Beach Volleyball Game Plan and Scouting Charts
Serving: Serve with a purpose: Mindless serving is a waste of time
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- Short serve
- Most hitters lose the ability to hit line when they don’t have a full approach, meaning that they will hit crosscourt
- Short serves can force the hitter too far under the ball where they lose the ability to see the defense
- Serve short to better hitter: limited approach makes her hits more predictable
- Can be used to tire a team out: use after winning a long rally as they are likely tired–you are tired room but you won the rally, so you have more energy from the point
- Caution: This can be an easy “option” (over on two ball) hit for the opponent if overused
- Serving Deep
- Makes opponent track the ball
- Use if opponent has a hard time passing balls close to the net
- Might set up hitter to swing from farther off the net, thus limiting their hitting options
- Straight line-to-line serve
- Keeps the set wide, which makes it easier to keep the ball in front of you on defense (perimeter D)
- Blocker can easily take line away, making a more predictable dig for the backcourt defender
- If blocker is serving, it allows for the shortest distance for the blocker to run
- Often times it is the ball hit directly at you that is the hardest to line up on SR. (This theory is also true for outfielders in baseball.)
- Serving middle
- Use if opponent is not communicating well
- Use as a “one-off” after targeting one player–hope is that the other player won’t be ready to move to pass
- Serving location and tips
- Move around, serve from middle, and each corner to mix it up
- If what you are doing is working, don’t change it
- Pick on one player until the prove they can beat you again and again.
- Serve the tougher server–anything you can do to take a player away from only thinking about their strength is a benefit to you
- Short serve
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- Serve Receive
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- Passing rules
- Ankles bent→ knees in front of toes → hips low → shoulders forward in front of knees → keep head still, at same level when moving
- Angle of incident = angle of reflection
- …on a normal surface
- Make sure passing platform is flat
- Cushion or add pace to ball based on its speed
- Softer serves stay on your arms longer, so surface and angles are key, even on the easy stuff
- Hard serves: set the angle for to go high middle-middle
- Focus on servers arm and hand (angle rule applies to them too)
- Fast arm
- Slow arm
- Hand angled palm to sky= short
- Spin
- Lots of topspin means the ball will fall short
- Balls close to the line will catch the line
- Make sure you get under the ball
- Floats won’t drop as much
- Floats will knuckle, so be light on your feet
- Be sure to watch the ball all the way in to your platform
- Lots of topspin means the ball will fall short
- Troubleshooting serve streaks
- Option, over on two–pass tighter and make this call before the serve
- Switch sides
- Shift the targeted player closer to the sideline
- Shift to stack both of you on the right side of the court, or left side of the court
- Bunch middle to open sidelines
- Spread to sideline to open middle
- I formation if they are picking on one player.
- Stack in middle of court
- Break late so server can’t pick on player
- *Remember: you have to contacts to get the ball close to the net. Passes don’t have to be tight as ground can be made up on the set.
- Error off the net–pass high middle-middle for most room for error
- Over on one–this is more of an “oops” that gets a point sometimes; if we have to resort to this, we will be practicing passing all week, at least
- Passing rules
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- Blocking:
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- Designated blocker needs to be up at the net every time the ball is on the opponent’s side
- Benefits of having a blocker up there:
- Protect against over passes and cheap stuff off the net
- Blocker stays up at net until the SET LOCATION is determined.
- Blocker will either stay to block or pull off
- Pulling from the block:
- Footwork: turn feet→ open hips→ crossover→ square up, hands up, shoulders forward–>stopped on contact of hit
- Wider sets (by the antenna) eliminate the line hit, so DROP CUT (cut shot is actually easier to hit the wider the set is outside the antennae)
- Inside set: DROP line
- Middle set: DROP to line closest line (right) or opponents preferred short shot
- Move late
- Take away most area by still being able to get to their number 1 shot
- Right side sets: Drop to angle or cut.
- It is much easier for a righty to hit a cut shot from the right side
- Defender can read parallel shoulder to the net and hand to jump on line shots
- Back defender reaction to pull
- ALWAYS SEE THE HITTER AND SQUARE UP WITH THE HITTER
- Wide sets: stay centered, and think CUT and ANGLE ONLY (the deep angle corner need to be covered)
- Inside set (L):
- Move up
- Shade to angle
- Have a jump on short and cut
- Middle set: hold your break until your blocker has released.
- Leave the line behind your dropping blocker open
- Shift up to get a step on the short cut
- Still be able to cover your middle back though
- Right side: **don’t be surprised by sharp and and cut shots
- shift up and be ready to cover line and short
- you have everything in front of you and to your left–get a good jump
- Other defender reactions
- Don’t forget about fakes and jukes
- When in doubt, just take away opponent’s #1 shot / highest percentage shot
- Don’t camp, anticipate
- ALWAYS Anticipate hitter’s go-to / #1 shot
- Be light enough to also react to other things
- NEVER cover the same space as your blocker, even when they are pulling
- Other Reads
- ALWAYS TRUST YOUR READ and GO
- If you are wrong you learn
- If you are right, you win
- Deep set= deeper hit
- or if short, easier to read; arm speed, hand angle, arc, etc
- Most likely, will hit to where they are facing
- Tight set= short hit (whether poked or pounded)
- give up deep on tight ball
- deep balls on tight sets won’t have much power, which means you can run them down even if playing for shorter balls
- Wide set= no line available to hit (D- shift up and wide; blocker drop wide to cut)
- Middle set= will hit where facing
- anticipate opponents best / #1 go-to shot and be able to run it down *but don’t camp there
- Can read, run down secondary shots (like hits back across their body) easily
- Trust your reads, but don’t move too early or too far
- ALWAYS TRUST YOUR READ and GO
- Designated blocker needs to be up at the net every time the ball is on the opponent’s side