Volleyball - tactics

Tactics

For Practical Team sport, we have been working on improving our tactical play with in Volley ball. the tactics that we were working on specifically were utilising the opportunity to hit the ball a maximum of three times, each occasion the volleyball was hit onto our team's side of the court.

The way we would achieve this, would be through using all of the skills required with hitting the ball and our movement on the court to allow us to get into position to play the required shot. The shots we would use would include; a dig, spike, dive, roll, smash and set. 

This tactic would mean that we would have more opportunities to 'shape play' and also be able to get into a scoring opportunity. It will also mean we have more control over both the tempo of the game and the attacking shots (because the previous shots - most likely a set, can be tapered to where you want to hit a smash for example). 

A further tactic which we used was to utilise the attributes of each player on our team. For example we tried to make sure that our setters were the two smallest on the team and in turn that the attacking players were the tallest (as they would be the ones who were required to perform smashes, and this would be much easier if they are already closer to being able to see over the net). 

Taking advantage of these things would mean that our team will be best setup to best combat whatever the opposing team throws at us so that we can get the upper hand and thus win a higher percentage of points/ higher success rate. 

Lastly, another main tactic which was very prominent within our play style was to use a 'libero style player' 

The libero is a defensive player, designed to allow the other teammates to become more involved in attacking - they are told by their coach 'you can not to hit the ball over the net', so in other words only become involved with the defensive play. This means that they usually play in a number 5 role (at the back of the court, but still slightly central). The main reasons why we would introduce a 'libero' type player was:

• to replace a player who has poor backcourt defence.
• to give players an opportunity to rest.
• as a primary part of the service receive unit.
• to change the defensive set-up without having to use a recorded substitution. (Libero substitutions are unlimited).