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!
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15 comments:
I dont think that changing the scoring system to the tennis style will make it more exciting. All that does is assign different values to the points that are scored. I dont think that a fan is going to care more about a point because it makes the score 15-love and up 2 sets to 1 instead of being 9-8. Also I think that the game might end up taking a shit load of time to finish in that system because of how many times teams would get stuck at deuce or advantage. There would be too many useless points in that system (by useless i just mean a point that brings the score back to deuce from advantage).
Here is my dumb idea: add another position called "el servidor" (aka the server, i wanted to spice up the name a little). This player wears a separate uniform. He can come in and serve for 2 out of the 6 players on the court only. The catch is that he only comes in to serve for a player, nothing else. THe player he comes in for doesn't actually leave the court, he just assumes his defensive position. El servidor is not aloud to touch the court. If he is spin serving, he cannot land inside the court. He just serves and walks to the bench.
Honestly though I don't think that changing the game is the answer to getting fans involved. Look at soccer, that game can be intensly boring at first glance. Teams go without scoring for 75min or the whole game on a regular basis, but the fans still go crazy. Why? because soccer has been integrated in the culture. Volleyball is not in most places I have been. I don't believe that there is any easy solution to this, no quick fix.
i was going to write more but this is just getting too long and i have to go coach kids volley. sweet.
oops...i meant to say el servidor is not ALLOWED to touch the court.
I also don't think that changing the scores or the rules in general would change peoples perception of the game. Most people in Denmark knows what volleyball is, as everybody have been introdused to it sometime during school. But here, there is always at least one "Brian footballplayer" who decides to not play WITH his teammates and insead hits the ball over the net on first touch. everytime. This makes for boring volleyball ==> bad first experience ==> don't want to play volleyball ever again.
To get more spectators, I was thinking along the line of bundling our product with a more popular product. By product, I mean the matches including the clubs best ranked teams. Just to attract more people to the "Stadome". Maybe only 10% will come to see the volleymatch the first time, but almost everybody will get to see maybe the last 10 minutes of the match, as they arrive to see the Handball match afterwards. But maybe next time, the 10% plus a few extras that thought the 10 minutes they saw last time was exciting, will come too.
In the end, people will know what volleyball is about, and maybe want to try it out themselves.
I got the idea when our 1st teams play in Aalborg, at the same time AAB is playing soccer next door, there are always 10-20-30 people standing in the door watching, but leaving when the soccer match starts. What can be done to get them into the gym? Standing in the door, I often get questions from them, about who is playing and they sound interested. But the next step...I don't know.
Mikkel "the Beef", Aalborg HIK
In Frederiksberg Volley, we had a website for these suggestions. I think the most popular was to introduce a 'bomb', like the one in stratego. The Bomb should be dressed in black and you could gain a point by making the other team hit him/her.
I think the spike contest ala dunk contest would be a really cool idea. When I was a youngsta I always thougt the smash warmup was really cool to watch - athletes hanging in the air and hitting for the 3 meter line. Infact I still think it is darn good entertainment so why not develop this obviously unique entertainment point of our sport and turn it into a sort of show? And this could also help pointing out individuals, which I personally miss, since theres no statistics to analyze on. Last, I think this sort of show also could attract people who dont know anything about our sport, but can be fascinated by basic athletic skills like jumping and hitting.
Like "the beef" mentioned, Ive also had the impression that people who infact is near the scene of event, seeing pro-soccer or handball whatever, is showing interest. So if we could plan according to these events we would expand the possibility that new people see our "product" and hopefully find it entertaining.
Tethiykin - Hik Aalborg 2
Heh,
Frederiksbergs site was and still is very famous for the "Tv-Jørgen organet"
Some of the best humor ive seen.
However as for rule changing i dont think its the way to go.
Its been tried a lot the last 12 years, and i think its very important not to change the point system.
Because ppl dont want to sound stupid , and every time the points are changed the few spectaters have no clue on whats going on and they feel stupid by asking over and over and they feel alienated from new rules.
Make Volleyball a big sport. Remeber that every kids player has 2 parents (or more these days), grandparents, brothers/sisters.
As well as the parents talk to their friends about what their kids do.
Its not totally wrong to say that for every young player who have played volleyball ten more will be introduced to the sport because of that single player.
Often those people even come and watch, or simply do practical stuff for the team.
What we need is footwork. We need to have kidsvolley on every single public school in denmark and when we have that volleyball WILL be a huge sport in denmark, and the general knowledge of the sport will increase a lot.
On top of that the level of play will increase, and it would change everything for the sport in denmark.
This is by far the best way to do a longterm change, but sadly its also much harder than just changing the points :)
/William
i don´t know much about Danish volleyball culture. I have just seen a couple of games, but idea to do something between the sets is really good. i can say that in Estonia they have at least chearleadres between the sets, also there are some contests (serving etc.) for spectators. The tickets to see the game are numbered, so 2-3 lucky tickets have been prized, the winner ticket's will get the team´s (funclub´s) T-shirt, framed foto or something like that, even strawberry´s cake have been the prize. And we have kind of show-man to build up the tension, comment the game etc. I´ve heart that germans are very active - they sing, clap and warm up the spectators - particularly players who are not on court (singing songs about guys who are playing). All that makes watching the game more interesting!!! At least that what i think :)
Why is it that every time we talk about developing the sport and get more spectators, we come up with ideas to turn a volleyball game in to a circus.....?
You are right that in other countries they have more people showing up but they dont come for a lottery or a serving contest. They come because the volley is good and the other things makes it a little bit better.
Why is it that when we play finals and other crucial games more people show up ??? because it is a good volleyball game, not because of the chance of winning a drinking bottle form the sponsor or whatever.
We need more people playing volleyball, then the culture will grow and more people will sit in the stands and THEN all the circus ideas will put some spice on top.
Right now most of the spectators at a homegame is people you know....(yes i know it is sad) imagine if everybody knew more volleypeople because more people were playing...... Huge crowds.... or just decent crowds.
Peter
I don't think anyone wants to turn volleyball into a circus. I think that improving the atmosphere in which games are played is good for the sport. I am all for the between sets activities. Look at most pro sports, there is always something going on between periods, quarters, and halftimes. I think that it is a great idea to have an announcer at the games. I remember playing at nationals in canada in my 2nd year of university in Quebec, they had a sweet announcer who was super enthusiastic and really got the crowd into it. It created a really intense atmosphere that was really fun to play in. It has to be a good announcer though, because I have also played in games with terrible announcers that make the game seem super boring with their stupid monotone comments.
Anyways i think that anything that can improve a fans experience at a vball game is a good idea.
Good announcers makes it much more fun to spectate thats for sure.
As for contests then different teams have tried it the last 12 years to some degree.
And i can tell you that it looks pathetic to have 12 cheerleaders for 7 spectators or having a serving contest where 5 specs can serve for prises but they can only make 2 of the 10 spectators actually come and serve.
There is only the hard way, and thats getting more volleyball players.
/Frank
I appreciate everyone's comments here, but I think that I was really just kind of having fun with this one. I agree with you Peter that making volleyball into a circus will not create a lot more fans. But at the same time, it won't hurt. There is no one who sits in the stands and says I wish this damn contest would end right now so they could bring the volleyball players back on the court, on second thought, I'm never coming to another volleyball game again. Look at Beach volley, there are always people ready to do those contests and the fans have fun with it. I just think that injecting a little life into the matches could be fun that's all. An announcer would most certainly make a huge difference, as Jeremy correctly said, as long as they are exciting...
I also stick by my tennis scoring theory, it would work, you people just lack the vision to understand these things...:)
SK Aarhus has tried to fuse some of their events together with handball and basketball. And it is a good idea, but mostly in theory. Fans just don't want to sit there in the hall for five hours straight. At least, I know I wouldn't. The trick is, like you say, to whet their appetite so they will come back independently to a different match on a different day.
There is also no doubt that we need to explore this kids volley thing. Maybe we could put together some kind of kids volley day where the kids could come and watch and have some activities to do as well. They could all bring a parent with them. It seems to me that there are more parents than ever showing up to Kids volley practice, so maybe they are starting to get excited about volleyball themselves...
Lastly, I am ready to bring in the "stratego bomb" right now. I don't know how it would work, being dressed in black certainly wouldn't hide it on the court, maybe we could just strap explosives to the libero and have target practice with him....
Hi again,
I know, when I was introdused to "real" volleyball, some 6-7 years ago, one of the Odense clubs had a "Giraf" arrangement, when first team players would go visit schools and teach students in volleyball for a couple of hours. Afterwards, the classes were invited to a match, where they could see their tutor play on a high level. I remember going myself, Claus Møller Madsen was my tutor, and a year or two later, I started playing with him myself in Fortuna. It was great fun to have someone teach you in volleyball, that knew how to play, and then afterwards, see the guy playing in a good match. Does anyone know if this "Giraf" arrangement is still alive?
My girlfriend here in aalborg, is teaching in a local school, and they have some of the pro basket players from AAB coming to teach in Basketball a couple of times every year. I think that schools in general are very open to these kinds of arrangements. They also have Boxing demonstrations, and Weightlifting arrangements.
//Mikkel "The Beef" Aalborg HIK II
I've been to the local school one time since I have been here, but only to pass out tickets to one of our matches. Sounds like a really good idea though.
Why was it called Giraf? Did they give out beers too or what?
Hehe, maybe. That is the best idea yet. Give away free beers during the match, and place the matches on friday or saturday night. That should bring some spectators to the gym ;)
No, seriously, I don't know where the "Giraf" came from.
//Bøffen
I sure some clubs still use the "Giraf"-thing.
We have been using this for years in "my" club, and made good contacts to the teachers and also made some members on that account.
Especially the contact to the teachers is important, if you convince them that your club is well organized and your product (club as well as volleyball) is fantastic, it's easy for them to recommend you to the students lateron. Beside that, there's nothing a teacher loves more than having someone come and take over the teaching for an hour, it's like vacation for them:-) (Hope I don't offend any teachers :-))
When it comes to spectators, I've never understood why the elite-clubs don't use the possibility Jordan did, with handing out free tickets on schools! That together with some teaching where the students get to know the players, should create some spectators.
As another idea, why not hand out free tickets at an retirementhome for old people? Think about it, a lot of older people loves to watch sport and get out, and a lot of them actually gets really involved in the sport at many levels. Maybe this is not the crowd we are mainly interested in, but why not, aside from being a group of people I think we can reach and will bring attention to the game, they have grandchildren they can bring - kids-players:-)
This last idea, I have to admit, is not my, if he reads this he knows:-)
Just my thoughts on the subject..
Nicolai
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