Power Tips
 

In our local high school volleyball association, we are having discussions pertaining to "power tips". Many of our officials feel that prolonged contact is occurring on the majority of them. Since the power tip has become popular, yes, many of the players do not have the proper technique and are actually redirecting the ball with prolonged contact. As a trainer and observer, can you give me any suggestions as to how to train our officials to better determine this action as legal or illegal? Are there any indicators to look for which can help our officials determine if the tip is legal or not?

Obviously if the ball comes to rest in the hand thats no good. You'll see that more if the contact is in the palm of the hand instead of the fingers. Also if the ball gets behind shoulders of the attacker and they get the ball into the palm, its even more likely.

One thing that I've been told is that if the arm stays straight during the tip, it's legal. But if the arm is cocked during the tip, then it's probably being pushed instead of tipped.

Unfortunately (or not), no matter the wording (“caught/thrown”, “prolonged contact”), it will never be precise nor objective. Only measurable things are. Even a clean rebounding ball has to come to a stop before bouncing back. It’s just physics. How long is too long then? Setters “hold” to the ball at various degrees. Where to draw the line?

A lot of calls are made on the technique, rather than the outcome of it. Because of this people (coaches/players) get conditioned to expect a call in these situations even if they really don’t fit the definition. I’m not going to argue this one way or another.

For power tips specifically, one school of thought was that if the ball is well in front of the player and it is not clearly caught and held in the hand (more of an issue with a two handed “dunks”, pretty hard to do with one hand on top of the ball) - it is likely ok. The net usually limits what could turn into a grotesque smack down.

But ultimately - I think this only comes with experience. Helps tremendously if you work with (or can observe) someone good.