Congratulations to the teams who went to the OVA Invitational in Orlando this weekend. All of our teams except one competed in the open division and two of the five teams got into the gold bracket. Our teams have come a long way since January and it was exciting to watch the teams compete in every match. Also, as usual, Venetian Bay players (and parents) did a phenomenal job at the hotel this weekend. We had no complaints from the other guests and all stayed in their assigned rooms. Great job! If you took pictures this past weekend, please send them to the webmaster. We want to get some good photos on the site of teams playing or just having fun hanging around at the tournament.

Venetian Bay has a big upcoming week as two of our teams travel to Denver to compete in the first National Qualifier of the year. Hopefully the kinks are getting worked out and we will have a good showing. Live results can be found at www.coloradocrossroads.org throughout the tournament. Also, please get your shared cost into your coach before we leave for Denver.

How to Play Hard 

Most coaches want their players to play harder. Most players think they are playing hard. The disconnect between players and coaches is often that players do not know what it means to effectively “play hard” and most coaches assume that players instinctively understand what this ethereal concept means.

Successful volleyball requires that a player get into the correct position, which allows that player to make a successful contact with the ball, whether passing, setting, digging, hitting or blocking. This simply means proper fundamental movement with consistently high intensity and focus, which includes verbalization (communication) with teammates. This is what a coach means when she yells, “move your feet and stay focused.” It includes the proper movement between the ears.

Proper fundamental movement is different for different positions and for different volleyball skills. Coaches must define each movement and players must commit to attempt each movement in the fundamentally proper manner. This article will not deal with the correct technique aspects of individual volleyball skills. The following movement definitions simply relate to what it means to “play hard” in differing positions with an emphasis on verbalization: 


Outside Hitter (Left or Right) Front Row

On offense:
Run, do not walk, to your approach position (3 feet outside the court at the 10 foot line) 
Scream the set you want, 5 / 4 / 31 / 2 / A / B / C / D / Etc.  
Adjust to the setter’s movement to the ball (the more the setter moves off the net, the further outside you adjust your approach position) 
Delay your approach until you know where exactly the set is going and approach very fast to the ball 
Run to your cover position if you do not get the set and scream "cover"

On defense when blocking:
Run to the net with your hands up as soon as the ball goes over the net 
Scream out the result of the opponent’s pass: On / Off / Over  (In-System / Out-of-System / Overpass)
Scream out the opponent’s set: Outside / Middle / Back / A / Shoot / Two / Etc. 
Beat the set (do not track the set by moving with the slower pace of the ball) if you have blocking responsibility and set the block as early as possible 
Scream out the blocking timing: Ready / Ready / Up

On defense when digging:
Repeat steps 1-3 above 
Shuffle or drop step cross-over as fast as possible to the defensive read position 
Scream out the where the opponent is hitting (Line / Cross / Tip / Roll / Etc.) 
Run, do not walk, to your approach position after digging 


Middle Hitter/Blocker

On offense:
Drop step and drive as fast as possible to your approach position as soon as your feet return to the floor after maximum blocking effort 
Turn your body to follow the ball as you move to your approach position 
Scream the set you want, B / C / D / A / Etc. 
Complete the fake of the hit you called if you do not get the set 
Follow the set as soon as possible to cover your teammate’s attack

On defense when blocking:
Scream out the result of the opponent’s pass: On / Off / Over 
Scream out the opponent’s set: Outside / Middle / Back / A / Shoot / Two / Etc. 
Beat the set (do not track the set) if you have blocking responsibility and set the block as early as possible 
If the opponent’s pass is “OFF” go immediately to the outside blocking position 
Close to the outside blocker’s position and adjust with the outside blocker


Setter Front Row

Scream out the result of the opponent’s pass: On / Off / Over Scream out the opponent’s set: Outside / Middle / Back / A / Shoot / Two / Etc. Beat the set (do not track the set) if you have blocking responsibility and set the block as early as possible Scream out the blocking timing: Ready / Ready / Up Find the ball immediately upon landing and release to the setter target position facing the ball


Setter Back Row

Go to base position as fast as possible Scream out the result of the opponent’s pass: On / Off / Over Scream out the opponent’s set: Outside / Middle / Back / A / Shoot / Two / Etc. Go to your read position as fast as possible Unless the ball is hit to you, sprint to the setter target position all the way to the net Beat the pass with your feet, using quick push, drive, slant footwork Get behind the ball and adjust feet and hips to the hitting target and center the ball Go cover your set as fast as possible Get back to base as fast as possible


Back Row (Left, Middle, or Right)

Go to base position as fast as possible 
Scream out the result of the opponent’s pass: On / Off / Over 
Scream out the opponent’s set: Outside / Middle / Back / A / Shoot / Two / Etc. 
Get to your read position as quickly as possible, staying square to the ball with hips 
DO NOT GO TO YOUR READ POSITION AND STOP MOVING – you must constantly adjust your read position to the set and to the block 
Adjust to where the opponent’s set goes to either clear yourself of a properly set block by the front row players or move to fill the hole if the block does not close 
Scream out the where the opponent is hitting (Line / Cross / Tip / Roll) 
Start to move to where you think the hitter will hit the ball – DO NOT WAIT TO MOVE TOWARDS THE HITTER’S LINE OF ATTACK UNLESS YOU THINK THE HITTER IS HITTING RIGHT TOWARDS YOU 
Jab step (to the left, right or forward) or shuffle to dig if possible - run to the ball if it is outside of shuffle range 
Move forward as soon as you read a tip or roll shot - do not wait or the actual shot 
If the ball is not hit towards you, flow (move) towards the opponents attack and help with the second contact if the setter cannot get to the ball 
Run towards the middle attack to cover your middle hitter 
If the set does not go to your middle hitter, immediately go to your outside cover position 
Get back to base as soon as possible 
ALWAYS FLOW (MOVE) TOWARDS THE BALL

Remember, “Playing Hard” has both physical and mental elements. If you challenge yourself to constantly move and verbalize on the court during the point, you will not have to worry about intensity and focus, both will follow naturally.

And Now For Something Completely Different...

Leap Year? Who decided that? A leap year (or intercalary year) is a year containing one or more extra days (or, in case of lunisolar calendars, an extra month) in order to keep the calendar year synchronised with the astronomical or seasonal year. For example, February would have 29 days in a leap year instead of the usual 28. Seasons and astronomical events do not repeat at an exact number of full days, so a calendar which had the same number of days in each year would over time drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track. By occasionally inserting (or intercalating) an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected. A year which is not a leap year is called a common year.

The Revised Julian calendar adds an extra day to February in years divisible by four, except for years divisible by 100 that do not leave a remainder of 200 or 600 when divided by 900.

This rule gives an average year length of 365.242222… days. This is a very good approximation to the mean tropical year, but because the vernal equinox year is slightly longer, the Revised Julian calendar does not do as good a job as the Gregorian calendar of keeping the vernal equinox on or close to 21 March.

Thanks to Wikipedia.