devo's volleyball

This month, Volleyball SA will host it’s Beach Volleyball School’s Cup. This summer will see the biggest event in the tournament’s history, and I am told the biggest Volleyball event in Australia in terms of team numbers.

Volleyball SA is proud of their 69 schools and 767 teams that are playing during the week. The event is also rivalling the biggest event in term of participants and on top of that, they have Volleyball Australia doing some homework to find out how big this event is on a world stage.

Congratulations to all the schools, players, and staff for getting behind the event. Its so great to know there will be 1000’s of people getting behind volleyball!!

It seems every time someone gets some cheddar, a libero gets told to enter in the libero replacement zone and not via the corner store, an assistant coach gets told to move a chair over, a timeout request is dismissed for being too late, and now, of all things, a coin is tossed, SOMEONE complains about protocol!!!

As a referee, player and coach in the South Australian State League, I feel I am in a position to comment from a few perspectives, and I just cannot see what the issue is…

30 minutes before the match, the referee will collect the score sheet and bring it to the court for the coaches to write their names on the sheet. This is protocol, and the reason behind it is hopefully quite obvious and well known. From there we have 20 minute warm-up protocol, again, obvious stuff. We check the net height at 14 minutes, toss a coin at 13 and have our captains sign the score sheet and start their warm up at the net. This nasty ‘p’ word is all over the first 10 minutes of a match, but it needs to be so that everything is fair. It could be left alone to their players devices, but when the bounce off ensues, and players from other courts are brought in, out of uniform, to start playing just before the match, the other ‘p’ word will hit the fan.

The match starts after rotations are checked to make sure everything is fair and no one breaks rotational rules throughout the match. The players play their best, the coaches coach their best and the referees ref to their best ability.

But then something happens…

Then someone breaks the rules…The coach calls for a timeout after a serve has been authorised, a substitute enters the substitution zone too late, the assistant coach is standing on the sideline yelling at their players. The referee gives a delay warning, as they should (it’s in the rules).

And here’s where it all goes wrong. Because the referee is *expletive here, here and here* because he/she is all about protocol… You’ve heard it all before I’m sure.

So… Why does it all happen?!

The coaches and players know why they do it, and will have their own reasons, ranging from not wanting to be at fault for being on the brink of giving a point away, to thinking that referees are vile vermin that ruin the sport, and everything in between. Referees have their own reasons as well, mainly based upon the rules, but I would be telling a bit lie if I said that every referee who followed that protocol did so without the desire to piss a few people off…

But, from the examples above.

Prematch protocol is there to protect the teams from unfair behavior, sinister or otherwise.

Delay warning for calling a timeout at the wrong time is because it is against the rules (and can disrupt the serve that has already been authorised, plus the scorer will need a moment to make sure the timeout is legal).

Delay warning for a wrong sub is because it is against the rules (again the scorer needs to make sure its legal, plus we don’t want the game taking more and more time, after all the new sub protocol was introduced to save time, and get the refs out of the centre of attention).

Warning for the assistant coach for being in the wrong chair, again, because its in the rules, but most importantly, because as a second ref, you need to be able to look up and identify everyone. If you look up and a non-player is standing, its the coach, if you look up and the coach is sitting in the warm-up box, you don’t know where he/she is and can’t properly perform your duties.

The protocols of volleyball are there because it is the best shot that the FIVB have given referees to keep the game safe from unfair behavior.

Lets not forget rule 20.1.1; Participants in the match must know the ‘Official Volleyball Rules’ and abide by them.

So I open the floor…What is wrong with protocol? Or, what are referees doing wrong with it’s delivery? Without the feedback from the players/coaches/other referees, we will never know!!

On Saturday, 31st of October, the AVF at the facilities of the AIS hosted the inaugural officials forum, “Improving Officiating“.

The forum featured a workshop focussed on the position of the official today and what priorities are to improve officiating, hosted by Liz Pollock. Following this, a fascinating presentation by Jason Patchell, a psychologist from the AIS high performance unit who discussed the ‘normality’ of feeling stressed and how stress upon the body is a natural occurrence that can either enhance or hinder your expertise. An excellent perspective to share…

The entertaining Mick Stone was one of many highlights on the day, with compelling stories of his time as an official, as well as discussing effective communication tools to use with players to ensure mutual respect, calm and sensible outcomes are achieved. Mick is one of those guys who has you enthralled from the moment he opens his mouth (and even before) and his discussions on decision making processes were valuable.

The highlight for me was the exceptional presentation from Simon Taufel, cricket umpire extraordinaire. What was most impressive for me was just the sheer amount of work he puts into his officiating and preparation. There are far to few an opportunities for volleyball referees to improve their officiating outside of match play, the concept of ‘referee coaching’ or ‘training sessions’ is foreign outside of the 2 or 3 courses we do in our entire officiating life. Simon’s salient point was that a referee ‘coach’ should be distinctly different from a referee assessor. Most National referees (or above) have the opportunity to be assessed, but very, very few have the opportunity to be coached, let alone by a person unique from the assessment process.

The people who attended the forum are in no doubt better for it, and I can say confidently that I will strive to attend all future sessions and encourage all referees (of all levels) who are passionate about their refereeing to experience the opportunity.

Credit to John Cheadle and the AVF for the event, I hope many more people support it in the future.