Email Campaign Archive

The MB-S Relation in Your Lineup

-By Tom Houser


A Question for Coach Houser:

I set up my starters randomly from year to year,
depending on who I want to serve first. Some years
it’s S/OH/MB, then other years it’s S/MB/OH, then
other years it’s something different. This sure
does make it hard to explain to my players, and it
takes a lot of hours of work each off-season to
figure it out. Is there a typical way of setting
up your players? What is the conventional wisdom?


Coach Houser’s Reply:

I’m not sure what is typical, and many people
don’t consider me wise. Haha But I do know that
what I heard a long time ago makes sense to me,
I’m very comfortable with it, and I’ve done it
ever since I heard it. 

-It’s S/OH/MB!

Advantage #1: When the setter is in the 1.

Many teams require their OH’s to be primary
passers. I do. So, if you create your lineup in
the S/OH/MB format, then when your setter is in
the 1, your OH is available to be one of your
serve receivers. Sure, your setter will have to
hide behind that OH; but that’s no problem, as the
run from behind the OH to target position isn’t
that bad. My setters have been doing it for nearly
20 years. 

Advantage #2 and #3: When the setter is in the 6 or 5.

When the setter is in the other 2 back row
positions, she will push a right and a MB. This is
usually no problem, since these girls are rarely
in serve reception. 

Let’s say, however, you need your MB2 and/or your
RS in your serve receive. Well, if you follow my
advice, they may not be able to when they’re being
pushed by the setters. I’m sorry. 


MB2 In The 4: But here are some options! At my
camp in Alaska a few weeks ago, the team I was
coaching was running a 5-1, our setter was in the
5, and the team said, “We need our MB to pass
here. So our setter hides in the corner, we let
our right side set the first ball, then the setter
takes over.” I’m like, “Cool, as long as our right
can set!”, and she could! So that’s one way to
tackle the problem. 


RS In The 3: I’ve also seen teams pass with
their front row right side in this formation while
keeping their setter out of the way. They “hide”
their setter close to their team’s right sideline
behind the 3 and to the left of the 1. It’s pretty
cool! And it’s almost impossible for an R2 to
figure out. He won’t have a clue. Hope you don’t
get incorrectly whistled for an overlap.


Issue #1: What to do when the setter is in the 4?

When the setter is in the 4, you will have a MB in
the 3 and an OH in the 2. There are several
options. 

Option a) Let the MB hit middle, the OH hit back,
then they switch. The question then becomes, “What
will the setter do with a bad pass? There’s no
front row OH!” Answer: Set back row!! But for many
teams and setters, this may be forbidden, or just
down-right impossible to execute. 

Option b) Have all three front row players huddle
beside the setter between the 3 and 4 spots. Then
the opponents touch the serve, the setter sprints
to target, the OH sprints to the outside position,
leaving the middle to come into the middle. Cool!


Option c) Every season, I see teams try to run an
OH who’s in the 2 to the outside during the
opponent’s serve. ARE YOU KIDDING? I attack that
with a short serve right on the head of that
sprinting OH! It’s an almost immediate point, and
the opponent often has no clue what to do. 


Issue #2: Does the setter always serve first?

No, not at all. Your setter(s) can start in any
position(s). Just have an OH serving after a
setter, and a MB serving after the OH. So, sure,
you can have a MB serving first. But, then you’d
have one of your setters serving second. 

Note: If you’re running a 5-1 offense, you may
choose to have your setter serving first because
it allows her to have three front row hitters the
majority of the set! I have had a setter serving
first the past 3 club seasons. 


Coach Houser: Why not S/MB/OH?

It’s because when your setter is in the 5 and you
need 4 to pass, then that forces her to either (a)
try to make a ridiculously long run through her
serve receiving teammates or (b) push 4 up the net
and thus you lose an important serve receiver. I’m
not willing to do either. 

Also, when my setter is in the 1, and it’s easy
for her to allow the 2 to pass. But if your 2
person is a MB, this advantage is wasted. 

-Irony At A STAR Camp:

In Pennsylvania last month, I forgot to remind my
staff that they should place their starters in
S/OH/MB. Unfortunately, one of my staff hadn’t
helped me in any previous camp this summer. so she
forgot. After a few hours of all of us coaching
our own tournament teams, I noticed that her was
in the S/MB/OH lineup. I saw her staring at her
serve receive formations, trying to figure out why
they weren’t working out like they did in college.
I didn’t interrupt her because I didn’t want to
embarrass her, and didn’t want to embarrass ME for
not telling her. Furthermore, the 8 of them were
figuring out how to receive in every formation
even with the error. 

On the way home in the car, I was like, “You want
me to tell you why you were having problems?” She
said, “YES!” After I explained it, she was like,
“You’re kidding me! I knew it was something, but I
couldn’t put a finger on it.” Then she said, “But
we won the tournament anyway!” Yep, her team sure
did.

Finally: The idea of S/OH/MB may not work every
season. But if you normally receive with your OH’s
and you don’t normally receive with your MB’s,
then your players will find it easier to play the
game if you start with S/OH/MB. 



-Tom Houser
Director, STAR Volleyball Camps
Author, “I Can’t Wait” Drill Collection and Ebooks
Head Coach, 2009 Roanoke Junior 16 Nationals,
Old Dominion Region Champion.
Junior National Participant-2006, 2009
www.coachhouser.com