Email Campaign Archive

Planning and Implementing Your Serve Receive Format

-By Tom Houser


A Question for Coach Houser:

We tried running a 5-1 offense last season. So many
times a front row player is receiving serve from a
position that confused her. They are not comfortable
with our current rotation, so I would like input on
what players to put in serve receive, so that our front
row girls can be a little more at ease.


Coach Houser's Reply:

I’ve said it hundreds of times: Serve receive is
your team’s top priority. If you can’t return the
serve, then nothing else matters. You will lose.
Every choice I make with offense, who should
start, where should they start, etc. is influenced
by, “Now how will we serve receive?”


The Coach’s Job:

Your Complete Understanding Is Mandatory. Serve
receive formations are things that you, the coach,
must have 100% under control and understand. If
you're unsure, then your players will be also. 
You may want to try getting little squares of
paper and putting your players’ names on them.
Then make a court on your kitchen table, or even
on the top of a chair, and move the squares around
until you're comfortable with what you’re trying
to do.  

Then, before presenting it to your players, redo
it all with pencil and paper without looking at
your squares.  When players at practice say,
“Where do I go after the ball is passed?” or
“Isn’t this an overlap?” or “Why do you want me
here?”, you must be able to answer those
questions. The more prepared and definite you are,
the more they’ll believe in you. It’s normal human
behavior.

Overlapping: Since I mentioned overlaps, the rules
are ridiculous at first, but just like all other
rules (offsides in soccer, offsides in hockey,
holding in the NFL and walking in the NBA are now
allowed, etc.), you’ll get used to them. The
cut-and-dried version of overlapping is: At the
moment of serve, a player cannot be across the
girl whose positioned to her right, left, front or
back. Therefore, 6 can’t be in front of 3, 2 can’t
be behind 1, etc. What you may miss: It is
impossible to overlap the person who is diagonal
to you. So 3 and 5, 1 and 3, 6 and 4, etc. can
never be in a position where they are overlapping.
So you don’t waist time worrying about that! 

You may say, “Of course, Coach Houser, I’m not a
rookie. I understand overlapping.” But, as you
design a serve receive formation where you want to
pass with the MB’s and rights, avoiding an overlap
will be challenging for you in private, and can be
embarrassing if you can’t explain it to your players. 


Cover: Don’t forget to emphasize to your players,
“We must pass, set, attack, cover, then go to
base.” Even at Junior Nationals in Miami, one of
my best players continued to run to base before
covering. After reminding her a few times, I took
her out, spoke to her about why, and let her stand
with us until she got it fixed. 


Be Ready To Alter Your Serve Receive Instantly!
 
You will then practice it day after day, week
after week, until your serve receptions become 2nd
nature to your players. You will also occasionally
say in practice, “Jenny help, Janice pass,” so
that your players can learn to make adjustments on
the fly. I encourage you to also be prepared to
pass with fewer or more players. Practice this
also as the days and weeks go by, so that on game
night, your team can quickly switch when you say,
“Joan, passing. Pass with 4.”   Regardless, Pass
With Your Best. But, bottom line, pass with your
best 2 or 3 or 4 passers.  Period.  If it confuses
the players, then unconfuse them.  Starting in
around 1990, I began passing with my 3 best
passers, regardless of who they were, how old they
were, and what position they played. In 1995, we
ran a 4-2 because my best passer was my setter. In
1996 and 1997, my 2nd best passer was a MB, so she
was passing. In 2003, my three best passers were
consecutive starters who never came out. In fact,
my 2003 receiving formations were so complicated
that my poor young bench players never understood
them.  But it was a gamble that I had to take. 

If the serve receiving confuses the coach, then we
have problems. Any day that a player asks you a
question, and you’re not sure, go back to your
squares of paper, or your pencil and paper. Then
re-present the formations to your players so that
they can understand it.
 

The Player’s Reactions And Your Responses

In 1998, we had a team in our conference that had
one very talented setter. But throughout the
season, the team ran the same 6-2 that their coach
had used since 1985. At the end-of-the-year
coach’s meeting, I mentioned to the coach, “Cindy
is so good! She has great hands,” and the coach
responded, “We tried to run a 5-1 for a few days,
but the girls were so confused that I went back to
the 6-2. I wish we would have stayed with the 5-1.”

Coaches, when you change offenses or implement
complex serve receive formations, expect to hear,
"I'm lost." and "I can't do this." And "I do WHAT?"
When you hear those things, explain the concepts again.
You know what’s best for your team. The new offense
will be implemented. It will be done. 

Here are some of the statements that you can make:
“This is the way it’s done. I know what I'm
doing. I’ve been working on this for 2 months. I
can answer all your questions. You’ll get it. This
is what both Central High and JC Jones High does.
If they can do it, we can do it. They’re not
smarter than us or more athletic than us. Plus,
it’s what our team needs this year. The offense
we’ve been running in the past doesn’t use this
year’s players’ talents to the maximum. We need to
do this year. Don’t you remember how the 6-2 was
confusing to you at first. Don’t say it wasn’t!
Haha. Remember when you were in the 8th grade, and
you thought, ‘I’ll never learn this,’ but you did.
We’re going to work and work on this until you
become comfortable.”


The Players’ Jobs

I expect my players to learn the new offense. I
will not fuss much, I will not personally
criticize them. Of course, some of the girls are
going to be hesitant, especially if the team has
been successful with the previous formation.
Especially if they’re 11th or 12th graders, and
it’s the only offense they’ve ever known. But
players do not pick the offense, just like they
don’t pick their starting lineup or the time of
their practice. 

If I have players who lag behind the rest in
understanding, I will do as much as I can for
them. I will re-teach them using pencil and paper
if I have to, I will take them out for a few
minutes (like the non-coverer at Nationals), I
will have my assistant explain it, I will take
them out for longer, etc. 

Regardless of the players’ skepticism, we expect
our players to learn it, do what we ask, and do it
all with strong effort and respect. Sure they can
ask questions. Please encourage questions. But do
not flinch when you see their hesitation or their
uncertainty. Reteach it. Reteach it again. Then go
for it. It will happen.

Finally: If we’re confident that changing our serve
receive formation and/or our offense is best for
our team, then we do it. We don’t argue, we don’t
debate, we don’t make deals; unless, it’s
chocolate on the day when everyone is doing x, y,
and z correctly! Haha. 


-Tom Houser
Head Coach, 2009 Roanoke Juniors 16’s National
JOVC Qualified-2006, 2009.
Director, STAR Volleyball Camps
Author, “I Can’t Wait” Drill Collection and Ebooks
www.coachhouser.com