Olympic Live Blog
This is a live blog that I’ll be updating throughout the Olympics. Like most of you, I love the Olympics, and I grew up in a family where we always watched and cheered on the American athletes in every sport. Of course, one of the proudest moments of my life was getting to represent the USA as part of the coaching staff in the 2016 Rio Olympics. My daughter, Riley, is about to turn 5 years old and she’s been dragged around the world with me, so she’s no stranger to international volleyball.
This won’t be the page for serious analysis, which I’ll put out in separate articles. This will be a home for miscellaneous commentary from both myself and my daughter over the next couple weeks of Olympic competition.
Thursday, Aug 8
12:09 - Skinner with more crosscourt heat (might have been out) on the serve. Drews blocking lineup looks good but Brazil gets the kill on the second change.
Poulter sets low/wide to Plummer and just like that it’s back to 12-10. Got to keep Plummer 1m inside so she can keep it high seam.
Plummer dinks one to middle-middle and Gabi misses a very diggable ball. 13-10!
Washington clamps a bad set. Brazil transition play looking really ugly right now and I love it! 14-10.
Plummer hits out in trans 14-11.
Another great dig by Roberta that leads to ANOTHER Brazil gaffed set in transition. USA takes advantage and kills it. AND WE’RE PLAYING FOR GOLD AGAIN LFG!
12:07 - Skinner stays crosscourt and Ana Cristina hits wide! 11-8.
Full shift for Brazil recpetion and the they get the lib on it, but USA with a nice dig and trans kill by Drews. 12-8! Timeout Brazil.
12:04 - Chiaka perfect pass off the tape serve and Carlini perfect set the Skinner who nukes it for the kill. Carlini absolute game-changer there. 8-7
Gabi on the X in Ro1. Serve her in Ro1!! 8-8
Skinner dimes it and Chiaka kills it. 9-8
Skinner stays in on the serve and gets the overpass! What do I know?? 10-8!
Brazil timeout. USA has been all crosscourt on the serving. I guess stick with it if it’s working but I like trying to go back down the line and catch them, especially in this rotation with Gabi and the lib looking to push over.
11:59 - Carlini has been good I like the double sub this early. Brazil blows an overpass but USA can’t kill it and Gabi gets high hands to put Brazil up 5-3. I think we need the passing sub for Skinner at some point here too. I’d go with Larson because I think she has some magic in her serve and we could use the calm in transition setting and scramble touches.
Brazil misses the serve. 4-5.
Plummer serves a missile. Brazilian libero with 2 questionable sets to give USA a chance. They can’t convert and Gabi kills her 3rd try of the match. Thompson way over-rotating on that block. Just stay square. 4-6.
Plummer nails the pass and Skinner scores on the drop tip that Thaisa swatted earlier. This one must have been 1/4” higher because it trickles over. 5-6.
Good block touches but hesitancy on the setter-out with Wong-Orantes out. Absolutely incredible defense by Carlini not just digs but super-controlled. Finally Plummer steps in confidently and gets hands on the 2nd ball and Skinner terminates. 6-6.
More defense by Carlini and Plummer handset leads to another kill. 7-6.
Washington lets that serve go too close to zone 6 and Brazil surprised me with the repeat. 7-7
11:55 - Plummer sticks the first pass but Skinner hits wide on a 1v1. 0-1
Skinner dimes one. Drew is dug but Brazil with a weird miscue and they give USA a free point. 1-1
Poulter nice dig but they set Plummer wide and she gets blocked. 1-2.
Another beautiful dig by Roberta on Drews but Brazil blows the transition set AGAIN and it’s tied at 2.
Brazil kill in transition and it’s 2-3 now. Both teams fired up.
Skinner nice pass and Poulter gives Plummer a perfect set and she hammers it. Plummer is incredible right now.
Drews error. 3-4
11:50 - Washington goes deep cross and gets a medium pass. Rosamaria hits out on the left. I like the mixup because she’s been going all short droppers. No way Brazil wants to repeat Rosamaria. RSB has to compress the center of the court here.
Another great Washington serve and Brazil shanks. Gabi has to take the 2nd ball and they have to go back to Rosamaria on the right but she catches hands. 21-24
Sideout USA 22-24.
Poulter ace! 23-24!!
Overpass! But Chiaka gets called over. Eh… I dunno. 50/50 call. You can’t challenge the over/backrow block. Karch challenges net but there was no net. Tough to see on the over/back row block there… Seemed like the ball might have been in the plane. Either way, one team was going to be pissed.
We’re going to 5 in another Olympic semi-final. I can’t handle this! Being a fan is way more stressful than being a coach.
11:46 - Poulter with a shaky release in Ro4 leading to Plummer have to set it over. She does a great job to get Brazil out-of-system and USA gets a swing but Brazil takes the rally. 18-22.
Perfect pass and Poulter doesn’t have to sprint out of Ro4 and USA sides it out. 19-22
Plummer serves a missile but USA mishandles the overpass and can’t put it away. Washington with a great touch off the block but Drews and Poulter hesitates and Skinner gets a bad set and hits it out. 19-23
Drews with the full central pipe on the sideout. Great mix-up. 20-23.
Washington goes deep cross when she’s been dropping it short and gets a medium pass. Rosamaria hits out the sideline. Great change on that serve by Washington. 21-23. I like her going back to the short dropper out of the sideline. RSB needs to get in and compress the center of the court. They won’t repeat to Rosamaria.
11:45 - Poulter not moving super-well right now. Ro4 coming up…
11:41 - Thaisa misses long. I hope they serving sub her out again. 16-17.
Ana Cristina kill 16-18.
Shanked pass and Poulter can’t keep it on her side. Brazil handles the overball well this time and kills it. 16-19.
11:40 - Erin: “Doesn’t USA need to serve short on Gabi in Ro1 to take out that X?” I knew I married this woman for a reason.
11:38 - Isn’t it great when somebody calls a timeout and the commercial break goes into it’s 3rd minute and you know you’re missing points? Fortunately we come back to Plummer killing a ball and Skinner/Washington rooming one. Next one goes to Gabi and USA block is well-timed but she catches the edge of Thompson. Block was better though. They’ll get her if they keep that up.
11:32 - Speaking of Gabi, she’s really getting her arm going now. Getting on the ball faster. USA block is just a little late and popping all those balls up and out of bounds. Got to find a way to get up and over a little earlier so those blocks don’t push the ball up and out.
11:29 - Regularly I get asked, “hey do you think those coaches would want to change Annie Drews’ armswing or is it just too late?” No no no, not only do we not want to change that armswing, we want more kids swinging like that. Also see: Gabi. Low draw = more power potential.
11:27 - Plummer overpasses but Brazil blows the overpass (2 players colliding) and USA wins the rally to go up 2-1. I go over this all the time at clinics when doing BSBH but just being great on overpass, freeball/downball, etc goes a long way. Even the best teams are imperfect.
11:22 - Brazil bump-backset to Gabi going inside-out off the coverage. Poor decision there. This is where you see the men’s game just way more organized off the coverage than the women’s teams as a whole. Skinner throws deep line for the kill and USA takes set 3 big. Let’s go!!!
11:21 - Plummer not even attempting to avoid the block. Just mashing high hard and straight. And it’s working well. USA serving pressure cracking Brazil right now.
11:20 - Brazil subs out Thaisa for a standing serve out of bounds. Wtf was that.
11:18 - Sorry, major Ollyball break again. We’re back now. We went with a cross-partner USA scrimmage where Riley was Sarah and my wife was Kristen and I had to be both Taryn and Sarah. Bigs v Smalls apparently.
10:54 - I love the step-in and out-of-system square up by Wong-Orantes on that set but Skinner missed it out-of-bounds. USA is probably in too deep of a hole now. 16-23 is going to be tough to dig out of.
10:45 - Welp, so much for that. USA getting blocked off the court.
10:41 - USA a little cleaner on some of these touches.
10:39 - We’re back after a little session with the Ollyball. Riley’s ready to sub in.
10:29 - I don’t love this USA rotation defense against the high balls. I do love that Plummer throw to the pot. And Plummer high off the hands to win 25-23! USA! USA! USA!
10:27 - Brazil shifting their libero to zone 6 and making a bunch of digs there. I love it.
10:25 - Cook vacated middle-middle and then didn’t make a clean dig off an easy block controlled touch. I hate vacating middle-middle on a scouting report unless the trend is absolutely clear and I don’t see that here. And Roberta with an ace. Tied up 21-21.
10:22 - And there’s the flip side of not getting blocked… Brazil misses hands on 2 balls in a row and now it’s tied back up at 19-19. Neither team has been particularly efficient so far.
10:21 - USA has a had lot of trouble with getting blocked this Olympics. It would be interesting to run an analysis of their Kills - Blocked - Covered compared to other teams. It feels like they hit in a lot and score a lot when they hit in, but they get less out of the opponent block than some other teams.
10:14 - USA coverage has been a little lax this match. Plummer kept that say way off and Skinner was really deep, hitting the ball hard and killing the ball from 8’ off. Different than the recycling strategy that some teams are playing but it was effective there. And Skinner lights up an in-system ball to put USA up 13-12.
10:07 - Poulter misses a wide-open pineapple by a few inches. Great idea; it was there. USA has struggled with the releases and passing in Ro4. Poulter limited by that back injury hasn’t been getting across fast enough. I wonder if she could push the refs and leave a little earlier. I don’t think she’s anywhere close to too early right now.
10:04 - NBC broadcast not showing the score for some reason. Jeez people get it together.
10:00 - LET’S GOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
Wednesday, Aug 7
12:23 - Holt with another nice serve. Poland connects on a middle run from 9’ off. Wow. USA had a recycle opportunity but the coverage wasn’t there. Look at Leon’s block on the replay. Keeps his elbows bent, doesn’t give the easy recycle, flushes it.
Anderson with the pass and hit but Leon slows him down and then dunks it into the pot for the kill. Best player of this generation just leveling up right when USA didn’t need that.
USA kills it but 11-14 probably too much of a deficit. But Anderson at the line gives them a chance.
Anderson nice serve and they slow down Leon. Good dig by Anderson and then kills a D-ball in trans. Incredible play. 12-14. At 70% sideout, that’s a 10% chance of getting 14-14.
Barnett calling for the big stack and leaving Kurek open. I don’t like it. Ro4 is a good time to set Kurek. Terrible set to Leon and he hits it a mile out. Really weird, almost yippy set by Lomascz. That ball was super high. 13-14.
Poland forces it to Leon one more time even though Anderson rolls it short and gets him on the ground. And Leon cracks it off the top of the double block. Poland wins it.
Damn. Great match by USA but Leon just dragged Poland into the finals. Epic match. I feel for the USA guys.
12:21 - USA goes with the full commit on the middle but Poland finds the bic for an easy kill. 8-11.
Huber misses his serve by a mile. I can’t figure this guy out. 9-11
Joe Trinsey: “Uh oh, Holt serving. I’m not feeling good about this one.”
Max Holt: Serves an ace.
My apologies sir.
10-11. Poland timeout.
12:17 - USA hasn’t set middle in like 20 minutes. Poland was thinking the same thing because Micah got the D-ball an empty net but Leon somehow coming up with the dig! But then Micah feeds Holt in transition for the kill. And Micah forces the overpass! 7-8. Let’s go!!
But Micah misses the serve.
And then a tight set and Anderson goes way in the net. Weird play. As a side note, I think refs should give more yellow cards at the youth level for really egregious nets/unders. They are dangerous plays and a lot of kids are way too casual about it.
12:15 - Incredible match. Leon is leveling up right now. Scary. Micah with a nice fast run from off the net. Jaeschke kills it to cut the lead 4-5.
Tough swing by Kurek and Anderson had a shot to dig the deflection but couldn’t come up with it.
Shoji handles a bomb and Micah sets too tight but Russell dunks it. That probably should have been called but the ref lets it go. Huber with a kill for Poland. USA down 5-7.
USA passes off the net again. Leon with the dig and Fornal kills in transition. 5-8. USA serve and pass has to come through to win this.
12:11 - Huber cracks an ace to put Poland up 2-1. Poland absolutely teeing off from the service line. Another one that knocks them off the net and Anderson blocked. USA down 1-3. Yikes.
12:07 - I can’t believe this is going to 5. What a change from 23 minutes ago. (Remember folks, momentum does not exist.)
11:59 - Holt misses out of the timeout. Okay buddy you did your job. 20-19 USA.
Huber has been terrible serving for Poland but he bombs USA off the net. Beautiful recycle but bad touch on the coverage by Averill. Weird play by Poland almost seemed like a lift but Fornal kills out of the backrow… and then plows into Averill and knocks him down. Leon holding his neck. Wtf is going on with Poland and injuries.
Huber misses. Anderson misses a mile out of bounds. 21-21.
Kurek hits a nuke. Poland’s serves absolutely there right now. USA battling from 20’ off the net on every other rally now. USA down 21-22. Timeout. Seems like Speraw is trying to get Shoji into the most likely seam to pass this ball. Let’s see if he can do it.
Nope Kurek goes other seam but Russell nails it. Micah sets tight but Jaeschke kills it. 22-22.
DeFalco is in as a blocking sub. But Leon goes right over Averill anyway. 22-23.
Leon cranks up an absolute bomb. What a legend. USA down 22-24. Another Leon bomb that goes off the court. Micah has to bumpset from off the court but USA kills it somehow. 23-24
Garrett into serve. They almost get the dig on Fornal but no. 23-25. It’s going 5. I can’t believe it. Holy moly Poland, talk about heart.
11:56 - USA had the right scheme on there in Ro1 but Fornal got the bounce. 18-17 Poland. Micah forces long-distance to Matt (boo #OnlyShortDs) and Poland gets the dig but USA scraps out the scramble rally. 18-18. Zatorski looks better now and the commentators are talking about it too. Holt serves a bomb that Leon nails… and Poland hits out from the middle! 19-18 USA. Expecting Poland to repeat middle. AND HOLT PAINTS THE SIDELINE FOR AN ACE!!! USA up 20-18. Wowwowow
11:54 - I called this set too early I guess. Poland serve and pass has picked way up. And a nice block touch quick transition by Kochanowski to tie it at 16.
11:52 - Leon nukes a serve for an ace. And then another to get USA way out-of-system, but the Polish setter pulls his block way too early and gives Russell a 1-on-1 on a garbage set. And then Kochanowski lets Anderson tool him on another garbage play. I was just talking about how good the Polish block/defense fundamentals were. And now here, in the 4th set when their serving has suddenly turned on, the block/defense is kind of letting them down. They look disjointed.
11:50 - Averill’s hands are so narrow on the block this match. Haven’t seen that from him before. That last one from Leon he could have housed.
11:48 - Wow. Polish setter mishandles an easy dig and miscommunication lets the ball drop. Almost looks like the setter was trying to dig for a pipe-on-2 but Fornal was already way ahead of the ball. Weird.
11:44 - “Leon needs to get hot right now.” Serve goes into the ref stand. Yikes. USA is going to win this one but it feels like a bit of a cheap win with Poland so banged up.
11:37 - The entire Poland team is hurt by now. But yet still battling. Jaeschke pass-and-go with an absolute laser-beam speed to the left. Check the hitting window on that one. #1mInsideGang
11:33 - USA wipes a tilted Poland team in set 3. But you see this happen sometimes. I like how Grbac subbed out his starters. Let USA finish the beatdown on the subs. Come back to set 4 with a changed energy. I’m not taking this one for granted at all.
11:27 - Poland is frazzled. Poland sends the freeball out of bounds. U15 coaches everywhere sympathize.
11:25 - Zatorski in visible pain after that pass. It would be a shame if that ended up being the swing in this match that was shaping up to be a classic. I want USA to win but I want to see both teams full strength battling to the end.
11:19 - Kurek sneaks one under Averill’s arms. Come on buddy just get over where you are.
11:03 - I did not want to see Leon at the serving line at 25-25. Leon absolutely torches it and nails the pass. Micah pushes the bic and Anderson terminates against a double block that was sitting on him. Then Averill goes for it, might have been going out but Fornal medium-passes it. USA gets the dig and turns it in transition. THAT’S WHY YOU DON’T JUST “GET IT IN.”
That 25-25 was huge. After 3 straight errors Leon still torches an absolute missile in the seam but Shoji showing that he’s one of the best libs of this generation. Absolutely incredible pass in a huge moment. Wow.
11:01 - Ma’a absolutely goes for it as a serving sub but Zatorski just nails the pass. But Huber has been dreadful as a server. Barnett calling for “this has to be in” with Anderson back to the line. I love you Kevin but nonono. Fortunately Anderson green lights it. USA gets a transition opportunity but Poland blocks.
10:57 - Crazy replay challenge by Poland off the foot pass.
10:55 - At the start of each new quad, every team should just put bids out for the new Cuban 17-19 year olds. We should have one on every team.
10:51 - Averill looks too worried about reaching to the seam instead of getting over as a blocker. I’d like to see him just get over where he is and let the hitter find him.
10:48 - A friend texts me: “my goodness! that backrow ball!” while I’m in the middle of the 273rd pharma commercial I’ve seen this Olympics. Thanks NBC.
10:36 - This battle between Anderson and Leon is beautiful to watch. Two guys with fantastic armswings. In particular, Leon’s block moves are fantastic and watching Anderson stay open and hit with range against that block is a great cat and mouse game.
10:31 - A Pland error gives USA 23-24, but Janusz repeats the middle for Set 1.
10:29 - Riley: “Which one is worse, USA loses or (Hurricane) Debby destroys our house?” Umm… a little perspective kid.
10:26 - Wow Poland really blew that 3PBD transition. Don’t know why Fornal set that.
10:23 - Every time in USA Ro1, Poland is rolling short on Russell to try to take him out and then stacking in on the middle/pipe. They run the tactic but DeFalco still gets it through. I have my eye on that rotation though.
10:19 - Leon with a clean kill into the seam on a pipe. That’s a rare one because usually Shoji is so good at compressing into the seam and not getting beat there.
10:18 - Micah forces a long-distance D-ball to Anderson and it gets dug and Poland turns it to go up 14-13. Not a fan of that play. #OnlyShortDs.
10:14 - Holy moly that sequence at 9-12 was pure beauty. Sweet sprawl by Russell and then Micah beautiful pivot backset for the trans kill to Anderson.
10:10 - I’ve always seen Poland men as one of the best-coached teams out there in terms of serve-block-defense tactics. Very good fundamentally, but also I see a cohesion between all aspects of their game. And an incredible rally with defense on both sends ends in a beautiful pipe to Russell.
10:06 - USA - POL men’s semifinal. Let’s go! Getting a little chippy already early in the game. I love it.
Monday, Aug 5
1:11 - Geez, Germany with another service error down the stretch. France gives it back. Germany down 13-14 and that red card is looming absolutely critical. Serving sub at 13-14. And he misses it. And I hear the announcer say that France was down 0-2 as well? This is the craziest volleyball tournament I’ve ever seen.
1:10 - If you’re Germany, you were dying to have Grozer come up to serve at 11-12 in the 5th set, right? Yikes.
1:08 - 11-10 in the 5th set and Ngapeth throws a ball off the block from 7’ off with his left hand. Standard Ngapeth.
1:01 - And then we turn over to the France - Germany to see Krick get a red card at 8-5 in the 5th set. Whoa! Crazy. Also, weird to give him a red for that instead of going to a yellow. At least what I could see. And then France with a long-distance bumpset to a D-ball that they hit in the net. Hate that play. 10-8 France in the 5th…
12:49 - Kloth with an ill-advised pull and Brandie makes her pay. Incredible veteran play, gameplan, and adjustments by the two Canadians. As heartbreaking as it is for me, an American, to see my favorite team lose, my hat is off to the Canadians from a volleyball coach perspective. They needed to be brilliant to beat Nuss and Kloth and they were.
12:47 - Kloth really aggressive to the middle in serve receive and paints the line. Then way across for the block. What a sequence there. Just incredible mental strength by these Americans against a good team playing great. But Brandie with a transition block. USA down 18-19.
12:46 - Nuss/Kloth get one out of their trademark read block/dig scheme and then Brandie with an error on-2. USA within 1. Pulling so hard for this amazing USA team! But Melissa with an absolute perfect high-line to beat the fastest defender in the world. Incredible.
12:42 - Melissa scoops a high line and then Nuss makes an error on the cut. Fantastic play by Melissa in this match.
12:39 - Kloth scores. Melissa is making them hesitant with her high line runs though. Then she sides out. She’s been incredible. And Brandie with another ace. Great play from the Canadians. 12-15 USA is in trouble.
12:38 - Nussjumbos back to the cross. Barely catches line. Bad sign.
12:37 - Oh thanks NBC, we didn’t want to see those last few critical points.
12:34 - Kloth monster block! 8-10. Let’s go! Scatter that you dumb SmarterVolley writer.
12:32 - Brandie with a fantastic on-2. Kloth blocked her the wrong way. USA looks a little scattered and the veterans from Canada have their gameplan absolutely dialed. Both this American team is absolutely brilliant in the scramble transition. 7-10.
12:29 - I love Canada’s gameplan and adjustmentshere.They’veswitchedovertoservingKlothdeepand my spacebar key is getting weird. Fighting through the adversity.
12:24 - Kloth with a poor joust/recycle with Nuss not in position to cover. Then Canada gets an ace on the good side. Melissa overplays for the high line shot again but Kloth with a transition touch and cleans up on 2. Nuss finally going on the cutty for the sideout, but Brandie back with an on-2 kill and Canada turns the last one too. Canada takes the first set. I’m not sure Riley is more enraged at the USA loss or the endless commercials.
12:20 - Nuss yet another perfect high line. Melissa was playing for it too. Perfect shot. And Kloth cleans up an on-2 ball after a block touch. Great match so far.
12:17 - Nuss with another perfect high line. Brandie with a great on-2. Wilkerson with a couple of nice blocks. Canada really overplaying for the most common USA shots. Great gameplan I think. 15-14 Canada.
12:09 - Kloth with a yet another jamball clean up. There will be plenty of good on-2 stuff in this match. Brandie’s one of the best, but usually more traditional on-2 swings. Kloth excels at the funky clean-ups. Nuss with a great jumbo to the deep line, but it had to be perfect to score. I’ll be curious if that starts leading to her making errors. USA up 9-8 now though.
12:08 - If this USA loses, Kelly and Sarah aren’t out, are they? Its only 8-6 and the kid’s already hedging her bets. Come on now.
12:04 - Canada is starting off serving Nuss and playing for her high line. I think that’s the way to go.
12:01 - Okay let’s keep the live blog going. Riley’s been even more into beach volleyball than indoors. She’s beyond fired up. “I bet Snoop Dogg’s going to be there!”
10:49 - Ok whoops, didn’t keep the live blog going. The match was just too good and we were all into it as a family. I’ll say this, the Italy - Japan men’s quarterfinal was one of the best volleyball matches I’ve seen in a long time. If you’re a coach, I highly recommend checking it out. So many good takeaways. We have USA men coming up as well as some great beach matches on the slate. We’ll be watching all day!
8:05 - Riley is really into any guy who makes “the crazy face” while celebrating a point.
8:01 - Oh boy, I forgot how time-consuming club tryouts are. I’ve been either in the gym or on the phone for the past few days. But we’re up early this morning watching the Italy - Japan match. Live-blogging while I make breakfast.
And again, the dumbest meme ever remains that there’s no defense in men’s volleyball. There’s been some great defense by both teams, but in particular Japan with a few huge digs down the stretch in game 2 to win the set and put Italy way behind in the match.
Thursday, Aug 1
12:33 - Lunch duties distracted from much insightful commentary here. Italy is going to be tough to beat this tournament.
12:14 - As good as Orro is, she gets caught having to backpedal more than you’d like to see for a world-class setter.
12:09 - Back-bumpset D-ball to Antropova v 3 blockers. She scores anyway. Coolcoolcoolanalyticsdon’tmatter.
12:03 - Alright we’re done with Beast Academy in time for the third set of Italy - Netherlands.
8:56 - And they win it on a Cheng block. Fun match! Pause on the liveblog for some homeschool. We’ll check back in during snack time.
8:54 - And on the next play Cheng forces a freeball with a bump-over. Apparently that’s the weakness of the French.
8:53 - I didn’t watch this match before. Can’t feel good for the French team to allow a bump-over kill at 19-19 fighting for your Olympic lives. That’s a risky play by Cheng. Pretty sweet.
8:45 - Cheng with a nice dive block to stop a streaking French team. Haven’t seen that much from them.
8:26 - PS WHERE CAN I GET THE SHIRT/HOODIE COMBO THAT SNOOP DOGG IS WEARING??
8:20 - Brazil closes out the match easily against Japan. Riley’s demanded to rewatch Hughes/Cheng against France from yesterday. (I think she doesn’t quite understand the replay concept and thinks they are just playing again. Who am I to ruin that.)
8:14 - I love Gabi’s mechanics in Ro1. This is how I like right-handers to hit on the right, in general, whether they are in serve receive or not.
8:12 - Great view off that last replay of why you can’t throw into the trunks of the block. You need to recycle into the branches.
8:10 - Brazil non-setters have been stealing the ball from the setter left and right. Japan just gave up an ace on a not-that-bad pass when players hesitated instead of stepping in. Take the ball from the setter! Don’t wait for a help call.
8:03 - Nobody can deep the deep cross corner. There just isn’t a good defensive solution for high-hard-deep.
7:58 - Gabi the absolute poster-child for a low arm draw.
7:40 - Disjointed match now. Gabi called for hands. Airi steps across the center line while transitioning. Japan violates the golden rule of challenge, which is never challenge a net or centerline. If the ref saw you hit the net or cross the centerline, you almost always did.
7:38 - After a serve, Roberta serves before the ref beckons for serve. JV COACHES EVERYWHERE ARE SYMPATHIZING!
7:36 - We’re back with BRA - JPN women just in time for the setter to get called on an overlap. Extremely rare in international volleyball. JV coaches everywhere are sympathizing.
Wednesday, July 31
1:13 - Plummer some great pot throws to extend the rally. Serbia digs a nice pipe on the interior seam. Challenge… NO TOUCH!!! (But holy crap that was close.) That a way USA!!! 17-15. Whew. USA USA USA!
1:12 - Trying to live blog while texting my wife who is hopefully watching the road in addition to volleyball updates.
1:10 - Oh no USA passing.
1:09 - Plummer moves the block in a mile and Boskovic chops deep off line and Wong-Orantes digs it. I love it!
1:07 - Would love to see USA outsides get some inside-out going and hit the line. I think they can find some space there. Everything is seam-angle right now.
1:06 - Riley took that last block against USA hard. “I don’t feel like a Dragon Girl right now.” I get it buddy, I wouldn’t want to have to play against Boskovic either.
1:04 - Cook digs Boskovic on the deep angle and USA turns it. 12-9. Let’s go USA!
1:01 - Tied at 8 let’s goooo!
12:59 - Riley cannot believe that a team with “pink” (is that just my tv?) jerseys is losing.
12:58 - Rettke on the left to block Boskovic?
12:54 - USA nice dig and turn on Boskovic. Deep counter-shift. They must be reading SmarterVolley live blog right now.
12:53 - All sorts of pancakes going on.
12:52 - Great rally and USA with the long back bumpset that gets control-blocked for a Serbia transition kill. #nolongbumpsets.
12:47 - Tough one for the USA. Time to pull out a 5th set. Go USA!
12:39 - Boskovic just absolutely going off right now. There’s no good plan against her, but I’d try to leave her some line and get my line digger deep and way off the line. If she paints the line she paints the line but I think that’s her last option right now.
12:33 - USA has struggled to dig some pipes from Serbia and, to my eye, most of the kills are in the interior seams. I’m more a fan of compressing the interior seams and forcing pipe hitters to score to the sidelines.
12:30 - If and when Serbia wins this 4th set, I’m really looking forward to all the discussions of the momentum and who has it and what it will do for you.
12:26 - I’m not a fan of long-distance bumpsets.
12:07 - And we’re back. We had to take a little break to go out into the garage and recreate the game with our Ollyball.
11:35 - USA getting a lucky break with Serbia not mid-rally challenging a ball by Drews that clipped the antenna.
11:27 - I think forcing back bumpsets to Boskovic is a bad idea, regardless of how good she is.
11:20 - Washington serving absolute bullets and Chiaka shutting everything down. I love it. USA takes set 1.
11:16 - USA benefiting from a shaky Boskovic match so far. It would be great to get this first set while she’s playing so poorly.
11:11 - A lot of narrow fan hitting from USA so far. I love Plummer’s cross-body line shot. Begging for her to hit that more this match.
11:06 - Boskovic gets a replay after the ball hits the tv camera wire on her service toss. Then SRB gets a block. 2-point swing.
11:04 - Plummer for President let’s go!
11:01 - Mouth is numb but fingers are still working. USA - SRB women in a must-win match. Let’s go!!
8:54 - It’s been a good match so far but I’m going to miss the rest. Dentist appointment. Yay!
8:30 - I’m a big fan of setters getting to a consistent contact point, but De Cecco is a great example of “know the rules to break the rules.” He varies his contact point a ton, but it’s always with purpose.
8:18 - Japan gets organized off coverage as good or better than anybody in the world. They don’t just cover to get the ball up, they cover into offense. All the good teams do this; it just stands out for them.
8:06 - The dumbest meme in volleyball is that men’s teams don’t play defense. Japan is just absolutely Japan-ing right now. So fun to watch.
7:59 - As the announcer says, “the strength of this team is they never know when they are beaten and they just keep going.” Sometimes I talk to teams I coach and say, “hey imagine the tv announcer at your matches… what would you like them to say?” You’d be pretty proud if that’s what announcers said about your team.
7:55 - Wow controversial touch call and a red card against Argentina. The Peacock broadcast was brutal in cutting to commercial multiple times in the middle and they didn’t really show what it was for and who the red was awarded to. Tough situation… to be honest I would have said no touch; it looked like the shadow of the ball passing by, but for sure it was close.
7:43 - I’m a big fan of right-handed opposites going more straight on with their approach, but Bruno Lima is one of the few who really uses a curling approach well and creates some interesting shot angles.
7:31 - This match is fun but it can’t compare to the new Dragon Girls book that just dropped. Riley’s out.
7:20 - Ishikawa just went up to block a high-ball with closed fists and avoided a touch because of it. Is this a thing now? PLEASE TELL ME THIS IS A THING!
7:17 - We’re back after a live blog break. I figure that being on my computer the whole day during my daughter’s birthday would be a bad look. We’ve watched a ton of volleyball (and other Olympics) the past couple days. She’s really been into the beach volleyball, which has been fun to watch. We have the Hughes/Cheng match circled on our calendar for sure.
Riley’s still sleeping, but I have the Argentina - Japan men’s match on right now. Two great teams to watch.
Sunday, July 28
1:03 - France takes it. Olympic home matches are so fun to watch.
12:54 - Serbia playing some nice defense, particularly some sweet balanced digs from middle-middle, but they just can’t convert. France running away with it now.
12:48 - Serbia gets it to 5. It seemed like they were out of it. MOMENTUM!
12:41 - Serbian outside gets tipped over his block, he keeps his hands high and reaches back to pop up the tip overhand. Serbia turns it in transition. Add, “don’t reach back!” to the list of bad advice that youth players all over are constantly given.
12:33 - There’s something about Serbia as a country where all their players keep their non-hitting hand really high and across their body. Obviously almost everybody at this level is good, but you just see a lot of really nice mechanics from Serbian players, both men and women, in terms of their arm load and off-hand staying high and not falling away.
12:22 - I’m obviously far from the only one to praise the creative play of the France men’s team, but I do love it. And not the creativity for the sake of creativity, but the ability to create attack lanes and tempo pressure in transition. A lot of stress on the blockers.
12:17 - Okay after a little time away from the Olympics, we’re back. France and Serbia men are a treat to watch.
8:55 - And Poland smokes a cross-court funky hybrid to win it. Wow, what a serve! Poland’s serving pressure was one of the differences in this match. A lot of physical, downhill servers. And I like the pass-to-attack footwork by their lefts, I think they’re really good in that regard… although they pumped as much as they could to their middles against Japan today.
8:54 - Poland with a lot of really tight passes that aren’t helping them. A lot of balls right on the tape.
8:51 - Maybe not… huge block by Japan. But then they miss an out-of-system set badly off the net and wide so Poland can tie at 25. Yikes.
8:46 - Japan sends a freeball into the net! And this just a 2 points after Poland let an overpass drop. I say this at clinics, but juniors teams don’t train their freeball/downball systems enough. When you see even the best teams in the worlds letting points slip, it’s a good sign your U15s have room to get better at it. That could have been the decisive point in this match.
8:39 - Koga’s thumb-up line shot is nice. And Japan has had a couple of nice pot rolls in this match against a Poland team who I think doesn’t have the most well-organized defense.
8:32 - Wolosz rightly is the star setter in this match, but I like the Japanese setter, Seki, as well. Nice, simple mechanics. She stays open to the passer and then has a nice, simple finish to target. Here’s an example from a VNL match vs USA.
8:10 - Similar to yesterday, Riley declares her allegiance to the team that’s “closer to America,” which, she’s decided is Japan. I think our year in Korea disrupted her sense of geography.
8:03 - We’re tuning in to Japan - Poland. Riley’s bummed there’s no beach volleyball today.
Saturday, July 27
Alright folks, that’s all for today. If I have any urgently relevant thoughts on Round 1 Heat 7 of Olympic surfing I’ll share them tomorrow.
4:43 - Monster left hand press on the block by Kloth down the stretch. USA takes it. Awesome discipline in just sticking to their game plan, serving Bansley over and over and making her shoot to the corners. What a fun team to watch. I can’t wait to see them play Hughes and Cheng for gold.
4:39 - USA up 15-13. Canada just working Nuss and trying to make her shoot high line. Good strategy but I think USA is going to take it. About to start grilling some hot dogs in celebration.
4:26 - Misty furious that the Canadians don’t keep the pressure on Nuss. I’d have to agree. Kloth is a testament to the power of hitting the ball in the court. She never misses wide when she shoots. Riley getting into it now with the USA chants. She’s visibly annoyed at the Canadian team for having the audacity for being in the lead.
4:17 - Nuss with a clean bang-bang cover that Kloth cleans up on 2. Absolutely beautiful scramble play.
4:12 - More Jamball from Nuss and Kloth. Nuss rightly gets credited for her defense but part of what makes them so potent is that Kloth is really good at cleaning up the scramble plays. She’s good at the standard on-2s, but not necessarily better than some of the other top bigs. But she’s got a great patience and touch on some of the weirder plays that somehow amplifies the incredible defense of Nuss.
4:07 - Amy Poehler controlling the net for the USA.
4:03 - Trusting the men to close it out, so we’re switching over to Kloth/Nuss v the Canadians.
3:59 - De Cecco with a bump-quick. U15s coaches having a heart attack right now. Russell too much for the Argentines though.
3:46 - Riley’s out on this match. 5+ hours of Olympic volleyball was her limit.
3:40 - Conte with an absolutely unforgivable unforced error in a clear Red Zone situation. Where was the set over my guy?
3:36 - Barnett, “Do you think De Cecco’s heartbeat ever gets above 50?” I was thinking the same thing.
3:35 - De Cecco is a walking repudiation of the need to jumpset.
3:17 - I think more girl’s club coaches should watch how often the men jump and set the ball in a difficult spot instead of just snapping medium-speed balls into the center of the court.
3:11 - I’ve become more and more convinced over the past couple years that the right-left jump set footwork that most of the top men’s setters use is part of the reason they are so much better setting middle from off the net.
3:07 - Christenson hits a left-hand toss jump spin and De Cecco tries to save a ball with his foot. American U15 girl’s volleyball coaches are horrified.
3:04 - Caught a great 400m Women’s Freestyle before switching over to the USA - ARG men’s game. Let’s go USA!
2:29 - Fortunately field hockey didn’t last long. We’re over to tennis now. Aka killing time before USA - ARG men’s volleyball.
2:15 - Gold Zone flips over to USA - ARG field hockey and before I can flip to something else my daughter notices that the USA is playing a sport in red dresses. (See below) She’s intrigued. I’m panicking. I will not raise a field hockey player.
2:02 - With an hour to wait for the next volleyball we’re flipping over to the Gold Zone coverage. They’re showing the rugby gold medal match between France and Fiji. Riley and I are confused as to what’s going on. Riley immediately sides with France since their shirts are more colorful and they’re winning 14-7.
1:59 - We have 1 hour until the USA (indoor) men play Argentina and 2 hours until one of the matches we’ve had highlighted: the American Women’s Beach pair of Nuss/Kloth taking on the Canadians Bansley/Bukovec. Wife is running out to Walmart. ‘Murica!
1:54 - Brazil clinches it and we get another reminder of how beautiful the architecture of Paris is.
1:45 - Brazil running away with it now. Yet another reminder of how much professional sports echo high school sports. How many times have you seen a high school match where the underdog
1:36 - Another pause to get a snack. 20-18 now. Riley predicts Brazil is going to win. Bold prediction kid. Abicha tries to sneak a set over and gets called on it. Aggressive play by Morocco. If you’re going to go down, might as well go down being funky. I like it.
1:29 - Apparently Riley is more into the match than I thought because she demanded I pause it while she searched for her missing Unicorn Academy figurine.
1:26 - Morocca hanging in there with some great high line shots and scrappy D.
1:21- Moroccan team is fun to watch. A lot of tight sets and winning the pokes and jams and joust battles.
1:07 - Flipping over to Brazil - Morocco men’s beach. Riley’s out on this one. She’s brought out the paper and markers and is furiously designing her volleyball uniform. Apparently she plans on playing Olympic volleyball in a dress.
1:03 - Riley interrupts my Dad Lecture on sportsmanship (“see how even though they lose, they still shake hands with their opponent and the refs”) to inquire why one Chinese player has just a tank top and the other has a tank top and long sleeves. We’ll circle back to the sportsmanship later.
12:57 - “If China wins I’m giving Dad a great big hug.” Riley is oddly invested in this Chinese pair. She goes nuts on the ace to tie it at 14. Very dissapointed when they give MFA an easy serve and Taliqua buries it on 2 when the Chinese blocker is running up. Full-on sadness when Australia closes it out.
12:56 - Australia wanted to go on-2 but the pass wasn’t there. High line shot to go up 14-12
12:55 - Huge power jump float right up the middle for an ace by Taliqua to go up 13-10. When in doubt just let it rip up the middle. But then Australia gives up one of their own. MFA bailed early on that one.
12:54 - Australia going on 2 whenever China’s blocker is serving and Taliqua isn’t served.
12:53 - China wins the joust to tie it at 9-9 in the third set of an Olympic match. #PlayMoreJamball. Riley is so fired up she nearly smashes the tv with a serve.
Parents, if you haven’t got yourself an Ollyball yet, you need to. It has the structure and shape to play like a normal ball (unlike balloons which tend to fly in weird ways) but it’s so soft that you don’t freak out when your daughter almost smashes it into your tv from close range.
12:49 - They try this again but doesn’t cut it enough and Australia was over it to go up 8-6 in the 3rd set.
12:37 - XY Xia from China has an unusual move of going behind and then cutting sharp angle back the other way. Just a bit of a deceptive angle to it that seems like it would be tricky to read. I haven’t watched much of this team play, so I want to go back to the scout video and see more of it.
12:26 - Flipping back to Judo for a minute and my daughter is suddenly extremely concerned.
“Wait… if you participate in The Games, do you have to do all the sports?”
“No, no, you only do just do one sport.”
“Whew, this doesn’t look fun. I’ll stick to volleyball.”
12:12 - After the Poland - Egypt match finishes, we flip over to beach with a matchup of Australia and China. Riley declares that if USA isn’t playing, we’ll root for whatever country is closer, like China. Let’s wait until they play somebody besides Australia to see if her sense of geography is actually any good.
11:48 - Riley’s bothered by the height mismatch between the big Egyptian middle blocker Dola and their smaller outside. Over the last year she’s been gradually processing that taller doesn’t necessarily mean older but she keeps thinking the Egyptian outside isn’t old enough to play on the team.
11:44 - Not the world’s most exciting match. A little sloppy. But Riley’s into it. She remembers the Poland team from my time coaching with Canada. Mostly she just remembers the flag. The flag game has been big in our house and Poland’s always been an easy one to identify.
11:36 - I always love to see the blocking moves and reads by Poland’s men’s team. Just really sound fundamentally.
11:30 - I could watch Zatorski pass all day.
11:28 - I could watch Leon serve all day.
11:18 - Kicking this off after a post-breakfast stuffed animal battle. We watched the Partain/Benesh v Cuba beach match over breakfast, a breach of family routine so significant it required significant discussion to convince my daughter that yes, the tv can actually be turned on in the morning. That may come back to bit me but we’ll see. Then we flipped over to Italy and Brazil.
Coming back into the living room and turning on the Poland - Egypt men’s match. I figured I might as well take some notes and turn this into a live blog. So here we go, enjoy the commentary from myself and my almost-5-year-old daughter, Riley.