[nickdangerME]

I'm a newbie volleyball official myself, but am fresh from studying the rules, so here goes.

My mental checklist of back row attack fouls has four items: (i) a back row player, (ii) in (or having left the ground from) the attack zone, (iii) a ball completely above the net, and (iv) a completed attack.

Items (i) - (iii) are the situation you need to work on recognizing as developing on the court, then wait to see if (iv) occurs. Item (iv) doesn't happen until the ball completely passes over the net or is legally blocked by an opponent. That's the basic rule.

Once you have that basic play down, and are practised at recognizing when items (i) - (iii) are in place, the exception in Rule 9-5-4 is pretty easy. It can ONLY APPLY if the back row player's hit is the 1st or 2nd hit AND is towards a front row teammate. One of several things can happen:

(A) the front row teammate makes the next hit. Item (iv) of the basic rule now can't occur. The back row player has gotten off the hook for the foul - PLAY ON.

(B) the front row teammate misses the pass. If the ball goes completely over the net anyway, this is just a simple case of fulfilling item (iv) of the basic rule - BACK ROW FOUL. If the ball doesn't get completely over the net anyway and falls to the ground, item (iv) has not been met and there is no foul, but the rally ends anyway in favor of the opponent.

(C) the opponent legally blocks the ball partially over the net (before the front row teammate can get the next hit). THIS IS THE EXCEPTION - PLAY ON. The theory behind this exception is that the opponent's (legal) intervention prevented the front row teammate's subsequent hit from taking the back row player off the hook for the foul (as in A above).



Obviously, the exception never comes into play if the back row player's pass is the 3rd hit or it is not towards a front row teammate who has a chance to get the back row player off the hook with a subsequent hit.

Also, if the ball has not gotten partially over the net, the opponent would be committing a fault by reaching over the net to hit a ball completely in the attacking team's zone before the 3rd hit.


I'm sure we all analyze or remember these things differently. I'm trusting that with practice this thought process will work for me in the heat of the moment. I hope you hit upon a technique that makes it easy for you to recognize and react quickly with the right call. Regards

Nick


[Edited by nickdangerME on Sep 3rd, 2003 at 02:04 PM]