In volleyball there are many different options for an offensive system. Whichever team adjusts quicker to the other teams system usually has a better chance of winning the match. An offense is chosen based on how many setters your team has, who is in the front row, match ups on the other side of the net and what defense your opponent is in.
The number of setters that play on a team determines if you will run a 5-1 or a 6-2 offense. A 5-1 means that there is 1 setter and he/ she will play all the way around, setting in the front row and the back row. In order to run a 5-1 your setter has to be able to block, play defense, serve, be an attack option in the front row, and be a leader. A 6-2 means that there are 2 setters and they will both set from the back row only. This will allow your team to have 3 hitters in the front row all the time.
What players are in the front row on your side of the net determines what plays the setter decides to run on offense. The sets an outside hitter can call for are a 5: the highest set and slowest tempo out to the pin, a 4: a quicker antenna height set, a shoot: pretty self-explanatory but it’s the fastest tempo set for an outside and is just above the height of the net. The sets a middle can call are a 1: quick in the middle right in front of the setter, a 2: a higher set about 2 feet in front of the setter, a 31: a fast tempo set 3 feet in front of the setter, a 32: same location as a 31 just a slower tempo and a higher set, a gap: like a 1 but the setter should push the ball away from them to create a “gap” in the other sides block, a 6: same as a 1 but behind the setter, a 7: same as a gap but behind the setter, an a slide: behind the setter, all the way to the pin, slides can vary in height and speed. The sets a right side can call for are a 6, a 7, an 8 which is usually the same as a slide, or a 9: which is the same tempo as a 5 but just behind the setter. These are what I use as a setter for my play sets but some teams could differ in what they call each set.
What offense the other team is running should also influence the offense your team is going to run. For example if the other team is running a 5-1 and their setter is short and can’t block, your setter should realize that and utilize his/ her outside when the short setter is in the front row. Another example is if the setter is not a strong passer your team should attack to him/ her when he/ she is in the back row, to get there team out of system.
I hope these explanations helped you clear up any offensive questions you had!
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Sunday, March 27, 2016
Dominican University (465)
This weekend, I went on my second college visit of the season, to Dominican University. Dominican University is a DIII college just near Chicago by about twenty minutes. For this visit, my dad and I left at about five in the morning to get there on time for my campus tour which started at 10:15 in the morning. When we got there, we drove through big gates at the entrance near the soccer field, parked the car, and went to meet the coach, Jeanne Czipri, right off the bat. She was very nice, as I am sure all coaches are when meeting athletes. First, she got us set up for the campus tour and we went on a tour around the campus with one of the players. She showed us all around the campus. We saw almost all of the different buildings that classes were in, dining halls, dorms, and other facilities. Their campus is really nice and my dad made the comment that it reminds him of the Notre Dame campus since the buildings are kind of old but pretty. The campus is a comfortable size where everything is close together and the city of Chicago is only a short 20 minute car ride away.
This college also is the only college that I have looked at that has Neuroscience as a specific major, which is something that interests me. After the tour, we had lunch with the volleyball team and the coach. There were also two other recruits there with me going on the same tour and visit. One was also a setter and the other was a middle. After lunch was over, it was time for team time and questions. We walked over to a different room with some of the girls from the team and the two other recruits. It was now time for question and answers. We also got to meet with the coach one at a time, so while one person was talking to the coach, the others were talking to the team. We got to ask them things about being on the team, the coach, and get an answer from a student athlete perspective. When it was my turn to talk to the coach, my dad and I went into her office to talk to her. This was a time where we could ask each other questions. We had a long conversation and afterwards we went back to the room with the team and let the last girl know we were done and it was her turn. After meeting with the coach, we were done with the visit, so we left the building and went back to the car. We did make a stop at the campus bookstore before we left and I got some sweatpants from Dominican.
This college also is the only college that I have looked at that has Neuroscience as a specific major, which is something that interests me. After the tour, we had lunch with the volleyball team and the coach. There were also two other recruits there with me going on the same tour and visit. One was also a setter and the other was a middle. After lunch was over, it was time for team time and questions. We walked over to a different room with some of the girls from the team and the two other recruits. It was now time for question and answers. We also got to meet with the coach one at a time, so while one person was talking to the coach, the others were talking to the team. We got to ask them things about being on the team, the coach, and get an answer from a student athlete perspective. When it was my turn to talk to the coach, my dad and I went into her office to talk to her. This was a time where we could ask each other questions. We had a long conversation and afterwards we went back to the room with the team and let the last girl know we were done and it was her turn. After meeting with the coach, we were done with the visit, so we left the building and went back to the car. We did make a stop at the campus bookstore before we left and I got some sweatpants from Dominican.
Hair Choices for Sports (363)
How many athletes do you know, wears their hair down when playing a sport? There aren't too many when reaching the 5th grade. Little kids for some reason love to play with their hair down, in their face keeping them from seeing. I don't understand why they would want to do that, because what benefit does that bring to the athlete succeeding at the sport?
I would never let my child wear their hair down when playing a sport. There are some circumstances where wearing your hair down is okay, like dance or show choir. Any sports that involve contact or having a quick reaction time should have to be required to tie their hair back in either a bun or a pony tail. When you reach middle school, wearing your hair down in a physical activity is considered weird and different. Playing volleyball with your hair down means there is no way of seeing what is going on. A ball could be coming at you and not even know it, because your hair is in your face blocking your view. You could perform SO much better, by just tying your hair back in a pony tail or a bun.
There are lots of different ways you can wear your hair, especially if you have longer hair. You can have a ponytail, bun, braid, fishtail braid, french braid, french fishtail, pigtail french braids, a ponytail with hair ties going down it, and much more. If someone is worried about their looks while playing, then any of the braids look cool and they could always straighten their hair and put it in a ponytail, but my opinion is that if they are playing a sport they should not really care what their hair looks like while they play. Personally, I do not care what my hair looks like as long as it stays out of my face and is comfortable. For me, buns do not work because they do not stay in and they fall out and get loose, which is not comfortable to play in since it gets in my face. I usually have a ponytail or a braid in when I play.
I would never let my child wear their hair down when playing a sport. There are some circumstances where wearing your hair down is okay, like dance or show choir. Any sports that involve contact or having a quick reaction time should have to be required to tie their hair back in either a bun or a pony tail. When you reach middle school, wearing your hair down in a physical activity is considered weird and different. Playing volleyball with your hair down means there is no way of seeing what is going on. A ball could be coming at you and not even know it, because your hair is in your face blocking your view. You could perform SO much better, by just tying your hair back in a pony tail or a bun.
There are lots of different ways you can wear your hair, especially if you have longer hair. You can have a ponytail, bun, braid, fishtail braid, french braid, french fishtail, pigtail french braids, a ponytail with hair ties going down it, and much more. If someone is worried about their looks while playing, then any of the braids look cool and they could always straighten their hair and put it in a ponytail, but my opinion is that if they are playing a sport they should not really care what their hair looks like while they play. Personally, I do not care what my hair looks like as long as it stays out of my face and is comfortable. For me, buns do not work because they do not stay in and they fall out and get loose, which is not comfortable to play in since it gets in my face. I usually have a ponytail or a braid in when I play.
Thursday, March 24, 2016
Powder Buff (451)
Here at Kennedy High School, we do not have a boys volleyball team. Most people would say, "Well, of course we don't!" That is because in Iowa, there are very few boys teams and boys volleyball is not very popular. There aren't any boys high school teams in the whole state, and only a handful of club teams. Our high school coach, Michelle Goodall is really involved in trying to grow the boys volleyball game in Iowa, and for a fun way to get more boys involved in volleyball, she puts together Powder Buff every year. Powder Buff is where we have a day that boys from Kennedy High School can form teams and play volleyball against each other. This usually is on a half day so that they have time to go get lunch, then play volleyball in the afternoon. The guys form teams and enter into the "tournament" and Coach Goodall makes brackets and they end up playing all of the teams. By the end of the night there is a tournament champion. The girls who play volleyball aren't supposed to play with them, but we help ref and keep score. It is kind of funny to see all of the guys playing volleyball that have either never played before or have only played once or twice in their life. Powder Buff is mostly just for fun but it is also a good way to let guys have a chance to play volleyball, and if they are interested in playing more they can talk to Goodall about boys club teams, boys HP, and more. We usually have powder buff once a year, but when the guys have a lot of fun we try to schedule more. In the past they have been on the Wednesdays that we have half days, but next year we will probably have to move them to Fridays since we will be having half days every Friday. The other funny part is that the guys can get pretty competitive and take the games pretty seriously. That's mixed with them not really knowing how to play makes a funny game to watch and ref, although sometimes reffing is difficult because they don't know all of the rules. Sometimes we will make calls on a team and they will argue, for example net calls, under the net calls, and rotation calls. There's been times where the same server will go back to serve in multiple rotations and we have to explain to them that they have to rotate servers as well as the people on the court. Powder buff is one of the fun things about school volleyball season and I hope we continue to do it!
Northern Lights (498)
Earlier I had written about my club team's tournaments and how we could not add the Windy City Qualifier, which meant we only had one qualifier other than regionals this season. Well, there is good news. We got into the Northern Lights Qualifier! We were first on the waiting list to get into the tournament, which means that if a team dropped out, we would be the first to get that spot. We got the spot, so a team must have dropped out! Our team first found out when we were all at school. We were texting about it in our team group chat and we were all very excited about it. We did not think that we would actually get that spot because we did not think that anyone would want to drop out. We would never drop out, but we are glad that someone else did! Before we knew we were going we scheduled two JVA tournaments, one in Des Moines and one in Kansas City. Now, with the addition of the Northern Lights Qualifier, we have three out of town tournaments in a row. This is great and fun but at the same time it can be exhausting. That is a lot of travel all in a row, and not to mention missing school. Three weeks in a row we will be missing one or two days for the tournaments. Even though it will be a little bit of a struggle, I am still glad that we made it into the Northern Lights Qualifier and have another chance to qualify for nationals with a open bid. We were very close last time, finishing only two sports away from a bid.
Northern Lights Qualifier is hosted in Minneapolis by the club team called Northern Lights, who would have guessed. It is in a huge convention center with lots of courts and multiple age groups and divisions. There are so many teams that come and play that they have to split the playing into a morning and afternoon wave. On the first day the morning or afternoon waves for pool play are random. The second and third day they give the morning wave to the teams who did the best the day before. For example, if you win your pool and get to move up to the gold bracket you will definitely play morning wave the next day. That is just how it works. Personally I like the morning wave better because you get done earlier and you are not playing later in the evening. That gives you time to do stuff after you play, whether it be team bonding, taking a nap, shopping, or going out to eat. Courts can be behind schedule if the matches beforehand took a long time, so sometimes the afternoon wave goes really late. One time last year at a qualifier we got done playing our last match at about 10:30 pm and we left the convention center at about 10:45.
Northern Lights Qualifier is hosted in Minneapolis by the club team called Northern Lights, who would have guessed. It is in a huge convention center with lots of courts and multiple age groups and divisions. There are so many teams that come and play that they have to split the playing into a morning and afternoon wave. On the first day the morning or afternoon waves for pool play are random. The second and third day they give the morning wave to the teams who did the best the day before. For example, if you win your pool and get to move up to the gold bracket you will definitely play morning wave the next day. That is just how it works. Personally I like the morning wave better because you get done earlier and you are not playing later in the evening. That gives you time to do stuff after you play, whether it be team bonding, taking a nap, shopping, or going out to eat. Courts can be behind schedule if the matches beforehand took a long time, so sometimes the afternoon wave goes really late. One time last year at a qualifier we got done playing our last match at about 10:30 pm and we left the convention center at about 10:45.
Saturday, March 5, 2016
President's Day (532)
On President's Day, there are lots of tournaments all over. I've been to President's Day tournaments in Omaha and Chicago, but there are many more places as well. The President's Day tournament is very big, just as big as a qualifier, and set up the same way too except you can not earn a bid from this tournament. This year our club team went to the President's Day tournament in Chicago, which I have never been to because in all of my past years playing I have gone to the President's Day tournament in Omaha. This tournament is a three day tournament, which means missing school for one or two days, depending on when you leave. I always like to leave somewhat early the day before we play, so I usually end up missing two days of school for three day tournaments. This time, I had a college visit, so I actually left very early in the morning the day before we played so that I could get to my visit on time, which was at about 11 am. I had a campus tour, meeting with the admissions office, lunch with the volleyball team and coach, and a meeting with the players, then the coach individually. After all of that was done, we went to the hotel we were staying at for the tournament and checked in. Of course, I was one of the first ones from my team at the hotel along with Shannon, who was also there for a college visit earlier that day. That night, the night before we played in the tournament, all the people who were already there hung out as a team at the hotel. There were some people who were not there yet because they left later, maybe after school or their parent's work. Those people get in at around bedtime, or past it.
In the morning, we all agreed to meet in the lobby and walk down to the convention center together. We can walk because we usually stay in hotels that are fairly close to the place we play at, thanks to Tim (our club director). We were one of the first teams to arrive because we had the 8 am match, and our club policy is to be there and hour early, so we got there at 7 right when it opened. Once they let people in, we went to our court to get our gear on and start warming up. That day we played a total of three matches, all in pool play. These matches would determine if we move up or down for the next day and how we are seeded in the bracket we are put into.
The next morning we met as a team again and walked to the convention center at the same time. That day we played in bracket play, which is where if you lose you are either done or play for placing, but you don't have a shot of winning the tournament anymore. We ended up getting 7th out of 40 teams, which is good, but we definitely could have done better. This tournament gave us things to work on and improve in practice!
In the morning, we all agreed to meet in the lobby and walk down to the convention center together. We can walk because we usually stay in hotels that are fairly close to the place we play at, thanks to Tim (our club director). We were one of the first teams to arrive because we had the 8 am match, and our club policy is to be there and hour early, so we got there at 7 right when it opened. Once they let people in, we went to our court to get our gear on and start warming up. That day we played a total of three matches, all in pool play. These matches would determine if we move up or down for the next day and how we are seeded in the bracket we are put into.
The next morning we met as a team again and walked to the convention center at the same time. That day we played in bracket play, which is where if you lose you are either done or play for placing, but you don't have a shot of winning the tournament anymore. We ended up getting 7th out of 40 teams, which is good, but we definitely could have done better. This tournament gave us things to work on and improve in practice!
Activities @ Qualifiers (329)
When teams go to big three day tournaments like qualifiers, there are many things that they can do for fun when they are not playing. Many teams like to do team bonding activities all together, but sometimes they also like to do things with just their families, or parts of the team, since everyone can't always come or does not always want to come to everything. A lot of people like going to the mall if there is one nearby to shop. Our team has gone to the mall several times at tournaments, both all together and in groups. We will probably make a trip to the Mall of America when we go to Minneapolis for the Northern Lights Qualifier. Our team usually always goes on at least one team dinner when we are at a tournament. This is easier to do when we have the morning wave, but when we have the afternoon wave and get done later, the parents will order food to our hotel and we eat as a team there. Other things to do are go to fun places as a team, for example, there is a thing called Escape Room. Escape Room is a place you go with a group of people and literally try to escape. I have never been in one (we haven't gone to one yet) so I do not know exactly what is in them, just that they are supposed to be scary. Another fun place that I have been to during a tournament is the City Museum in St. Louis. The City Museum is less like a museum and more like a big jungle gym, but with very unique stuff. Most of the time what you can do while you are at tournaments depends on what city you are staying in. Like when we were staying in Orlando for AAU Nationals last year, it felt more like a vacation when we weren't playing because of the pools and weather.
Parent support (459)
I love playing volleyball and being involved in sports, it has always been a part of my life. I can thank my parents for that since they always had me involved. I remember my mom and dad getting me into dance, cheer, gymnastics, softball, basketball, soccer, and finally volleyball. My parents always made sure I was doing something with my time whether it be sports, friends, or other things. Without them, I would never be where I am today with volleyball and I would never have played soccer for 8 years. I am really glad and thankful that they got me involved with all the things that they did!
When playing a sport, parent support is very important, not only just getting their kid into that sport, but also everything that comes with it. Parents do many things that are appreciated and go unnoticed in order for us to play our sports. When we are little, they get us started in sports and get us excited when we go to play them. Our parents also buy all of our equipment needed to play the sports, buying new supplies every time you grow out of them. This can be really expensive because for some sports, there is a lot of equipment needed, but for others, not so much. They also drive us to all of our games, practices and tournaments before we are able to drive ourselves, and even when we can drive ourselves, they still take us to the out of town tournaments. For out of town tournaments, they also have to buy a hotel room which can also get pricey. Parents are there to cheer you on and support you in the thing you are passionate about and they love to see you succeed. A lot of athletes not only get to play school sports, but also club sports. Club is even more intense than school and your parents have to pay for it. Club sports have club fees, tournament fees, and you have to pay for all of your equipment like shoes, jerseys, etc. Some teams' parents even go as far as to plan who brings food for all of the athletes at tournaments and games. If players want to go play volleyball in college, the parents are also supportive of that as well. They help with the recruiting process, video taping matches, helping with highlight videos, taking players to their college visits, and helping their child pick the right school for them.
Parents do so much for players, and sometimes they are under appreciated. They are the ones making sure you have everything you need for your sport and even if they do not come to every event, they make sure that you can get there.
When playing a sport, parent support is very important, not only just getting their kid into that sport, but also everything that comes with it. Parents do many things that are appreciated and go unnoticed in order for us to play our sports. When we are little, they get us started in sports and get us excited when we go to play them. Our parents also buy all of our equipment needed to play the sports, buying new supplies every time you grow out of them. This can be really expensive because for some sports, there is a lot of equipment needed, but for others, not so much. They also drive us to all of our games, practices and tournaments before we are able to drive ourselves, and even when we can drive ourselves, they still take us to the out of town tournaments. For out of town tournaments, they also have to buy a hotel room which can also get pricey. Parents are there to cheer you on and support you in the thing you are passionate about and they love to see you succeed. A lot of athletes not only get to play school sports, but also club sports. Club is even more intense than school and your parents have to pay for it. Club sports have club fees, tournament fees, and you have to pay for all of your equipment like shoes, jerseys, etc. Some teams' parents even go as far as to plan who brings food for all of the athletes at tournaments and games. If players want to go play volleyball in college, the parents are also supportive of that as well. They help with the recruiting process, video taping matches, helping with highlight videos, taking players to their college visits, and helping their child pick the right school for them.
Parents do so much for players, and sometimes they are under appreciated. They are the ones making sure you have everything you need for your sport and even if they do not come to every event, they make sure that you can get there.
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