VOLLEYBALL NEWS

The following Newsletter has been forwarded to you, from the SW Notice Board E-Mail list. Currently providing up to date volleyball information, direct to over 200 newsletter members. News Letter mailings are done, as and when required or when we have time related info to send out. Articles are collected from a variety of sources and credited appropriately. To advertise your volleyball event, direct to team members, club and league secretaries, please contact Dave at Dave.Reece@ndirect.co.uk

More info from the Volleyball web site, our membership list has now topped the 200 mark. Got a VB event, then let everyone know about it.

Cheers, Dave

Thanks for your time, yours sincerely, Steven Goodear s.goodear@virgin.net

Dave, Would you be so kind as to advertise these women's coaching dates on the SWVA bulletin board. thanks
Cheryl Pearson CPea119036@aol.com

A six week course designed for both beginners and existing players. Learn and improve your skills through playing the game. The emphasis is on fun, action and competition. All sessions taken by E.V.A. Level 2 registered coaches at Coombe Dean School, Charnhill Way, Elburton 7.30pm to 9.00pm May 2oth to July 2 (excluding half term week June 3).

Please send completed application form to: Mrs C.L.Pearson,13,Heybrook Drive, Heybrook Bay, Plymouth, PL9 OBN.

(Entry form available on the web site)

Please find attached an entry form for the 1999 Guildford Tournament.  It's in MS Word 6/95 format.  If you can't read it, a text version is available on our website; http://www.btinternet.com/~volleyball/givc , or e-mail me your address and I'll send one in the post.  

I look forward to seeing you at Guildford '99! Chris Hall Chris.F.Hall@btinternet.com

(Entry form now available on the web site)

The first major international FIVB event in Mexico in 25 years - A total of 151 teams from 29 countries have entered the US$340,000 combined men's and women's Mexico Open to be held next month in the breathtaking scenery of Acapulco's Tamarindos Beach.  The Qualification Tournaments are scheduled April 7-8, and the Main Draw April 9-11.

The Mexico Open is the second of 13 events for the Men's 1999 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour and the first of nine for the Women's Tour.  All the stops of the 1999 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour are Olympic Qualification Tournaments for Sydney 2000.
A total of 89 tandems from 25 countries are entered in the men's event and 62 teams from 20 nations are currently set to compete in the women's tournament.

The organisers and the FIVB have granted a wild card to US player Gabrielle "Gabby" Reece, paired with Linda Hanley, allowing the popular "international cover-girl player" to come back in the FIVB Tour directly in the Main Draw.  The second wild card will be for the English team Amanda Glover - Audrey Cooper. Brazilians Sandra Pires and Jackie Silva, Olympic gold medallists at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games and winners of the 1997 FIVB World Championships, will play in Acapulco, but with different partners.  Pires now plays with Adriana Samuel, silver medallist in Atlanta with Monica Rodrigues, whereas Silva is now paired with Ana Paula Connelly, one of the most prestigious indoor Volleyball players, twice Olympian, and member of the Brazilian selection during the 1998 World Championships last November in Japan.

Amanda Glover in action at the Weymouth Grand Prix.

MEN'S EVENT

The wild cards have been granted to two US tandems: Dain Blanton-Kent Steffes and Sinjin Smith-Robert Heidger. Karch Kiraly and Steffes, the US gold medallists from inaugural Olympic men's Beach Volleyball event at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games have entered the Mexico Open, but with different partners.  Steffes now teams with Blanton, while Kiraly, the only player to win Olympic Gold Medals in both the indoor and beach competitions, and arguably the most prestigious player in the world, is now paired with Adam Johnson.  This team will however go through the extremely tough Qualification Tournament and try to clinch one of the eight available passes to get into the Main Draw. Also entered in the Mexico Open are Pará and Guilherme, the No 1-ranked men's team on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.  The Brazilians are the reigning FIVB Beach Volleyball World Champions after winning the title in 1997 in Los Angeles.

Hello Volleyball friends,   On May 21st, 22nd and 23rd Unisign VVC will organize their 28th International Outdoor Tournament. All matches will be played on a grass courts. It is possible to play on almost all thinkable level. On Saturday evening a fantastic tournament party will take place. No details will be given here ...   Please, find attached a registration form for this upcoming tournament.   Please forward this invitation to YOUR volleyball friends,  feel free to post it on your web-sites,  publish our invitation in your volleyball magazines etc.

For more information on this tournament or a subscription form in Dutch or German send just an email to us at unisign_mei@sp-p.demon.nl   You can find us at : http://home.worldonline.nl/~lhouwen/logic/unisign_vvc/Index.htm (available in English, German and Dutch).     Hope to see you all in Panningen soon  !

Regards,
Unisign VVC - Tournament Committee    

Please find attached an application to the Herts Volleyball Tournament.   The contact for this tournament is available at DWinson@tycofire.com.   Please help make this a success by entering and passing on to any other Volleyball contacts you may have. If you operate a Website could you please add or update my club's link as shown below.   http://www.stevenagevc.freeserve.co.uk/  

Regards.   Warren King

(Entry form available on the web site)

Northern Coast Volleyball , Ohio, USA, have an interesting volleyball gifts section. So if you need a volleyball mouse mat, volleyball Yo-Yo, volleyball night light, Geometric volleyball puzzle, volleyball playing cards, volleyball key rings, Shore laces with "I Love Volleyball" on them, Socks embroided with "Volleyball" in a Heart, I Love Volleyball Pins, seat cusions, picture frames, mugs etc, etc - well you can check it out at... www.northcoastvolleyball.com

Sports Council
Each County has been allocated to one of three timetables for the establishment of the ESC latest Youth Sport Development programme.

Timetable 1- Autumn 1998, Birmingham, Black Country, Buckinghamshire, Avon (C.U.B.A.), Durham, Essex, Greater Manchester, Kent, Leicestershire, London NE, London SE, Merseyside, Oxfordshire, N Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Somerset, Suffolk, Surrey, Sussex, Tyne & Wear
Timetable 2 - January 1999, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Chesire, Hampshire & Isle of Wight, Hereford & Worcester, Hertfordshire, Humber, London NW, London SW, London W, Northamptonshire, Staffordshire,
Timetable 3 - 2000, Berkshire, Cornwall, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Northumberland, Shropshire, S Yorkshire, Teeside, Warwickshire, W Yorkshire, Wiltshire

Regional Commission meeting
A number of action points came out of the meeting on 20th Feb 1999.
1) A clear need to recommend a preferred method of funding, ongoing Regional activities.
2) Running Sport Courses to be arranged to assist Regional Personnel.
3) EVA Strategic Plan to be circulated to all Areas
4) Regions to initiate discussion with Areas on planning.
5) The office to compile a list of items produced, and topics of information that is available, circulate this to all EVA Administrators so that they can request information that they need.
6) A revised Job Description for Regional Representative to be prepared.
7) The Regions need to appoint someone to work closely with each EVA Commission.
8) Terms of reference need to be agreed between the Commissions and the Regions.
9) Commissions need to keep regional contacts informed of their plans and decisions - eg. Sending a copy of minutes to nominated regional contact.
The next meeting to be held in the West Midlands on Sat 22nd May 99.

Main topic - Planning.

Funding Regional Activities
It became clear during the Regional Commission meeting, that there was not a clearly defined route for Regions to fund their ongoing activities. Most had Junior activities that were self funding, but money was raised from old grants, Regional Leagues, block affiliations, area affiliations.

Tournaments
Many of you will have tournaments being organised in your area. On behalf of the many players and teams around the country that want to play in them, can I pass on this message, that I recently received. "I think my main gripe is that there is no co-ordination in terms of dissemination of info about these events. I know they largely have nothing to do with the EVA as they are organised by the clubs that put them on. However it would be easier to get teams in and to attract new people if there was common publicity. I know I'm preaching to the converted writing to you about this. I don't really think that it is fair that you as a 'civilian' should be seen as the best way of getting info on all manner of matters volleyball!" The EVA Office should be co- ordinating the information on Events - but we must ensure that the information reaches them in time, and in a format that they can easily forward to enquirers. I have asked Tom to inform clubs what information the office needs. Can you encourage those you know organising to send the information to the Office.

Grants
Now many Regions are busy spending the Grants they have received, lets not forget next year.

The Budget for next year includes:
Regional Commission 2000.00
Mentoring Volunteers 800.00
Handbooks for Regions 1500.00
New local Women's Comps 600.00
New Centre based Leagues 600.00
Regional Coaching Awards 600.00
Regional Referee Courses 1200.00
Nat'l&Regional Junior Confs 1000.00
Regional Youth devt. Plans 2000.00
Competitions
Regional Champs 3000.00
Area Champs 3600.00
Regional Squads
Training 10,000.00
Attendance at InterReg 3000.00
Youth Dev Zones * 2 3000.00

Lets hope the Sports Council continues its support of the EVA. Meanwhile get planning. I think it is good open Government to let it be seen what areas the Grants the EVA have sent out cover.

Charlie Orton Charlie_Orton@compuserve.com

Job Responsibilities:
* Drive the VolleyVan across the country, from venue to venue conducting volleyball clinics for children ages 7-18 and coaches/teachers
* Teach kids volleyball in a constantly changing environment requiring the clinician to use creativity and problem solving skills unique to this experience
* Ability to adapt to constantly changing situations and diverse participants
* Communicate effectively with program hosts (ie: YMCA, YWCA, Girl Scouts and USAV regions, etc.) and the project coordinator
* Compose written press releases to be distributed via the internet each week summarizing the week's activities
* Assist in maximizing visibility through connections made with media

Minimum Requirements/Qualifications:
The position requires CAP I certification (or higher), one year coaching experience at the club level or above as a head or assistant coach, one year of youth coaching experience and one year of camp/clinic experience. The position requires excellent organizational skills and volleyball related administrative experience. Experience working within the USA Volleyball structure is very desirable, and a good working knowledge of the volleyball community is essential. Interested candidates should send a letter of application, resume, three current letters of recommendation or 3 references (employment based prioritized - name, address and phone), salary history and expectations to (no phone calls):

John Kessel - Director, Grassroots Programs & Beach Volleyball, USA Volleyball john.kessel@usav.org

The significance of the ace over ace plus error ratio for the serve.

In order to examine the influence of service efficiency on overall play result, this section will be started with a simplified situation where both teams are of equal strength. It will be assumed that team A scores 10 % aces on serve for 20 % errors. On the remaining serves the rate of scoring will be 1 point on three services hence 0.33 point/serve.

On 100 serves hence the situation will be

Aces 10

Side out on services 20

Points on remaining service (100-30)*0.33 = 23.3

The total amount of points hence is 10+ 23.3 =33.3 or 1 point per three services.

Both service and play have same scoring rate of 0.33 points per service.

For this simplified case the question will be answered on what service strategy can the opponent team B chose to make equal play assuming as stated earlier a scoring rate of 0.33 during normal play.

From a simple equation in which X present the number of aces and Y the number of errors

X +0.333*(100-X-Y) =33.3 (1)

from which follows Y=2X  The answer hence is an ace to error ratio of 0.5 or an ace to error plus ace ratio of 0.333 which equals the scoring rate of the game. For a situation where scoring rate is lower with many side outs an analogous result will be obtained only for the case that the serve efficiency equals the scoring rate of the game.

For a scoring rate of 0.2 points per service team B could serve for equal performance with a ratio of 4 errors to one ace.

The ace to error plus ace ratio appears hence a useful tool to judge serving efficiency. When the ratio is higher than the game scoring rate serving hence will make a positive contribution Approaching now closer normal game situation the question is what happens if for team A the ace over service plus ace ratio is different from the game scoring rate? Following situation is assumed:

Team A Number of services 100 ; aces 10 errors 20 hence a/e+a = 0.333

Game scoring rate 0.2 points per service. Total scored points hence will be 10+ (100-30)*0.2 =24

A similar equation as (1) will fix serving strategy for team B X+ 0.2*(100-X-Y)=24 (2)

Which results in Y=4X-20

X Y

5. 0
6. 4
7. 8
8. 12
9. 16
10. 20

This is at first sight a surprising result. There is no longer a fixed ratio between aces and errors .The distortion is caused by the fact that the service of team A has a higher scoring rate than the normal game play. In normal play there will be 2 points per 10 services and hence 8 side outs. As both teams play equal game there will be on average 1 points per 4 side outs The net effect of team A services will be 10 aces minus 20/4 = 5 points or 5 points. To play equal team B has to compensate continuously a max.5 points handicap by the strategy calculated in above table for X and Y. For the case where service efficiency and play efficiency are different there is hence no longer a simple rule and the notion of ace to ace plus error ratio will have to be completed by "  net difference on serving " .

No simple relation will any longer exist for the case the ace over ace plus error ratio is lower than the game efficiency.

For a game scoring rate of 0.4 the relation between errors and aces for team B becomes:

X Y

0. 1. 5
   2. 6.5
   3. 8
   4. 9.5
   5. 11
   6. 12.5
   7. 14
   8. 15.5
   9. 17
   10. 18.5
   11. 20.
   12. All those combinations will score 38 points out of 100 services. In particular the initial cases are surprising allowing high service errors for few points. The reason is that points are more easily scored during the game. Team B would score 40 points in case of no service errors. The comparison of both tables indicates that for a given amount of service errors more points will have to be scored for the case that the scoring rate of the game decreases. It gives a justification for a general feeling that in case it is difficult to score points that it may be worthwhile to take risk in serving to make the points there. A set in side-out scoring of 15 points will be concluded for the winning team with about 50 services .The net handicap on points scored by the service may amount two to three points.

Although the ace over ace plus error ratio can strictly be used for teams of near equal strength we feel that it is a useful characteristic to judge service performance, it will have to be accompanied by a notion of net contribution hence by subtracting from the aces an estimated amount of points for the errors on bases of an assumed or observed game scoring rate.Top scorers in the Italian prof league reach 0.33 ace to error plus ace ratio, contribution however is only slightly positve.

leo van hal leovh@wanadoo.fr