Offensive Systems

When you are running a business with more than a couple employees, it’s important to match talent with job description.  Having a woman with an IT degree doing art layout while the Graphic Arts guy is doing Windows upgrades–you’re pretty much asking for trouble and a ton of inefficiency.

For success, you need to match organization to talent–holds true in sports as well.  A basketball with 5 Shaq won’t succeed as a team doing a full-court press or operating a run-‘n-gun.  A football team with Joe Montana, Randy Moss, and Lynn Swann won’t do as well if they run it up the gut on every play, rather than airing the ball out.

So with volleyball, how do you know what system works best for you?

First is to realize what the numbers in the name stand for.  Volleyball offenses are always called by two numbers: 6-6, 4-2, etc.  The numbers meanings:

# of players who are primary hitters / # of players who have primary setting responsibilities.

Thus, a 6-2 has six players who hit and two who handle setting duties.  Make sense?

So what you have are:

6-6 – In most cases, this is something that describes backyard volleyball.  Everyone rotates and whoever is at right front (or sometimes right back) is the setter and everyone else hits.  If you see this in ‘serious’ volleyball, it’s most likely with young athletes just learning the sport–it’s a way to get kids experience playing at every position (because you never know where puberty and practice will take their skills–there is plenty of time to specialize later on)

6-3 – Every other spot in the rotation order is responsible for setting.  Most of the time, this will be the athlete at middle-front who can then front or back set.  Against an opponent who hits well and the middle has to block, they’re going to run a ton.  This is another offensive system probably best left to developing younger athletes or players newer to the game…and you’ll never see this with backyard volleyball.

4-2 – Four hitters, two setters.  There are two variations.  The first is the ‘normal’ 4-2 where the setter plays at middle in the front row.  The alternative gets referred to as the ‘American’ 4-2 sometimes.  In that, the setter plays at right front with both hitters in front of her.

Advantages:  You have specialized more so that only two players have responsibility for putting up hittable balls.  With the normal system, you have options in front and behind with hitters taking normal approaches.  With the American 4-2, it appears easier on the setter who has only front-sets, but the system does permit for a middle-hitter to run back-sets.  That’s a bit more advanced as a concept and can be tougher on younger athletes.

Disadvantages: With only two front-row hitters, if the opposing team has learned how to block, they have a 50% chance of guessing right on which hitter gets the ball, improving their chances of scoring a block.  With only two hitters, a setter doesn’t have to really develop multiple sets–it’s either high front/back sets or high outside/middle sets mostly–there’s no chance to learn combinations or adjusting plays.

I used a 4-2 with 6th/7th graders when teaching the game before changing systems.  With that said, with the right personnel, such as two lefty setters who also hit well, a 4-2 can be effective at higher levels…but accumulating that sort of talent is tough, I think, especially with how the other systems work.

6-2 – The setter is in the back row, usually at right back, so that hitters occupy all three front row slots.  There are multiple advantages of the system.  First, you will have three hitters at all times.  Second, with substitutions for the setter as they come to the front row, often you can find teams running a 6-2 capable of subbing in excellent blockers or hitters–and related to that, it’s a system where you won’t struggle if your setter is only 5’3 or 5’4.

There are a couple of disadvantages, though.  The first is that there are limited substitutions in a set.  It’s possible you could reach that limit–and if you are using two smaller setters or have a hitter who will now be forced to play back row who is a horrible passer, that can be problematic.   The second is a disadvantage I hear regularly but do not believe–that a 6-2 is bad because the hitters need to get used to two different setters.

Me personally, I use a 6-2 quite a bit and for multiple reasons.  It’s let me recruit shorter setters (who are more common than 5’11 ones), it’s easier to find 6′ kids who can’t play defense, and in one case, I’ve been blessed with a 5’11 lefty who could hit AND set.  At a high school/Jr High level, a 6-2 is handy for another practical reason…it’s playing time for more kids (and that’s important for reasons, good and bad, beyond the scope of this blog entry).   I’ve also found that the issue of different setters doesn’t particularly matter since we adopt the system early in the year and players get weeks to get used to multiple setters.

5-2 – This is my term.  It’s something LLCC has run a few times because of the talent on hand.  Basically, I wind up with a taller setter who doesn’t play defense well and a short one who is a blocking liability.  Running a 6-2 won’t work because it’s going to force that taller one to play D (trust me…no), but running a 5-1 is even worse because the tall kid will “play” defense and the short one won’t get court-time at all and she’s a good defensive player.

So, we substitute the two setters as a front/back arrangement, leaving the OPP in the game to hit and play defense.  We get three hitters just like in a 5-1, but we get better defense by making the substitution rather than tolerate ‘olè’ defense.

This is all about fitting your system to your talent.  We’ve used this or a variation on it in 2007, 2012,  and 2015.  **Don’t pigeonhole talent into a system…optimize the talent–adjust the system!!

5-1 – In this system, one player handles all setting duties, including when she rotates through the front-row.  The advantage is that all players get used to the same sets, and just as important, the setter will get a good feel for who is hot/how people are hitting.  The disadvantage comes from other skills–is the setter a good blocker?  Defense?  Can the setter be an offensive factor in the front row?

It seems a lot of coaches insist that the 5-1 is the best system–and maybe it is…presuming you have a setter who can block and dig in addition to running an offense.  But that’s hard to find if you aren’t in the same league as a Lauren Carlini, Jen Flynn, or Laura Davis.

With that said, you have to consider trade-offs.  I’ve sacrificed blocking before to get the right setter on the court–we were great at siding out and she was the team leader…even if it meant we never blocked a ball while she was in the front row–we tried to adapt by changing serving strategies, where we played defense, etc.  It has to match your talent and needs.

At LLCC, what we’ve run:

6-2: 2006, 2009-2010, 2014, 2016-17 (6)

5-2: 2007, 2012, 2015 (3)

5-1: 2008, 2011, 2013 (3)

Like all this?  Check out Like Heck She Isn’t a Volleyball Player…five bucks for 27 more essays and weird perspective on coaching and coaching volleyball.