Playing With Scissors
A quick technical post here. If you like this sort of post, you also might enjoy:
Those two focused more on defense, while this I’m going to look at some blocking.
Here’s some blocks from the recent USA v Poland match in the men’s VNL.
Now compare that to some (selected) blocks from the Wisconsin - Nebraska Women’s NCAA National Championship.
What differences do you see?
For me, the big difference is in the action of the wing blockers. In the men’s clips, you see the blocker finish chest straight down the net. There’s also a bit of a different action with the arms: they come up inside the body but often on the way down they separate and come down outside the body in order to avoid the net. When the middle is closing, they are rotating off the net (no choice, they have to) and the two blockers end up shoulder to shoulder or almost back-to-back.
In the women’s clips, you see the wing blocker and middle blockers both rotating off the net. For a rightside blocker, that means she finishes with her right shoulder coming down the net and her left shoulder off the net. When the middle is closing, they are also rotating off, just as in the men’s clips, and the two blockers end up back-to-chest, rather than back-to-back
A technical key here for me is the scissor action of the inside leg of the wing blocker. When moving dynamically, this is key to help the blocker land square, which is an indication that they stayed square longer over the net. See it here
:
Relevant screenshot
Now, this isn’t a post saying all men’s blockers do this and no women’s blockers do it. It’s just that I’m noticing it much more often on the men’s side and now I’m noticing the lack of it on the women’s side. I tend to shy away from it being a physical capability issue, because I do see it happen on the women’s side. For example, in that same Wisconsin - Nebraska match, here’s a couple that I really liked:
So maybe it’s an issue of training preference. I know that I never specifically taught this for a long time when I coached women’s (or men’s) blockers. But I see the best blocking teams in the world doing this more often and I think it’s something coaches at any level (where blocking actually matters) should be aware of.
Are you teaching this? Are you not teaching this? Drop a comment.