Good call on the new doubles rule - I agree Pitt is really taking advantage. Every player on the floor is setting - and as noted before - it barely needs to be a competent set for Babcock and Stafford to get a great swing on it —
VB - SMU Tonight 7:00 PM
- Thread starter vantheman1976
- Start date
lol on the coaches blank stare .. we sit opposite court side and my daughter was convinced the coach was staring at us .. it was like a disillusioned trance
Imo the players should act as if the old doubles rules are still in places. These gals have been avoiding using their hands on the second contact for their entire lives, and a lot of them are more accurate bumping balls instead of trying to set them with their hands.
Just my take.
Just my take.
Apologies. A "double" is a double contact. Usually with your hands. In volleyball, the rule has always been that you can only make one, single contact with the ball when you play it. There are some variations on how that's been called over the years. For instance, when receiving a ball from across the net (first touch), if the ball hits your arms and bounces off of your chest, a while back they started to call that a single contact because it was continuous. Wasn't always the case. There was a time that any time you played a ball with your hands on a serve, it was pretty much always a double.
Starting this season, they removed that call from how the setter handles the ball (second contact). That has always been where you see that double contact called the most. I liken it to holding in football. It isn't always the easiest call to make and it can be an absolute killer call when there's an exciting play happening. They have given more and more leeway on that call for years and they decided to just eliminate it unless you are sending it over the net (third contact) or it's just blatantly intentional. The result has been some wild looking sets from weird angles that are keeping the ball in play. They did this in order to make the game more exciting. I initially hated the change but I've completely changed my mind and am eager to see the rule change at the HS and club level. Again, it's not a bad rule but the application of it is objectively inconsistent, at best, and can easily swing the game against a team that has an inexperienced setter.
Setting has always been something of an art. Need really soft hands and outstanding aim to make perfect sets. It's really tough to do that when you're out of position or having to make balls travel in directions opposite of how your body is moving. For Pitt, this means it's easier to get the ball to a position where a player can attack it even when the first pass isn't perfect or you're all over the court during a long rally. Now, aim and strength is more important which Fairbanks has. It's allowing Pitt to be more attack oriented which is really good for what Fisher tries to do.
You name it they complain about it.
She complains. Her swing is funky. Her celebrations after aces are lame. Pretty much everything.
Well, she just gets things done and it is pretty ugly. Whatever.
And they complain that she's old. I think she's just they are looking for someone to dislike on Pitt and its hard to find much else. There are some on there that call Fairbanks overrated too - again I think they are looking for things to dislike about Pitt to feel better about their own teams
Thanks for the very thorough explanation! I remember a play last night, when the SMU player received a ball and it appeared to hit her hands and then bounce up off some part of her forehead. I thought it was a clear double touch, but nothing was called. Now I know why.
LOL.
I'm pretty sure that I've never typed the letters "LOL" before. But Fairbanks overrated?
LOL.
