Position Tournaments

Compete to sideout

We’re talking First Ball offense and defense as part of the 2024 NCAA Women’s Analysis. Earlier this week I shared the leaderboards for First Ball Efficiency and First Ball Opponent Efficiency. Now let’s look at a drill format that helps you develop these aspects of the game, and increase the competitiveness of your gym. I’m talking about Position Tournaments.

What Are Position Tournaments?

The basic concept of a Position Tournament is very simple: you and I play the same position on opposing teams. We play a game of 6v6 volleyball. Then we keep the teams the same, except you and I change teams. Then we play again. Compare results.

Basically, this is the idea of the old school King of the Beach tournaments.

90s swag optional.

In the interest of making this article worthy of a full post, as well as clarifying a few details, let’s dive a little deeper.

What Games Do You Play Position Tournaments With?

I generally keep Position Tournaments to 6 v 6 formats. You can do it with small-group games, but to me, the beauty of the Position Tournament is that you’re playing as close to the real game as possible, so it doesn’t feel like a contrived competition. While I do like small-group competitions where setters or liberos, etc might compete, I like to keep those a bit separate. For me, if I’m doing a Position Tournament, it’s usually 6 v 6.

That said, I don’t mind playing a Position Tournament in 6 v 6 format that has some bonus scoring or scoring requirements. For example, Freeball/Downball or 1 + 1 Wash or 1 + 2 Wash, etc. Those are all fine. I don’t like playing a Position Tournament in a game like 2-way Aceball, because there just aren’t enough points score. 1-way Aceball where you have to sideout a certain amount of times before giving up a certain number of aces isn’t a bad format.

Again, keep in mind the purpose: you want a direct comparison between two players. You’re keeping their supporting cast as similar as possible and you want enough points to evaluate their impact on the game, and to minimize a win or loss by more random chance.

Is This Just About Evaluating?

Nope, it’s not. But that’s part of it. While I don’t use Position Tournaments as the sole determinant of who will start, it’s a factor in my mind. When I coached the World University Games in 2017, we only had a week to train before heading to Taiwan to compete. I ran almost an hour of Position Tournaments in each practice and used those results as one of the prime factors for who began the tournament in the starting lineup. While it doesn’t mean every player will agree with your decision, it does give some perspective and players appreciate that there was some objective input into the process.

What Else Do You Gain From Position Tournaments?

A primary value of Position Tournaments is that players understand, my job is to help the team win. Making such a direct comparison between 2 (or more) players seems like it would breed selfishness. But in order to succeed as a player in this drill, I need to think the opposite! If I’m a setter trying to win a Position Tournament, it doesn’t matter how pretty my sets are. It matters that my team wins! In that way, it can also highlight secondary skills. Setters need to play defense. Liberos need to set accurately. Everybody needs to serve. Etc. Liberos who lose a Position Tournament because they communicated poorly pre-serve and their teammates struggled might realize their job extends beyond just their individual passing.

(Also: they might not realize that and just complain about their teammates. But hey, at least we tried…)

Okay so let’s look at a few of my favorite formats for this.

Win, Lose, or Draw

This is a Position Tournament format where only two players are competing, usually setters. You play one round, then the teams stay the same but the setters switch teams. Then you play again.

There are two possible results: (1) one setter wins both or (2) the setters split.

If the setters split, then one team won both rounds. This is the win, lose, or draw format. If one setter took both games, then Setter A “won”, Setter B, “lost” and Teams X and Y drew a tie. If the setters split, then Team X “won”, Team Y “lost”, and Setters A and B drew a tie.

This is a simple and fast way to run a Position Tournament because it only requires two rounds. Plus, the teams (ie: non-setters) have a way to compete, so they like that too.

Double Position Tournament