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A Rethink on Receiving With Four Passers
Utilising the Opposite to Pass
When coaching City University London, I have a couple of strategies to help improve reception when we’re stuck in a particular rotation during a match. The main one is to take out one of the three primary passers and put in the opposite to pass. I would do this if I know they have a decent pass, which is usually the case as most of my opposites are converted outside hitters. I like this strategy because it gives a break to the player taken out of the pass (the serve may have picked on that player so it forces the serve to do something else) and it may shift the line-up of the passing unit (e.g. the libero shifts to become the middle passer, where most serves generally go to).
Receiving With Four Passers
One strategy I never thought about implemented at City University London is a four person passing unit. It makes sense as a good strategy because it reduces the area of responsbility for the four passers, compared to three passers. This reduced area of responsibility means it’s narrowed so this would make it easier to pass within the midline of the body. I forgotten but I did use this strategy before when I was coaching at Dynamo Daredevils in the 2014-15 sesason, where the level was very low that I needed four passers (see below). I’m not sure why I never thought about implemented this strategy at City University London. It could be because our passing level was decent enough that it didn’t require such a drastic move, unlike what I faced at Dynamo Daredevils. It could also be that it’s just not something you do at intermediate or elite level volleyball.
Four Player Passing Unit Used At Elite Level
This video by Volleyball Explained showed that a four player passing unit has been used at elite level, as demonstrated by USA Men (see below). This really did blow my mind. It makes sense because opposite Matt Anderson (#1) was actually an outside hitter for the first half of his career (he was the MVP and Best Outside Hitter at the 2013 NORCEA Championships with Team USA) so why not use him in the pass if it helps with the passing.
I saw this strategy being used again recently when scouting Trentino Itas for our Champions League match. Their opponents, powerhouse Cucine Lube Civitanova, also used a four person passing unit (see below). They mainly used it to help combat Nimir Abdel-Aziz’s serving (in the three matches I had stats on Nimir, he had an amazing 17 aces with only 18 errors).
Implementing a Four-Person Passing Unit
This really did make me think that I should implement this strategy for City University London. Although City has limited training time (90 minutes per week), I think it is worth practicing this system because the benefits can be huge. If it works, it could be used as a good strategy if we are struggling in the pass. If it really works, it could even be the standard if the overall passing quality is better with four person unit than a three person unit (it would be interesting to see what the stats says on this). If it doesn’t work (passing gets worse) then I can always drop the strategy.
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