VOLLEYBALL 

NEWSLETTER

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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 events or products, 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@volleyballnewsletter.com

Hi all - More Volleyball news from the web.

Make sure you check out the excellent article by Simone Lewis, on her life as a professional player in Belgium.

Cheers - Dave Reece Dave.Reece@volleyballnewsletter.com

England v Scotland, the transmission dates and times have shifted a little, but are still essentially the same, with some minor improvements. See below;

Thursday 
7th Feb 15.30 Sky Sports 2
7th Feb 17.30 Sky Sports 3
7th Feb 19.00 Sky Sports Extra
7th Feb 3.30am Sky Sports 2

Friday 8th Feb 13.00 Sky Sports 2

Saturday 9th Feb 17.00 Sky Sports 3

Any interested viewers who enjoyed the show, to e-mail their approval of Sky showing volleyball to the following person; Toni.Llewellyn@bskyb.com

It really does pay dividends for the future to feedback to broadcasters.

Mike Heaney mike.heaney1@btinternet.com

I would like to get into a local club could you point me in the right direction? Can anyone tell me what clubs there are in the Leeds region and if you have some details. 

nationality: Italian / age: 25 / sports experiences: competitive volleyball (1991 - 2002)

Thanks
Stefano Rubino. Fog4@libero.it

Dear Dave, I am writing on behalf of Blades Ladies Volleyball Club based in Nottingham who are currently desperate for a coach. Would it therefore be possible to advertise on your website or maybe you know of coaches within the Nottingham area who may be interested in taking on a
team in the "small-time" league?!

We have enjoyed many a successful season in the East Midlands League. Our coach and assistant coach left the club last year (after 4 years dedicated service) after achieving their objective of the team winning the league. We are a club of approximately 14 players (incl. juniors) who are now looking for a coach to further develop the skills we have and bring on junior players.

Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated. Please find my contact details below:-

Nikki Wilson Club Secretary & Treasurer
nwilson@pentland.com

Hi there, I am thinking of setting up a Volleyball team in Carrickfergus, Northern  Ireland. Just wondered if you could tell me what the volleyball scene is like here. Any other clubs, useful contacts, that sort of thing, would be great.

Many thanks
Paul Daniels paul@daniels14.freeserve.co.uk

Hi Dave, I have just moved down to Richmond from Leeds, having played for the Leeds Met University Volleyball club for the past four years. I am having volleyball withdrawal and would like to join a team near to Richmond. If you could either post this on the newsletter or send me some info that would be much appreciated. I like the new layout of the website, well done.

Regards, 
Ben Tottle bentottle@uniservity-solutions.com

London Lionhearts Volleyball Club (member EVA and LVA, est. Nov. 200) seeks an experienced coach and players (all levels) to train with it's men's and women's teams in the London League. 

For more information please visit our website at www.londonlionhearts.org.uk If interested, please contact Claudine, the Club Secretary, at  
claudineferguson@londonlionhearts.org.uk

 Thank you.
Claudine Ferguson claudine.ferguson@totalise.co.uk

Dear Dave, We have a new web site address. The old one still works, but we also have www.cambridgevolleyball.org
Thanks for your help.

Regards,
Nick Ward nick.ward@broadreachuk.com

Information Required

Who can I contact for an application form to put a team in, say for Weston super mare and Walton?

Cheers
Sue Spencer hannah-spencer@ntlworld.com

The Dawlish Ladies Challenge

Entry Forms:
Entry Forms will be out as soon as we have finalised the event sponsorship (entry fees will be between £25 to £30 per team). To register for an Entry Form and for more info please contact Dave.Reece@volleyballnewsletter.com  or visit our web site at www.volleyballnewsletter.com/dawlish.htm for the latest info.

Tournament Notes:
As well as being a Ladies Tournament, the Dawlish Ladies Challenge is also a participation event and our aims is to help develop and encourage new Ladies volleyball teams within the SW area, see our web site for more info.

Hi, I am hosting a level 1 an level 2 course in March at The Ashcombe Volleyball Centre

Level 1 Saturday 23rd and 24th March
Level 2 Saturday 16th, Sunday 17th and Saturday 23rd March

Regards,
Freda Bussey sport.bussey@btinternet.com

Dear all, If you are interested in getting ready for the junior beach grand prix and the National Beach Volleyball Finals then here is where your 2002 season begins. There will be an open beach session for all junior players at Heyford, Oxford from Friday-Sunday 15-17th March.

Junior range from 15-22yrs of age.

If you are interested in attending or would like to know more then please contact me by email. There will be eight sessions over the three days if you can only attend for part of the time this is no problem, just get in touch with your availability. I will be away until the 1st of March so do not worry if you do not hear back from me immediately. I will be in touch as soon as possible after the 1st of March.

I look forward to hearing from you, even if you cant attend please let me know that you are still interested.

Many Thanks
Denise Austin austin@seabirdsbandb.freeserve.co.uk

Dear Dave, I would like to take the opportunity of your info letter to announce our well known international tournament for 1st division men and women teams. Date: 22- 25 of September 2002 Place: Sports halls of the city of Klagenfurt Klagenfurt is situated in the most southern part of Austria, near Italy and Slovinja. It is very famous among the Beach Volleyball professionals, as we organise since 1997 one World Tour event per year and did last year the Beach Volleyball World Championships.

Teams: We except one team per country. The team should be top of second division or of the highest division. We have teams from Slovenja, Croatia, Hungary, Austria, Germany and Slovakija who have confirmed their participation.

If teams of the UK or Ireland are interested, they should communicate their interest before 1.3.2002 per E Mail. For further information, send an E
Mail, or contact me by phone: +43 (664) 2000654.

Best regards,
Johann Huber, Manager, HYPO VBK Klagenfurt
feldkirchen@volleyball.at

1st "tournaments" / 2nd "beach tournaments" / 3rd "clubs" / 4th "junior events" / 5th "ladies tournaments".

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?

Torexe - Come and Try it

Torexe Volleyball club put on a "Junior come and try it session" at the Exeter Riverside Centre last weekend. Thirty youngster traveled from all over Devon to be coached by the National League coaches and players.

The players were treated to an exhibition match afterward, with the Club's Division Two side taking on the best from the Exeter League, in a very exciting and closely fought five set match. Everyone enjoyed the session, "is this on every week" was the question asked by everyone afterwards. You can see more photos from this event on our Newsletter Photos web page. Event sponsored by Torexe VC & the Exeter & District VA.

Being a professional athlete was always a childhood dream so having earned the chance to play at Asterix Kieldrecht this season I took time out of my 'regular' life as a sport science lecturer and headed to Belgium.

On the whole my time here so far has been a very positive experience, that's not to say there have not been difficult times, but the positives still out-way the negatives. Without a doubt the best thing is the amount and quality of the volleyball. It is simply a different world to back home. This team won the triple last year (Cup, League and European Cup) so they are good and there was a lot of pressure from day one to repeat that. The standard of training is high. The game is fast and powerful and it took some time to adjust to that. I think the biggest difference to the English women's game is the power (with control) in attack, blocking (which is far superior) and general tactical understanding (by coach and players). Certainly the real focus here is on outcome (i.e. for me the precision of the set, or the decision itself) and the majority of drills in training require a lot of thinking. For example, the block/defense systems might be dependent upon a number of factors. i.e. quality of reception, quality of set will determine whether blockers fix or assist and this in turn determines our defensive base. A prior knowledge of what we are blocking (line/cross/six) needs to be considered, as does direction of hitters approach, and whether the block has done its job in order to determine your adjustment in defense. We do a lot of drills that train and test this processing of information or pre-programming of information. Another good thing is the pressure to perform at all times. I have experienced much more pressure to deliver a good set in training here than I have felt in many matches in the NVL, and hence there is good transfer from what we do in training into competition.

On the downside there are two things I have found difficult. Firstly, dealing with being on the bench has been hard. I have not played as much as I would have liked so far and mentally that has been tough. The standards have been raised generally by playing over here, so really you have to play at the top of your game the whole time. Dealing with that and making an adjustment from being first to second setter is pretty tough going. My years of sport psychology work came in useful here. The second thing that's tough is not having an escape. It might be nice not going to work but it just adds to the pressure to play well. After a bad session or game, there is no distraction or alternative activity that you have to do. Added to that is a lack of social support, particularly at the beginning of the season (i.e. lack of friends and family around) and its just another challenge that needs to be dealt with. In addition to these two factors, the general language barrier is hard. Coaching is in Flemish (although the coach and most of the players can and do speak English very well) but just understanding drills, time-outs, team-talks, scouting etc. is still tough even now.

On the positive side there are many things that make it a fantastic experience. Realising a dream and just being here is not enough. The steaks are higher and all of a sudden you require much more from yourself both mentally and physically. Personally for me the best moment so far was playing against Odessa (Ukraine) at home in our last European Match. We unfortunately couldn't qualify from the group to the next stage but we had our pride at stake as we lost 3-0 to them away before Christmas. Out key outside hitter was injured, our first setter was ill and our libero (Maria Bertelli) was still injured so everyone was expecting us the get crushed. It was a great game, which we lost 3-1 but played pretty well and lost the last two sets by 2 points. For me it was a chance to show the home crowd (of about 400) how well I could do in a big game, and for the team to show how well we could fight. I thoroughly enjoyed the game, the pressure and the challenge. It was a good feeling to know I can hold my own at this level. It was probably one of the better games I have played in my career, and I think probably the highest standard of competition I have ever played at, so I was quite pleased I could still turn it on when needed.

Other positives are the general standard of my teammates. Some of our Russian born players have played for the famous Karpol, played professionally all over the world and are simply quality players in all aspects. The power that some of our hitters can generate would rival that of a lot of guys in the NVL, and learning to defend that ball has been another challenge. Also having time to plan, execute and evaluate proper physical and mental training on a daily basis has been good. As a sport scientist, having time to sort out my own training has been a refreshing change. Also for me the increased focus on tactical execution as a setter has been good. My awareness and understanding of the game have hopefully improved in this area too. 

On a more general basis other bonuses are the quality people I have met in the team and the club. I somehow expected professionals to be less caring and more selfish, but team and club spirit is really good here. Also traveling to places like Ukraine, Poland and Slovakia to play Europeans was a good experience. In Odessa we played in the coldest and most disgusting sports hall I have ever seen! I have never trained in so many clothes ever, I think it was about minus 10 inside! Coupled with this our hotel had a five hour power cut on the day of the game. There is nothing you can do…. just get on with it and play! Other good experiences have been the opportunity to do some coaching abroad. I coached the women's team at Leuven University to be Flemish Champions of Belgium, which was fun, and with Asterix we have been to many good social events with the team such as Belgium Sports Personality of the Year (not quite the BBC! but fun), VIP tickets to Last Night of the Proms! and other crazy things like that. Also the general life experience of living abroad, learning a new language and making a new life here has been a great experience too.

For anyone who has ever thought about trying to play professionally my advice is to go for it! I only got this chance through my own initiative in calling the contacts I had in Belgium and through years of working hard in training back home, striving for some kind of perfection and believing I was going to achieve something. I hope my England performances will be better as result of being here, because for the me the NVL does not prepare the National team at all well for international competition because the step-up is just too high. So an increase in international performances, as we know, is going to come from the experiences we gain outside the UK either as a team, or as individuals.

Simone Lewis sim_57@hotmail.com

Use the following as a point of reference: Point thumb straight down and use this as a Zero reference point and then rotate the hand until the thumb is straight up (180 degrees). What is the best hand angle for blocking? Fingers together, apart? Thumbs angled slightly down (75 degrees), pointing toward each other (90 degree), up slightly (135 degree) or nearly straight up? Would it depend on whether the blocker was outside or middle?

Bob vballdancer@aol.com

I've always been taught to make "Micky Mouse ears" with my hands while blocking. This means fingers spread out with thumbs pointed up ~135
degrees and pinkies parallel to the ground. This covers the most space with ones hands while keeping the arms close enough together so as not
to get six-packed. It works pretty well for me. 

Kevin Miller zvyyre9@arg1cyhf.pbz (rot13)

You may have heard rumblings that Klonoa might pop up in some new games, but now it's official: Namco has released first images of a Klonoa Volleyball for the PS one. The game, which takes place in several beach and other outdoor locations, features many of the characters previously seen in such games as Klonoa: Door to Phantomile and Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil. 

Klonoa Volleyball should release sometime this spring in Japan. 

By: Sam Kennedy http://www.gamers.com/

Africa Military Games

Fifteen countries have confirmed they would participate in the first Africa Military Games scheduled 15-27 April in Nairobi. Meanwhile, 29 others are expected to confirm participation soon, according to Col. Frank Mulu, executive secretary of the games east and central Africa liaison office. 

Sportsmen from the 44 countries are expected to converge in Nairobi for the inaugural games that will feature 11 events including handball, volleyball, athletics boxing and football. Mulu named those already confirmed as South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Djibouti, Cameroon, Namibia, Sudan, Algeria, Morocco, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Burundi and Ethiopia. 

http://www.africaonline.com

A Hungarian porn star Eva Henger on Tuesday came to the aid of Italian women's volleyball team Palermo by sponsoring their forthcoming game with Modena, ANSA news agency reported.  The announcement will raise eyebrows as it comes at a time when Italian female volleyball players have been complaining about what they consider the voyeuristic coverage of their sport by the media.

Henger will sponsor the match on January 27 in return for having her internet site publicised by the Sicilian outfit which has no backer. Italy's hugely popular women volleyballers are often subject to unwelcome attention from cameramen. The issue came to a head last month when Bergamo star and Italian international Maurizia Cacciatori - once voted the ideal sporting pin-up for Italian men - lost her temper after a match when a cameraman was evicted from courtside, reportedly for focusing too intently on her bottom.

"Certainly in Afghanistan women were forced to wear the Burkha (the all-encompassing headgear imposed by the former Taliban regime) but we in a different way have to put up with discrimination," said Cacciatori at the time. "Now we are used to it but we do not like this continual voyeurism regarding our sport."

Cacciatori later played down her reported remarks after TV moguls hinted that contracts may have to be renegotiated if restrictions were imposed on how they film matches. TV chiefs have previously justified their coverage, saying they need to focus on a player's backside as a player in the forecourt often hides a coded signal to a server by putting her hands behind her back while cynics point out that a prime sponsorship site is on the rear end of a player's uniform.

http://sport.iafrica.com/

What is an acceptable number of points that you can give the opponent (unforced errors). One of my assistant coaches likes to look at 20% of the points scored by opponents can come from our errors. 

Next question: What is an acceptable ratio of service aces to misses. We have been thinking 1 ace to one error. But in looking at the box scores in the women's championships this does not appear to be the case men. 

Now to all of the above questions. Do you think there will be a difference in? Men, Women, Very interested in hearing some ideas.

Vic Lindal viclindal@shaw.ca

The percentage of opponent errors amounted on average 28.7% for the final 6 at the world league competition for men in 2000. There was little difference in percentage between the winning and losing team 27.8/29.8. The number of points will be greater for the winning team so that the absolute number of points in the contribution of the winning team will be slightly higher.

The normal score rate for men and women at top level is about 0.35/0.40. As the service efficiency has at least to match this ratio so as not to lower overall efficiency the ratio of allowable errors to aces would be successively for women and men 1.86 to 1.5. In reality and unfortunately much higher ratios are observed for the men's competition. For the World Champions Cup the percentage of aces and errors was 4.40 and 19.85 a ratio hence of 4.5 and for women 3.97 and 6.91 good for a ratio of 1.7.

The women game hence matches the condition for unchanged overall efficiency. I have no data for lower level but play level will certainly have an
influence.

Allowable service errors. The number of points in rally counting will be equal to

S*(25-A-E) +A

Where A is the number of aces ,E the number of errors and S the score rate as defined by the number of points per service. For two teams of equal strength S will be the same and if it is further assumed that the other team would make no errors and no aces than following relations will hold :

S*(25-A-E) +A= S*25 from which can be derived

S=A/A+E) which indicates that score rate and ace over ace plus error ratio are of same nature

As the score rate for women on top level is about 0.35 the allowable relation between aces and errors will be .A/E= 1.86

leovh leovh@wanadoo.fr

Yes in speaking with Carl McGown he is big on the 4 point scale. He also said he will allow 18% error on spike servers. You are so right there are many factors to consider. I was very surprised at the number of errors in the serve column of the NCAA women.
That was only a glance and I will look more closely.

Vic Lindal viclindal@shaw.ca

Since you have one very good setter, you will probably be best off running a 5-1. You probably want to put your two very good spikers opposite each other (though maybe not if one is a middle and the other and outside hitter) so that one is always in the front row.
Bruno Wolff  bruno@cerberus.csd.uwm.edu

You know, I have the exact same kind of line up. What I found works best for my team is running a 6-2 rotational formation with a 4-2 serve receive. I have my setters starting opposite (6 and 3), Good setters starting opposite (1 - 4) and my 2 good bumpers at 2 - 5.

I have the very good setter starting in the back so that he can set the front row and my other setter can hit (from power). If you only have the six players, then having a libero wouldn't be the best thing (right?) because they can't attack or serve, so I'd have him/her as 2 in initial serve receive, so that you have that person for the next three rotations.

My very good spikers, I have rotating into middle because they have the height and love to hit one's. That's just my suggestion.
Doug Paul laheo@hotmail.com

Here's an different type of line-up you might consider _specifically for rally point_ using a 5-1 system. C, D and E only hit. A and F pass, B sets. Weakest players play opposite each other (E and F). No fixed hitting positions in the front court (setter calls who hits/block where prior to the
point being played). Back court the passers cover the cross-court hit. Players have to be flexible. If you use libero, change F for a hitter to be
libero'd out in the back court. E being the other libero swap.

C D F
E A B

Should cause some (severe?) consternation among anyone used to traditional line-ups. We call it the A-hitter system. Oh and it does work, but you might have to think about why and how!
Saul Dobney saul.dobney@dobney.com

To learn more about European events, we have decided to adopt a team, Asterix Kieldrecht from Belgium and follow their progress in this years Women's "Top Team" competition. They are the current holders of the event and are looking to successfully defend it this year.

Asterix Kieldrecht Volleyball club

09/01/02 18:00 POL - Bank Pocztowy BYDGOSZCZ vs BEL - Asterix KIELDRECHT 3:1 (25:12 22:25 25:14 25:12) 

POOL 1
1 POL - Bank Pocztowy BYDGOSZCZ 4 4 0 8 12 2 6.000 348 262 1.328 
2 UKR - Dynamo-Jenestra ODESA 4 3 1 7 9 4 2.250 299 264 1.133 
3 BEL - Asterix KIELDRECHT 4 1 3 5 4 9 0.444 267 311 0.859 
4 SVK - Slavia UK DGT BRATISLAVA 4 0 4 4 2 12 0.167 265 342 0.775 

Hi Dave, I've managed to see the previous pieces that have been in the newsletter, and enjoyed them. Unfortunately our European adventure is over.

We played in Poland last week against Bysgoszch and lost 3-1. This was an improvement on our home game against them when we lost 3-0 but they were both games that we could have won. In the home game we had set point in 2 sets and were 6 points up in the other. In the away game it was a poor performance by our team.

Last night we played our last home match against Odessa (Ukraine). when we played them away we lost 3-0 convincingly in what they described as their best performance of the season. However, playing in a sports hall that was minus degrees with holes in the windows and having no heating or electricity in the hotel on the day of the match was an experience!

However last night we seemed to play against a totally different team. Asterix have had big injury and illness problems - our best hitter is out with a back injury, our first setter is in bed sick and our Czech hitter has also missed training because of illness this week. That left us with only 8 players - not ideal preparation considering the opposition!

We had absolutely nothing to lose and it was the most spirited team performance we have had all season. we lost 3-1, after being level 1-1 we 
lost the last two sets 23-25. Simone played her first full match and had a good game. I'm sure she will email you but I think she really enjoyed the 
game, the atmosphere etc.

However the coach asked us to use this game to get a 'mentality' back into how we play. I think that with the injury to our key attacker and after a 
season of success such as last year (winning the European Cup, the Belgian Cup and the Belgian Play Offs) the motivation has sometimes been hard to find especially against some of the lower teams in the National Division and also having been away midweek against top European teams. I don't know how Manchester United do it year after year!! But we managed it and hopefully that will stay with us now as we start the build up to the crucial part of the season.

Next week we have the first match of the semi final of the cup (best of 3 matches) and this is probably the most important game of the season as it is the away leg so if we win there we can have a good chance of making it through to the final. We play against Charleroi who are 3rd in the league at the moment.

We are also off to Bratislava next week for our last European match. I think everyone is wanting that over now so that a new start can be made with the cup semi final. From my point of view having been out injured for 3 months and have just started training again I am hoping to use it to try and get back in the team.

Cheers,
Maria Bertelli m_bertelli@hotmail.com

Info from http://go.to/kieldrecht / www.cev.lu/ and Jan Bens Jan.Bens@electrabel.com 

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

4.36 In a match between the Netherlands and Greece at the Men's World Championships, two blockers from the Netherlands made a successful block. Just before the ball landed on the Greek floor, the ball slightly touched the penetrating foot of one of the Netherlands' blockers who had landed legally partially on the Greek side of the centre line. The first referee ruled a successful block. Is this correct?

Correct ruling by the first referee. The foot position was legal and the ball landing on the foot would be treated as though it had landed on the floor. Netherlands wins the rally. Rule 12.2.1. In a similar situation, if the ball had struck the foot of the blocker before the foot was in contact with the floor, the blocker would have interfered with the opportunity of the Greek team to play the ball. The fault would be declared on the blocker. Rule 12.2.1

4.37 The American blocker, Karch Kiraly, contacted the ball on the Soviet's side of the net. The ball rebounded into the air where it was hit with a blocking action down to the floor on the Soviet's side of the net by the American front row player Doug Partie. The ball had never penetrated into
the air space of the American team. The first referee signaled a fault on the block of Partie. Was this a correct decision by the first referee?

The first referee was correct. The action of Partie was not legal. The action of Partie was not "one action" with that of Kiraly and could not be considered to be a collective block. It was, therefore, an attack hit by Partie carried out immediately after the block of Kiraly within the Soviet air space. Rule 12.1.2, 15.1.1, 15.2, 15.3

If the ball blocked by Kiraly had penetrated the plane of the net, the initial contact (attack hit) by Partie would have had to be made on the American side of the net. Rule 14.2,1, 14.3.1, 15.1.1, 15.2

More examples in the next issue....

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