Prep Volleyball

As far as keeping track of the game. I use a regular-sized legal note bad. One each I make three columns. The columns are for who is serving, assists, and the result of the serve.
If the servers team gets a points I circle the number of server, if it was an ace, I write ace there. If there is an assist I write in the players number. In the results column I circle whatever the result is - number of the player with a kill, if it's a block for a kill I put a B by the players number, if the point resulted from some sort of error I writer SE (serve error), HE (hitting error), SRE (serve recieve error) or E (if someone just fucked up).

 

Coaches that don't know what a block is shouldn't coach, especially the ones who claim to know what they are doing. It's not that hard to read up on this stuff.

 

A good place to shoot photos in volleyball is from above. Obviously not all gyms will have this, but if they have an upper tier of stands, you can shoot the players hitting in your direction.

 

I like Rhody's system on volleyball. I might have to try it next year. I echo what most posters are saying on here -- great sport, underrated as hell, fun to cover. Rarely, if ever, do I run into a raging egomaniac volleyball coach. Can you say that about covering football or basketball?

 

Even a slight elevation, say standing on a stage or a bank of stands at one end, can improve your pictures a lot.

 

Oh, I've met a few, but your point is a good one.

 

Luckily in my neck of the woods, the majority of the games I shoot have gyms with either a stage at the end or stands at the ends. One gym had a nice railing over one end as the entrance was at the top of the stands.

 

I've dealt with a plethora volleyball coaches, with mixed results.

* There was the one who insisted she would not be quoted.

* There was one who didn't mind being interviewed, but refused to be recorded.

* There is the one now who didn't want me to interview any of the players because she didn't want anyone singled out.

For the most part, though, volleyball coaches are some of the cutest coaches around.

 

I've dealt with a football coach who didn't want any players interviewed for that same reason. You just don't see it as much in sports where there is more media attention.

 

I really enjoy covering volleyball, both because it was one of the few sports I didn't suck at in high school and because in my region, it was a great niche to take over, first as the reporter at my shop that 'cared' about the game, and then after I took over an SE job at a neighboring paper, the paper that 'cared' about the game.

Lots of good insights here. I normally keep track of game action by recording each server on a line kind of like this:

1h? 2p? 3/7

That is, the first point came on a hitting error, then a passing error, and then No. 7 had a kill (hard to express by typing. Normally I write it under the slash like a sort of subscript). When they lose serve on a service error, I draw an arrow to indicate which side served first, and work on the other side of my page.

1h? 2p? 3/7 ----> 1s?

Some of the other symbols I use are a little harder to type. If there's an ace, I draw a diamond around the number (ace of diamonds). If someone gets a block (which by my understanding must end the play), I draw a little house over the number (roof!) If they hit it four times, I draw a box around it, since that has four sides. If someone's in the net, lifts it or commits some other violation, I draw a V under the number and make a note as to what happened.

The question marks are inspired by chess notation, in which a blunder is denoted with a ? - In this case, it's h for hitting, s for serving, p for passing, et al. Sounds complicated but it's worked for me.

If you're at an upper-level match where stats are kept for you, note hitting percentage. It's easy to explain (kills minus errors divided by total attacks) and does much to explain how well an offense is performing. A college coach in our area says a good batting average is a good hitting percentage.

Digs (a defensive contact after an attack that results in a playable second ball) are noteworthy for two reasons - one, it's a way to get the short girls' names in the paper. Two, it's a quantitative evaluation of defensive performance - kinda like tackles in a football game.

It was already echoed here, but almost every good coach I deal with repeatedly emphasizes the importance of passing. The probability of a successful attack varies inversely to the amount of distance the setter has to run to get to the second ball.

As for pictures, I normally shoot from one of three locations:

1. Ground level at the net - mostly for defensive shots; 2. behind the back line shooting at the net for attacking, 3. on a balcony or high area, if available, for perspective shots.

And finally, as far the shorts are concerned, there's a day I will ask one of my coaches about it, but that day's a little ways off. It's not why I like volleyball, but it's certainly not a negative.

 

Good stuff, UPChip. Digs are definitely useful. If you can manage to keep them along with kills, I would do it. It is just tough to keep so many stats in such a short time. If you can keep them or get them from a coach, definitely use them. It is also a good way to spot a very good all-around player who can attack and play well on the back row.

 

Some really good stuff in here! Used some of it today, thanks!

Went pretty well, all things considered. Team I was covering did not advance, but it was still entertaining. Very fast game to get used stats wise, but got it close to down pretty good by the end.