Sideout Log

Tuesday Toolbox #6

This spring I’m doing 3 different running article series.

On Tuesday, I’m releasing articles aimed at giving you a small, specific tool to make your in-practice or in-match coaching more effective. On Fridays, I’m writing about ways to increase the physical capability of players. On Sundays, I’m releasing a more statistically-oriented beach article.

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In Tuesday Toolbox #4 I shared the Yes/No Matrix, which is a framework for running targeted, technical video sessions with a player. The Yes/No Matrix can also be used in-practice, but mostly you’re going to use it in a video session.

In this article, I’m going to discuss the Sideout Log, which is a longer video session I do with setters.

The basic conception of the Sideout Log is that, on any given sideout opportunity, there was a best choice to be made. That is, if we could stop time as the pass is coming down into the setter’s hands and analyze everything going on in the game:

1. Pass quality + location

2. Our attackers

3. Opponent block and defense

Etc… we could say definitively, “X was the best choice, Y was the next-best choice, Z was the worst choice.”

I bet that almost all of you reading this already have at least an informal way of teaching this to your setters. It’s probably some combination of reminders before a player, feedback in the moment, discussions during timeouts, and video review after.

The Sideout Log

The Sideout Log is a formalized way that setters can analyze and learn from their decisions. After a match, we’ll review the video. We’ll look at each sideout opportunity, pause as the pass approaches the setter, and record:

• The score

• Pass quality

• What the opponent block/defense looked like

And then given those 3 variables, the setter says what she thinks the best choice was. Then, we press play and see the quality of choice and quality of set.

So if you’re writing it, it might look like:

6:8 — A — N — Middle

You’ll develop your own little codes.

Pass Quality
I’ve been using A, B, C, D for Perfect, Good, Medium, Bad pass. Your setter might like to right 4, 3, 2, 1 or +, 0, - or whatever they like.

A lot of times, for B-Passes, I like something like:
B ←
B →
B ^

To indicate that it’s a good pass but the setter was moving slightly left, right, or off.

Block/Defense
Again, you’ll likely develop your own system, but I like something like:
N = Neutral, a typical block/defense
F = Front, their middle is following and highly interested in your middle
P = Pinch, their wing blockers are pinching in and helping a lot in the middle

Broadly speaking, against a Neutral block, setting the middle is often a good choice, or perhaps just, “set our best hitter.” Against a Front, setting the isolate is often a good choice. (Example, our middle runs a 31, so we set our right side.) Against a Pinch, setting the overload is often a good choice. For example, our middle runs a 31 and their middle blocker stays neutral but their right-side block is pinched in to help hard on the 31, so we set our outside hitter.

There’s a lot more to offensive strategy than that obviously, but we’re talking more about how to keep the Sideout Log and less about pure offensive theory. If you want to learn more about how I like to attack different types of opponent offense and defense, sign up for a SmarterVolley Offensive Concepts Seminar.

Expectations
It’s unrealistic to expect a setter to make the perfect choice every time. Coaches debate whether setters should look at the blockers directly, try to see them in their peripheral, or just ignore them and make decisions based off a game plan or what they are feeling from their hitters. Even if you are in the camp of setters being able, to some extent, “see the blockers” (and I’m in this camp), they certainly can’t see the blockers on every pass or even most passes.

You also might have a certain game plan and the other team might change. Maybe in Set 1 they fronted, so you planned to run the middle one way and set back the other way to the isolate hitter. But in between Set 1 and Set 2 they changed. So when making your Sideout Log, you understand that any individual sideout opportunity is prone to making a less-than-ideal choice. But over time, you want to be in positive territory.

Keep in mind that the Sideout Log isn’t just for your setter, it’s also for you as a coach. In fact, I recommend doing this exercise by yourself a time or two before you do it with a setter. For example, I can remember a match where the other team committed on our middles once or twice and gave me the impression that they were all over our middles. The whole match I was guiding our setter to set the long way and go away from our middles. But upon rewatching and doing the Sideout Log, I saw that we missed a lot of opportunities to set the middle. Getting away from the emotions of the match helps you learn the quality of your own decision-making as a coach.

Offensive Concepts
The Sideout Log is part of how I teach setters to learn how to run a higher-level offense. I break down this, and much more, in my Offensive Concepts Seminars. Registrations just opened, so contact me now to get first choice of dates.