The following Newsletter has been forwarded to you, from the Volleyball Newsletter E-Mail list. The UK's leading on line Volleyball News service, providing up to date volleyball information, direct to newsletter members throughout the UK and Ireland. Articles are collected from a variety of sources and credited appropriately. The Volleyball Newsletter uses advertising sponsorship to support our free and non-profit making service to newsletter members. To advertise your volleyball event or product, direct to players, club and league secretaries throughout the UK & Ireland, then please see our web site for details or contact Dave at Dave.Reece@ndirect.co.uk 

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Hi all - More Volleyball news from the web.

Not too much news around at the moment and the calendar is looking a bit bare, so if your running a course etc this winter, please let everyone know.

The Volleyball Newsletter now has a free WAP service, available to all Volleyball Newsletter Members. It will provided you with all the "On_The_Road" information that you need while traveling to and from sport centers around the country. Check out our article below -  then program your mobile phone to access http://www.wapdrive.com/vballnews and you will have access to all the current volleyball events, courses, tournaments and local facilities where every you are in the UK and Ireland.

Cheers - Dave Reece Dave.Reece@ndirect.co.uk

Dave, Egham Volleyball Club is looking for players to expand it's Men National League Division 2 squad. The team trains once a week on Wednesdays 8pm-10pm at Egham Sports Centre. Anyone interested should contact Graham Pursey (graham_pursey@btinternet.com) for more information.

This is all due to a number of National League players emigrating or retiring this year, will be merging the remaining players from last years men's Division 1 and 4 teams into a Division 2 team for the 2001/2 season. 

Thanks,
Graham Pursey graham_pursey@btinternet.com

The University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich http://www.uea.ac.uk is one of the top twenty ranked academic universities and in the Sunday Times Good University Guide was one of only nine universities with a 5 * rank for sports facilities.

We have the largest most modern multisport complex at any British University http://www.sportspark.co.uk with four indoor volleyball courts with a sprung wooden floor. The University volleyball team has a record of strong success in student competitions and is coached by Keith Nicholls FIVB coach and author of Modern Volleyball and Volleyball : Skills of the Game.

If you are a volleyballer and looking for a university with good facilities an experienced coach and an active volleyball club why not consider UEA
Norwich. Volleyballers of all levels are welcomed, more experienced volleyballers may be considered for one of the University sports bursaries.
For further information

Keith Nicholls k.Nicholls@uea.ac.uk
Director of Physical Education and Sport
University of East Anglia

Torexe Volleyball Club are currently looking for new players this year, the Exeter based club has teams and training sessions which cater for all standards of play. The clubs open sessions are held on Friday nights at the Riverside Leisure Centre in Exeter, Beginners 7pm - 8pm, Open training 8pm-10pm. Anyone in the area who would like to take advantage of some additional training and a volleyball social session is welcome to drop in. 

Rachel Swindell rachel.swindell@ndirect.co.uk 

The Iron Ladies *** 105 mins, 15 PG How absurd is this for a film pitch: a male volleyball team, made up of gays, transvestites and transsexuals, triumphs over adversity and goes on to win the Thai national championships?  Ridiculous, yes, but it actually happened.

After being frozen out by homophobic players who won't let them join the district squad, Mon and Jung enlist the help of fellow outcasts to build a new team. Together, they pout, scream, raise awareness, cover a Bay City Rollers number, bicker, pull together and win handsomely. The relentless queening is wearing, the message about tolerance hammered home, the jokes are predictable, but it's all done in great spirit. 

Sunday Times

Honours were shared in shocks at Northern Ireland CUP finals in Belfast Saturday (29 September) at Methodist College Belfast.

Men's Holders Belfast City pulled off a rabbit's trick to edge surprise of the day Lurgan Aztecs 29-25 in the 2 set Blitz final. Lurgan had knocked out their Armagh clubmates and seniors, Portadown by a single point 24-23 in the semi final. Belfast only squeezed into the final 26-25 over the 2 timed sets against last season's Championship runners up Scrabo LizArds from Co. Down. 

After ten years, and with some of those self same players, Derry re-entered senior Ulster volleyball and won the 5/6 play-off against former Cup winners Olympia Belfast on a 2-0 sets scoreline.

Women's holders Belfast City took it to the line against League Champions Enniskillen Blockbusters but lost 19-17 in the deciding set. It is the first
time the Cup has gone West to County Fermanagh and Liz Wilson and her girls celebrated the double with lots of sponsor Red Bull gargles. Craigavon Aztecs enthusiastic girls took a well earned 3rd place with a hard fought 2-1 win over the cosmopolitan International Brigade from Queen's University Belfast.

Paddy Murphy paddy.murphy@doeni.gov.uk

7th Youth World Championships - FIVB

Boys' Youth World Championships

CAIRO, Egypt - The boys from Brazil literally jumped for joy when they defeated Iran on Sunday in a sweeping 3-0 (25-16, 25-16 25-18) victory to take the gold medal in the 7th FIVB Boys' Youth Volleyball World Championships.

Girls' Youth World Championships

Pula, Croatia, 30 Sept. - China is a new Girls' Youth World Champion, the Asian girls defeating Brazil in four sets 3:1 (25:23; 25:21; 25:27; 25:22) in Sunday afternoons final in Pula, Croatia. 

China's fast play dominated the court in all sets. Even though Brazil had the best blocker of the tournament, Fabiana Claudino, the Chinese attacks were unstoppable on the day. 

1st "world championship" / 2nd "tv rights" / 3rd "refereeing course" / 4th "belfast" / 5th "coaching course".

If you are organising an events or are running a coaching or refereeing course, make sure your event is well publicised. If your forthcoming event was not listed in our search statistics, you may be lacking Brand Awareness?

 http://www.wapdrive.com/vballnews

This facility is designed to provide volleyball On-The-Road information and useful links to other services. If you are stuck on the road, looking for the nearest cash point or just need to see when that next tournament or course is, then check out our site. Set up your mobile phone for our WAP address:  http://www.wapdrive.com/vballnews

** Check it our NOW, just click on our link http://www.wapdrive.com/vballnews and you will be taken to the site via a wap phone emulator. (Scroll buttons for up & down, Yes for Menu and No for previous page).

Info on the VNL and Links to other useful On The Road services.

With the My Nearest menu, we have links which will provide you with local information, e.g. for finding the nearest restaurant, pub, filling station, Bank, Post Office as well as Cinema and other entertainments in the area. These sites ask you to enter your location (town or post code) and will supply you with a list of services, with basic address and distance to. The site 5 Mins Away, also asks for motorway and next junction number, in order to provide you with a list of available services within easy reach of each junction.

If you have a Volleyball WAP site (or any other wap service) that you would like to see added to our list, please let me know. The use of wap sites to provide internet type information has not yet caught on, even though the majority of us have this facility. The down side is the small screen, poor menus and unable to find the info you require, please let me know if you find this service useful (or not)  Dave.Reece@ndirect.co.uk

Brazil's quiet achievements of the last three months should heed a warning to all volleyball nations: Brazil is back! 

It started in June when the men's team played flawless volleyball throughout the months of May and June, cumulating with a memorable 3:0 defeat of Italy to win the World League finals in Katowice, Poland.

But what was almost as impressive of their demolition of Italy in the final was Brazil's consistency over the two months: they were the only undefeated team of the finals series; they dropped only four sets in their four matches; and they lost only one match over the entire World League. 

This win seemed to open the floodgates for the Brazilians. Since, Brazilian teams have competed in seventeen international and continental competitions, winning fifteen - including five new World Championship titles. Not to be outdone by the senior team, the Brazilian junior team won a historic victory two weeks later, on 19 August, at the Men's Junior World Championship 2001. On 5 August, at the Beach Volleyball World Championship in Austria, the team of Adriana Behar/Shelda claimed their second consecutive World title. Compatriots Pires/Minello finished with the silver medal, as did Loiola/Santo in the men's World Championship.

On 26 August in France, Brazil made a clean sweep of the first Under 21 Beach Volleyball World Championships, with the team of Sigoli/Cunha winning the men's title and Shaylyn/Salgado Rufino winning the women's title. Another extraordinary spin to this achievement was that Shaylyn, the winner of the women's title, is sister of Shelda, the dual-senior World Champion. 
Brazil's beach teams then took another clean sweep on 4 September, this time at the Goodwill Games in Australia, with Loiola/Santo winning the men's gold medal and Minello/Pires the women's gold medal. 

To cap-off an extraordinary three months, on 9 September, the Brazilian women's junior team won the women's Junior World Championship in the Dominican Republic. This win gave Brazil all four Junior and Under 21 World Championship titles - a total domination of junior Volleyball and Beach Volleyball. 

Brazil also won the senior and junior men's World Qualifying tournaments (July & May), the senior women's World Qualifying tournament (July), and the men's and women's South American Championships (Sept.). 

And it is not over yet. Adriana Behar/Shelda have already topped the women's World Tour rankings for 2001, for the fifth consecutive year; Emanuel/Tande lead the men's World Tour rankings going into the last event of the year; and the Youth World Championships are currently underway. Whichever way you look at it, with so many accomplished players waiting to join, and take over, the starting line-ups of the senior men's, women's and beach teams, Brazil's future at the senior level looks very bright.

Stop Press - Brazil added to this record on the weekend (30 Sept), winning the 7th Boys’ Youth Championship, and finishing second in the 7th Girls' Youth Championship. 

The pools :
A: Brasil, Poland, Argentina, Portugal
B : Italy, Spain, China, Venezuela
C: Russia, Cuba, Netherlands, Germany
D: Yugoslavia, France, Greece, Japan

No more North-American country unfortunately, pool D will be hot. The Grbic brothers won't like facing the French again!

Due to the lack of available dates in the calendar, the Grand Champions Cup, which is usually organised in Japan with the European Champions Cup Winner, the best Japanese club and the best South-American club, has been cancelled.

Too bad for Paris Volley, who won't be able to prove that they are the best world club team..:-)

Christian Perrier bubulle@kheops.frmug.org

The England Senior Men's squad have just returned from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia where they participated in the Saudi-British Sports Programme Series supported by BAe Systems. Unfortunately England were unable to beat a strong Saudi side in the three match series. However, this young squad, whose average age is 22, were far from out-played and created set-winning chances in all three games but just missed out on the crucial points.

Led by captain Steve Fee, who won his 47th cap in the final game, England faced a well-organised Saudi team in the final stages of their preparations for the Gulf Championships next week. By comparison, England are at the start of a new cycle but this young squad have clearly demonstrated their potential over the three matches. None more so than 18 year-old setter Ben Wilkinson who confidently handled playing at the highest level with three assured displays. Ben was among five new caps with his England Junior colleagues Richard Newman and Andy Sinclair also making their full international debuts.

The first match of the series saw England narrowly lose the first two sets. However, they managed to fight back to take the third set convincingly
25-18. Unfortunately, England were unable to maintain their momentum and lost the fourth set 25-18. Power hitter Danny Weemes ended the game
with four service aces and 21 kills while the passing unit of Fee and libero Alexis Blair dealt well with the Saudi jump serves to achieve an
excellent service receive average score of 2.43.

England started the second match confidently but hitting errors at critical points allowed the Saudi team to take the first set to 17. Head coach Ian
Legrand's introduction of Stephen Roper, the only non-UK based player in the squad, at the start of the second set gave England a more varied
attack. Strong blocking by Sheffield's Alex Porter brought about a set point for England but they narrowly failed to convert this opportunity and
ended up losing the set 26-24. The third set saw England open up an early lead and consistent passing from Fee (13 consecutive 3-point passes)
helped England keep pace with their opponents. However, two consecutive blocks gave the Saudis the advantage at the end of the set and helped them close out the match. 

Although the passing unit produced another solid display (average score of 2.48) the effectiveness of England's hitters was telling ? the percentage
of kills fell from 49.5% in the first match to 38.9%. England's third international in as many days took its toll on the young squad as the home side turned up the power and ended up taking the final game 3-0. The visit ended with a final training match with the Saudis before the squad traveled the 3,000 miles back to London.

The trip would not have been possible without the full support of BAe Systems and given the current unrest in the Middle East the trip went very
smoothly and we did not see any evidence of increased tension. This was the fourth such trip in recent years and it is hoped that our relationship
will continue to grow. In fact, BAe Systems have already invited the Saudi team over to the UK as their guests next year.

Charlie Orton chasvolleyball@netscapeonline.co.uk

Does anyone have experience or recommendations on the VB Training machines? We are going to purchase one this year.. looking for first hand experience - pros - cons. 

Jimmy Jfpeden@aol.com

If you are going to buy one I would look into purchasing the AirCat (www.aircatvolleyball.com) . It's probably the most expensive, but the most useful. They also have some financing options. 

I have found one of those machines most useful when I do personal one-on-one coaching with players and I need to simulate a spike, serve, set, etc. It allows me to watch the player's technique which you really can't do when you are hitting or serving at them. I think it's useful if you are the only coach available and you and/or your players don't have the skills to serve and/or hit consistently. It's really an assistant coach that can hit balls, if you need one. However, if you have kids who have good control of hits, serves, etc. I would use them to get to do the hitting and serving because now the players can visualize what a hitter looks like when they take a swing or a serve. If you're mainly coaching younger kids (e.g. elementary school age) I would focus more on teaching the kids how to toss balls so you can do a lot of partner drills because at that age they need a lot of reps in a controlled environment (but simulate game type of movement) to improve their skills and the best way to get a lot of reps is to be in pairs instead of having 6 on one side and have someone serving. Granted that is needed but QUALITY REPS are more important. Also, teaching kids how to toss so they can run their own drills is great. It's amazing to see how many high school players and even coaches who don't know how to toss. 

Yoon Ha yoon@vball-coach.com

Jimmy, We use a Hit Master in our club and also with our college girls. 

Chris Clauss cmwarner24@aol.com
Junior Development Coordinator 

RUSSIA REMAINS WOMEN’S EUROPEAN CHAMPION - CEV

Russia remains Women’s Senior European Volleyball Champion. In Varna (BUL), the Russian team defeated Italy after a fifth set tiebreaker in the thrilling final this Sunday evening. Although the Italian team spoiled the chances to win the European crown for the first time ever a little bit, Russia deserved the win. In the major European events, the team of head-coach Nikolai Karpol is unbeaten since 1995 and grabbed the third title in a row.

Russia had to fight hard this time to win the European title for the 17th time. In the six matches to reach the final, Karpol’s girls didn’t loose any set. It was therefor a surprise that Italy won the first set thanks to quick attacks, smart set-ups and amazing digs. In the second set, Italy was leading until the end, but some nasty serves of Lioubov Chachkova, awarded as the best server of the tournament, brought Russia in the match.

At one moment, it looked like Russia would win the match with the score of 3-1, but Italy forced the opponent into a fifth set tiebreaker. In this decisive set, Russia immediately took a 6-0 lead and never gave this advantage away anymore. On the Russian side, Chachkova was the best scorer with 23 points. It was Italian opposite attacker Elisa Togut who was with 24 points the best scorer of the match. The Italians were disappointed, but reaching the final was already something for them. The ‘Squadra Azzurra’ never reached the silver medal spot in volleyball history. 

Host Bulgaria took the bronze medal after beating Ukraine in de classification match for the third position (3-1). For the home squad, this was a great achievement. During the last years, Bulgaria didn’t succeed to reach the Final Four of a European Championship. The last time the Balkan country took a medal was in the gold in 1981, when Bulgaria was host for the last time.

Now, this historical volleyball country is on the way back. Last month, both the men’s and women’s team qualified for the 2002 World Championship. The third position is the crown on the work of head-coach Emil Trenev. Bulgarian star Antonina Zetova was with 22 points the best scorer of the match and she also claimed the trophy for the best scorer of the event with 151 points.

In 2003, the Turkish capital of Ankara will be the host of the women’s European Championship. Besides Turkey, the top three of this event (Russia, Italy and Bulgaria) are directly qualified. All other European nations will start their qualification campaign next year.

FINAL: RUS – ITA 3-2 21-25, 25-23, 25-23, 18-25, 15-6.
Classification 3-4: UKR – BUL 1-3 23-25, 25-22, 21-25, 21-25.
Classification 5-6: NED – POL 3-2 25-22, 22-25, 25-19, 21-25, 15-9.
Classification 7-8: FRA – ROM 1-3 18-25, 25-22, 19-25, 23-25.

Final Ranking: 1. RUS; 2. ITA; 3. BUL; 4. UKR; 5. NED; 6. POL; 7. ROM; 8. FRA; 9. CZE; 9. CRO; 11. GRE; 11. GER.

Hello from Padova, Italy. I play (after more than 20 years of men's volleyball) now in a "mixed" team, don't you know something about these championships ? We play 3+3, guys and girls together, and many people in Italy play this way and support this "special" volleyball. Play is very funny, believe me.

Good, we are now the 2001 Italian Championship winners in Uisp championship (Uisp is: Unione Italiana Sport Per tutti, Italian all-people sport
association, link is http://www.uisp.it/pallavolo), we won the title last June in Fano, Italy.

Do you know if there's something similar around Europe ?
Uisp is a non-professional association, we call ourselves "amatori" and play only for fun and friendship (yes, there's also some agonistic charge, of
course!). Is there anybody else out there who plays the same mixed volleyball ? I believe there are no international championships, so I would like so much to have some contact outside Italy, to exchange ideas and "have a ball" with international teams.

Can anybody help us ? Ciao, and thank you so much for any answer.
Alberto Giaccaglia giakiprods@libero.it

Hi Alberto, In France, there are not an official "mixed championship" but each regions have a mixed championship, we call it "Loisirs" (leisure or relax volley)

Ciao http://el.camaron.free.fr

Alberto, I think you're very fortunate to have a mixed league to play in, in Italy. Here in the UK there's only men's and women's at a National level, but all tournaments run mixed events, usually outside on grass.

From: snogfest_hosebeast@my-deja.com

Hi, I was just wondering if anyone could give me a tip on keeping my fingers from jamming. I mean I think I'm setting the wrong way but I can't seem to figure out how to get my thumb under the ball. I've had it jammed for such a long time it hurts when i move them. what do you suggest????

wayne chow yuiwing@email.com

Are you using your fingertips to set the ball? One thing we do with our setters to work on correct hand position is to take one of those miniature volleyballs (or any ball in general) that are about the size of a softball and we do wall sets with them for about 5-10 minutes. We do this because young players have a tendency to have their setting window too wide and with a small ball you can't do that. Our setters first thought it was stupid, but after two weeks of doing this for about 10-20 minutes a day, they saw the benefits. It's gotten to the point where they make a habit of warming up everyday with the small balls before they go to the regulation size volleyballs. Another thing you might want to try is to take the ball and form your hands around the ball and make sure the distance between your first fingers is identical to the distance between your thumbs. You can do wall sets this way, but make sure that you can see both your thumbs and first fingers when you are doing wall sets. Also make sure that your entire finger(s) up to the crease above the palm is in contact with the ball. 

Hopefully this helps. If you need further explanation please email me directly. 
Yoon Ha yoon@vball-coach.com

Just wanted to hear some opinions on whether or not more indoor players should be playing on the beach. We all know that many of our greatest beach players came from the indoor game. Why not start a player's development on the beach and bring them indoors?

Roger Ozima rozima1@home.com

In our area we will see more and more players specializing on the beach. Now that this is a medal sport in the Olympics you may find more players
wanting to just play out doors. We do see players on Victoria Canada playing beach and using the indoor game as the second game not the other way round. We are now starting them on the beach at age 10/11 (girls) 

Victor Lindal viclindal@home.com

In the UK we don't have a particular heritage in volleyball but from my coaching of adults who are just starting, increasing numbers are trying out
the sport because they had a few sessions on the beach rather than having any interest in the indoor game, so the beach is bringing people into the
sport here.

The better beach players we do come across tend to have great individual skills, but lack 6-a-side court positioning awareness and discipline and
passing accuracy compared to dedicated indoor players which makes integrating them in a team tougher.

Saul Dobney saul.dobney@dobney.com
www.bathvolleyball.co.uk

Does anyone have good (great) drills to teach movement in young ages (11 and below). We are having a hard time finding "fun" drills that incorporate movement. 

Tks 
Jimmy jfpeden@aol.com

Jim, One of the things I have done at my elementary school camps is drills that are very similar to what I do for my club, but I make it competitive. Kids at that age (actually any age) love to compete and/or race each other.

I really focus on a lot of shuffle stepping as the core court movement. What I would do is set cones (markers) up in different patterns e.g. figure-8, W-formation, triangle and put the kids in small teams and show them how to shuffle step and they would have a relay race against each other. Whoever won would receive a prize. I would also have them start over if they did not move correctly. All of the movement will be shuffle step. 

Another thing we would do is have the kids pair up and one would sit on the floor with their legs split wide as possible and their partner maybe a foot away from them and what the kid on the floor would do is roll a ball on the floor along one of their legs alternating legs while their partner would roll the ball back to them while shuffle stepping side to side. We would have a competition of how many times they can roll the ball. What this did is forced them to stay in a low position while moving and simulate having a ball come into a platform. We would do it for about 60 seconds and switch and count how many times they could do it and they would compete with each other. 

I've had a lot of success doing this type of stuff with kids between 3rd and 6th grades. That's a couple of ideas. Hopefully this helps. If you need more details please don't hesitate to ask. 

Thanks,
Yoon Ha yoon@vball-coach.com

Some of the more interesting volleyball rules from the FIVB Casebook. Did you know that......

2.8 Prior to the start of play in a match at the Olympic Games in Barcelona, the first referee noted that the Italian Team's coach was carrying a walkie-talkie radio and speaking with a person seated in the spectator stands. Are such devices allowed?

The use of such devices is allowed.

2.14 In the European match between Nyborg and Austrat, the coach of Austrat entered the court by way of the back line to coach his Libero player. On another occasion, the coach stood between the extended attack line and the extension of the centre line. His position there blocked the scorer's view of the server. What is the correct response of the referees to this behavior?

The coach, and only the coach, has the right to walk between the extension of the attack line and the warm up area. The coach has no right to enter the court to carry out coaching functions. The coach was therefore not correct on three counts. He is not allowed to: 1. be behind the court in the service zone 2. be within the extension of the attack line and the centre line 3. enter the court

The first referee should issue, through the game captain, a minor misconduct warning to the coach. The coach should be reminded of the limits of the coaching freedom. Rule 5.2.3.4

3.2 In the USA National Championships, Sato, the centre back player, was standing clearly in front of Miller, the centre front player. Just before contact of the ball for service by the opposing team's server, Sato jumped into the air and was not contacting the court in front of Miller when
the ball was contacted for the serve. Was this a legal position for Sato's team?

When players jump from the floor, they retain the status that they had at the point of last contact with the floor. Therefore, while Sato was in the air, the point of last contact with the floor was retained and Sato was considered to be in front of Miller and out of position, loss of rally. Rule 7.4, 7.4.2, 7.4.3

3.3 At the instant of service, the centre back, R-6, is standing with both feet slightly behind the feet of the centre front, R-3. R-6 has a hand on the floor clearly in front of the feet of R-3 at the time the ball is contacted for service. Is this a legal position for the receiving team?

Legal position. Only the feet which are in contact with the floor are considered when determining whether players are out of position. Rule 7.4.3, 7.5

More examples in the next issue....

Libero Stats

The receiving performance of the liberos in the preliminary round of the recent world league competition 2001 is summarised in next table. The
libero's are ranked according to percent error. The FIVB ranks according to % exc, which is percentage of excellent stops minus the errors.

Rk Name Team Sets Exc Err Cont Tot %Exc %Err
1 Corsano Mirko ITA 45 168 8 70 246 65.04 3.25
2 Meana Pablo ARG 48 198 11 106 315 59.37 3.49
3 Dimitrakopoulos GRE 49 161 12 107 280 53.21 4.29
4 Teixeira Carlos POR 39 130 10 77 217 55.30 4.61
5 Valido Alexis ESP 51 268 19 105 392 63.52 4.85
6 Wojcik Krzysztof POL 47 141 12 86 239 53.97 5.02
7 Henno Hubert FRA 48 194 14 69 277 64.98 5.05
8 Sullivan Erik Thomas USA 45 102 9 67 178 52.25 5.06
9 Santos Sérgio Dutra BRA 46 158 15 77 250 57.20 6.00
10 Tsumagari K JPN 43 165 18 80 263 55.89 6.84
11 Skoric Edin YUG 42 74 10 47 131 48.85 7.63
12 Chambert Hern CUB 42 163 27 121 311 43.73 8.68
13 Kooistra Joost NED 50 165 30 129 324 41.67 9.26
14 Silva Jorge VEN 48 67 13 58 138 39.13 9.42
15 Bachmann Frank GER 47 171 31 127 329 42.55 9.42
16 Mitkov Evgueni RUS 42 113 24 64 201 44.28 11.94
Total Libero's 2438 263 1390 4091 53.17 6.45

Those results are some what surprising in that with an exception for Italy none of the top teams demonstrates good libero receiving. Several teams
such as Italy and Argentine have excellent libero. Quality wise Spain and France make good scores. Difficult to explain is the result for Mitkov of
Russia who usually shows good performance with around or below 5 % error. The next table may show that there is a definite contribution of the liberos as a group to the receiving performance both in quality and for lower errors.

WL Prel Round Exc Err Cont Tot % Exc %Err
Libero 2438 263 1390 4091 53.17 6.43
Without libero 5060 663 3559 9282 47.37 7.14
Total team 7498 926 4949 13373 49.14 6.92

This difference is slightly higher now than two years ago when the libero was introduced. This may show that the libero function is currently well introduced but it could apparently not avoid that overall receiving quality is regressing. Although there is an overall impact of the libero on performance, this is not the case for all teams as is shown in following table. The teams are ranked according to the relative contribution of the libero on the error percentage of the team. For the teams on the top of the table hence the libero makes good contribution in decreasing overall error.

Even for a team as Germany with high error quote the libero which itself makes also poor score brings contribution. The teams from on starting with
Venezuela have all poorer libero performance and negative contribution. It is currently usual that 85/90 % of all services be stopped by only 4 players. An average player part of the services would be about 20 to 25 %. The part of the libero's is given in the last column. The average part of
the libero in serve stopping is 30 %; some teams however show much larger contribution. This would certainly be justified if the libero functions
better than the average team which is the case for Argentine Brazil and Spain but certainly not for the Cubans and the Dutch which may have to review their stopping strategy. 

In most teams where the libero makes good performance it is both the lead and the best stopper. The libero hence does not only obtain lowest error but is also the leading stopper in the amounts of services received. This is the case for Italy Spain France Argentine but there other countries where the libero is not the best stopper such as for Russia Greece the USA and the Netherlands . As long as the libero is best stopper , there is no problem in making it also the lead stopper, in case where this is not so , the distribution of serve receiving may have to be carefully examined. Cuba Russia and the Netherlands are teams, where other stoppers more efficient than the libero could have been used to improve overall efficiency.

Team Sets Exc. Err Tot %exc %err Exc Err Tot %Exc %Err %Lib
ITA 45 509 45 834 55.64 5.40 168 8 246 65.04 3.25 29.50
POR 39 408 58 786 44.53 7.38 130 10 217 55.30 4.61 27.61
USA 45 452 64 823 47.14 7.78 102 9 178 52.25 5.06 21.63
ARG 48 533 50 981 49.24 5.10 198 11 315 59.37 3.49 32.11
POL 47 456 58 847 46.99 6.85 141 12 239 53.97 5.02 28.22
BRA 46 410 53 679 52.58 7.81 158 15 250 57.20 6.00 36.82
GRE 49 535 46 918 53.27 5.01 161 12 280 53.21 4.29 30.50
ESP 51 596 52 964 56.43 5.39 268 19 392 63.52 4.85 40.66
GER 47 470 98 969 38.39 10.11 171 31 329 42.55 9.42 33.95
VEN 48 490 84 918 44.23 9.15 67 13 138 39.13 9.42 15.03
CUB 42 369 58 711 43.74 8.16 163 27 311 43.73 8.68 43.74
FRA 48 553 42 898 56.90 4.68 194 14 277 64.98 5.05 30.85
YUG 42 377 48 686 47.96 7.00 74 10 131 48.85 7.63 19.10
NED 50 485 70 877 47.32 7.98 165 30 324 41.67 9.26 36.94
JPN 43 468 48 817 51.41 5.88 165 18 263 55.89 6.84 32.19
RUS 42 387 52 665 50.38 7.82 113 24 201 44.28 11.94 30.23
Tot 732 7498 926 13373 49.14 6.92 2438 263 4091 53.17 6.43 30.59

Leo van Hal leovh@wanadoo.fr

VOLLEYBALL