There is some fundamental skills and techniques in volleyball that being skillful in them helps players to play better and the game will be more interesting. In all techniques we need good ball control that is the sign of quality in the team. Here are the basic techniques of volleyball:
- Serve reception; Foundation of the team
- Set; Heart of the team
- Attack, Energy of the team
- Cover, Awareness of the team
- Serve, Bombardment power of the team
- Block, Wall of the castle of the team
- Defense, Motivation of the team
If we look at volleyball tactically, we can divide the game to three parts:
- Complex 1 or first ball side-out that consists of these techniques: serve reception-set-attack after reception-cover
- Complex 2 or first ball break point that consists of these techniques: serve-block-defense-set-attack after defense-cover
- Complex 3 or long rallies (three attacks rallies and more)
We need complex 1 to play good and we need complex 2 in order to win the match, and in close matches that both teams are very good in complex 1 and complex 2, in additions of increasing efficiency in serve, the team that has a better ball control, uses more effective options, is more patient, keeps focusing and has better communication have more chance to win long rallies or complex 3 so probably has more chance to win the game.
So we can say that if complex 1 is like walking, complex 2 is like running and complex 3 is like running faster, it means that first ball side-out is foundation of team and first ball break-point is building of team and long rallies are like nice roof garden of team.
In order to have better understanding of types of rallies for analyzing the game and also drill design we can divide rallies in this way:
- Pseudo rallies (direct point or error in service)
- One-attack rallies (point in first ball side-out or complex 1)
- Two-attack rallies (point in first ball break-point or complex 2, we can take point from block or attack after defense or opponent error)
- Three-attack rallies or more (point in long rallies or complex 3, we can take point from block, attack after defense, attack after cover, attack after free ball or opponent error)
We have analyzed semi-final match between Poland and Brazil and final match between Poland and Italy in Men World Championship 2022, and also last four matches in Women World Championship 2022 and you can see the rallies types in figure 1.7.
FIGURE 1.7 Percentage of different rally types in last matches in men and women volleyball in WCH 2022
If also we compare the average number of attacks per set in men and women volleyball, we will realize that volume of the contacts in women volleyball is higher than men. After analysis 40 sets of matches of Serbia; champion of Women WCH 2022 and 25 sets of matches of Italy; champion of Men WCH 2022, we found that in average Serbia attacked 30 times per set that 14.25 attack was attack on dig and 15.75 attack was attack after reception. On the other hand, in average Italy attacked 25 times per set that 10.8 attack was attack on dig and 14.2 was attack after reception. Therefore, in comparison of these two world champion, we found that volume of attack in Serbia (women) was 20% more than Italy (men).