Oh the Anger.

Someone's BITTER........

http://www.aalborg-hik.dk/ny.php?id=975

What's the point of taking a little shot like that? Factually, I guess it is correct, but the argument behind the statement doesn't really hold up. Marienlyst has two former national team players who played on the team as recently as last Summer. Of course, the total would be higher if not for certain problems this year. But, just because some of the guys have been injured or need to spend time with their families or just don't want to play with the national team this year, that doesn't mean that they aren't going to in the future or aren't national team caliber players. I think Aalborg knows a lot about players deciding not to play for the national team for lots of different reasons.

Did anyone tell Svend that there were two foreigners on his team this year?

Anyways, I got a little chuckle out of this, just thought I would share.

Bronze - Meaningless?

I went to Middelfart last night to see the bronze medal match between Middelfart and Gentofte. I've got a few random thoughts from watching.

1. Thanks to Middelfart for letting us come in for free. I don't know if it is a rule (It was at some point), but we really should let other elite volleyball players into our matches without paying.

2. There should absolutely be a rule about referee stands and their closeness to the court. Middelfart's referee stand is by far the worst, there are two legs that sit probably 50cm from the sidelines. They are right where a player trying to hit a set that travels slightly too far outside of the court would land. I saw three different situations last night where players were centimeters from ruining their legs/ankles/knees. I didn't think it was a big deal until three other people noticed the exact same thing.

3. There is little question in my mind that the semi-final matchups worked out perfectly for us in Marienlyst. Middelfart gave us problems all year and the physical nature of their play definitely didn't give them as much of an advantage against HIK as it would have against us or Gentofte. Time and time again, when they needed an important side out or to score an important point, they would just set a high ball to the opposite and let his height do the work. Gentofte didn't really have an answer for it and that was the biggest difference in the match.

4. It took me awhile but I've finally decided what I think about Gentofte. My take is that they are the team that is the most able to score points and put pressure on other teams by actually "playing volleyball". I know that sounds ridiculous, but let me explain. What I mean is that they can play defense and turn that defense into points. They don't rely on powerful serving, and while they are a capable blocking team, they usually don't dominate at the net. What sets them apart, as far as I've seen, is that they have a knack for making plays. The ball that you think is down is almost never down. They cover extremely well and they are usually in the correct spot. While a lot of mens teams rely on their serving or their blocking to create point opportunities, Gentofte is good at creating those point opportunities even when the other team is passing well and running an in-system offense. And it makes for exciting volleyball........usually.

5. I have to give credit to Middelfart for playing at a high level to end the season. A lot of teams would have just packed it up and not really cared about the bronze medals, but Middelfart was concentrated and solid. So, congratulations, that third place is actually very important looking ahead to next year.

And that brings me to my last point. This is difficult for me to discuss because I'm coming from a place of biased ignorance. But, I've spent quite a bit of time thinking about the end of the season and how to kind of spruce things up. I've got a few ideas that I want to use this space to unpack a little bit.

First, I think that the playoffs need to expand. If it is only going to be the top four teams that make the playoffs (which is correct in my mind) then the series should be turned into best of five format. Take a little bit more time to play them and pack a few more "quality" matches into the schedule. It's best for everyone.

Second, and I've talked about doing this a million times before, it could be really cool to set something up with Sweden. The format could work in many different ways:

The two champions could meet a few days after each country's finals are finished. Say, the weekend after both are done. It would be one match and it could alternate between Malmo and Copenhagen. An Oresund series if you will. Make it an arrangement with women's and men's teams playing like the pokal final. Minimal work to get it set up and I think that people would enjoy watching it. Am I totally overestimating the rivalry between Sweden and Denmark? Do people care at all? I think it would be fun.

Thinking about it last night, something that would be even more fun would be to setup a kind of tournament that would culminate in the best teams playing each other right after season's end. Take the top three teams from each league and let them play a one day tournament in two pools separated by country. The winner of each pool gets to play the next day in the "finals". This would be interesting because the teams that get second and third in their league would have a kind of second chance to win a championship. It would also add interest in the bronze medal match as the fourth place team would be out of the running. A great example is Middelfart this year, they would have a second chance to prove how good of a team they are...

A third format could be an all-star competition. We tried to do this four years ago, an all-star team from the Danish Elite against the Danish national team. It was kind of fun, but it lacked any real excitement. What if we took an all-star team from the Danish elite and put them up against an all-star team from Sweden? Put a limit on the amount of foreigners that could be on the court and play.

I realize there are a lot of logistical problems with the scenarios presented here, but I think they could be overcome. If everyone was interested in the concept and made an honest effort to win this could be a great way to add some more quality volleyball matches to the schedule. It would also add some excitement to the end of the year and create an interesting showcase for fans if done correctly.

Finally.

I'm so excited for the next week of volleyball. The more I think about it, the more excited I get. I think we're in for a week of really good volleyball. Four teams, all with something to prove and only two get to go to the finals. I think the match-ups are perfect and I'll use this space to explain why:

HIK - Middelfart

From the drama standpoint, you've got Aalborg with a chip on their shoulder from all this weirdness around arranging their home match. No matter how much people blame it on the TSG and deny it being personal between the teams, I can't imagine that the players don't have a little edge to them. Putting aside judgment as to who is in the right here, I think we can all agree that Aalborg's press releases have been a little venomous... In any case, I can't imagine a scenario where this match doesn't have a lot of emotion in it.

From the volleyball standpoint, both teams are playing incredibly well right now. Neither has lost in a long time (though HIK has played more "meaningful" opponents in the last month and half) so they are clearly both doing the right thing on the court. Both teams are physical, power teams that can control games with good blocking. Ryan Vandenburg has been hitting over the top all year long, putting a lot of balls away and carrying a huge load for Middelfart's offense. Will he be able to, straight physically, dominate against the larger HIK block? Can Aalborg play defense behind their block? How will each team react to the pressure of playing a semi-final? Will Aalborg be able to scrape together a big crowd at 9pm? (By the way, I think a 9pm Saturday start time is perfect, sets up perfectly for the rest of the night...) I haven't seen Middelfart play in over a month so I am slightly biased towards HIK after playing them recently, but I think this series has the potential to be an absolute classic. I'm still hoping that I'll get the chance to see them play one of their matches against each other.

From the spectator standpoint, you're guaranteed to see exciting power volleyball. You're going to see a lot of big blocks, and you're going to see a lot of strong attacking. This is going to be real classic men's volleyball.

Marienlyst - Gentofte

Drama: Two teams that know each other really well. Geo and Søe coming back to Gentofte and playing for the other team. The only men's team from Copenhagen still in the playoffs vs. the only team that has beaten them in Copenhagen this year. Besides all that, we've got a history of playing great semi-final matches against each other.

Volleyball: Less physical than Aalborg and Middelfart. We've got experience and some really explosive players, Gentofte has talent, youth and an obvious star in Jonas, who will have the best day? This game might be decided by who can step up at the net and get more blocks/touches and play disciplined defense. Can we stop Gentofte's outsides if they get hot? Who will be able to serve consistently? All of these questions are real basic volleyball difference makers. The team that plays the best, most consistent volleyball is going to win. Not that I think Middelfart and Aalborg play unorthodox, but they have the ability to do other things physically if they make some mistakes, Gentofte and Us have to play really good all around volleyball to be successful. It's going to be really competitive and really exciting. Hopefully the volleyball will look good.

Fans: Out of anywhere else, I think Gentofte has great fan support. I love to hear the Galas making noise, home crowds should have a little edge to them and they definitely supply that edge. I hope that we see all the familiar faces from Copenhagen since this is the only men's semi taking place there. I think everyone will see a good, technical match featuring two teams that have had a lot of success in the past several years. Only one of the two teams that have won the last three championships is going to still be around after this.

I can't remember being this excited about the semi-finals ever. I really think that this week is going to be one of the best weeks that I've experienced in Danish Volleyball. I hope that everyone else is just as excited as I am. It will be good to see you all out at the games. I know I'm going to have fun playing in them, hopefully all the spectators will enjoy watching them just as much...

Playoffs...Already?

I feel like it has been months since I played any serious volleyball. This might be because it actually has been about a month since I played. But more than that, I think I am just a little bit jealous. It seems like everyone else is getting ready to start the playoffs. Danish Basketball, Swedish Volleyball, German volleyball, Champions League is getting down to the final four, March Madness… I don’t know, I’m getting kind of antsy. We’ve still got two more games and after that, a solid ten or eleven days before the playoffs begin. It’s times like these that make me think we should have a more developed playoff schedule. Best of five perhaps? Maybe best of three semi final and then best of five final? Would this be too much or just the right amount?

Some other thoughts for this time of year:

With Aalborg’s win over Gentofte this weekend the whole playoff picture has kind of come into focus. It’s a really interesting development that puts my team in a really weird situation. Assuming that we can play well enough to stay in first place, we are going to play either Gentofte or Aalborg in the semis. We are also going to play them in our last two matches of the regular season. Gentofte this Saturday and then Aalborg next Thursday. If we win both, then we get Aalborg in the semis. If one of them beats us, then they will probably end up in third place. It’s also possible that we’ll play Aalborg next Thursday in a match that means nothing to us and might mean a lot to them.

Some people would also argue that we are in a position to decide who we want to play against in the semi finals. I think that talking about match-ups, etc… for the playoffs is kind of a waste of time and usually counter productive. I think that you have to just go into each match and try to play your best and win. No one ever got in trouble for playing as hard as they can every time. When you start talking about losing to Team A so that you can play Team B in a certain situation I think you end up creating more negatives than positives.

It might be easy for me to say this because Aalborg and Gentofte are both really good teams. We’ve had our problems with Gentofte, and Aalborg has really played well in their last six or seven matches. Who wants to play the hot team in the playoffs?

What’s even more weird, is that we haven’t really played in so long, I have no idea how good we are at the moment. It almost feels like we are starting a second part of the season from scratch right now. So, hopefully we’ll be able to step up and finish this season off well.

I know that the schedule was kind of thrown off at the beginning of the season because DHG pulled out of the Elite, but has anyone noticed that some teams have had more home games than others? Just for posterity’s sake let’s take a look. Gentofte for example, up until now, the best home team in the league with 7 wins and 1 loss and a set score of 23-4 (That means, besides the three sets they lost to Marienlyst, they have lost one set at home all year). At the end of the schedule they will have played an equal amount of matches home and away – 9 and 9. Important when you notice that their record is 3 wins and 6 losses away from Kildeskovshallen.

Aalborg, who is also much better at home at 7-2, will end the season with 10 home games and only 8 away games. This is a pretty big deal when you consider that Gentofte and Aalborg are battling to see where they will finish for the playoffs. If Aalborg had had one more away game would they have lost it? If Gentofte had had one more home game would they have won it? Just to be a bitch, I’ll also mention that Marienlyst will end the season with 8 home games and 10 away games – kind of unfair?

Lastly, I’ve read with great interest the couple of shots that people have taken at SK Aarhus in the last few weeks. I don’t really feel that it is up to people from the outside to judge what they are doing over there. I was a part of it for two years and I am really glad for the chance that I got to play there. What I do think is important to note, is that they have not done anything illegal or against the rules. There are no rules that forbid a certain amount of players or how often they can be switched out. So, they can do whatever they want as long as it is inside the rules. Do I think it is the best strategy for the future? Probably not, but in case no one else has noticed, SK has a solid portion of young players that have a good future in the Elite division. Supplementing with foreign players until the younger guys are ready to really step up isn’t the worst idea. Sending players home because they can’t make the playoffs? Well, I can’t really condone that.

A more important point though, and this relates to the above paragraphs, is the luck factor in when and how a team faces Aarhus. You could argue that they have been responsible for more tumult in the elite division this year than any other team. They’re kind of like going out to the bar with your one crazy, unpredictable friend. You might end up having the best night of your life, you also might end up getting into a fight and getting stabbed, and there’s no real way to know before you get out there.

Look at Gentofte, they played an Aarhus volley that no other team in the league played against. They had the bad luck of playing them when they had the services of a Tunisian, among other motivated foreigners, who were pretty good. If Gentofte got to play them again today, with the team they have right now, they would most likely win.

ASV got the opposite, they got to play an Aarhus volley that was in a transitional phase, with unmotivated and new foreigners that weren’t in playing shape yet. The result was a win for ASV, a win that has turned out to be a very important win for them in relation to staying in the elite next year.

Aarhus has been the wildcard of the league all year. There is no question that it was an advantage to play them at the right time this year and that’s directly due to the fact that they have switched out their team a couple of times this year. Kind of unfair? You tell me.

Good luck to those that are starting playoffs already. I can’t wait to join you. It’s going to be a while I guess.

New School/Old School!

I thought I would pass along a few things I found interesting:

I don't know if anyone out there would find this interesting, but for comparison's sake, there are some good quality videos from the boys "18 and Under" level at the most recent US national championships at a site called: www.middlehitter.com. There is a bar running across the top of the page and in the sub-menu under "Video" there is a listing for USAV Junior. Click on 2007 JO Open Championship and let the video load.

Admittedly, these are some of the best players in the country, but I think it is worth a look if there is anyone out there wondering what the difference in level is between Danish/European youth players/teams and those that come from the American system. I understand there are differences in why/how much/how youth sports are built up in the US and Europe, but it might be interesting for some out there to see what kind of level these kids are playing at. I personally think it is pretty impressive. It's also interesting to see the different styles of play. The orange team is from St. Louis (A team from the middle of the country) and they play a more typical, international style. Faster offense, more big, physical players and strong jump serves. The team in white is from the Pacific Palisades (A west coast team close to Malibu that I actually played for a long time ago when I was 16) they play a little bit more relaxed, slower tempo, smaller more ball control oriented players with a better feel for the game. In the US, the west coast has long dominated the volleyball scene, but, in recent years, the balance of power has slowly been shifting. I'm not sure, but this has to be one of the first times that a team from "back east" has won a Junior Olympic national volleyball championship.

I understand this may not interest everyone who reads this blog, but it interests me...

The other thing that I found FASCINATING was a little higher up on the video list, under the FIVB heading. 1981 Cuba vs. USA in the Canada Cup. Download the big file if you can, about 260mb but it is a complete set.

I don't really know how to feel about seeing something like this. I'm not sure if modern volleyball is even the same game anymore. It's just a whole different sport. If you don't feel like watching it on your own, I'll run you through some of the things I thought about while watching, in bullet form:

- It wasn't just Cuba that ran combinations on every play. The US did it also. Was the opposite just not that good/important back then?

-Could they run combinations on every play because they didn't know how to jump serve yet?
-But, then again, the middles were also passing at this point, so they couldn't expect perfect passing all the time right...right?
-Even if they weren't jump serving, those hook/windmill float serves look pretty nasty...

-With a really good hitter, is it better to just set high balls to the outside? The Cubans seemed pretty effective with their outsides.

-Didn't we switch to the colored ball because it was easier to see for the referees to call bad sets and for people watching on television to be able to see the ball? Well, it is easier to see the white ball than the colored ball, and since international referees pretty much don't ever call a bad set anymore, why did we switch?

-If you watch long enough, you'll see Tim Hovland standing in the US huddle during a timeout with an actual glass of water. Not plastic and not a bottle, but an actual glass of water which he then hands to the trainer to be cleaned after the time out.

-The tempo of the game is quicker. I don't mean the volleyball, I mean the time in between plays is shorter. Players run back to the service line and serve quickly. As a result, the game moves faster for the fans watching.

-Everyone plays defense. I miss this aspect of the game.

-I'd give a substantial amount of money to get one of those long sleeved, red, Cuba jerseys. Those things are nice!

-Somehow, I get the sense that these teams were more willing to experiment, and more able to make adjustments on the fly during the game. One of the outside hitters makes a dig on a shirt tip in position 2/3 area and can't get back outside to hit. So, the setter just sets the back row C to one of the middles who crushes it. I feel like in today's game the opposite is such a bigger factor, they hit so many garbage balls out of the back and front row that it effectively kill the creativity showcased by that one play. Not saying it's a bad thing, I just think it is interesting to see how much the opposite position has developed over the years.

-Is it just me, or do most of the Cubans look like Castro?

In any case, I was 1 year old when this match was played. I'm taken aback by the changes in the game during my lifetime. I'm not sure you could argue any other sport has developed as much in that time period...

And yes, that is Tom Selleck (#14) on the left side of that picture.

Ugh.

God that was a great Superbowl. Wasn't it? One transcendent play, lots of tension, an underdog coming back to win, it almost lived up to all the hype. It's just so much fun to watch sports when games are like that. Honestly, and this is a crazy thing to say considering the way he is regarded, but Bill Belichick choked. He turned into Marty Schottenheimer in the game that could have cemented him and his team as the greatest of all time. They got conservative when they had been playing wide open and aggressive all year long. And it cost them.

Besides feeling slightly obligated to write something about the Superbowl, I kind of needed some filler to beef up this match report from ASV. And normally, I try not to be too critical of the teams that we play against. In this case, I feel it's justified to say that ASV was horrible. When two teams step onto a court against one another, they enter into a kind of contract. They both pledge to do whatever they can to win the game and compete. On Sunday, ASV didn't fulfill their end of the bargain.

It's weird because, out of all the teams we've played against this year, ASV has had the most drastic fluctuation in their level of play. Earlier in the year, they looked like a team headed in the right direction. Sunday they played the worst match I've seen in recent memory. Yes, they were dealing with one starter who was out of place, but that does not excuse the absolute lack of emotion, effort or intensity that they brought into our gym. It was slightly embarrassing, and to borrow a thought from recent debate (a debate some might say is still ongoing) - I'm extremely glad that there were no television cameras anywhere near Marienlyst for this one. Airing this match on tv would set Danish volleyball back about twenty years. You could hear people in the stands having conversations from the court.

We played well, but were hardly pressed in any part of the game. All of our players played a substantial amount and as the scores indicate were equally successful in what they did. We've got a nice stretch of home (and close to home) games coming up which we can hopefully use to establish ourselves as the definite first seed heading into the playoffs. It's really important to generate some momentum for the end of the season, especially with Aalborg playing very well and Aarhus also improving. This Friday's game between the two is going to be exciting to follow. If Aarhus loses that one at home, I can't imagine them being able to get it together in time to make it to the playoffs.

Speaking of Aarhus, I watched their Saturday match on Gentofte's new webcam. I think it's an extremely exciting feature and the quality is good enough to follow the action. I might be a huge nerd, but by keeping my own score on a piece of paper I was able to enjoy the game a lot more. It's funny how much knowing the score and the context of each point makes a difference for watching a game. Anyways, thanks to Gentofte for offering the service, it would be great if there were a few more clubs that could set something up like this.

Big match for us this weekend, maybe the last time we see Middelfart this year...

Revisiting the revisiting of the Pokal

As I said before, I had a chance to see the broadcast of the Pokal final the other day and I was very impressed. In fairness to DK 4, they used to do a pretty good job as well, but this was clearly an improvement. Mostly, I think the difference was in the details. The sideline reporters, the pre/post match interviews and the slightly better quality of the technical elements all combined to make the broadcast feel more like an "event" and less of an everyday occurrence. Of course, the solid crowd and the new Odense Idrœtshal also contributed to the excitement.

I thought the announcers did a good job. Admittedly, they said quite a few nice things about me so I might be slightly biased, but generally I think they hit the right level of explanation to analysis. There's obviously been a lot of discussion as of late and I think the most interesting has been in relation to the extent one should inject "expert analysis" into the conversation. As was named in one of the discussions, Handball commentators spend very little time explaining the most basic rules. As a foreigner who had never heard of the sport before I came to Denmark, I feel well qualified to comment on the positive and negative aspects of their approach. On one hand, it is extremely irritating to hear an announcer explain the same rules over and over again. I've experienced this with American commentators doing volleyball and beach volleyball for years now. You can only hear that teams can score on every play now so many times before you go crazy. On the other hand, to bring it back to handball, I still have very little understanding of the basic rules. I find the sport interesting and especially suspenseful, but a lot of the time I find myself frustrated because I don't know why a player is given a 2 minute suspension or why a player is given a penalty shot. So, I can imagine what it's like to be flipping through the channels and see a player with the wrong colored jersey on the volleyball court. It must be confusing. But then again, it might just cause them to sit and watch for a little bit longer while they try to figure it out, or even better, to call someone they know who plays volleyball and ask what the deal is.

I don't think that an expert should "dumb it down" for an audience that doesn't understand the game. Because it doesn't really make a difference. People are caught up in the game by emotion, drama, intensity, athleticism, humor, etc... All the things that make a great story, also things that the announcer can enhance or highlight through insightful analysis. The basic rules are minor details in the bigger picture. I enjoyed watching the EM Handball semi-finals just as much as everyone else and I know a lot more about the sport now than I did four years ago. The fact that I just found out that the defense can't stand inside the goalie area is really irrelevant...

I agree 100% with Morten Piil in that there MUST be more slow motion replays. It's absolutely the only way to see a lot of the really small, but extremely important, things that happen on a volleyball court. Small touches in the block, middles who jump early in block or flinch in the wrong direction, hitters who hit through tiny openings in the block, setters that hide their set direction until the last second... There are a million things to see in these slow motion replays. Personally, I found myself delighted the relatively few times a play was revisited in slow motion. Yes, yes, I know that this is very difficult in relation to volleyball. There is a limited amount of time to setup and execute these replays because no one wants to break the natural rhythm of the game. But, in relation to many other sports, basketball or football (soccer) are good examples, the game is fluid and yet they still find time for replays. I would argue that American football has a huge advantage in being able to show virtually all the replays necessary for each and every play due to the consistent breaks. I think the normal volley viewer could get so much more out of the game if there was a higher priority put on analysis of slow motion replay.

I would be extremely interested if anyone could explain how the whole slow motion replay system works. Do the announcers get to signal somehow to the producers that they would like to go back and see a certain point again? Or do the producers just automatically show some replays that they feel the announcers will want to look at? Of course, live vs. tape delay broadcast also makes a big difference... Can anyone explain why there aren't more replays in a volleyball match?

Overall though, TV2sport and the announcers did a really good job.

I wanted to talk more about something completely different, but as this post is already pretty long, I'll save it for another time...

Middelfart + Momentum

Well, last night was certainly a kick in the teeth. Sometimes, stats and scores don't tell the whole story about a match, in this case, the scores are VERY representative of how well we played. We didn't do anything well and Middelfart took full advantage of our inability to get any momentum going. They dominated the net, blocking with high efficiency and played solid defense behind it.

Excuses from our side: We were missing several important players. We had a bad day. We are saving ourselves for the pokal finals on the 20th. Blah, blah, blah...

In truth, we did have problems dealing with the absence of a strong opposite presence. For one, we didn't pass well enough to have enough variation in our offense and two, I didn't do a good enough job distributing the ball when I had the chance. Otherwise, there is absolutely no excuse for playing as poorly as we did. I think that the last time I was on the losing side of such a one sided beating was two years ago in the pokal semi finals in Gentofte. That was also a beating for the ages. Luckily, this one didn't mean as much in the overall scheme of things. We still have a decent lead in the standings and, more importantly, we have a chance for revenge in ten days in the pokal finals. Hopefully, by then we'll have some answers for our lack of players.

Last night's game got me thinking about team spirit. I think we've all had the experience of playing against a team that fed off of energy. In other words, a team that was ten times better when they were emotional and energetic. You could catch them on a day where they didn't have that energy and beat them easily, but once they got going it was difficult to reverse that momentum. Some of the HIK Aalborg teams from three and four years ago were like this. You could go up on them 2-0 and still not feel very safe because one or two blocks and all of a sudden the whole team would catch fire.

I mention this because I've often wondered where that comes from. Is it from certain individuals? Is it team chemistry? Is it a particular style of play? Is it based on performance? Volleyball is a peculiar sport in that each set is a whole new opportunity and therefore momentum can swing wildly at any point. Last night, I kept waiting for our team to rebound and to put some pressure on Middelfart and it never happened. It seemed that for every point we got, they got three and we were always behind. How can a team ever get momentum when the game unfolds like this? It's kind of a chicken and the egg debate, how can you get momentum without playing well? Does momentum come from good play or does good play come from getting excited and playing emotionally?

I think about the game last night and I think there are twenty things I could have done differently. I should have been more vocal, I should have been more positive and I should have tried to slow down the bad runs. But my question is, how does one stay positive when everyone is playing terribly, not the least of which, yourself? How do you create and sustain momentum when you are doing nothing right physically? I've never been able to do so, and I would like to get better at it. Anyone got any suggestions?

Volleymetrics

Just wanted to pass along a site that I found interesting. I'd love it if he would do some broader analysis involving more than just women's collegiate volleyball, but the conclusions are interesting just the same.

Check out Volleymetrics.

Aalborg + What If...

The first time we played Aalborg, in Aalborg, we played one of our best matches so far this year. We were on top the whole time and never really gave them a chance to get anything going on their side of the net.

This time was different. We definitely didn't play as well as we did the first time. Aalborg was also back in their best lineup with a full complement of opposites and outside hitters so they were more comfortable.

In the end, it was the classic battle between serve/serve receive that decided the match. Aalborg missed way too many serves and we passed well enough when they didn't make a mistake to win. After the first set there was little doubt about who would win, but this was clearly not a pretty match to watch.

We have to work more on scoring points in the defensive and block phases of the game. We rely too heavily on our serve to score points and sooner or later we're going to have to scratch out some points by blocking, digging or transitioning, otherwise we're going to get into trouble.

Now, on to something totally different.

Just for the hell of it, and maybe because I had six hours of total travel time to Aalborg this week, I thought it would be fun to extend the question of the FIVB enforcing a limit on the amount of foreigners and explore what the Danish Elite could look like if all the national team guys were forced to come home.

(For the purposes of this fantasy I'm assuming that, all of a sudden, there would be no place anywhere for any of the Danish national team players outside of the country. Of course, this wouldn't happen, but it's necessary for my purposes.)

First, let's list the guys out there - Outside Hitters: Lundtang, Knudsen, Ditlevsen. Opposite: Lyck. Centers: No one (ugh!) (Maybe Korsbak counts. But he wouldn't be affected by the rule change) Setter: Axel.

Lundtang is already practicing with Gentofte so I guess it's safe to say that he would end up there. This would certainly make a huge difference for Gentofte, giving them a strong veteran leader and really, really stable passer/attacker with a whole bunch of experience. I think Jesper could make a huge impact on this team if he ended up there.

Knudsen is an interesting question. He's from Kolding right? So, you could maybe make a case for a team like Middelfart or possibly Aarhus since they are closest. But, it's hard to imagine Kristian playing everyday in a place like Middelfart without the bright lights of the big city close by. He'd probably end up in Gentofte as well but just for arguments sake, let's say he would decide to go the Jylland route and play in Aarhus. Boom, instant contender. No one in the Danish Elite can match up with him. He plays at a completely different level than pretty much any one else. And you'd have a quality setter like Soren Hansen giving him the ball about 400 times per match. Add a couple of foreigners and Aarhus looks really good.

I don't see any reason why Peter and Mads don't come home to Fyn for, at least, one or two years. Maybe they would be attracted to the bigger stage of Copenhagen but as long as Marienlyst can offer a nice environment for the players I think they would enjoy the idea of coming back. That would give Marienlyst a pretty strong team, four national team starters and at least one back up. A couple of foreigners here to plug in where there are needs and the team would look really good. Hopefully, they would still want me around and not make a move to get a different setter...

...Which brings us to Axel. Gentofte has a young setter in Sebastian that is doing a good job, grew up in the club, has a bright future and that they are (rightfully) proud of. I don't see him being welcomed there. Aarhus has Soren Hansen, although I'm sure they would take Axel anyways, let's assume he wants to be the number one guy. Like I said before, I hope I would still have a home in Marienlyst, so who's left? Did you guess it? Middelfart baby! This is the obvious choice. Kind of like the Argentinian Martin Stenderup, they could pick him up and not miss a beat. A couple more foreigners and another one for practice purposes and this could be an okay team. I'd like to see it at least.

Obviously, this is an unscientific look at what could happen. What would probably happen is that they would all go to the same club, somewhere in Copenhagen, Holte maybe and just form a national team club team. I think it's interesting to think about anyways. It's also kind of nice to recognize that by adding five to six quality Danish players the entire league would be both more competitive and more exciting. A little more development and things look a lot better for the future...

Foreign Rules?

Now that it looks like the FIVB is set on cutting down the number of non-native players in leagues all over the world, I thought it would be interesting to throw some totally un-researched, non-expert observations and predictions out there.

First, I can’t believe the FIVB is in favor of a rule that limits the amount of foreigners to three per team and two on the court at the same time. Make no mistake, unless the price for a transfer goes up, this will affect the FIVB’s bottom line. They make a small amount of money on every foreign player that plays professionally. For them to advocate a rule that cuts down on their own profits (especially considering the FIVB’s reputation) is unheard of.

Second, I’m not sure that this rule change will do what they expect it to. At first glance, I thought it was a pretty good idea. No question, there are a lot of teams in Europe that wouldn’t be where they are today without heavily relying on foreign talent. But, does limiting the amount of foreigners translate into a strengthening of the home countries’ national programs? I’m not so sure. And these are the reasons why:

If the talent is not there, it’s just not there. Some countries are just not ever going to be world powers in volleyball. Japan is probably the best example of this. By all accounts, they have the best training methods, they have a huge fan base, a surplus of players and their league restricts each team to only one foreign born player. How good is their national team? Good. But. Not. Great. Even though their national team already has this rule in place and they have every advantage possible, they will never be the favorites to win the world championships. Now, I’ll happily admit that volleyball is thriving in Japan and if the goal of this FIVB rule change was to make volleyball thrive all over the world then perhaps I would agree that the change is a good idea. That is not, however, the stated purpose of the rule. It is to strengthen the national teams, and homegrown talent, in the respective countries around the world by getting more playing time for players who are born in the country they are playing in.

There is a big difference between a competitive league on a high level and a competitive league where all the participants are terrible. This is where the argument hits home. What would the Danish elite division look like right now without foreign support? Middelfart – gone. Marienlyst – slightly weaker. Gentofte – same. Aarhus volley – gone. ASV Aarhus – same. Hvidovre – same. Aalborg – same. So, the elite would be five teams or seven teams with two more teams that are playing in the first division right now. The league would be competitive, but would it be good?

Some people might ask what the league would look like if no foreigners had ever come to Denmark. And that is a fair question that would probably take some time to answer. But, I would argue that the league would not be better off in terms of the level of volleyball.

The problem is that this argument can be extended to a lot of countries. Sweden would be in trouble. Germany would be in trouble. Belgium would be in trouble. Etc…

Overall, changing the rule for foreigners will mean a huge shift in the strength of a lot of leagues. Yes, there will be a lot of space for homegrown talent to step in and prove what they can do. This is great in places like Italy, France or Russia where there is a huge pool of talent to pull from. Other countries will not be so lucky. So, some leagues will all of a sudden be bad in relation to what they have previously been. Maybe, and it’s a big maybe, they will build themselves back up in the space of a five or ten years as new talent develops. But, is the risk worth it? Some leagues might never be good without foreign players.

It seems to me that the free market regulates the foreign player consumption around the world, why put artificial restrictions on that? If a player is good enough, trains hard enough and wants it enough, they will get their chance eventually whether they are foreign or native. More than anything, what I think is important is that volleyball overall is being played on the highest level possible. More top notch competition creates more top notch players and that is what volleyball needs. More top notch players means a bigger talent pool to draw from for national teams. If a volleyball player thinks that they are being cheated out of playing time by a foreigner then they should play harder (or better) and find a way to get on the court.

An Ode to Sideout Scoring

It looks like Friedrichshafen is going to win the finals here in Germany. And may I say, a fitting end to a great season for them. Winning the Champions League, the German Cup and now the Bundesliga title. Okay, they haven't won yet, but it would take a very surprising turn of events for them to lose.

The triple. That sounds pretty good.

Talking to a few people here in Germany, it seems like Friedrichshafen's success could have an effect on volleyball in general throughout the country. More coverage, more sponsors, more money, more fans, more interest. Hopefully it's true.

I've been thinking hard about volleyball the last few weeks. Why isn't it as popular as some other sports? Why aren't our fan numbers growing?

I don't have any real answers, but at some point, I thought to myself, maybe volleyball just isn't that exciting to watch. I mean, it's hard to admit it, being a volleyball player and a lover of the sport, but it's very possible. We've changed the format of the game to be more friendly to television and I guess it's helped in getting volleyball on TV more often. But I still look at the stands and I see an empty arena. We talk about how to "fix" the game so that it is more appealing to more people. The more I think about the idea of "fixing" volleyball, the more disgusted I feel.

I love the game the way it is. Actually, I love the game the way it WAS. I loved sideout scoring. I think that was the coolest thing about volleyball. You had to score a point in your own serve to win a point. And that meant you had to battle for it. Scoring a point was genuinely exciting - for players and for fans - because it was something out of the ordinary, there was a level of difficulty to scoring a real point.

I honestly think that the players have become less interesting since the abolition of sideout scoring. We are more business like, more calm, more focused. Points are easy to come by, all you have to do is sideout, do it 25 times in a row and the game will be over. It's like each team is a big indistinguishable mass of people with no discernible personality because really, what is there to get excited about? Who do people always enjoy watching? Brazil. Why? Because they are the only team that really look like they are enjoying the game. Each point is a celebration. No one else plays that way, no one else has the energy to do it.

I was at a basketball game the other day. And at one particularly exciting point in the game, before I realized what I was doing, I jumped to my feet. It felt totally natural. I was caught up in the moment and I realized afterward that I hadn't felt that way in a long time.

There are only two times where modern volleyball really gets exciting these days. One is when there is a long rally with a lot of great defense. The other is when the score reaches a deuce situation. 24-24 and the teams continue siding out back and forth. That's it.

Let me set the scene for you: Your favorite team is serving, they are ahead 12-10 in the old scoring system, a really good serve is passed poorly by the other team, they set a high ball to the outside who hits the ball well cutting it back to the corner over the setter's head, your position six defender dives to his right and just barely digs the ball with one hand, it comes up high enough for your setter to get under it and make a high set to position 4... This is where I would be feeling that anticipation, that feeling in my stomach, waiting, hoping to see my team's outside make a great swing on the ball and give us a big point to go up 13-10. Can anyone remember that feeling? Am I the only one who used to feel it? In the rally scoring system, this point is still nice, you are still happy to see it as a fan, but it isn't the same. It's just another point. Especially if say, your team wins the point and then goes back and makes a service mistake. All the points mean the same thing and in the end they all kind of blend together.

I recognize the importance of the rally scoring system for the "popularity" of the sport. Of course it is good that the sport is on television more often, but, it seems to me, volleyball was on TV all the time before. I watched because it was exciting then. I watch now because I want it to be exciting.

Handball

I got to sit down with the rest of our team last night and see the second half of Germany vs. France and then the entire Denmark vs. Poland match afterwards. Our team, of course, is made up mainly of German players but, and it's kind of funny, we also have Danes and Poles. So, three out of the four semi-final teams were covered. Both matches were obviously exciting. Too bad that Denmark couldn't pull out the victory, a Denmark vs Germany final would have been a lot of fun to watch on Sunday. I haven't had a chance to really process everything that happened but it turned out to be a truly interesting night.

Just seeing the difference between the way Germans and Danes approached the two matches was riveting. You could almost sense the way the Germans sat back and expected to win in the end. Obviously, they were nervous and excited, just like any sports fan would be. But, there was a distinct difference from the way the Danes acted. I don't know if you can call it arrogance, confidence or just a more "been there, done that" attitude. It was weird. Their team played solid, didn't make mistakes (except on that one play where the guy lost the ball in the backcourt) and won in the end. It was like their fans knew it would happen and therefore they were more calm.

The Danes on the other hand were all over the place. They played amazing at times, made some terrible mistakes, couldn't score for long periods even though they had plenty of chances. The fans were positive that Denmark couldn't win. They expected losing and they seemed afraid to really believe that they could win. And in the end, they didn't.

I wonder if this kind of thing means something deeper. Does it mean that Danes have been burned so many times with their teams that they have a hard time really putting their hearts behind them? On the other hand, Germany has had so much success on the international scene, football, handball, etc... that it is easy for a German fan to root for their team. Or does it mean that Germans just have more of a winner mentality? Or maybe, since Denmark is smaller, these kind of events mean a lot more to them then they do to Germany. When a Danish team makes it to the Semi-FInals of a major tournament that means so much more than when a German team does.

I could just be making this stuff up in my own mind. But it seemed to me that there was a real difference in the way the two groups of people approached the match. Sometimes I wonder if that is a reflection of the players on the court or if the players on the court reflect that nervous energy from their fans. Does the confidence of 19,000 fans rub off on the team they are rooting for? Or, by the same logic, does the refusal to believe in your team make a difference to the players on the court?

That relationship between players and fans seems kind of like a real relationship between any two people. The fans want to support their team and they want to believe that the team they root for is the best. The team on the other hand agrees to always do their best and to give the fans something to be proud of. If either side doesn't fulfill their resposibility then problems happen. If the team keeps losing and not playing well, then the fans have a hard time giving everything to the team because they, understandably, don't want to put in so much effort to a lost cause. Ironically, if the fans are dead and they don't create a great atmosphere for the players then that will negatively affect the way the team plays.

I don't think it can be argued against that some teams benefit from playing in front of their home crowd. I guess my question is whether some teams can be negatively affected by their fans and whose responsibility is it to make sure that that never happens?

I kind of ended off on a little tangent, but I think the question is an interesting one. Originally, I just wanted to say I thought the games were exciting and I'm a little disappointed we won't be seeing a Germany vs Denmark final. But I guess I'll still have the opportunity to be nervous and pessimistic when Denmark is playing against France for third place...

Read Blocking

One of the biggest differences in style of play that I've noticed between what I've learned in the States (particularly during my time in University) and what I've experienced here in Europe has to do with blocking.

Read blocking seems to be the key word throughout international volleyball right now. Everyone is doing it because it seems like the most effective way to block. Of course teams are running extremely fast offenses as well in an attempt to beat the bunch read blocking system. And basically, a good read blocking team has a great chance to beat almost any offense. Even if the passing is pretty good.

But, what I've noticed is that most teams don't really read block. In most cases, when you see good passing, the middles jump with the middles trying to take away the quick attack. It doesn't matter if the setter on the other side has not set the middle in the entire match. Somehow, taking away that quick hitter becomes the most important thing to do. Discard the fact that almost any setter will NOT set the ball to the middle when the pass is perfect, (this is another topic that I would like to discuss in detail in another post) why do middle blockers do this?

In college, we spent lots and lots of time on blocking. And I think the result was a group of much better blockers than the average. We were also smaller than most other teams so we were forced to be better disciplined. We were a true BUNCH READ blocking team. That means that you read and REACT to the other team. The idea was to never decide before the setter sets the ball where he is going to set it. Just read him, read his hands, look if he is leaning one way or the other and then react when he sets the ball. DO NOT GUESS.

Needless to say, this is easier said than done. But since I have been in Europe, all of my coaches have said that we are going to read block, and I truly don't think any of the middles I have played with have done that. And I don't think that any of said coaches have ever really attempted to force them to do it. I remember hearing, "DON'T GUESS!" or "WATCH THE SET!" over and over again. Middle blockers would be drilled over and over again. If they leaned the wrong way or left too early from their spot they would be out to the side to do push-ups.

I understand that this was really hard training and not an easy skill to master, but in the end, it really paid off. And I think that most of the teams I have played on could benefit from implementing the system. Because honestly, right now, too many middles just jump blindly with the middle. As a setter, this is exactly what you want, because then you don't have to do anything hard. All you have to do is set the ball to the outside or behind you every time and you will almost always have a one on one situation.

I don't know, maybe it's better to go on gut instinct sometimes and just do what you feel is right as a blocker. But I think being disciplined will get a lot more touches in the end.

Interlude

I don't know if everyone knows this, but the Bundesliga is going to sleep for about a month starting this weekend. The break is because of the world championships in Japan in November and since Germany is competing several teams in the league will be missing players for the month.

What does that mean for the common man you ask? What will the average volleyball player be doing during this time?

Well, it means that we have a month without any league matches. It does not, however, mean we have no practice. Nope, we get one week off and then it's back to the grind. Circle/Circuit training will rear its ugly head, weight lifting will intensify and training will probably be a little bit more technical. Basically, we'll be doing all the same stuff we did during the pre-season in an effort to keep everyone's bodies from falling apart down the road.

We've been particularly affected by injuries so far this year losing a back up outside hitter for two months, one of our opposites until the end of November and Mads was just out for a little while. All of that besides the small injuries that everyone deals with day to day. But generally it has to be said that we're in pretty good shape at this point in the season. Sitting in third place after a good chunk of the first half of the schedule has been played. Admittedly, we've played our share of "weaker" teams, but none of those teams are easy teams to beat. From what everyone is saying, even though we aren't sitting in first place like last year, the team is playing better at this point in the season. So, hopefully things will continue to go the right way.

Over the weekend we played Rottenburg, a team that didn't play in the Bundesliga last year, and ended up winning 3-1. Again, I got a good chance to play in this match, coming in after the second set and helping our team win the last two. Things have gone well lately when I've been on the court and I've been pretty happy with the way I've developed. It's also fun to see the difference in our team when we switch setters. Gergei sets a lot more balls to the outside and pipe while I focus a lot on the middles and I think it throws other teams off to have to adjust to our very different playing styles. Of course, our own team has to adjust as well, but I don't think I've ever seen such a difference in style from one setter to the other.

We're going into the break optimistic after having accomplished a fair amount here in the beginning of the season. Good luck to everyone else who is actually playing during that time, I'm also looking forward to seeing Marienlyst come down here at the end of November, that should be fun as well. Also, good luck to those ripper Volleyroos, bloody oath!

A Life on the Outside

A few people have asked me what it’s like playing in a stronger league on a team with a deep roster. Generally, I tell them that it is all a learning experience for me, that I have slowly been getting used to the more physical, taller players and the faster tempo of the game. I came into this season with the expectation that I would have to play very well to earn a starting role on the team, and that it would take quite a bit of time before that could even happen. But, that doesn’t mean that standing outside of the court during our matches is easy.

Throughout my career as a volleyball player, I’ve spent little time on the bench. The times that I can remember are short and inconsistent with me being subbed in often. So, the situation here in Germany has been different for me. Up until now, I have yet to play my first points in the Bundesliga, in our two matches I’ve watched entirely from off the court.

Not playing is a grind. I’ve never realized what being a bench player entails, besides the physical aspect (standing for two hours and trying to remain warm is not really that easy, at least basketball and football players have actual benches to sit on) the mental side of being a back up is extremely difficult to grasp. Leading up to a match I can feel my body and my mind getting excited, after all, that’s what warm-ups are for, but as soon as the match is ready to begin and I’m not headed for the court, it is very difficult not to feel some sort of let down. Your body is ready to play, your mind is ready to play, and there is no outlet for that emotion. You feel the emotions with the rest of the team on the court, you want to win, and you want to help your team, but in the most basic way you have no connection to what is going on inside the court. It’s a hard adjustment to make when you are used to playing all the time.

Several people have also asked me how I feel about being on the outside of the court during matches. The question usually implies that I must have a hard time being satisfied with not starting but I don’t really feel that way. Is it hard not playing all the time? Sure. But do I have an issue with it? No, definitely not. Referring to my previous post, I’m fucking Zen. I knew where I stood when I came here, and I have no problem with competing for my spot. I’m going to keep coming to practice and I’m going to keep working hard until my chance comes. Because, to be honest, I like where I am right now, I like the fact that I can see improvement in my game every week. I like that I am getting more and more comfortable with each player and their role on the team. I’m confident that when it’s my turn I’ll be ready and that’s all that I can be at this point.

Tomorrow we play our second home match of the season against Leipzig. If we want to be a top team this year that means that this has to be a win for us. When you play at home against a team not named Friedrichshafen or Duren you pretty much have to win. So, hopefully the team will come with the same intensity that it did in the first set from last week. If we do, it won’t be easy to beat us…even if I’m not on the court…

Zen

Two days ago, I had one of the worst days of practice I have ever had. Nothing went right, every touch on the ball felt awkward and wrong. Instead of doing something to help the team each time I played the ball I was doing the opposite. My hands felt sticky, my legs heavy and most importantly, my head was elsewhere. No matter what I did I couldn’t get myself into that place that an athlete needs to be in to do well. And after spending a lot of time replaying that day in my head, I think that I’m starting to understand why.

Here’s the main reason: My focus was misplaced. I don’t mean focus as far as concentrating on the game. I was most certainly focused on the task at hand. But specifically, I was focusing on things that were of absolutely no value to me at the time.

Let me explain the way practice was structured that day. Morning training consisted of a warm up game called Hagebau, a game based on the principles of soccer and volleyball, which has become just as competitive as anything else we do down here. This day, the “young” team, made up of the younger players on the team, killed the old and set the negative tone for what would be a terrible day for me. Afterwards we did a bit of straight setter training and a few light drills afterward. The night training, and I count this as the worst of the two, was basically a competitive practice with scrimmage-like drills taking up all of the two hours.

The thing that worried me most about playing so poorly on this day was the fact that I had a good feeling going into the day. I’ve felt an improvement in my game over the last few weeks, and felt that I had been training well, doing my job and working hard to get better every single day. My serving felt stronger than it had in a long while, my hands felt light like I could do almost anything with the ball I wanted to. In short, I felt strong. So, going into the day, I was full of confidence, I knew that I was improving and I was looking forward to getting a chance to continue.

But somewhere along the way, my priorities got mixed up. Instead of going into that night competitive training with the mindset that I was going to keep improving, focus on the aspects of my game that needed work and just work hard, I came in thinking only about winning. Now, winning is absolutely one of the most important parts of playing sports. Anyone who says different is not being honest with themselves or anyone around them. But, focusing on winning, especially while playing, is a complete and utter waste of time.

The concept is nothing profound. I don’t claim that what I’m saying is innovative or deep. However, I do believe that it is something we lose sight of all the time.

For example, when I walked into the gym on Thursday night, I had already had a full training earlier in the day where I didn’t feel very good about my game. Like I said, my legs were slow, my hands didn’t feel very good, I didn’t feel like I could make solid connection with the ball. I knew all of these things, I felt them somewhere in the back of my mind but when I got to training and I saw that we were going to have a competitive game like practice I immediately started thinking about winning each drill. We warmed up, did hitting lines and served. And I still didn’t feel good about my game, but I remember still thinking, when the games start, hopefully I’ll be able to switch it around.

What happened? The team I was on lost every single set that we played. Zero wins and five losses. And we switched around a lot so I brought the losses to both sides of the net. As a setter, I take a lot of responsibility for those losses. No one has a bigger influence on the outcome of a volleyball match than a setter.

The funny thing is, I spent the whole time worrying about the score, worrying about the refereeing, worrying about the difference in how hard the free balls were to my side of the net compared to their side of the net. Worrying about losing…

I finally realized afterward that these were the things that a loser would think about. These were the things that I hadn’t been spending my time on for the past two months.

So, what should I have been thinking about? Well, that’s the tough question. The more I think about it, and this is for me personally, the more I think that getting better and being a great player is based on working on your weaknesses all the time. More than that, it is identifying your weaknesses on any given day. Maybe today your legs are tired and that means that you have to work that much harder to make sure you move your feet and get to the position you need to be in. I have a tendency to drop my hands when I set and not take the ball as high as I should (something I did all of Thursday without doing anything about it) and I have to remind myself all the time to take the ball high. We all have lots of things that we have to work on and it is a constant struggle with yourself to keep working on those things. But the only way to get better is to focus on them and correct them and continue to develop as a player.

Second, I think all great players have the ability to drop all of their insecurities when they get on the court. This is directly related to focus because once you drop that insecurity you are free to just play the game. All of a sudden, winning doesn’t reflect positively or negatively on the player because it is what we can call an “outcome goal”. We all know that winning is not 100% dependent on how well we play, there are several factors that influence the outcome of every match or game. Luck, weather, opponent’s ability, refereeing, teammates, these are all things that can make even the best performance a losing one. Without insecurity, a player can play without distraction, the only thing that matters is their performance and knowing inside their heart that they have done all that they could do to help their team. They can be courageous and they can play without pressure because the only important pressure comes from inside, and usually, a player who plays this way wins. Once you forget about winning, you generally win and that, for me, is a zen-like state.

So, that’s where I’m at right now, trying to lose all of my insecurities. Trying to take what the coaches tell me without saying, “But….” Because they don’t want to hear an excuse and an excuse only holds me back from my goals. When I make a mistake, the goal is to correct that mistake and do it right next time, not to get angry at my hitter for not putting the ball away so that I don’t look bad. I lose sight of this all the time and it doesn’t do anyone any good, and I think if we’re being honest others do too, and it all comes from being insecure about our own abilities and what others, whether it’s a coach or spectators, etc…, think about us.

Friday was a much better day and even though I’m sure there will be more bad days at some point, I’m trying to stay zen. Until we lose in Hagebau again that is…

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.

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!

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!