Mama Said Knock You Out
Mama Said Knock You Out
Serving and defending drill from across the border
I’m enjoying my time north of the border. As we’ve begun our training block for the 2022 with the Canada MNT, we want to get the ability to prevent opponent sideout in place. That starts with the serve.
We also want the ability to link block and defense with what we’re doing from the service line. The block moves you make when the opponent is in a perfect pass situation are different than when you put them in a highball situation. There’s some different defensive positioning, etc. This drill puts the emphasis on servers to create what I call “knockout” situations, and for block/defense to capitalize on them. Plus, it references LL Cool J. What’s not to like?
What Is A Knockout?
A knockout is a serve that forces a bad pass, or better. The “or better” part means an ace or overpass. The knockout part requires some judgment on how you define it. Here’s what I mean by that:
At certain levels of volleyball, you have a fairly simple delineation between Good Pass and Bad Pass. At certain levels of volleyball, you have this thing called a Medium Pass start creeping in that complicates things. The lower your level, the less relevant Medium Pass (or “semi-system” as we might call it) is. The higher your level, the more relevant it is.
Most high school teams can be comfortable just calling Good Pass anything that the setter can handset (minus perhaps the exceptional heroic-but-ill-advised sprint into the backcourt to barely get hands on the ball resulting in a double-contact) and anything the setter cannot handset to be defined as a Bad Pass. For most high school teams (and even quite a few college teams), there isn’t any appreciable difference in offensive efficiency when the ball is passed 3’ off the net, 5’ off the net, or 9’ off the net. If the setter can comfortably handset, Medium Pass efficiency tends to be almost the same as Good Pass efficiency.1
When I grade stats at this level, I actually prefer this criteria:
Good Pass = Setter can handset
Bad Pass = No attack generated
Medium Pass = Anything in between
As the level gets higher, you start to have more nuance. A Good Pass starts to reflect our ability to set the middle attacker. A Medium Pass means we can handset but it’s going to be difficult to set middle. A Bad Pass means we can probably get a swing, but it’s a tough swing that requires a bumpset or a non-setter to step in. Maybe we even add another layer of Perfect Pass that’s an upgrade from Good Pass. Maybe we even add a Shanked Pass (R/ for you DV heads out there) that’s a downgrade from Bad Pass. And so on.
But back to LL. What’s a knockout?
In this situation, we’re talking about how to define a term that helps set a goal for servers. If we are going to record a “knockout %” is the criteria going to be “Medium Pass or worse?” (as that means they will be hard-pressed to set middle) or is it going to be “Bad Pass or worse?”
I think you get to choose a little bit here. In the past, I’ve tended to define it as “Medium Pass or worse,” because I’ve wanted KO % to be the inverse of the passer’s Good Pass %. So anything not a Good Pass must be a Knockout. But we’re doing it a little differently here in Canada, and I actually like the upgrade.
How MSKYO Works
One team is on offense and the other team is serving. The serving team stays as the serving team until they serve a knockout, which we define as forcing a Bad Pass or better. The points available for the rally are defined by the quality of the serve as follows:
Knockout Serve: Serving team can earn +3. Offense can earn +1. No matter who wins the rally, serve will change.
Medium Pass: Serving team can earn +2. Offense can earn +2.
Good/Perfect Pass: Serving team can earn +1. Offense can earn +3.
Aces are worth +2 to the serving team, plus they get a freeball which is also worth +2. Plus, you start an “Ace Game” which means the server gets to freeroll to continue their run. If the serving team can extend their run a little more, they continue to earn 1 point for every rally won, but the offense won’t get any points, they are just trying to kill the run.
Missed serves are worth +2 to the receiving team, plus they get a freeball which is also worth +2.
Making It Work
The primary way this drill works is if your sideout % is solidly over 50%. So for many high school teams, this drill is broken from the beginning, since there really isn’t a reward for becoming the sideout team.2 It may work better for good high school teams if you play 1-way. See below.
But assuming that’s not the case, you then have to choose whether you’ll play 2-way or 1-way and whether you’ll free rotate or play rotation style.
The simplest way to play this game is just to freely rotate and play a game to 25 points. With the bonus points, the game will play in under 10 minutes.
You could also play a 2-way game with fixed rotations. Since a game to 25 will play in under 10 minutes, you could play all 6 rotations in an hour. Set two evenly-matched teams up and play each rotation. If you tie 3-3 in rotations, play a tiebreaker. I find that serving-focused rotation games are good ways to highlight servers. If they don’t have the ability to KO the other team, they will have to start doing some things differently with their serve or risk allowing a massive run to start the game.
You can also play this game 1-way, with either fixed rotations or with the sideout team freely rotating. This would be the best way for most high school levels teams to play this drill. If your starting rotations are on one side of the net, keep them on the receiving side. It’s generally the case that, especially at this level, the “B Team” can keep up with the starters more as the serving team than if they have to sideout, and club teams may not have enough players to field two evenly-matched teams. So this can be a good drill where your starting lineup will need to sideout well in order to win. You also can not award any points for missed serves, and just replace with a freeball that is worth 2 points to whichever team wins the rally. That stacks the deck against the starters on the receiving side a little more.
Give this a try and let me know how it works for you!
In fact, it’s common for high school teams, even good high school and juniors teams, to be worse on Good Pass than Medium Pass, because they often set too tight, too fast, etc and make more errors whereas they will often hit in the court more and play a little safer when the ball is off the net.
Any of your high school players savvy enough to pass a controlled ball that qualifies as getting knocked out in order to get the serve on their side?