Last weekend, Donnie and I were forced to sit through a four-hour mandatory rules meeting for USAV coaches. Personally, I thought the meeting was appropriate considering all the over-the-hill, under-a-rock (old and uneducated) coaches I face in the club season.
But we learned a lot!
In the U.S., there are like 8 million different sets of rules. There’s NCAA (men’s and women’s), NAIA, NFHS (high school), USAV indoor/outdoor and so, so many more. Most other countries follow FIVB rules (that’s Fédération Internationale de Volleyball), which is the international governing body for the sport of volleyball. Why don’t we follow FIVB’s rules? I have no idea. (I think we should) But, it seems to be like asking why we don’t use the metric system (no comment).
So, now that high school volleyball is over, we need to switch gears to USAV rules (which are the most similar to FIVB rules). Officiating club volleyball just got a lot more subjective. No more cut and dried faults. Read below and see if you agree.
- The center line: You can literally lie down over the center line with no fault. That is, unless you interfere with the other team’s ability to play the ball. (But… no stepping over the line though, that’s still a fault).
- The net: You can touch it! You read that right. You can touch the net now. Of course, you cannot interfere with the other team’s ability to play the ball or use the net to your advantage but still, it’s legal.
- Warmup: Danger! No more passing, digging or any volleyballs behind the team on the court. So… yeah. 3 extra minutes of standing time before each match. (My opinion? Lame. It seems to be one of those incidences where one idiot ruins it for the rest of us.)
So, that’s it for the new rules (well, the one’s I really care about). And, our “moderator” ensured that we would be required to return after the 2012 Olympics because that’s when the rules change. I think it’s a great idea. If you love the sport enough to coach it, you should know the rules, right?
What do you think about the new rules? Do you hate them? Love them? Or is it a bittersweet, love-hate relationship you have with the new USAV rules?
I read about all the different variations in rules that are used throughout the US and I wonder why everyone in each jurisdiction thinks they know better than the FIVB. In Canada we stick pretty close to the FIVB rules but high schools sometimes take a season or two to adopt new rule changes. At the club level, we adopt them almost instantly. We even adopted the new ball this season. It’s a great ball once the kids adjust to it. It really rewards a kid who knows how to float serve.
To be clear… FIVB rules still outlaw blockers and hitters touching the top tape. they were just trying to stop all the insignificant calls from slowing down the game hoping for better TV coverage. Here in Canada, the only really controversial rule change enacted by Volleyball Canada has been to essentially outlaw receiving serves with an overhand pass at 13U – 16U. You can still do it but it better be ‘perfect’ or they are calling double hits. This is encouraging coaches of the younger teams to teach better forearm passing techniques. The idea is that our National team lose points because they are poor forearm passers and so they are trying to create a better foundation of forearm passing starting very young. I get the idea but it’s taken a few seasons to get the referees to agree on a common definition of a ‘perfect’ overhand pass. In the first season there were refs blowing the play down before the kid even touched the ball with an overhand pass but now we are seeing a more consistent application.
They have talked about allowing full violations of the center line (as long as there was no interference) but I think most rational people understand that this will lead to more roll-over ankle injuries which are already too common.
I’ve officiated volleyball professionally for the last 12 years. When I first learned of the new rules for this year I wasn’t happy with the new net rule.
But I’ve officiated about 5 tournaments and coached in 3 so far this year, and it’s not so bad. My concern originally was about letting nets go. I was expecting a lot more ankle injuries from players landing on each other at the net. So far, I don’t think it’s so bad. I think most players are staying out of the net on purpose just out of habit. And when players do get in the net, we just let it go and keep playing. I have had to call a few replays because of R2′s calling nets when the setter brushes up against the net and clearly wasn’t making contact with the top of the net. But other than that, it hasn’t been too bad.
It’s terrible for my players. I can’t imagine playing a whole club season allowing net contact and then going into our high school season where touching any part of the net is a violation.
It will be interesting to say the least. Talk about a major adjustment.
USAV is a collective group of imbeciles. They have no idea how to run anything, let alone a rules and regs meeting for youth volleyball. FIVB rules should be used across the board. It’s inexcusable that they’re not.
Although, touching the net and going under are both terrible rules for youths. Understandable at the professional level because players have body control, but no teenage girl can control what direction she’s going once she’s started going. Those are terrible additions.