Second Part: long rallies or complex three
If we look at volleyball more deeply in order to design our drills or analysis our team performance, we can categorize the rallies to four types, if we don’t want to be too much complicated:
- Pseudo (ace or error in serve)
- Complex one (first ball side-out)
- Complex two (first ball break point)
- Complex three (long rallies or more than two attack rallies)
FIGURE 3.4 Percentage of different rally types in last four matches in Men and Women WCH 2022.
As you see in figure 3.4 almost 25% of rallies in modern volleyball will be long rallies or more than two attack rallies. It means that we must train this situation technically, tactically, mentally and physically.
If we look with more details, we will find out that we can take point in complex three in five ways:
- Opponent error
- Block
- Attack after defense
- Attack after cover the attacker
- Attack after free ball
It means that we should include this concept in our practice that we must learn to attack from different situation; specially our players should learn how to attack after defense and cover that sometimes we don’t have enough space to approach fully. The first key to become stable and efficient in long rallies is to be patient and precise in ball control, in setting, in attacking and in blocking. The attitude to make the ball better and always increase the quality of the ball in order to put the teammate in better situation is the second key. In long rallies players should keep focusing and continue to play in discipline tactically and continue to play smart and put the opponent in difficulty and wait for suitable moment to get point.
In modern volleyball we get almost 10% to 15% of our points from attack after cover, it means that we should focus on quality of the cover and also teach our attacker to be more dynamic to be available for attacking after cover and also be smart in hitting the ball depend on the situation. Sometimes attacker don’t have enough time to go far from the net to do complete approach, so all of them should learn how to attack with a little space for approach or sometimes without approach.
Also the attackers should learn how to use different options like; wipe off the block, different tips, block-out, cut shot, attack-cover and continue and so on. This coach’s duty to design the drills progressively in order to teach attackers how to evaluate the situation, make appropriate decision and do it with confidence.