Identifying Illegal Back Row Attack, revisited

[Scrapper1]

A long time ago, when I first started officiating volleyball (in 2008), there was a thread with suggestions for keeping track of your back row because I had no idea what I was doing. I took a lot of crap from one poster in particular, but everybody else in that thread was really helpful. Here's that thread:

https://forum.officiating.com/volley...w-attacks.html

I've gotten a lot better at it by tracking my setter and her/his opposite through all six positions on the court. And by watching this video, I'm able to identify what the receiving team should look like in each rotation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1i98MAEVdE

So my method is to tell myself which rotation each team's setter is in and find the non-libero back row. So I have a lot of self-talk to keep myself aware of the setter and his/her location during each point.

I tell you all this, so that I can tell you this. Yesterday, I worked a match using headsets for the first time. My partner (who was very helpful in helping me achieve my USAV Regional patch) heard my self-talk and after the match, gave me a crash course in the strategy of player positioning in an effort to give me a better framework for keeping track of my back row.

So I now know that

• Coaches like their outside hitters to pass (not middles).
• An outside hitter almost always follows the setter in the serving order.
• Hitters generally want to attack from the left side of their court.
• The setter's opposite is often a right-side attacker.

My question now becomes: how does knowing this help me track my back row? If I know that the setter is in Rotation 1 (just as an example) and I recognize the alignment, how does it help me to know that there's a hitter right in front of her?

I think I understand what he was trying to teach me, I just don't see how it helps me during each point.

I hope Felix still checks this forum once in a while, but I would also appreciate any input from people who have played and understand how this can make me better at identifying my back row.

Thanks.