Email Campaign Archive

Club vs. H.S. Rules: Know the Difference

-By Tom Houser

A Question for Coach Houser:

I'm so mad!! My underhand serving 12's team was
at a tournament yesterday and we made the finals.
Well, before the start of the match, the opposing
coach told the R1 that, since my players weren't
tossing the ball before they served, then the
serves were illegal and he wanted it called. When
the R1 saw us warm up, he said, "Yep, your girls
are serving illegally. You'll have to fix it."
So, with the team mad and crying, we lost that
last match pretty quickly. You probably know the
rules. What's up with this? Can you find the rule
in the rule book? I can't. 

Coach Houser's Reply:

I'm sorry to tell you, but the ruling was
correct. My team was at a 15's tournament last
weekend, and we were working a match, and when a
girl served underhand (who had be instructed to by
her coach, I'm assuming because she had a bum
shoulder) the R1 made the illegal hit signal. I
told my players, "I haven't seen that call made
since around 1993." 

Yep, I learned the rule the same you're learning
it now: It was called against us. My 14's girls
were underhand serving, I didn't know the rule
book very well, the referee called us for an
illegal serve, I protested (like a 32 year old man
would), then read the rule book and there is was.
Then, instead of being upset with the referee, I
was upset with myself. In the 07-08 USAV rule
book, it's on page 39, Rule 12.4.1.  Now, on the
other hand, the National Federal rule is what you
and I would both prefer. It specifically states
that the ball may be "tossed or held" before
contact is made. Your girls will be happy to know
that they don't have to toss in school ball.  So
you have a little work to do at practice. You have
to re-teach the girls their underhand serve. I
recommend you practice it for a while yourself
(without them watching haha) before trying to
teach it to them. When your girls ask, "Why are
the rules different?" you can say, "I guess the
same reason that some of your parents do your
laundry for you, while some of you have been told
by your parents to do your own. Different rules in
different houses." 

Coach Houser: So then am I to assume there is
some wild advantage to this serve besides the
girls being able to do it? I'm not teaching them
to put top spin or back spin on it. This all just
sounds very crazy to me.

Coach:

I don't know the reasoning and rationale behind
it. You asked me to find the rule in the rule
book. I did.  I'm not upset with your second
email, I just don't understand why you're
steamed about it. In fact, if either you or I
would have taken the time to read the rule book
closely, we would have avoided looking like goofs
in front of our team and their parents. And we
wouldn't have spent hours teaching our players
improper skills. 

Even though there are referee clinics before club
seasons -- and I've been to one the past 8 years
-- I don't remember hearing this rule discussed.
Back in 1993, neither I nor my girls ever attended
one single referee clinic. But regardless of what
century we're coaching in, we still had a rule
book. We could have read it.  And, no, it's not
very crazy. There are probably three dozens rules
in the USAV book that are different than in the
NFHS book. Here are just a few that pop into my
head: 

- Why in USAV are 14's allowed to re-toss, while 15's
aren't? And why do 14's get 5 seconds to serve, but
15's get 8 seconds? 

- Why in USAV do timeouts only last 30 seconds?

- Why in USAV are the liberos forbidden to serve?

- Why in USAV are players and coaches allowed to
stand?  It's irritating sometimes that we have
to coach from two slightly different rule books.
But it's a fact, and we have to deal with it. 

Have you discovered the following rule yet? Maybe
you already know it. This is another rule that I
didn't know about until I got "caught": 

In 1987 I watched as an opposing player stepped
back to serve for the 2nd time in a row. We
noticed because she was the opponent's best
server. I argued, I was mad, I was stunned! But
it's legal!! Here's how. The first time she
served, she was serving out of order; yet, she
wasn't caught by the refs or scorekeepers until
her serve had broken and we had served. Then after
our serve was broken, she stepped back to serve
again; but, this time she's in the proper order!
I made a stink about it! But lost the argument to
referees who knew the rule book better than I did.
 
To make matters worse, we sided-out her "first"
serve, but then on her 2nd try, she served 9 in a
row. From that night forward, I trained my
scorekeepers a little better. I made sure they
weren't the "social" type who wanted to spend
their time at the score table looking for a date,
you know? By the way, this rule is the same in
USAV and in NFHS. 

Here's another quick example of coaches who didn't
know the rules: I was reffing middle school ball
this past fall and three times stopped play the
moment a serve was contacted because one of the
eleven players on the court had a foot touching
out-of-bounds at the moment of the serve. Their
coaches were stunned. They looked at me and
stated, "That's illegal?" 

These blunders can happen to any of us. And they
can happen in our 1st season or our 10th! Just
because we played high school volleyball or played
club volleyball doesn't mean that we know the rule
book. And just because we read the rule book 5
years ago, doesn't mean that we still know all the
rules. For example, before a match do you cover
the ropes that connect your net to your standards
up to 5.5 feet? It's a safety issue! Last fall, I
had to ask that those ropes be covered at every
match I reffed at.

If you're a coach, read the rule book once a year.
If you coach club and high school, read both rule
books from cover to cover once a year! 

-Tom Houser
Director, STAR Volleyball Camps
Head Coach, Roanoke 15's Open
Author, "I Can't Wait" Drill Collection and Ebooks
www.coachhouser.com