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.

Cheers - Dave Reece Dave.Reece@volleyballnewsletter.com

Hi Dave, could you help me to find an online store to buy the latest model of Asics volleyball shoes ( I was searching for model Asics gel 5000-V) if you give me some addresses it would be great help.

Thanks in advance.
Ali salehi ali_salehi@yahoo.com

Hello I am Manson, I live in Tewkesbury. I want to know if anyone can tell me where can I learn volleyball near my place. 

Chan manson manson_robyn@hotmail.com

Dear sir, We have a team of volleyball and all team Members are six brothers .Our team is totally our family team, we six brothers are members of the team and two of us are international players, here in Pakistan. We are the only full team of brothers, may be there is other in world but we don’t know. We have challenged all Pakistani teams and won, now we challenge all world to play with us either here in Pakistan or in your own country. 

Want to play, then please contact us. Hope you will show courage in talking the Challenge
Waiting for reply, Six brothers club, Pakistan.

faisal faisalahmad4u@hotmail.com

Quoted success rates are high but I'm somewhat distrustful of them. Can I return to "real" play ever? I'm 39 years old which may have an impact.

Thanks for any comments or advice you have.
Cathy S. besthiker@attbi.com

Hi, This is just a quick email to let you know Stroud Volleyball Club have officially launched our web site. Please add a link to your own site if you have one, and let me know if we can add a link to ours. A map link to our home venue is on the Training page for those who may need it. Any comments/observations, please use the email link or email me to let us know.

The URL is www.stroudvolleyball.co.uk

Best Wishes
Tania TJChomicz@aol.com

November 9th 12.00 - 16.00 Bath December 7th 12.30 - 16.45 Hutton Moor Feb 22nd 12.15 - 16.00 Hutton Moor March 29th 12.00 - 16.00 Bath

To qualify for places in the Grand Prix you must have entered at least 3 of the 4 tournaments. If you have entered more than 3 the best scoring 3 will be the ones that count. Points will be awarded as follows:- 

Winners 10 points, Runners up 8 points, 3rd 6 points, 4th 5 points, 5th 4 points, 6th 3 points, 7th 2 points, all other teams score one point for entering.

All age groups will be playing 3 v 3 this year and the age groups are U11, U12, U13 & U14. U11 and U12 will be mixed, U13 and U14 will have separate groups for boys and girls. The cost of entry will be £8 per team for each tournament.

For an entry form and more information, please contact me

Thanks
Mike Halse mikehalse@hotmail.com

Could you ask if there is anyone out there who might be interested in helping the Knutsford Volleyball Club set up a better website. (Perhaps a student looking for a project or something?) All we have now is one meager page ( www.knutsfordvolleyballclub.co.uk )which doesn't reflect too well on the true status of our club.

And as always, we're always looking for new faces to join. We currently have both a men and ladies team in the Merseyside League.

Thanks in advance,
Terri Danisevich tcd@fsmail.net

At this time of year, many coaches are getting prepared for the new season by purchasing new and additional publications. Altogether 26 different titles our available via our on-line store, the top five selling titles for October are...

Click Here to Visit >>> The Volleyball Book Store

Web Site Advertising

I have added a few more volleyball associations and club web sites to our on-line volleyball index, this brings the total number of associations to 33 and clubs to 169. However a few of these are currently not responding, so if you have a web site, can you please check that the details are correct. 

Club web sites are great money earners, so it's important that you keep your details up to date, our club web site generates a couple of hundred pounds a year by attracting new members etc, Cambridge have informed me that their site generates over £2,000 pounds a year for their club, via the turn over of new members, with the resulting membership, training and match fees etc.

You may also like to know that the Club web site index, is our most visited web page.

Dave Dave.Reece@volleyballnewsletter.com

Thanks!
Cheryl Powell Cheryl.A.Powell.1@gsfc.nasa.gov

Unfortunately my son has been blessed with my vertically challenged genes. Is there any exercises or routines that can help increase his vertical ?

The Stickles stickle@edmc.net

Research books and the internet regarding Plyometrics. Make sure you read the recommendations on having the body be prepared for plyometric exercises. You can do more damage than good if the lower body is not ready for them. You also did not mention how young your son is. Heavy weights and plyometrics is probably not be a good thing for a someone under 14 years of age.

JRS jerrystrubdelete@earthlink.net

I'm coaching some students (16+) who haven't played volleyball before in the basics of the game. When it comes to teaching positions, I have a choice - I can teach 6 up, set from the middle as most people seem to learn as beginners, or I could go straight to 6-back, set from 2 as they might expect to play at club-level.

Separately, as a club coach, I'm always having to convert the 6-up players to think and play 6-back so are there any reasons why you wouldn't just go straight to 6-back, set from 2 and remove the confusion?

Saul Dobney saul.dobney@dobney.com

It might be good at a low level to allow each player to learn how to set and play all 6 positions. For higher levels I would teach any left hander you have to be the setter. If you have two, then use the taller one. If you have none then teach the tallest player with the fastest feet to be the setter and teach them to play left handed. Easy to do with beginners...

Vballdancer1 vballdancer1@aol.com

The main advantage of the 'set from the middle' approach to beginners is more applicable to younger children who are not strong enough to be able to get the ball from 2 to 4 for a decent outside set. With young adults, this is not such a problem, but it depends on who they are and how quickly you can get them to be effective at setting. For example, for beginners who haven't quite mastered the control in the overhand pass, it is still *very* difficult for them to get the ball that far (and very frustrating for the people who are at 4 :-)

In short then, if they can overhand pass the ball far enough for an effective set at 4, from position 2, don't bother with setting from the middle / 6-up (but I can't see this happening :-) 

John McCabe john@assen.demon.co.uk

New website featuring the Springbak Springsole, the only insole guaranteed to make you jump higher. http://www.dynamicfootwear.com

Great Jump and Speed Enhancing product, used by US Women's Team and many top college women's teams

dynamic_footwear@my-deja.com

The Latin Cup for height-limited players

The idea of a "Latin Cup" for volleyball players under 1.85 meters for men, and under 1.75 meter for women, has been proposed at the annual World League Council meeting. The Presidents of the French and Portuguese National Federations, Jacques Shaw and Vicente Araujo, agreed that such an event could be a first step towards a possible World Championships for players in these new categories. Indonesia's National Federation President Rita Sobowo, already offered her country as the host to the inaugural World Championship for players in this height category during the recent 28th FIVB World Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 

Ms. Sobowo suggested this event could be held in 2005. The idea attracted the immediate support of Brazilian Federation President Dr Ari Graça Filho. "If such a Latin Cup can be held, deal my country in", he said. Brazil already has concrete plans for a national league of eight teams in the new category. The idea of launching a special category for height-limited players was greeted with great enthusiasm by delegates from the Federation's five Continental Confederations and its 217 affiliated National Federations when tabled at the 28th World Congress. 

Demographic studies indicate that more than 95 percent of the world's population falls into the proposed categories, and the creation of such a competition is in keeping with the FIVB mission of bringing the sport to as many people throughout the world as possible. Presently, volleyball played at the highest competitive level, attracts many players over 2.00 meters tall.

The new competition is yet to be officially named.

Bring Passion into the Game - FIVB

A web-based statistical company has released a study indicating that modified rules for volleyball have introduced more energy and passion into the game as, evidenced at the just concluded Men's World Championship in Argentina. The report, published on the website www.infostradasports.com in their No. 42 Bulletin for week ending October 17, 2002 quoted three rule changes introduced in 1999, namely:

· Net Service was allowed (if the serve touches the net but goes to the other side, the rally continues
· 25 points required to win a set; every serve will lead to a point for serving or receiving team. (Before only the serving team could score a point)
· Introduction of a libero

"The impact of those changes were visible during the World Championship in Argentina last week," The Infostradasports report said.
According to the study, teams competing in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, still tended to play the old style game, where dominant teams concentrated on regaining the serve while waiting for the opponent to make a mistake.

"Since 2000, volleyball has turned into a game where the dominant teams are aggressive in serve, defense and attack. A lot more energy is used in scoring points while the team is serving themselves. Ten years ago the highest speed of a jump serve was about 105km/h. Nowadays serves of over 120 km/h are not exceptional. The result of all this is that seven out of eight quarterfinalists at the 2002 World Championship were countries well known for the emotions and the passion with which they indulge in sport (the only exception is Russia)," Infostradasports reported.

The rule changes have also produced a sport better packaged for television, resulting in some 170 countries broadcasting the Men's World Championship.

Volleyball has been played in Stroud since Stratford Park Leisure Centre was built in the early 70's. It grew to the heady heights of the National League in the late 80's, with both a men's and a ladies team playing to a fairly high standard.  The club ceased to be in the mid 90's, and was reformed when Archway School received funding for a new sports hall, with Volleyball as one of its focus sports.

The Sports Centre started a volleyball night on a Monday in 1997, which pulled in some of the old Stroud crew, together with some new faces, both with and without experience of playing. The initial training sessions were coached by Lydney volleyball club, and Dave Coles traveled over week in, week out, to help the people of Stroud enjoy their volleyball.

We then found we had enough female interest in playing in a team, to enter the Gloucestershire Volleyball Association ladies league. At this point, we realised we needed to be a club, and not individuals attending classes. So, the current Stroud Volleyball Club was born. Only one ladies player had experience of playing previously, and with this the author took the reigns, formed and chaired the new club.

As the season approached, the male players managed to form themselves into a small squad, and so by the first season, both Ladies and Men were playing in the local league. With pride we purchased our first volleyball, and took over the training nights from the Sports Centre.

Each year we have strived to maintain a positive and happy atmosphere at the club, and encouraged all players to improve their game and enjoy this wonderful sport. Our aim has been to grow and develop the club, to allow as many people as possible to experience the game we so love, and to try and find a place for every skill level.

The club now has approximately fifty members, we have two men's teams and a ladies team, and the men's first team have been promoted to the South West league. We have been sponsored for the last two years by The Retreat Wine Bar in Stroud, and have recently negotiated a joint sponsorship deal with The Retreat and Cheltenham Motorcycles. This means shiny new kit for next season, and some exciting times ahead.

Most importantly for the club, has been a recent decision to move venues. We regularly check with other venues to make sure we are getting the best deal for our players and so we don't become complacent. This time Stratford Park Leisure Centre came up with the best deal, and with the club bursting at the seems, so to speak, the committee voted for us to move. We now train on Wednesday nights, from 8pm till 10pm. The Leisure Centre offers many more facilities for spectators, families and friends. As well as publicity for our sponsors and our game. 

With the promotion of the first team, some changes will be taking place in the coming season, with regard to games and training. But we will move and grow with these changes, just as we have with all the others.

www.stroudvolleyball.co.uk

Attack. The attack has considerably reduced in efficiency since1998. The percentage of aces has been reduced and the errors increased. The lower aces might have been influenced by more active digging since the introduction of the libero while the higher errors could be related to lower precision in service receiving.

Pr=preliminary rounds Fr=final round. Csuc% is the to zero error corrected percentage of aces. 

The different team data for the final round are displayed in following table: The attack data show usually good correlation to the final ranking of the teams due to the dominant influence of the attack. The differences between the various teams are shrinking, lowering impact of the attack. One might be surprised by the third place of France with what appears modest attack data. The France team as will shown later however have been able to compensate the lower attack efficiency by better field defense.

Service. Service performance has certainly been influenced by the rule changes. The shorter matches and the allowance of the net rule have certainly initiated the teams to take more risk in scoring direct points. The data show that indeed more aces are scored but the errors too are increasing. In terms of ace ratio there appears to be no progress.

Error analyses indicate that increasing number of matches are lost by higher own errors. The higher errors in serving are therefore not without danger. It would appear that many teams still make too many service errors and have yet not found a good balance. Due to the rally counting the sets are shorter and the average number of services per set has decreased from 39.1 to 22.5.

Further to their good attack data Brazil shows also good serving performance. One may remark the French data with low errors, which finally results in superior ace ratio.

Blocking. Blocking intensity has reduced with the shorter sets. The percentage of kill blocks appears not to have changed. As the reduction of the amount of success blocks appears to be proportional to the service reduction it can be concluded that there has been no evolution in the efficiency of the blokes.

Yugoslavia shows superior blocking with more than 3 success per set. In the match against France however they were performing very poorly with only 6 blocks (2 per set) against France 12 which is exceptional good performance. Remarkable is the modest performance of the top teams Brazil and Russia.

Receiving. The evolution in receiving has been most striking over the past years. The quality of receiving has definitely decreased and the number of errors has increased. On the one hand is there more aggressive serving with makes receiving more difficult but on the other hand defensive experts as liberos are brought in for service receiving. Serve receiving moreover has become an affaire of three to four specialized players so as to reduce errors and optimize precision.

Team statistics are shown in following table: One may remark the good results of Brazil and the poor results of previous champion Italy. Receiving has become a particular domain of the liberos. In the next table therefore detailed data of the libero performance is displayed. Liberos take place for about 35 % in receiving and their average performance is better than for the remaining players. For most teams with an exception for Russia the libero is the most active receiver but not necessarily with best results.

Digging. No data are available for digging at the 1998 championships; the data hence will be compared with more recent data from the World league competitions. It would appear that there are no clear evolutions, average digging efficiency turns around 5.3 digs per set and appears to decline slowly.

The various team data are given in next table: It is clear from the data that the better defensive teams as Argentine and France take an advantage of 2.5 success digs over the average performance. This may mean a relative gain of 2.5 points. As the number of aces on average is round 12.5 per set; it follows now that a reduction of 2.5 points will correspond to a sensible loss in attack efficiency. Further to the devastating effect of a good defense on the morale of the attacking team it will show the importance of the digging for all cases where the attack alone is no more able to create sufficient margin in the final result. More importance might therefore be drawn to the defense. Digging has become with receiving the major activity of the liberos.

leo van hal leovh@wanadoo.fr

SPECIAL CASES

9.8 In a tournament in Scotland the match between Elliots and Grangemouth was tied at 23-23 in set three. The second referee called Grangemouth for "out of position". Grangemouth protested the judgment, but to no avail. On the next service, with the score 24-23 Elliots, the second referee again called the Grangemouth out of position and declared the set to Elliots. Again the game captain of the Grangemouth protested to both referees.
After some discussion, the first referee agreed that both judgments were incorrect.

However, the first referee stated that the set was over and that no correction could be made. Despite continued protests, the referee continued play with set four. The Grangemouth team captain recorded the protest formally at the end of the match. Was this a proper action by the first referee?

The first referee was wrong. Referees are allowed to correct their decisions concerning the application of the rules. The Appeals Committee corrected this obvious mistake by restarting the match in the third set at 23-23.

More examples in the next issue....

GREEN - Out Door Tournaments / BLUE - VB Events / ORANGE - Beach Tournaments / RED - In Door Tournaments

On Line Calendar / Volleyball Links / Data Base / Tournament Entry Forms / Reports / Photos and Advertising Opportunities