|
Apparently rumors of Dub's demise have been wildly exaggerated. So he now has a bon voyage card we can all sign when the time comes, hopefully not of a long time yet.
Let me start things off by trying to explain as best I can the hitter-blocker rule. Think of it kind of like the "don't block the set" rule we borrowed from Riata--now most people have come to agree that this is a pretty good rule and don't complain about it much, right??? Even though there can be cases where the person who is attempting to set has not actually touched the ball while the person over the net has. But if it's close, and especially if you call "setting" then it's yellow card on the over the net poacher.
Maybe an even better analogy might be the "way too over the net" (like armpit over) rule, which is rarely applied, but sometimes still is--I'm looking at you, Creepy.
The toughest thing to determine is how much in the net is actually "in the net" But we don't do a lot of bitching about this one, either.
Well, think of hitter blocker the same way. It's a rule designed to penalize people for coming over the net big time, even if the actually do "hit it first" It's also supposed to help some of the smaller hitters, who are sometimes hitting below the top netline. If I'm going up to hit a pass on my side of the net and somebody taller "gets there first" by coming over the net and blasting me, that's not exactly fair, is it?
Now part of this relies on involves the accuracy of the setter--if someone on your team is setting you, but the set ends up on the wrong side of the net--you're no longer the hitter. That makes sense, too, doesn't it???
I know it seems like HB goes against physics, but it doesn't when you think about it, because you are not factoring in the physics of a player's hand/arm being on the wrong side of the net and probably in it, which is a clear violation of a number of sand volleyball bylaws (and we want to stick as close to the real rules as we can).
And let me stress that hitter blocker is rarely invoked. Mostly two guys meet in the middle (a "kong") and we do it up.
So let's go to the big controversial play from last night. From my position directly behind the action in the back row, I saw Dwayne power through Jess and the ball landed out--no problem here--off Jess.
But apparently I didn't see it right. Jess claims he hit it first and it went off Dwayne. But the pass is to Dwayne on his side of the net and Jess is over the net. So Mikey calls "hitter blocker" That would be correct. When one player (1) is on his side of the net and so is the pass, and the other player (2) is over, Player 1 remains hitter EVEN IF Player 2 hits the ball first. Get it? Now if the pass goes on the wrong side of the net and you are going over as well to get it, ROLES ARE REVERSED.
Wow. That's a lot of ink to explain the concept, which is why we don't mess with it very often. Most of you think it's a stupid rule, but I think it's important that it's on the books. Don't even get me started with the naive suggestions I get that go something like this: "Why don't we just not allow people to touch the net?" Puh-Leez. With all the do-overs, we wouldn't get through the first game of the night before the pool closes, and if it cost you a sideout/point, teams could lose games solely on accumulating net violations.
Moving on... I was a bit out of rhythm yesterday. Just couldn't get the sets in the right places consistently. This comes with playing with a bunch of different peeps, and shows how important chemistry can be--I'd call it the theme of the night.
But other players were on--Spoons comes to mind--see what happens when you play more than 2 games and leave the shame phone at home? Mikey tore things up in his role as Swarthy Thunder from the Planet Boozeddup, but injured himself in the process. Strange chemistry was at work--who would've thought the Dynamic Dub Dwayne Duo would work well together. Attorney Scott has evolved into the one armed bandit--apparently injury will help make him a more well rounded player by making him play left handed. Big Shot Rob had some big shot moments. Jess's claim that he scored 90 points during the course of the evening has yet to be verified.
Small ball played pretty competitively against taller teams all night. I didn't play once with Ford, Will, Jess, T2, Scott, Rob, and I think only once with E-Dub, so you can guess what side of the equation I was on.
In our special feature "new talent corner" David is making some pretty impressive progress. He can serve both overhand and underhand, figured out how to spike last night for the first time, blocked Mikey(!), and was able to rotate right into most lineups without costing his team--trust me, that's not always true of new players. Julio kept his serves in and had a couple amazing blocks. I continue to be amazed at the rapid development of the residents who will remain after my departure.
_________________
Chief
Death from above! Fire down below!
|
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
Members
Wow yet again
I set scotty he hits into dwayne then ball goes out? Yes it was very hard for mike and chef to understand what happend. Just like mikal spiking in the front row. The day dWaYnE blasts threw me is the day chef can remember a accurate aAr. 
I Hit It OUt, ShuT tHe Fuk up When 20 pEEps sAy Our BaLL 
It Will B juSt liKe n The old Days, before 
n WiLD BoYz entEreD 
