USA Volleyball : Rules/Officials

PERFORMANCE FEEDBACK FROM THE 2001 QUALIFIERS

This information is general in nature. This information is given to hopefully encourage regions to recognize what they are teaching well and what areas future candidates may need more work in before they try to attain a Junior National rating. It is not meant to specify one candidate and state or imply that these were their issues. Candidates were given their own feedback and can illuminate you on the areas in which they need work.

In the past we have spent much time talking about these issues:

For both R1 and R2: communication between partners, teamwork with line judges/scorekeepers, hand signals.
For R1: separation of hand signal and whistle, and teamwork.
For R2: transition, sub administration, following the ball, stepping out as R2 to make signals, and when to blow the whistle.

By far, this year was one of the strongest classes of candidates we have seen in several years. There were exceptions, of course, notably the Far West Qualifier. We noticed that we were addressing more individual issues instead of global ones. We also noticed that some of the issues mentioned above were either minor fixes or did not need to be addressed at all!

That tells us that the candidates were better prepared in these areas:

Communication/Teamwork - This has improved greatly, although there were still some areas to improve on. Such as when to give help as a play continues, when the R2 should "lead" the R1, keeping line judges involved throughout the match and including new ones at the beginning of game 2, 3, etc.
Only once did I see (on ANY of the rating sheets) a candidate who needed to separate their hand signals and whistle.
Hand signals generally were much better, clearer and with fewer problems to fix.
Transitions for R2 were much better. We were able to correct/try to correct minor problems instead of teaching the technique completely. Several issues did reoccur: transitions were too slow and not soon enough after the play had begun.
Sub administration better. Different technique for next year, so let's move on!
Following the ball as R2. This was much better as well. There were probably one or two candidates at each qualifier who still followed the ball. But, the converse problem of being too focused on the net was more of a problem. There didn't seem to be any patterns I could quickly pull out concerning who was too focused and who had learned not to be.

The following notes are some summary information from specific qualifiers. If something is not mentioned it really means it wasn't a big factor at that Qualifier. If something is listed under both things were done well and things that need improvement it means that either there were candidates or issues that went one way or the other.

Colorado Crossroads Qualifier

Things that were done well: