practice was the discussion of Brazillian soccer. The book credits Brazil's love of futsal for Brazil's world standing in soccer. Futsal is a smaller scale version of soccer with fewer players and less space. Players have to deal with defenders more often and in closer quarters. They have to be able to make good passes. But the real reason it is helpful is that players have more opportunities to attempt the skill. They get more reps. They get more touches. This can be accomplished in volleyball in a variety of ways. You can play doubles and triples matches. You can play on half courts. You can extend rallies by introducing extra balls from the side (the serve is a time consuming skill that really shouldn't be sped up). It's all going to get you more skill attempts which results in more myelin and moves you closer to that 10,000 hours.

Ignition is something that serves as the athlete's motivation to continue practicing. Deep practice is more synonymous with work than play. That is a key reason some athletes do better and improve more than others. The ones that improve because they work harder at it are more likely to have experienced ignition. They are more likely to be motivated. An example in the book is a set of students who read an article about a mathematician that was edited to the mathematician shares their birthday choosing to do a harder test than students who read the same unedited article. There was some subconscious ignition or motivation. They associated with the mathematician because of that shared birthday. Something I thought about immediately after reading that part was to make use of shared birthdays with famous volleyball players, or to point out prominent volleyball players who started playing at their age. I recently heard that Matt Anderson started playing volleyball at age 14. Most high school freshman could form that kind of association and this could serve as a source of ignition. The same could be done for a number of characteristics. It might be a good practice to compile a list of prominent volleyball players that are from a certain state, the same height, the same religion, the same ethnic group, or any number of things that you could mention to players on your teams. It could ignite your player's inner drive to work hard and develop skills at a faster pace.

A couple of pieces of research that was mentioned in the book was examining players' views on the activity and another on the way they talk about practice. In the research on how the activity was viewed, when the participant viewed the activity as something they would do for the rest of their lives, they put in more work and improved more. This is something that can be encouraged by the coach. In the other, researchers found that 10% of skill can be predicted by how the participants talk about practice. This is also something that the coach can have some influence on.

Master coaching is more about teaching than a lot of people tend to think. The book mentions a couple UCLA professors who wanted to study teaching and asked to observe John Wooden. What they saw was instructive. There were many demonstrations of teaching within practice. They recorded that 75% of them were pure information. Compliments and statements of displeasure only amounted to about 7% each. The book also mentions master coaches have a matrix of information or domain knowledge. This is something we need to develop as coaches. The first two sections were to me more about methods to develop our athletes. This section was more about ideas for professional development. I thought more about where I measure up and where I lack than particular ideas for helping my athletes. I have less to offer here than with the other sections. Mostly I will just say that specific, targeted instruction, drills, and practice design are going to help our athletes the most. Other than that, encourage effort more than results.

A quote mentioned in the book by Irish writer and playwright Samuel Beckett sums up a lot of the great ideas in here:

“Try again. Fail again Fail better.”

 The Talent Code is a good read. I think this book belongs on every coach's bookshelf, regardless of sport. I highly recommend it, and I will be rereading it in the future.

Volleyball Goals

I just watched this video about 9 goals for the FIVB. These are some pretty ambitious goals, and I think it is pretty gutsy to put these out there for everyone to see. There is some amount of accountability to doing this. It's also a nice bit of organizational transparency that is admirable. The goals are largely outcomes outside of FIVB's control, but I'm sure they will inform FIVB policies and strategies for the next few years.

The video made me think about some of my own goals for volleyball, and Open Source Volleyball in particular. I don't have 9, but there are a few goals I would like to see accomplished over the next few years. Just like the FIVB goals, I have very little direct influence on the outcomes. I can't just flip a switch of desire, hard work, and effort to accomplish any of these. I will work on bringing these to fruition.

1. Improve the volleyball literacy of high school coaches.

In my experience coaching at the high school level, there are a lot of coaches that don't know volleyball. My team competed against teams using systems that I faced as a high school player over 20 years ago. The men's US Olympic team of that era was playing a very different game. They were playing a system that is fairly familiar to this era's international teams. I can't blame my high school coaches for playing an older system. They just didn't have easy access even to videos of Olympic matches.

Today there isn't really any excuse. After just a few seconds of searching on YouTube, I can watch complete matches from past Olympics. I can see current international competitions. I can see college matches streaming live even if I live far away from either team's campus. There is a lot more good information out there.

That is a big reason for why I am doing this site. There is a lot of good information out there that can be valuable to inexperienced coaches, and I would like to provide a home for great information and tools. Some of that I will need to generate, and quantify with data. I like to geek out that way, so it will be something I will enjoy. I did this sort of thing before I wrote any of it up. I do it now while I am not part of a coaching staff. I will do it even if I never step into a gym again to teach my favorite sport.

To a lesser degree I would also like to see some college programs adopt a more modern approach to the game. I see women's volleyball in America as a chaotic mix of old and modern. There are some programs rigidly holding onto an older way of playing. There are some that are adopting more modern systems. The National Team has been playing a much more modern game at least since Hugh McCutcheon led the team. Karch Kiraly has since taken over and continued that evolution. College coaches holding to older systems are doing their players a disservice when it comes time for their players to try out for a spot on the national team. High schools are likewise doing their players a disservice if they are sending their best players up to a college team and they have to learn a new style of play.

2. Bring NCAA Division I men's volleyball to my state.

I love the men's college game. I went to a school that had a men's team, and it was amazing to be a fan at matches every spring. I really enjoyed my time as a volunteer with those teams and the things I learned in practices every day. Now I live in a state with three NCAA Division I schools, and none of them have a men's team. There is a Division II school with a men's team transitioning to Division I, but I have a hard time counting that in this tally. When people think of Arizona college athletics, there are basically three schools people think of. Some will only think of Arizona and Arizona State.

As part of goal 1, I want to get the competitive level of boy's high school volleyball in the state to advance to a point where the three schools will have a discussion about adding the sport. I want to see at least one of the three expanding their programs to include men's volleyball. I want to see enough Arizona athletes going to those schools with men's teams that the local schools will want to try to lure them to stay in state.

3. Encourage the NCAA to raise the number of scholarships from 4.5 to 12 for men's volleyball.

I understand and support the rationale behind Title IX and what it has done for women's college sports. I don't understand or support the blatant reverse discrimination institutionally imposed by Title IX with regards to men's volleyball. I see the 4.5 men's scholarships for a men's volleyball team as a big reason for the presence of men's volleyball in the national psyche. I still come across people who think of volleyball as a "girl's sport". Chances are they went to a college that had a women's team but no men's team.

It is hard to entice athletes to choose to play college volleyball for a fraction of a scholarship when focusing on another sport will not only bring a greater likelihood of a full scholarship, but there will be more schools with teams that can offer scholarship. When I was coaching boy's volleyball and had a player who was a legitimate prospect for a college player, I would have suggested pursuing basketball instead. He would be more likely to get offered a scholarship at a minimum, and it would be much more likely to be a full scholarship. Men's basketball can offer 13 for a team. There are also more NCAA Division I basketball teams (with 13 scholarships each) than there are total NCAA Division I-III men's volleyball team (with a maximum of 4.5 scholarships each. Division III teams don't offer athletic scholarships). By comparison there are around ten times as many NCAA Division I women's volleyball teams (with 12 scholarships each) as there are NCAA Division I men's teams. about three times as many as there are total NCAA Division I-III men's teams.

The current scholarship limits are a real obstacle to the growth of the sport in America. It is an unfortunate example of the law of unintended consequences. It is blatant sex discrimination wrapped in a veil of fighting sex discrimination. I can't change this NCAA policy, but I would like to see this changed. I'm not going to bring this up often. I might not mention it any more after this post. It is something that I think is wrong with the sport, and I would like the NCAA to get out of the way of the growth of the sport.

I know these are entirely out of my control, but I intend to make my part of the volleyball world better. If I can influence new coaches through my efforts here to play a more modern, effective system, then I have done my small part. I hope the game grows and the average product on the court is better at every level. Volleyball is a beautiful sport.

Positive vs Negative Feedback or Regression to the Mean

I saw this video the other day. It is in name about whether punishment or reward is more effective. There are examples of anecdotal experiences with one or the other being more effective. I really like science, and this YouTube channel has a nice accessible approach to presenting science. It's also interesting to me as a coach for a couple reasons.

The obvious being that we have all been on teams or have had coaches where punishment was used as a primary method of improving performance. Maybe we are that coach. That coach has their own anecdotal evidence for that method of coaching. Hopefully we have also been in the opposite situation where reward has been used to encourage improved performance. This coach probably has some anecdotal experience, but they also happen to have empirical evidence backing them. In short, we all have anecdotal evidence backing our approach, but some approaches also have empirical evidence. The ones that are empirically backed are better, no matter what our anecdotal evidence says.

I also find it interesting because of the idea of regression to the mean as an explanation for some of that anecdotal evidence. I think we can use this information as coaches. Thinking about volleyball in statistical terms, every player has an average performance level for each skill of the game. The same could be said for team performance. There is going to be some variance in performance, and there is going to be a distribution of performance in each of the skills. Most of the time the attempts to perform the skill are going to be within a certain range. As the player improves, the average changes in a favorable direction, and the standard deviation is going to shrink, meaning less variance. Running this through the idea of the regression to the mean, when a player has an above average skill performance, the next performance will likely be closer to the average performance. It isn't always going to be this way, but over time more often than not, the subsequent attempts will be closer to the average. This is going to happen independent of other factors. If the player has improved significantly, the great performance will not have as big of a regression to the mean as in the past. One of our key objectives in helping players develop is in improving the mean. A great single instance of skill performance by itself is not an indication of improvement. One bad set is not a sign of danger, but multiple bad matches might be. When looking at performance, don't just evaluate the last match. Evaluate the last few.

Similarly, when looking at team performance, it's probably best to have the big epic set win come at the end of the match. I know, this is not something we can just choose to do. Looking back to NCAA men's national championships, there were two consecutive years where the same team won long sets. The first instance has BYU winning the first set 44-42. Even with sets going to 30 points that is a marathon set. They went on to lose the next two sets and eventually the match. Here we have a huge effort to win a set. Regression to the mean suggests there is going to be a let down just because of statistical probability. They played above average and then they played closer to average. Other team motivation, emotional let down, and every other reason sports commentators might mention may or may not be a factor, and they probably weren't a factor. It's just the tendency to get your team average with repeated attempts. The following year BYU won the 5th set 19-17, right after winning the 4th set 32-30. You could even look at Long Beach State's 30-15 1st set win as an above average performance where they will regress to the mean with a simultaneous regression to the mean for BYU's below average 1st set performance. Again, this is likely just a statistical phenomenon. It says nothing about team motivation or player character and toughness.

How can we use this as coaches? Our first concern is to help our players and team develop and structure practices to improve the average performance. Find out what statistical measures are most important indicators of success and measure performance in those stats. We want our players to improve and bring up those averages. I think this is where the competitive cauldron is a valuable tool. Second, when we are in a match we need to keep in mind that there is probably going to be a regression to the mean in performance, both good and bad. This is when coach as a psychologist or therapist comes into play. Someone does something incredible, and they will probably not be able to keep it up. Likewise, when someone commits an error, they will probably do better in subsequent attempts. We need to be our players' biggest cheerleader. Help them keep an even keel and not get too down when they regress to the mean. Help them to weather the storm.

The video mentions Thinking, Fast and Slowby Daniel Kahneman. It's a book about our two systems for thinking that are fast and slow. I'm partway through right now, and I just got to the part about regression to the mean (which mentions the Israeli fighter pilots the video talks about). There is a lot of good information for coaches to consider that should influence how we teach skills and coach players. There is also a lot of good information about cognitive biases and heuristics that will serve useful in evaluating what we look at in our efforts to improve our methods and how we are as coaches.

Thinking About Team Goals During Competition

I've written recently about a kills per set goal that might put a team in a good position to win the set. It has been on my mind a little since I wrote that, and it came up in my mind again while watching a college football game this weekend.

During the broadcast there was a graphic on screen with some stats for one of the teams. It showed the teams "Pillars" and showed the win-loss record when the team succeeded in that goal or standard. I couldn't find any mention elsewhere on the internet about those actually being team goals. It was a graphic with a sponsorship logo in the corner, so I can only imagine either the sponsor or the network compiled some stats and posted them for profit. I am aware of a time or two where broadcasters say something authoritatively, but speaking with the coaching staff says something different. I don't know that the coaching staff does have these standards, but the stats themselves were very interesting and best closer examination.

The first "Pillar" was to score 24+ points per game. That's pretty straightforward. The goal of most sports is to score more than the other guy. I don't know what the average football team scores, but 24 seems like a fair enough number. That adds up to the touchdowns and a field goal. Score more than that and you're doing pretty good. The team had a record of 81-12 when scoring 24+. That's a healthy 87%.

The second was to hold the other guys to 24 or fewer points. Taken together with number 1 it's obvious. 78-11 for 88% when the defense meets its standard.

Third is to score first. This one is less obvious to me, and much less applicable to a sort like volleyball where every play should end with a point. In a low scoring defensive battle in football, the first team to score might just be the only team to score. The team managed a 67-9 record for an 88% win percentage. That made me curious about how true this is with all football teams. I found this, suppressing primarily about professional football, where the writer factored in team quality. When the teams are considered equal, the team that scores first (touchdown) wins 2/3 of the time. That's a pretty big deal.

Next is to score every quarter. With the first goal in mind, this is a simple way to break that bigger goal into smaller, more manageable chunks. It also could be about consistent effort through the whole game. This one only gave the team a 43-8 record. At 84% this is the lowest of the five "Pillars", but that is still a favorable outcome.

Last is for the defense to score points. That's only going to happen with an interception run back for a touchdown, a fumble recovery run back for a touchdown, or a safety. These are all big plays, and are rare. The numbers bear this out. At 17-2 this is by far the smallest number of games, but the 89% is the highest winning percentage.

Putting these into volleyball terms and numbers might be interesting. It could be a simple goal sheet that players could use as mile posts on their way to a set win. The first two could easily be rewritten as the 13 kills per set and holding the opponent to 10 kills per set I've previously mentioned (link above). I'm pretty happy with those two as a starting point.

I'm not sure what to do with the other standards. I'm not satisfied that other stats correlate strongly enough to winning to use them as a basis by themselves. It might be good to use streaks of consecutive points. Instead of being the first to score, be the first to score 3 consecutive points. I don't have any kind of data on scoring steaks on competition, so I don't know how this will serve as a standard. Limiting opponent's streaks might be another place to go. Again, I don't have any kind of data to guide here.

I'm going to have to think about this more. I might have to add scoring steaks to the data I will collect in the future. What are your thoughts?

Perfection in Sports

Remember the Titans was on the other night. I love the movie and think it is kind of required viewing for cultural literacy, but I also like it for the depiction of sports and coaching. I like setting high expectations for my teams. I know those expectations will not always be met, but it is wonderful to watch what can happen when the team buys in to those expectations, works hard, and believes in themselves.

There is an exchange during the movie that really resonated with me. To the coach in me this is one of the most beautiful moments in the movie. But first some context:

Coach Boone: We will be perfect in every aspect of the game. You drop a pass, you run a mile. You miss a blocking assignment, you run a mile. You fumble the football, and I will break my foot off in your John Brown hind parts and then you will run a mile. Perfection. Let's go to work.

That is a high expectation. I think there is room to criticize the delivery and consequences, but that is a high expectation. This is the practice environment and the team culture that Coach Boone established. The team responded and had a very strong season.

Coach Boone: It's all right. We're in a fight. You boys are doing all that you can do. Anybody can see that. Win or lose... We gonna walk out of this stadium tonight with our heads held high. Do your best. That's all anybody can ask for.

Big Ju: No, it ain't Coach. With all due respect, uh, you demanded more of us. You demanded perfection. Now, I ain't saying that I'm perfect, 'cause I'm not. And I ain't gonna never be. None of us are. But we have won every single game we have played till now. So this team is perfect. We stepped out on that field that way tonight. And, uh, if it's all the same to you, Coach Boone, that's how we want to leave it.

Coach Boone paraphrases John Wooden really well here. They are in the middle of a tough game, and things aren't looking good for the good guys. Coach Boone is at that place where the expectations are there, but the only thing the team can do is give their best effort. Expectations and reality are at odds. Then one of his players steps up and shows real leadership and character. He's going to dig deep and do more. They all are. And every once in a while those expectations are met. Perfection.

Book Review - Coaching Volleyball Champions

I just finished reading Coaching Volleyball Championsby Mary Dyck and Ard Biesheuvel, a couple of volleyball coaches in Canada. It contains 11 chapters, each focusing on a successful volleyball coach from the US and Canada. The format for each chapter is a biographical introduction to the focal coach, the coach's answers to the same series of questions, and then 5 drills that the coach uses.

I'm much more familiar with the American coaches than the Canadian ones, but there are some great ones representing the USA: Marv Dunphy of Pepperdine, Carl McGown retired from BYU, Al Scates retired from UCLA, and Jim McLaughlin of Notre Dame (Washington at the time of publication). Dunphy and McGown are my coaching heroes, and McLaughlin and Scates have significant coaching credentials.

Each coach is asked questions like "What is a champion?" and "What are the most important ingredients of a championship team?" They are asked about psychology, motivation, goal setting, how their coaching has evolved, and thoughts on the different positions. There is a part of me that wishes the answers to each question from each coach were all in the same place, but having each chapter focus only on one coach gives a better sense of who he or she is. You can get a feel for who they are and what they do. You can see how the coach's philosophy informs the drills they use.

The selection of drills is not exhaustive, but it is a nice collection of drills used by some of the top teams in American and Canadian volleyball. There are 55 total drills and there is a handy drill finder in the back listing which drills address various desired training outcomes or topics.

Coaching Volleyball Champions is a very nice volleyball coaching resource. It can help with the practical side of coaching with the drills, and the more theoretical or abstract part of coaching with the question/answer portion. I highly recommend this for your coaching bookshelf and education.