Funny how everyone can play in a match and all have such different perspectives on it. Some quick thoughts from me on our match yesterday and what I have read online so far about it.
We can all agree that our serving was clearly not good yesterday. There is no doubt in my mind that that was the biggest difference between the two teams and one or two points out of our serve could have been a big lift for us. We also can't expect to win when the other team's setter (especially someone as good as Makoto) gets to stand at the net and get consistent passing up to his hands. It's just not going to happen.
What JP wrote about the match is fairly skewed (maybe this is to be expected) towards the home team's favor. But I mean, looking back on it, the match could have easily been a whole different story. We had a swing to win the second set which unfortunately didn't go down, to Aarhus' credit, but it easily could have. That ball goes down and the whole match is different. This isn't taking anything away from them, they were better than us and they won, but the JP article makes it sound like SK pretty much had control of the match throughout. I don't think that was the case.
We were passive. Passive blocking, hitting, serving. You can't do that against a team fighting to survive. So, all credit to them for winning a must win for them. Now we have to go back and look at what caused us to play that way. What do we need to do to be better and to play aggressively from the beginning? We'll need answers to these questions if we are going to do well in the rest of the season. We had a chance to basically finish SK off and we didn't take that opportunity.
Anyways, anyone can pretty much beat anyone at this point. At least we can look forward to an interesting end to the season. Should be interesting to see what happens in Middelfart tomorrow. It looks like SK is going to need to win that one as well if they want to remain in contention. Exciting!
Monday, February 27, 2006
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Television
I’m going to start this entry off with a question. Does anyone know anything about the “new” TV deal that is supposedly happening? It got quickly reported on volleynet but no one seemed to know anything about it. Are there going to be televised games in the next month?
In any case, I thought it would be timely to take a second to examine the value (or non-value) of being on TV.
Two out of the three years that I have played in Denmark I’ve taken part in some kind of television broadcast. My first year it was the finals on DR1 and last year, of course, was DK4. No doubt those experiences were positive, being on TV is a thrill and it is always nice to have something to show to others back home. But is having volleyball consistently on TV a good thing? I’m not so sure.
Last year, with the consistent broadcast schedule we all got to see a lot of volleyball on TV. As a consequence we all got to see a lot of bad volleyball on TV. As has been discussed at length, the elite division doesn’t have enough good teams to support strong competition all year long. That means that inevitably, DK4 sent out some games that were not played at a high level. I remember we played Lyngby in a televised match at the end of last year that was not particularly broadcast-worthy for example. It does not help the image of the sport to show these games to the rest of the viewing audience. If we want to grow the sport, we have to present an exciting product.
As was discussed recently on DK4, the surroundings also play a huge part in the way the sport presents itself. When there are 4 people sitting in the stands watching a match, it is unlikely that the casual viewer at home is going to think that the match looks interesting. If I happened to see a handball match on TV one Sunday and there were 7 people sitting in the stands making no noise whatsoever, I’m not going to be inclined to sit and watch the match. And empty stands happened far too often during the televised matches last year.
All of these things add up to create a poor product. Of course there were good matches, with good crowds, that were shown as well. But I would say that those matches were few compared to the poor ones. Who knows? Maybe this year would have been a whole different story with a more competitive league and different venues. The schedule certainly could have been stronger.
With all that said, television does offer a unique experience for fans and players alike. Quite simply, being on TV creates a different atmosphere in the arena. I don’t know if everyone agrees with me, but I can certainly feel the difference walking into a hall with lights, monitors and cameras set up. Maybe it feels more professional in a way.
Television also offers exposure that nothing else can. Seeing the game on TV can only help to expose it to more people. Especially as the number of KIDS volley players grows will this become important. Unfortunately at this point, DK4 Sport seems to be the only outlet for the game, but hopefully soon enough there will be more channels interested. The more volley is seen on TV, the more it can be accepted as a mainstream sport. The trick is just going to be to present a good product every time. In my mind, that means cutting down on the number of games shown and working harder to get the people in the stands when those games are on.
In any case, I thought it would be timely to take a second to examine the value (or non-value) of being on TV.
Two out of the three years that I have played in Denmark I’ve taken part in some kind of television broadcast. My first year it was the finals on DR1 and last year, of course, was DK4. No doubt those experiences were positive, being on TV is a thrill and it is always nice to have something to show to others back home. But is having volleyball consistently on TV a good thing? I’m not so sure.
Last year, with the consistent broadcast schedule we all got to see a lot of volleyball on TV. As a consequence we all got to see a lot of bad volleyball on TV. As has been discussed at length, the elite division doesn’t have enough good teams to support strong competition all year long. That means that inevitably, DK4 sent out some games that were not played at a high level. I remember we played Lyngby in a televised match at the end of last year that was not particularly broadcast-worthy for example. It does not help the image of the sport to show these games to the rest of the viewing audience. If we want to grow the sport, we have to present an exciting product.
As was discussed recently on DK4, the surroundings also play a huge part in the way the sport presents itself. When there are 4 people sitting in the stands watching a match, it is unlikely that the casual viewer at home is going to think that the match looks interesting. If I happened to see a handball match on TV one Sunday and there were 7 people sitting in the stands making no noise whatsoever, I’m not going to be inclined to sit and watch the match. And empty stands happened far too often during the televised matches last year.
All of these things add up to create a poor product. Of course there were good matches, with good crowds, that were shown as well. But I would say that those matches were few compared to the poor ones. Who knows? Maybe this year would have been a whole different story with a more competitive league and different venues. The schedule certainly could have been stronger.
With all that said, television does offer a unique experience for fans and players alike. Quite simply, being on TV creates a different atmosphere in the arena. I don’t know if everyone agrees with me, but I can certainly feel the difference walking into a hall with lights, monitors and cameras set up. Maybe it feels more professional in a way.
Television also offers exposure that nothing else can. Seeing the game on TV can only help to expose it to more people. Especially as the number of KIDS volley players grows will this become important. Unfortunately at this point, DK4 Sport seems to be the only outlet for the game, but hopefully soon enough there will be more channels interested. The more volley is seen on TV, the more it can be accepted as a mainstream sport. The trick is just going to be to present a good product every time. In my mind, that means cutting down on the number of games shown and working harder to get the people in the stands when those games are on.
Monday, February 20, 2006
Gentofte Match
After winning yesterday, I suddenly feel like writing about the match.
Coming into the match there were quite a few questions swirling around in all of our heads. With so many teams beating each other it has been kind of a crazy slutspil so far this year. But after last weekends beating and the beating we took in the pokal semi final before christmas, it was hard to tell what kind of level we were playing on. Were we good enough to beat the mid level teams but not good enough to beat the top teams? Well, while it doesn't mean too much yet, at least after playing a solid match yesterday, we know that we are headed in the right direction.
The match was fairly decent. Not the best volleyball of the year, but clearly, the level was much higher than last time we played each other in Marienlyst. We started out each set by spotting Gentofte four or five points as we seemingly couldn't figure out how to do anything until they had a little lead. But generally we would work back into the set and apply enough pressure to bring ourselves back into the lead. We sided out well and touched a lot of balls in defense, enough that we were bound to turn some of them into points after transition.
Passing was probably as good as it has been all year, partly due to Gentofte serving with less pressure than normal, and it was easy to run an effective offense. There were also some good opportunities to run combinations.
Overall I would say that Gentofte was slightly reserved and didn't look like they wanted to win as much as we did. Maybe because we had more to play for with the bad taste of the pokal semi still on our tongues. But whatever the reason, it was nice to win one over a top team. The playoff picture is certainly starting to look more and more interesting. Now it is all about getting ready for Aarhus next weekend and hopefully playing another good match...
Coming into the match there were quite a few questions swirling around in all of our heads. With so many teams beating each other it has been kind of a crazy slutspil so far this year. But after last weekends beating and the beating we took in the pokal semi final before christmas, it was hard to tell what kind of level we were playing on. Were we good enough to beat the mid level teams but not good enough to beat the top teams? Well, while it doesn't mean too much yet, at least after playing a solid match yesterday, we know that we are headed in the right direction.
The match was fairly decent. Not the best volleyball of the year, but clearly, the level was much higher than last time we played each other in Marienlyst. We started out each set by spotting Gentofte four or five points as we seemingly couldn't figure out how to do anything until they had a little lead. But generally we would work back into the set and apply enough pressure to bring ourselves back into the lead. We sided out well and touched a lot of balls in defense, enough that we were bound to turn some of them into points after transition.
Passing was probably as good as it has been all year, partly due to Gentofte serving with less pressure than normal, and it was easy to run an effective offense. There were also some good opportunities to run combinations.
Overall I would say that Gentofte was slightly reserved and didn't look like they wanted to win as much as we did. Maybe because we had more to play for with the bad taste of the pokal semi still on our tongues. But whatever the reason, it was nice to win one over a top team. The playoff picture is certainly starting to look more and more interesting. Now it is all about getting ready for Aarhus next weekend and hopefully playing another good match...
Friday, February 17, 2006
Weekend 18*2*06
While I conveniently forget about all that happened last weekend, it is time to write some more for this blog.
Looking forward to this weekend’s match against Gentofte creates several mixed feelings for me. On one hand, Gentofte, and now Middelfart, have stood for our two biggest beatings this year. Our loss in Copenhagen in the Pokal semi was a hard one to swallow for several reasons. Mostly because I feel like our team didn’t perform at all in that match. But also because the match was an important one and because we are well aware that it is Middelfart and Gentofte that stand in the way of us having a chance to win a title. To be beaten handily by the two teams that you know you have to be able to beat to achieve your goals is not a good feeling. Do we have it in us to beat those teams?
On the other hand, we’re a better team than we were before Christmas. Leaving out last weekend, we’ve been playing at a relatively high level, doing the things that we need to do. And I would hope that we are more focused. The point is to top at the right time in the season and that is hopefully what we are going to do. Of course, it is always fun to play against Gentofte as well. Anytime that you have a chance to play a marquee match at home you have to be excited for it…
Other matches:
SK looks like they should get their first win of the slutspil this weekend. Holte came together to beat them earlier in the year but that was a different SK team and it was in Copenhagen. At home, with the motivation of losing to HIK last weekend, a fiery Aarhus team should show up for this one. If they lose, they are essentially out of the running for the playoffs, I don’t think that will happen.
Middelfart should also be able to take care of HIK at home. I wouldn’t be surprised if they give up a set though. HIK looks like they are rounding into form and they match up pretty well with Middelfart. I’ll say 3-1 to the home team in this one.
Good luck to everyone this weekend!
Looking forward to this weekend’s match against Gentofte creates several mixed feelings for me. On one hand, Gentofte, and now Middelfart, have stood for our two biggest beatings this year. Our loss in Copenhagen in the Pokal semi was a hard one to swallow for several reasons. Mostly because I feel like our team didn’t perform at all in that match. But also because the match was an important one and because we are well aware that it is Middelfart and Gentofte that stand in the way of us having a chance to win a title. To be beaten handily by the two teams that you know you have to be able to beat to achieve your goals is not a good feeling. Do we have it in us to beat those teams?
On the other hand, we’re a better team than we were before Christmas. Leaving out last weekend, we’ve been playing at a relatively high level, doing the things that we need to do. And I would hope that we are more focused. The point is to top at the right time in the season and that is hopefully what we are going to do. Of course, it is always fun to play against Gentofte as well. Anytime that you have a chance to play a marquee match at home you have to be excited for it…
Other matches:
SK looks like they should get their first win of the slutspil this weekend. Holte came together to beat them earlier in the year but that was a different SK team and it was in Copenhagen. At home, with the motivation of losing to HIK last weekend, a fiery Aarhus team should show up for this one. If they lose, they are essentially out of the running for the playoffs, I don’t think that will happen.
Middelfart should also be able to take care of HIK at home. I wouldn’t be surprised if they give up a set though. HIK looks like they are rounding into form and they match up pretty well with Middelfart. I’ll say 3-1 to the home team in this one.
Good luck to everyone this weekend!
Friday, February 10, 2006
The Weekend 11*2*06
Quick predictions for this weekend:
HIK - SK (H1.50): This one looks pretty even on paper. I don't really know why SK is getting a set in handicap, I guess it is because HIK is at home. Personally, I don't see any reason to pick HIK. We've been hearing all year that they are good and that they will be there in the end as soon as everyone gets healthy. Well, until they beat someone I'm not picking them. SK has looked fairly good in their matches so far, they have also played better competition so far. One thing is for sure, this one is important for both teams. I'm saying SK takes this one, the handicap just makes a bet even sweeter.
Gentofte - Holte (H2.50): As has been said, Gentofte killed Holte last time they played. I don't see any reason why that changes in this one. Gentofte has been strong at home all year, and Holte just doesn't have the horses to run with them. This should be a fairly secure 3-0 to the home team.
Middelfart - Marienlyst (H1.50): Weirdest odds I have seen all year. I don't have a problem with being the underdog in this one, but adjusting the odds down and giving us a handicap set doesn't really make sense. Either way, I'm looking forward to this one...
Quick note regarding the last post and the picture above: Maybe we should just start inviting the military to all of our games, there is some real spirit! Does this picture make anyone else really want to play for a team in Russia or what?
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Dumb Volleyball Ideas
Alright, I thought I would continue a little bit along the lines of the fluff piece. I’ve heard a lot of talk lately about volleyball in general, and what needs to be done to continue to make it a viable/marketable sport. The roundtable discussion on DK4 was interesting, if not slightly awkward, because of the different perspective everyone on the panel brought to the table. And the part where the journalist wasn’t paying attention was worth spending the time to see the show in itself. Anyways, I’ve always had some thoughts (some crazy, some not so crazy) about what kind of rule changes or possible additions would make the game more fun to watch. I thought I would list them here and if any one wants to comment or make some of their own suggestions I would love to hear what people have to say.
Some ideas that I have seen myself or heard about:
In between sets in the States there is generally some kind of crowd competition similar to what you would see on the Fanta tour. This is almost always some form of serve competition. At my school in the States, there was this big wooden sign that had a hole (about the size of a basketball) cut out of it. One person would be chosen at each match to try and serve the ball through the hole. I never saw anyone actually do it, but it was always fun to watch them try.
They also used to run a competition where six contestants would basically have a serve competition. They would serve at a marked area on the court with the people who could not hit the area being eliminated. The area would get smaller and smaller in each round and eventually only one person would be left. That person would get a prize.
Chad Grimm told me that in Belgium they used to have a contest where they would suspend an envelope from the ceiling, somewhere around 4 meters (forgive my metric system measurement) from the ground. The envelope had cash in it and one player from each team would take turns trying to jump up and grab it. I guess this one is only exciting if you have two players who can jump really high, but I still think it would be fun to see. Think for example, Geo Santos and Paw Harder trying to out jump each other for 500 kroners. I think it would be fun to watch.
Here are my ideas:
I’ve always thought that a hitting competition would be fun for fans to see. Some kind of bouncing contest besides the un-official warm up bouncing contests that we all have before every match. At the finals, we could let anyone who wanted to compete get a chance to see who could bounce the ball the highest (without touching the net, you know who I’m talking about). Crowd applause could decide the winner. It would be kind of like the dunk contest for volleyball.
In the States about two years ago, they experimented with making volleyball into a timed sport. That means, they had two teams play each other for one hour and just kept adding up the points. I think the final scores were usually around 100 – 85, 90 – 92, etc… Needless to say, it was a dumb idea. It was dumb because it worked the excitement out of the game. First of all, it is nearly impossible to go on a fifteen point run in volleyball, so, if your team was behind there was little chance that you were going to come back. Second of all, if the two teams managed to stay close there was really only the last couple of minutes that were exciting. I mean, who cares about a kill to make the score 7-5 when you know there is still an hour to go? Dumb idea. But I do think that volleyball scoring needs to be changed.
Personally, I think that the current system to 25 makes everything much less exciting. It is the same general principle as above, who cares about a play that makes the score 9-8? Unless you are a real hard core volleyball fan, the only time you get excited is when the score is 21-21 and the set is about to be decided. The answer? Tennis scoring. Play several mini games to 4 or 5 (this could even use the old scoring rules, remember when scoring a block or defensive point really mattered?) and those games add up to win a set. Still best out of 5 sets wins the match. Yes, the rally scoring system helps event promoters predict how long a match will take, and yes it hasn’t had a huge impact on the game in general. But, it could still use some tweaking. Think about it the opposite way, if tennis all of a sudden changed to our scoring system, it would be a lot less exciting.
Thirdly, a screening of SIDEOUT before every home Marienlyst match, projected on the gym wall.
Those are my dumb volleyball ideas!
Some ideas that I have seen myself or heard about:
In between sets in the States there is generally some kind of crowd competition similar to what you would see on the Fanta tour. This is almost always some form of serve competition. At my school in the States, there was this big wooden sign that had a hole (about the size of a basketball) cut out of it. One person would be chosen at each match to try and serve the ball through the hole. I never saw anyone actually do it, but it was always fun to watch them try.
They also used to run a competition where six contestants would basically have a serve competition. They would serve at a marked area on the court with the people who could not hit the area being eliminated. The area would get smaller and smaller in each round and eventually only one person would be left. That person would get a prize.
Chad Grimm told me that in Belgium they used to have a contest where they would suspend an envelope from the ceiling, somewhere around 4 meters (forgive my metric system measurement) from the ground. The envelope had cash in it and one player from each team would take turns trying to jump up and grab it. I guess this one is only exciting if you have two players who can jump really high, but I still think it would be fun to see. Think for example, Geo Santos and Paw Harder trying to out jump each other for 500 kroners. I think it would be fun to watch.
Here are my ideas:
I’ve always thought that a hitting competition would be fun for fans to see. Some kind of bouncing contest besides the un-official warm up bouncing contests that we all have before every match. At the finals, we could let anyone who wanted to compete get a chance to see who could bounce the ball the highest (without touching the net, you know who I’m talking about). Crowd applause could decide the winner. It would be kind of like the dunk contest for volleyball.
In the States about two years ago, they experimented with making volleyball into a timed sport. That means, they had two teams play each other for one hour and just kept adding up the points. I think the final scores were usually around 100 – 85, 90 – 92, etc… Needless to say, it was a dumb idea. It was dumb because it worked the excitement out of the game. First of all, it is nearly impossible to go on a fifteen point run in volleyball, so, if your team was behind there was little chance that you were going to come back. Second of all, if the two teams managed to stay close there was really only the last couple of minutes that were exciting. I mean, who cares about a kill to make the score 7-5 when you know there is still an hour to go? Dumb idea. But I do think that volleyball scoring needs to be changed.
Personally, I think that the current system to 25 makes everything much less exciting. It is the same general principle as above, who cares about a play that makes the score 9-8? Unless you are a real hard core volleyball fan, the only time you get excited is when the score is 21-21 and the set is about to be decided. The answer? Tennis scoring. Play several mini games to 4 or 5 (this could even use the old scoring rules, remember when scoring a block or defensive point really mattered?) and those games add up to win a set. Still best out of 5 sets wins the match. Yes, the rally scoring system helps event promoters predict how long a match will take, and yes it hasn’t had a huge impact on the game in general. But, it could still use some tweaking. Think about it the opposite way, if tennis all of a sudden changed to our scoring system, it would be a lot less exciting.
Thirdly, a screening of SIDEOUT before every home Marienlyst match, projected on the gym wall.
Those are my dumb volleyball ideas!
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
SIDEOUT!
With the recent release of Cloud 9 on DVD, the genre of volleyball movies has grown by about 150%. Math has never been my strong suit but what I’m trying to say is that there are not many volleyball related movies out there. With the other “serious discussions” going on right now about foreign players, etc… I thought I would recognize the greatest volleyball movie ever to be made. This may not be saying much, but without further ado, I bring you – SIDEOUT.
The movie stars C. Thomas Howell as young Monroe Clark, just out of college he gets a job at his uncle’s real estate company in Southern California. It should be noted here, that SIDEOUT came out in 1990 and is therefore one of the last of the great 80’s style movies. As proof of this, Monroe’s uncle is played by the great Terry Kiser, (Otherwise known as Bernie from the Weekend at Bernie’s series.) and Melrose Place star Courtney Thorne-Smith plays Monroe’s love interest. Anyways, Monroe, who has never played a day of beach volleyball in his life, gets hooked on the sport. Eventually teaming up with an ex-pro/deadbeat named Zack Barnes, played by the immortal lefty Peter Horton, who Monroe is supposed to evict for his Uncle’s company. Not surprisingly, Monroe and Zack end up shooting it out with the pro tour’s top teams in the grand final, eventually facing off with the world’s number 1 (Played by Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos). I’ll let you guess what happens in the end, but without giving anything away, the last play is really something to experience.
The best way for me to describe this movie is The Karate Kid in a volleyball setting. The sheer improbability of everything that takes place only makes it that much more delicious in the end.
Along the way we are treated to several 80’s movie moments. Fluorescent colors permeate almost every scene, cheesy music montages accompany us through training sequences, love sequences, and of course Southern California sequences (women in thong bikinis on roller skates, etc… Which I can guarantee never happens except in the movies).
C. Thomas Howell as Monroe Clark gives a true pantheon performance as a young midewesterner learning the ways of the beach. A poor man’s Tom Cruise (think volleyball scene in Top Gun) he utters the line, “I used to play a little six-man back in Milwaukee” with absolute confidence. By the end of the film you believe that even though he looks unorthodox on the court, he just might be the greatest player to ever play the game.
For any volleyball fan, the movie has plenty of interesting cameos. As stated earlier, Stoklos and Smith play a major role in the film. There are also several other big names from the 80’s and early 90’s, including Steve Timmons, Ricci Luyties, etc… They all get to “act” at some point which only boosts the entertainment value even more.
Truly, this is the Citizen Kane of volleyball films. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Sadly, I may be the only person in all of Europe who has a copy.
Note: I have included the original cover artwork as well as the updated DVD artwork for the sake of balance. And after looking on Amazon.com, I was able to find a copy of the video tape for as low as 0.38 cents American. That is roughly 2-3 kroners. Value!
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