Happy Wednesday to you!
Buckle up, it time to review and hopefully learn from the AVP Huntington Beach
Well the boys and girls of summer seem to be stepping their play up a little more, and they, like all of us, they have "farther to go"!
Men's Final
Overall Grade - B
Both teams played very well at times, but both teams rarely played their best, at the same time.
There were definitely some entertaining rallies, amazing hustle / effort plays and some aggressive serving by both teams.
Where each of the 3 games fell apart was in the blocking, passing and setting.
I know it's sacrilegious to say that 2 of the most respected blockers in the AVP blocked poorly, but they did - if you compare them to their own standards!
Yes, both Scott and Dalhausser had a few impressive blocks each, BUT they both missed way too many and also 'guessed' too much - thus leaving their partner with no chance at all to dig behind them.
When blocking, there is a fine line between attacking the ball and guessing.
Example - you know you are guessing when this happens: you are supposed to be blocking line and more than once the ball is hit past you down the line. One time is acceptable, 2 times or more is not!
Also, far too many bad passes and bad sets off of GOOD serves, but not great serves.
A bad pass off a GREAT serve or a bad set off of a bad pass is acceptable.
When the opponent is serving GREAT, you must not give them any more confidence by poorly passing/shanking their GOOD to AVERAGE serves.
My theory is: if it's a clean ace (you can't touch the ball at all or you barely touch the ball with one arm), it's a GREAT serve.
If you can get 2 arms on the ball and the ball is not easily settable, it's a BAD pass and the serve was average to good.
It's ok to lose; BUT, it's NOT OK to beat yourself!
Women's Final
Overall Grade - C+
Once again, both teams played well but never at the same time - game 1 and 2 were blow outs.
Although Kessy and Ross started out not playing well, it wasn't because of lack of effort or energy. I really appreciated their consistent energy, hustle and attacking nature of the way they played in all 3 games.
Once they got their confidence and rhythm, they also served very well.
Which brings me to this:
What in heck is one of the best diggers in the world doing sharing blocking duties with someone who can block better than she can?
To block or dig well you need some time to get a good 'feel' for the strengths and weaknesses of your opponents. You need to figure out your opponent's rhythm and then how to disrupt it.
If you block every play or you dig every play you will start to get a feel for what the hitter likes to do based on the set they get and their approach.
Only one team that I can remember consistently did very well sharing blocking and digging duties - Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes. They are not the norm, or normal...;>) all the other great teams specialized in their defensive duties by either focusing on digging or blocking.
There's a HUGE difference between capitalizing on the mistakes the other team makes and FORCING the other team to make mistakes.
Misty May-Treanor does not consistently force the other team into hitting errors because of her blocking abilities (yes, she does a good job of blocking the other teams mistakes but she DOESN'T force them)
BUT she is second to none in forcing the other team to make mistakes as a back court digger.
Nicole Branagh can force the other team to make mistakes as a blocker and even if she doesn't, Misty May-Treanor's defense will!
Between their "strategy" of keeping the other team off balance by switching their blocking and defensive duties every play while also randomly serving either Kessey or Ross...as they say on Twitter, OMG!!!
Their "strategy" did nothing but get themselves off balance and out of rhythm and allowed their opponents to settle down and gain confidence!
I do realize that the commentators where saying in the first game "how brilliant" it was to keep the other team off balance - you didn't hear them say that in game 2 or 3 though...
Yes, May-Treanor and Branagh lost at the end because of great serving, BUT great serving comes from confidence and being in rhythm, and they were very much responsible for the confidence and rhythm that Kessy and Ross had.
(And yes I do realize that Kessy and Ross switch off on their blocking and digging responsibilities - and I do strongly believe that they would be a better offensive and defensive team if they specialized.)
And the moral of the story is:
Your offensive and defensive rhythm not only greatly affects your own rhythm; it greatly affects your opponent's offensive and defensive rhythm.
Once again these AVP tournament reviews are not about whether or not a person is a good or bad person - they are about how a team performs in the final and what to learn from what they did.
Until next time
Be Your Very Best!
Dan
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