The world of volleyball is so messed up

In women's volleyball a lot has to do with the new ball I feel, since they introduced it, the float serve has become really effective, a little too much so I think.

I think there are more teams that play at a good level these days. Most federations have become more professional. The rally point system doesn't help in this respect either. And I think a lot of teams are training up new talents and as we get closer to the olympics you will see favorite team emerge that will be win more often and hence will be easier to predict.

Also Holland has become really good all of a sudden and we can kikck ANYONE's ASS <- totally un-biast

Quote from Andy_Oak

We haven't been able to predict results the same way we used to, a lot of things have changed. What I mean is: In the past, we (at least here in Brazil) used to "generalize" Japan as short players with good passing and digging skills, Chinese as taller than the Japanese but with the same skills and stronger attack. Today we can't do that anymore.
In my opinion, passing is the hardest part in playing volleyball, 'cause it's a combo of good technical and psychological habilities, and as far as I can see, every single national team has serious problems in this "volleyball base" and it has become a winning or loosing factor. (Just like the strength was to the Cubans teams during the 90's).

So what is your opinion about this new world volleyball's dynamics?

I am not quite sure about that. In Italian Seria A there is no correlation between reception and the ranking of the teams at the end of the seasons. Another example is Bulgaria, we got bronze medal with the worst reception among the strongest 8 teams. We were stopped from Poland not because reception, but because they played their best game in the last few years and we played one of our worst.
Another example is how Brazil deals with Russia. There were number of games from WL final 2007 in which Brazil reception was devastated and they still won. Poor reception can be compensated by very fast setter and good combinations, especially if you have players with high jump or brilliant block-out technique. Also when the serving team trows excellent serve and the other teams scores, this is really demotivating and also is a factor.

I am not that familiar with women's volleyball, but you are right that those float serves have amazing impact there. May be women are just better at giving than in receiving

After the indroduction of new ball, more and more players prefered to use float serve. Even some players who can really jump serve well switched their serve style to float serve like Gamova, Nikolic, Darnel, Spasojevic etc. That really kills the joy of watching volleyball. Players can make reception mistakes over and over again against those float serves.
Some think increasing the height of the net can help to solve this problem. When the ball comes to the receivers from a higher position, receivers will have less difficulty in passing the ball to the setters.

Quote from DEMIR17

After the indroduction of new ball, more and more players prefered to use float serve. Even some players who can really jump serve well switched their serve style to float serve like Gamova, Nikolic, Darnel, Spasojevic etc. That really kills the joy of watching volleyball. Players can make reception mistakes over and over again against those float serves.
Some think increasing the height of the net can help to solve this problem. When the ball comes to the receivers from a higher position, receivers will have less difficulty in passing the ball to the setters.

I'm sorry, but I don't agree! Players should learn to receive better. Remember that once you could pass just with your hands down and not with your hands over the head. Now it is allowed to pass the ball with the hands over the head and it is already a big help. The net should remain where it is in my opinion.
Players should become more technical and complete and follow the steps of Sokolova, Osmokrovic, Aguero, Costagrande, Paula, Tom ... those are the players that are a joy to watch and should be the role models. They attack and receive both amazingly well.

Quote from samba player

I'm sorry, but I don't agree! Players should learn to receive better. Remember that once you could pass just with your hands down and not with your hands over the head. Now it is allowed to pass the ball with the hands over the head and it is already a big help. The net should remain where it is in my opinion.
Players should become more technical and complete and follow the steps of Sokolova, Osmokrovic, Aguero, Costagrande, Paula, Tom ... those are the players that are a joy to watch and should be the role models. They attack and receive both amazingly well.

Well, that's the other side of madalion and you're totally right about it. But I still have doubts if that's (introducing a new ball which is more difficult to receive) the best way to develop such amazing players. What if after a time players do really good both at receiving and attacking? Should FIVB introduce another challange? And I see passing with your hands over the head is not very common among players at least for now. The net issue is not my opinion actually. That was just an idea I heard and I wanted to learn about your reactions to it. Thanks for your message.
I'm more concerned about the quality of the game on court and apperantly I'm not as patient as you, to wait for new talents to come up and improve the level.

Quote from DEMIR17

Well, that's the other side of madalion and you're totally right about it. But I still have doubts if that's (introducing a new ball which is more difficult to receive) the best way to develop such amazing players. What if after a time players do really good both at receiving and attacking? Should FIVB introduce another challange? And I see passing with your hands over the head is not very common among players at least for now. The net issue is not my opinion actually. That was just an idea I heard and I wanted to learn about your reactions to it. Thanks for your message.
I'm more concerned about the quality of the game on court and apperantly I'm not as patient as you, to wait for new talents to come up and improve the level.

I remember before the new ball introduction, FIVB said the ball will be easier to receive. So they messed up, considering that the floats now with the new ball are more difficult to receive. I also think that many players turned back on floats, because they made many mistakes on strong jump serves. Flier for exemple continues to jump serves, because she is an amazing jump server. I remember that Demir also was a great jump server without many errors. So I'm a little bit confused why she turned to float serves?

Quote from samba player

I remember that Demir also was a great jump server without many errors. So I'm a little bit confused why she turned to float serves?

She told in an interview that she thinks her this way of serving is more effective and she is right (at least for the last season). Although I adore her jump serve style, I think she did pretty well with her floats both in the play off of the league (IMO she should have been the best server of the league) and in the China Masters Tournament. I'm not sure if that way is called float. It's not a Debby Stam style but Barazza's.

Quote from raylight

Maybe women are just better at giving than in receiving

nice

Quote from DEMIR17

It's not a Debby Stam style but Barazza's.

If it is Barazza's style than I'm sure it is effective. It is a good way to wreak havoc in the opposite team reception. This year when I'll watch NTs I'll pay attention to Demir's serves.

Quote from Andy_Oak

We haven't been able to predict results the same way we used to, a lot of things have changed. What I mean is: In the past, we (at least here in Brazil) used to "generalize" Japan as short players with good passing and digging skills, Chinese as taller than the Japanese but with the same skills and stronger attack. Today we can't do that anymore.
In my opinion, passing is the hardest part in playing volleyball, 'cause it's a combo of good technical and psychological habilities, and as far as I can see, every single national team has serious problems in this "volleyball base" and it has become a winning or loosing factor. (Just like the strength was to the Cubans teams during the 90's).

So what is your opinion about this new world volleyball's dynamics?

http://www.volleypics.com/voll…lleyball/evolution80s.php
http://www.volleypics.com/voll…lleyball/evolution90s.php

Those links about the evolution of women volleyball are very interesting to understand the history of the sport 'till nowadays. What did you say it is true. Once NTs played more stricter "schools of play". So, URSS, Cuba and the URSS satelites played more of a power based volley style, while Japan, China, South Korea played a more quick and defence based volley style. USA, Peru and Brazil stayed in the middle, with Peru playing an Asian style with power based elements, while USA played a more power style game, but less strictly. Brazil developed their own game inspired by elements from the Brazil men NT.
So it was easy to expect that Japan and China would use smaller and not physically strong players, but with almost flawless reception, strong defence and running a quick and witty offence. On the other hand it was also easy to spot the URSS or Cuban way of playing, since they had tall and physically stronger players using powerful kills and strong blocks.
At the end of the 90s there was an internationalisation of volleyball styles, so many teams abandoned their own styles to play a more modern version of women volley with similiar patterns.

Also volley developed in many countries and that created a major balance in competitions among teams. With many strong leagues allowing foreigners to play, there was standardization of the way of playing.
Before the 80s URSS and Japan dominated, in the 80s China and in the 90s Cuba winning the major competitions. If we think of the last 10 years the major competitions were won in 2002 by Italy, 2003 and 2004 China, 2005 Brazil, 2006 Russia, 2007 Italy, 2008 Brazil and 2009 Italy, with many teams fighting for second and third place or minor competitions (Poland winning Euros, Netherlands the WGP, Serbia bronze at WCH).

Saying specificly about the serve in female volley....I dont think that the change for the float serve is cause of the new ball....I think is more a change for girls to make less mistake to start, in woman volley there are more ralis, more long points, so teams usually have more confidence in their block and defense system, so dont need to take so many risks in serve as the male volley has to...in male the serve needs to disturb the opponent reception, or it's impossible to stop their spike, so is worth to take the risk, and maybe end making more services mistakes....is female volley there is no need for that, in other hand, as more mistakes the worse...cause mistakes seems to affect psicologic more the girls then guys, continium mistakes in service seems to affects much more woman confidence in the game....

So I think is a mix of reasons....cause they dont need to take that risk of the jump service and still be efective in serve, and pluss dont make mistakes and dont loose their confidence in the game. So just keep playing with jump service those players that are really confident in their service, as Flier is.