January 19, 2007
Base Defense
Defense is one of the most important skills a team can have. A good defense can wear down a strong offensive team. Beat a power team with control.
Like most skills in volleyball, positioning is 90% of the battle--if you are not in the right position you will not be able to effectively play defense. More importantly, if you are out of position on defense you will mess up your teammates. It's better to only have 5 people on the court, then having a sixth player that is creating "negative defense" by interfering with the ablility of your teammates to make a play on a ball.
Almost every men's team uses what is called "Deep 6 Perimeter Defense" (as opposed to a rotated defense for example). Deep 6 means the middle back player, who is player number 6 on the court by service order stays way deep. Perimeter defense means the defense starts on the perimeter of the court and knows that everything inside of them is "in" and anything outside of them is "out."
Here is what your base defensive positions should look like for Deep 6 Defense. From here on out, I will simply call it THE defensive positions with the understanding that you know I'm talking about Deep 6 Defense. If I talk about a rotated defense in an advanced topic, I will specifically name it.
Here is the position your team should be in before the ball is set by your opponent:
Notice that 6 is standing on the backline or out-of-bounds. This is very important for two reasons. First, Six needs to be able to pick up dinks to the back corners. It is almost impossible to pick up those dinks if he steps into the court because he will have to run backwards and try to play the ball forward. It is much easier to run forward and facing the net while covering a corner dink or to run and dive sideways to pick it up. Secondly, in the absence of a hole in the block Six needs to pick up the "high hands" hits off the blockers hands (high hands: hitter tools off the top of the blockers hands and out the back of the court).
Figure 2: Base Defense: Responsibilities, illustrates the responsibilites of the back row defenders. I will illustrate this better in specific hitting cases.
Defensive Positions: Left Side Hitter Hitting
This post is a continuation of my defense explanation. It will cover defensive positions when an opponent's left side hitter is attacking.
The defense should shift into the position illustrated below as the play develops. All diggers should have their feet planted before the hit and their weight forward on their toes.
Figure 1: Defense: Left Side Hit
Figure 2: Defense: Left Side Dink
I'll explain by position number. The setter is in the 1 position. The most important piece of advice for diggers is to NOT stand behind the block (except deep 6). If you cannot see the ball, it *cannot* be driven hard at you.
1: As he sees the set going to the outside hitter, 1 runs from the base position straight back the line to about 18 feet off the net. He plants his right foot on the sideline and angles himself towards the target position (the spot where the setter wants to set from). It is important that he along with all defense players, stops moving and gets his feet set before the hitter contacts the ball. He should be on his toes with his weight forward watching the approach and hitting shoulder of the hitter. If he sees the hitter slowing down his hand, he needs to break forward and pick up the impending dink. If there is a hard driven line shot he will have to dig it. I will illustrate later what should happen if the blockers end up blocking the line shot (ie: the blockers are obscuring the ball from your view).
I will cover blocking more in depth in other posts, but one huge not is that good blocking does not mean you actually block the ball down. Good blocking is only touching balls you block straight down and the rest are funneled to your diggers. If you set up a weak block and deflect balls, your diggers will not have a chance at digging them.
2: The right side blocker sets up a solid block as fast as he can. This is so he can make it easy for his middle to close the block. It is essential to set the block correctly. You want to give just enought of a line shot that the hitter can not hit angle behind your block. He should only be able to hit line or angle inside of you. You want to concentrate on penetrating over the net and pushing your hands towards their deep 6 player to prevent tools. Giving enough line is key to not getting tooled off your hands.
3: The Middle blocker is going to attempt to close up directly against the outside blocker. It is important not to drift sideways when you jump, so you don't confuse your diggers and also so you don't break your teammates' ankles. Your first responsibility is to close up the seam, the spot right between you and your outside blocker and your second is to get as much penetration as possible while pushing towards their middle back player. The more penetration you get the more court you will be blocking.
4: The off side blocker, drops straight back to the ten foot line. It is very important to not reach over your right shoulder to dig. The digger behind you has everything to your right. You need to pick up hits right to you, dinks, and deflections off the block.
5: You are the main angle digger. If the blocker have done their jobs and the hitter is hitting angle you will have the ball funneled to you. Even for really hard driven hits you have at least 20 feet to react to the ball. Anything hard driven you should aim to dig to the 10 foot line. An overpass is almost a instant kill for the other team. Keep the dig on your side.
6: Hardest position to play correct. Unless there is a hole in the block you stay way deep and position yourself in line with the hitter's strongest hit. Usually this is directly in line with the angle at which they approached the ball. Or line up with their shoulder. You will be picking up any hits off the top of the block and any dinks to the corners. If the middle blocker is late and there is a hole in the block, you must quickly move into the court about 18 feet from the hitter in the hole so you can see the ball (as illustrated).
Figure 3: What do to if your middle blocker is late
Defense: Blockers blocking line
Defense: Left Side Attacker - No Line given
What do line diggers do when their blockers are blocking line? We all know they are supposed to give a line shot. But many times when an outside set dies inside you will see a block set up as in Figure 1. The outside blocker fails to adjust and move the block left to account for the ball. The hitter will unable hit line, but if he is aggressive he might still be able to smoke a powerful angle shot since the blockers have not adjusted.
Notice how player 1, the setter, will now be behind the block if he plays a deep line shot. The setter should stay on the line and move down it until he can see the ball around the block. This might end up in the setter being inside the 10-foot line. This is OK! He will then be picking up the short dinks. The two most important points:
- The digger needs to be able to see the ball. If they can't see the ball they are behind the block and will not be digging any hard driven shots
- The line digger needs to play perimeter defense and stay on the line. Even when coming up to defend dinks. Hold the line!
Here in Figure 2 is a much smarter and more powerful block. The outside blocker has adjusted their block according to the set dying inside. The double block now takes up close to 90% of all possible hard driven shots.
Defense: Right Side Attacker
This post is a continuation of my defense explanation. It covers defensive positions when an opponent's left side hitter is attacking.
The defense should shift into the position illustrated below as the play develops. All diggers should have their feet planted before the hit and their weight forward on their toes.
Figure 1: Defense: Right Side Hit
Figure 2: Defense: Right Side Dink
I won't go into detail about the individual positions. They are the reverse of the positions in Defensive Positions: Left Side Hitting.
January 20, 2007
Defense: Middle Hitter
So the other team gets a perfect pass and are setting their 6' 5" middle hitter. Everything is not over yet. Here are the defensive positions for defending a middle hit.
Like all defense you should keep the following in mind:
- diggers need to be on their toes and ready for short dinks
- blockers need to penetrate over the net
- everyone needs to watch the hitters arm and shoulder
A good middle defense should have a double block on the middle. It would be ideal to have a triple block, but it is too complicated for most teams to have everyone blocking the middle hit. It takes a mobility and speed to pull off.
Here is a diagram of defense with a solid double block. It is essential that the left side digger be watching the hitter's arm to pick up the short dink to front left.
Figure 1: Defense: Middle Hit
Often there will be a single block on the middle hitter. In these cases the Middle blocker will read the hitters shoulders as well as he can and pick a side to block. In this case middle back (6 position) needs to quickly position himself on the side the blocker is not blocking. The other diggers need to pull up and read the hitter's shoulder and put their body into position to contact the ball.
Most good middle hitters will beat a single block but it is possible for a good digger to pick up a key dig.
Figure 2: Defense: Middle Hit Single Block
