7 players on the court?
Posted by devo on August 18, 2008
UPDATE: originally posted 17/08/08
One of the beauties of volleyball is that the rules are not sacrosanct. The FIVB looks at the rules (usually every Olympic year) and is prepared to make changes. This has traditionally been to balance offensive and defensive advancements. In more recent times, to enhance the appeal of the game to television.
On his blog Andrea Zorzi canvases the case for 7 players on the court. The libero becomes a player, rather than a replacement. This would bolster the defense, and prolong rallies. What do you think?
Thanks to correspondent Russ you can look at the USA women’s team at the Sydney Olympics playing with 7 on the court. And they weren’t picked up!
August 17, 2008 at 9:43 pm
I would suggest that this has already been tried by the USA Women’s team at the Sydney Olympics when they played Australia. This was for more than a few points. I would suggest that if you have access to the footage, you may want to check it.
August 18, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Thanks Ross,
Russ has sent me a clip, which I’ve uploaded to the Flickr site, for those who want to have a look.
August 18, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Wouldn’t that get a bit crowded on court?
It fits with the recent FIVB decision to have a 14 person squad with 2 liberos. However, whether it will be good for the game or not is another matter. I think that there should be a large trial if this is seriously going to go ahead.
But, what is wrong with volleyball at the moment to make it worth changing this dramatically?
August 18, 2008 at 2:16 pm
I’ve spoken to a couple of people who aren’t really into volleyball but have watched some at the olympics, and they all seem to agree that men’s volleyball is pretty dull, whereas women’s is exciting because of the rallies. The men’s matches are often just too quick and predictable for people that aren’t fully involved in the sport.
I guess that is why they are suggesting there should be more defensive players. Isn’t it the same reason they introduced the libero and keep deflating the ball?
August 19, 2008 at 6:55 am
Before anyone gets too excited, Zorzi begins by saying the proposal was dismissed out of hand.
In response to ScottL and Baron, the eternal debate in volleyball is about the advantage of the offence over defence which is essentially the length of the rallies. Every change in the rules for the last 40 years has been about addressing this imbalance. If anyone is interested I could make a list of all of them but the libero and deflating the ball are two examples.
The biggest problem is that people are fixated on the idea that the length of the rallies is somehow indicative of the quality of the game or makes it intrinsically more interesting. A volleyball fan understands that a 30 second rally with 3 free balls is under no circumstances the same as an 8 second rally where a receiver stands 15m away from a player serving 115km/h and uses his FOREARMS to control the ball PERFECTLY to a target less then 1m square from where two other players coordinate perfectly to spike a ball into the 3m line before anyone on the other team can move. I saw this time and again in the Poland-Russia game today and every time it astonished me.
It is only a lack of volleyball education that uses the length of a rally as some kind of guide to the quality of a game. As Zorzi himself says, with 7 players on court “the long lasting Women’s Volleyball rallies would lengthen unbearably”.
August 19, 2008 at 12:32 pm
I agree about the assumption that longer rallies make better matches. It is an assumption - a BIG one. I’ve coached at Schools Cup in the young divisions where sometimes the rallies last forever, often with the same two people hitting it back and forth to each other just over the net!
Watching the USA v POL women’s match on the weekend there were times when I wish the setters were good enough to give a decent transition set so someone could finally end the rally! Yes yes, I know they’re the best in the world and they are under pressure and all that but seriously, its not THAT hard!
Personally I’d be happy to go back to the good old days of 9-man. The rallies will last forever!