Volleyball is perhaps the only game where players have to go around the field fulfilling diffeent roles during the game.
Would it be better if there wer fixed positions so that you would get, for instance, a serve specialist?
They already have a service return specialist, the libero, who always plays in the backcourt (who in my niece’s leagues plays is typically short for said league). My niece (5’8" in 9th grade) would kick butt as a permanent forward.
Yeah, while players “rotate” position, there is really very little difference in what they do, once you get to any serious level of competition. Setters set no matter what rotation position they’re in. Middle blockers are replaced by the libero when they’re in the back court (and they immediately move to the middle if they’re in a different rotation position in the front court–if you see two or three people bunched near the center of the net during a serve, that’s because they are staying technically one step left/right of each other to meet rotation requirements, but immediately move into position once the serve is hit).
Outside and opposite hitters are generally good enough to be serious offensive weapons even from the back court via a pipe or bic, and women’s NCAA rules have liberal enough substitution rules that defensive specialists can be subbed in for back court rotations if the hitters aren’t that good in the back court.
Hmm, I’m trying to imagine baseball or American football with rotating positions.
That’s my point, why go through the motions of all the switching if you’re going to play position 2 yuor three times at the net. Stay in positoon 2.
There is still some strategy involved in front vs back court positions–a setter may set no matter where in the rotation he is, but a setter is almost certainly going to be shorter than the hitter on the other side when he goes up to block. Some teams run a 6-2 with a setter always in the back court, but that’s like running a NFL offense with two QBs swapping out every drive, and burns up your substitutions. And a lot of people don’t actually much like the more liberal subs allowed in NCAA Women’s play, international play allows a lot less.
Simply letting people stay permanent back court would seem more like baseball allowing even more DHs, and while I agree that having a middle blocker have to start just one step to the left of center at the serve can be a little silly, I don’t know that there’s a particularly superior way to rotate them from front to back.
After the serve, players are permitted to move to whereever they want on the court; however there are still restrictions on what players can do based on original position. Back row players can not block or attack. This distinction requires a certain amount of balance in a player to have mastery of more skills.
I believe your argument is that permanent specialization would be “better”, but I’m not so sure. Balance between offense and defense makes for a more exciting game. Permanently allowing the best hitters to be front row all the time would strongly favor offense and make for shorter (more boring) points. Offensive domination is what led to the creation of the Libero position (permanent back-row player) to beef up defense.
Here, here. I am a foe of specialization in general: no Libero and no DH for me. Specialization may lead to an increase of superior specialized skills but that does not necessarily make for a better game. I’d rather see the player with greater all around skills succeed.