Attack after reception in six rotations

There are often some exceptions that maybe we can see a few of them little more and sometimes this type of exceptions s to some effective creativities. One of these exceptions is in rotation setter 1 that is common in women east Asian teams like Japan, China, South Korea.  As you see in picture all three front row players; OP, MB2 and OH1 come to the left side of the court and after the serve of opponent the OP will immediately goes to position 2 and MB2 according to type of his attack adjusts his/her position. The goal of this system is to place OH1 in left side of the court and place OP in right side of the court. Chinese and Italian women national used this system in 2022 WCH.

Disadvantage of this system happens when the opponent serves short to position 2 or 3 (in the way that OP is moving). But if there is good communication and decision making abilities between players and also there is big difference between attack efficiency of OP and OH1 when they change their position of attack, maybe this system can help team.

The main advantage of this system of playing is that players will attack from their special positions and whrn rally continues they will block and defense in their special position and also in transition attack will be there.

Variations:

As you can see in the above image, some teams and players use different path to go from position 4 to position 2. For exaple opposite of Italy in Women WCH 2022 went mostly near to the net but the opposite of USA went behind the receivers in orther to don’t disturbe their view and their focuse.

In this rotation middle attacker attackers will start his/her approach from behind the setter, so it is important to use suitable foot work for different situation and also should be very clear responsibilities for receiving the serve in position 2 and 1.

Attack patterns:

MB2: often attack C quick and B quick and in case of use       A quick maybe if the setter little more open this set it will be more effective.

OP: mostly they attack fast ball from position 2.

OH1: can attack back pipe or normal pipe.

OH2: usually they attack fast ball from position 4.

Coaching points:

Consider the starting positions of receivers, usually when opponent serve from behind position 5 to position 1, there should be good starting position for OH1 and MB2.

Ask your setter that if he/she wants to use A quick, it would be better to play little open.

Same first tip but now you can ask players from different position to serve, instead of coach. But you can ask one coach stay with servers that is case of too much mistake he/she serve in order to make better rhythm in training and also increase the number of repetitions.

And for scoring we can use 6 before 4; the receiver team must achieve 6 before server team gets 3 points.

And do it in all rotations, the team who won more rotations is winner, in case of 3-3, they can play one-round with same scoring system but the receiving team will rotate after each rally.

In women volleyball, this rotation has very good potential to play cross combination between MB1(attack C quick or slide), and OP (attack front of the setter).

Attack patterns:

MB1: often attack A quick and B quick and in women teams also they attack one-leg C quick.

OP: mostly they attack fast ball from position 2.

OH1: can attack front pipe, normal pipe or back pipe.

OH2: usually they attack fast ball from position 4.

Coaching points:

As you see in this rotation OH1 and OH2 must stay beside each other for reception and sometimes we as a coach don’t give them enough time or opportunity during practice to reach good coordination.

The next coaching point is starting position of setter must not pass MB1 from front and must not pass OH1 from side, so he/she can adjust his/her starting position in order to be closer to base position for setter (between position 2 / 3).

Next tip for drills is about including different types of reception; in this tip reception more near to position 2 and receptions more close to position 4. The serving team will serve and after finishing each serve one coach that stayed behind the court of receiving team will toss one ball for setter and stimulate the reception, this artificial reception that producing by coach can be close to position 2 or 4. We can repeat it play until 7 for each rotation. This drill name can be 5+5 near-far; 5 serve + 5 toss of coach (as artificial reception) near to position 2 or 4.

From this rotation the setter of team will be front row player and the major and efficiency of team performance depend a lot on efficiency of the opposite in men volleyball and in women volleyball one-leg attack or slide attack behind the setter plays a vital role; in both case the major goal is use of all the net for attack in order to open the opponent block.

Attack patterns:

MB1: often attack A quick and B quick and in women teams usually they attack one-leg C quick or slide attack near to antenna.

OP: mostly they attack semi-fast ball from position 1. And in women volleyball if the MB1 try for slide attack near to antenna the OP will attack back pipe or normal pipe.

OH1: can attack front pipe, normal pipe or back pipe.

In women volleyball if OP try for pipe, OH1 will not participate in attack after reception or he/she can approach for front pipe.

OH2: usually they attack fast ball from position 4.

Make sure the setter uses all the net and all attacker properly in attack. Trust and coordination between setter and opposite is very important.

In women volleyball ask your setter to play slide attack not only in perfect receptions but also in good receptions. Don’t forget that in all rotations that setter is in front row he/she can use tips as offensive tools.

This tip is very similar to third tip, but only difference is that the artificial reception that coach will produce will be high ball toward position 1,5 or 6.

Focus will be on accuracy of set, options of attacker on high ball, and positions of players in cover system and their reactions to save the ball.

In this rotation like rotation setter 6 MB will start his approach from behind the setter, so it is very important that he/she adjust his position with suitable footwork immediately after serve.

This the only rotation that OH2 will receive the serve in position 1, prepare him to receive and attack from this position.

Attack patterns:

MB1: he/she can use A quick (more open) and B or C quick and in women teams usually they attack one-leg C quick or slide attack near to antenna.

OP: mostly they attack semi-fast ball from position 1. And in women volleyball if the MB1 try for slide attack near to antenna the OP will attack back pipe or normal pipe.

OH1: usually they attack fast ball from position 4.

OH2: often attack normal pipe or back pipe.

In women volleyball if OP try for pipe, OH2 will not participate in attack after reception or he/she can approach for front pipe.

Coaching tips:

Ask the libero of the team to be ready for receiving the short serves between 3 and 4, and MB1 be ready for receiving the short serves in position 2 and 3.

In all rotations the coordination of the team in receiving different types of serves from different positions is very important. So we can organize drill like this; 4 types of serves: first serve from behind position 1, second serve from behind position 5, third serve will be short serve and last serve will be jump powerful serve; we can do it in three round in each rotation and play until point 7.

In this rotation coordination between OH1 and OH2 in reception is very important and also MB2 can be the responsible for receiving short serves in position 4 and 3.

Attack patterns:

MB2: he/she can use A quick and B quick and in women teams often they attack one-leg C quick or slide attack near to antenna.

OP: mostly they attack semi-fast ball from position 1. And in women volleyball if the MB2 try for slide attack near to antenna the OP will attack back pipe or normal pipe.

OH1: usually they attack fast ball from position 4.

OH2: often attack normal pipe or back pipe.

In women volleyball if OP try for pipe, OH2 will not participate in attack after reception. or he/she can approach for front pipe.

Coaching point:

Train your middle blockers how to receive the short serves and attack after reception. Ball control of middle attackers in serve reception gives more stability to team reception.

Tips for drills: sixth tip

One of the most important mental concepts in volleyball is continuity in performance that help the team to have consistency and build confidence. We can include this concept to our practice by some scoring systems. For instance, receiving team at point 24, serving team at point 21. The receiving team can only take point if they win first ball side out 3 times in a row, but the serving team will take point if they win any rally, in case of long rallies if the receiving team win the rally none of them will get point.