Importance of Setting Middles

            In the game volleyball it is very important to set your middles for a lot of reasons. It is also one of the hardest things to do. You need to set your middles to keep the blockers on the other side honest, leave your outside and right side 1 on 1 as much as possible, keep your opponents defense off balance, and allow your setter an open tip or attack.

            Keeping the other teams’ blockers honest means making sure they are staying with their hitter (Outside with outside, middle with middle and right side with right side). For example say that I never set my middles, the middle blocker would cheat to the outside or right side and would cause them to have a double block almost every time. This is why a setter needs to run a smart offense based on the blocks. If your left and right side are facing a double block every time they swing that probably means you need to run your middles more often or mix up the offense that you are running. This is why running a fast offense is very important, the faster I can deliver the ball to my hitters the less time the other teams’ blockers will have to get in the right position to block. So mixing up my sets often and running fast plays gives my hitters a better opportunity to get a kill.

            On the other hand running quick middle offense often is one of the hardest things to do as a setter. There are many factors that determine whether I can set my middle or not. The pass is most important. If the pass is more than 10 feet off the net it is very difficult to deliver the set the way it should be. If I’m that far off the middle will hopefully call a 31. I can set a 31 if I’m off but it takes a lot of practice to figure out how far off and how fast you can push the ball so that the middle will be able to get a good swing. The other factor that goes into setting my middle is the positioning of the blockers. If I see that the middle blocker is following my middle I will push it outside or back. If the middle blocker is cheating towards the outside I can set my middle and she will have either 1 or no blocks.

Word Count: 415

First Club Tournament

           My favorite time of the year is here, club season. That means long car rides, missing school Fridays and Mondays, ice baths, late nights, early mornings, and playing the sport you love with your best friends. This weekend was our first club tournament in Rochester, Minnesota. I was looking forward to this tournament for a long time so that I could finally play in a real match with my team. We have 4 new girls on our team this year so getting comfortable on the court and used to how they like their sets takes time, but this weekend definitely helped that a lot.

            We played 3 matches Saturday and 3 Sunday. On Saturday we played Milwaukee Sting 16’s, Northern Lights 16-1, and Fusion 17 Black. All 3 teams were very good competition. This tournament is more like a scrimmage because it doesn’t count on our record but we still kept score. We played for 50 minutes and usually got through 2 games to 25 and then a third to around 15. We did pretty well, I think our best game overall on Saturday was against Northern Lights. On Sunday we played Minnesota Select, SMV 18-1, and Crossfire 18-1. We played well, our second game was a little rough but we picked it up at the end and finished strong.

            Most importantly we figured out what we need to work on in practice, and what we did well. We need to work on serve receive, more consistent serves so we can get more runs of 3 or 4 points, different shots when the set is off the net, back row attacks, and being in the right places on defense. Personally I need to continue to work on being more of a leader, setting my middles in transition, my connection with each hitter, being stopped on defense, tipping deep in zone 5 with my left hand, not drifting on my block and a more aggressive serve.

            I think we did really well on playing as a team, never giving up, blocking, running fast plays and our hitters were aggressive and never afraid to swing. Overall I think it was a very successful tournament and we will learn from our mistakes and work on them in practice. I’m already looking forward to our next tournament in Milwaukee, WI. We are playing in the open division so it will be really good competition and experience playing in open before our qualifiers. 

Word Count: 412

Reffing and Scoring Online Clinics

            Everyone’s least favorite thing about volleyball season is having to go through the online reffing and scoring clinics. They take a long time and when you are 17 and have been playing volleyball since you were 10, it is mostly stuff I already know. But, this year they changed some things that made it go faster.

            The past couple of years you have had to go through every section and then take a test afterwards, if you didn't get a certain amount of questions right you had to retake it. This year before you have to go through each section they give you an option to take a pre quiz, and if you get at least 90% which is missing only 1 you get to skip that whole section. This is a really option until you miss 2 questions and realize that you now have to go through 25 minutes of listening to how to ref or score. This happened to me I think 3 out of the 8 sections, because some of the questions in the pre-test are about something that rarely happens in a game like a sanction. I mean I know that you need to know how to deal with those types of situation in a match, but they shouldn't put those in the pre-test. They should make a section of commonly missed concepts during reffing and scoring that is mandatory for each player to watch.

            After going through the online course I have a few tips. Take the pre-test and make sure you are 100% sure on your answer before you submit it. If you really have no idea what the answer is and you have already missed a question, look up online the subject that the question is asking about and try to find an answer. Make sure you read the section on the topic you are having trouble with so you understand what to do if you are faced with that situation in a game. Reading a couple of paragraphs is better than listening to a 25 min video of things you already know, trust me. Good luck with your online clinics, and hope your seasons are off to a good start!

Iowa Region Reffing and Scoring Clinic: http://www.iavbreg.org/index.php/clinics/referee/

Word Count: 375