Why such little activity in this forum?

[refnrev]

I'm curious. Why aren't there many posts and why isn't there much discussion in the volleyball section on this forum? In the basketball area we are all a bunch of jabberboxes! But there is good discussion and lots of fun.

[MCBear]

I had been wondering the same thing. And, several of the posters also post on the Federation Discussion Board, but right now, it is slow, too (waiting for boys' season to start).

[Homer]

It's off-season for high school VB and right now I'm mostly thinking about softball.

Come the fall when VB starts up again, there'll be more traffic on the volleyball boards, this 'un included.

-Homer-

[Vb Scrub]

I usually check to see if there is anything new but I am guilty of not throwing anything out there.
Right now is the middle of club season so most of my time is spent coaching. Don't really have the time to officiate during the spring. My time is spent on the other side coaching and grumbling about the officating.

[FMadera]

VBS,

Same here, though in this part of Illinois, we are just starting our 14 & Under season, so I'm getting ready to grumble...but not just yet. Have qualifiers to ref first.

[TimTaylor]

Originally posted by Vb Scrub
I usually check to see if there is anything new but I am guilty of not throwing anything out there.

Yeah, my bookmark goes to the forum index & I look to see if there are any new posts.....

Other than club, it's pretty much off season for volleyball around here. I'm just now winding down from the HS basketball season....get a couple months off, then basketall summer league starts, followed shortly thereafter by HS volleyball.

In the interim, I'm also helping put together a training video on ball handling (NFHS rules) that our state rules interpreter is championing and wants to have ready in at least a preliminary form before the 05-06 season.

[refnrev]

Well, one good thing has happened. Just my question has started some discussion, and I really enjoy that. Last night a local school was hosting the MS regional championship. Three of us who are VB officials were sitting together right beside the scorer's table. The R (a friend that all of us have officiated with) kept looking at us during the match. At the end of the exciting match (26-24)which she did a fine job with, she walked over and asked, "What were you guys talking about? Every time I looked at you you were all talking?" It was about the great plays we were seeing, but we also had some good officiating conversation, too. We all benefit from that, so I hope the activity will increase on this.

[OmniSpiker]

Well,...
with answers like number dot number dot number
clearly says black and white

hmmp, I don't think there would be a lot of discussion of the sort.

why ask a question to a perfectly good answer? There are a lot of good anwers in this forum. Not so much as a discussion forum.

maybe,...,open a can of worms,...

[MCBear]

Most of the time we come to the board to check out situations where we have had questions concerning what we saw and called or we have been asked a question and we are not absolutely sure where to find the information. Those of us who have quite a bit of experience (and work multiple rules sets), are fairly familiar with the rules book so that we can give the answer to the question and show where it is in the rules book.

Then, there are those screwy plays that come up once in a blue moon that REALLY test your rules knowledge so that you can make the correct call.

[OmniSpiker]

Well, there are always those judgement calls. Observations and perspectives.

Here is a half of can of worms

Aside from writing in the comments section of the scoreboard at the end of the match. Is there really a formal way to ask for a replacement for officiating during the course of the match? Such as in the case where calls clearly constitute unfair play towards one particular team? (Namely my team, because we're the team that needs to be beat. It's JOV club and officiating is conducted by one of the teams within the same pool. I've requested that officiated be conducted by a team from a different pool, but traditions can't be broken so easily.)

[MCBear]

Unfortunately, I know of no means of replacing a reffing team DURING a match. If you are having a really bad experience, you can ask the tournament director to observe them as they work. Usually, if the reffing team is hosing you, when they see the authorities watching them, they clean up their act really quickly. The other alternative is to request a different reffing team prior to your match. As a Tournament Director, I saw one team who seemed to be getting really bad officiating from another team. When we got to the final match of bracket, I switched the reffing team between the championship court and the consolation court because it would have been the third time in bracket that the one team who complained would have had the same team reffing their match.

[OmniSpiker]

Yes, it's always great to have a site director who understands the frustrations that goes along with bad officiating on purpose. That really destroys the moral of a lot of good teams. Unfortunately, I'm not so lucky as to have site directors who are so flexible, nor are we such a club that can afford refs with USA Volleyball knowledge. Many of which are familiar with NFHS and they carry that over (same goes to most of the coaches). So at the same notion, filling out the comment section at the end of the match is of little value to us. There's no action to address that problem in the first place, so there won't be an attempt to redress the problem later. Still I will continue to request that the officiation be conducted by a team from a different pool or a different tourney bracket. That's seems to be the most fair way in our club situation, not as the most expediant way.

As always, I'd wish there would be an impartial official waiting on standby, ready to step in and replace someone hosing a team because of their status quo. I have no problems discussing plays with other coaches, but many of them insist that they are right and everyone else is wrong. Only once did, I have another coach asked for a rule interpretation, and I was happy to explain it. Just as the answere was already discussed in the forum already. Bravo! Kudos!

[MCBear]

OmniSpiker, since I do not know what USAV region you are from, I cannot help you with a lot of specifics. However, you can make a phone call your regional office to discuss the situation that is frustrating you concerning the officiating.

Here in Northern California, we no longer have certified officials at the Power League tournaments nor the Area League tournaments. What we do, though, is to assign officials as Tournament Directors for the day. In addition to making sure that things run smoothly, we also enforce the gym rules (water only in the gym, no food or coolers, and in some facilities - no chairs are allowed to be brought in), record the results of pool play and enter the results on the playoff bracket sheets. Then, we mostly attempt to manage the time so that the teams can play as much as possible (meaning 10 minutes warmup for the first two matches of pool play for four-team pools, and then five minutes of shared hitting with no serving for every match after that). After match #2, if I see a court where teams are bumping the ball for more than a minute or two, I am at that court calling the captains together and getting the five minute clock running. In addition, if I am TD'ing, I am also the Head Official and I will give rule interpretations and correct rule misapplications.

Hopefully, your RVA can give you some support and helpful information to use to make things go smoother.

[OmniSpiker]

I'm with North Country Region. The staff members are great and extremely knowledgable, like years and years worth of history. I totally support them.

Well you see, I think,...,Since I upset a few other coaches by being a more competent new comer in the arena, a few had already made such dramas about how they were victimized as the officiating team being badger by rules interpretations and pointing out their iniquities. Well, because their focus is competitive and winning with unfair practices is part of their arsenal. In truth just because they lost a prior match to my girls, they shouldn't seek revenge in the form of officiating (mainly speaking of the coaches).

Many times my players were subjugated by their tactics, but I try my best to pull them through and have them concentrate on their game. As a player, I would destroy my opponents with sheer power and velocity, but my girls do not posses the caliber of mobility, agility, nor ability that fuels my bloodlust. Nor would I ever choose to project that out of self ego. I encourage them to dig deeper and find that competitive adaptability to overcome their opponents. I motivate them with self goals that align that of the team goals. In truth, I had little to do, when they went and did a 180 to mop the floor with the teams that were preying on them in the previous pool plays. That's why, we were subjugated to bad officiating immediately following, in the very next pool play of our league. Everyone were upset, that were losing, to our little club with our short players. You know it's really bad when the officiating team attempts three times to foul your team with out of rotation in one game, by rushing the service while your team were not ready in position to recieve, using the wrong line up, and saying that your server is incorrect because the libero replace the server. Pretty soon they run out of ideas, and become frustrated at themselves. At which point the score board has become all fouled up after that and the damage was done. Somehow I still end up being the bad guy and they were the victims. Go figure!

I applaude my girls by not perpetuating the same behavior. I told them, we'll show them how officaiting is done by the rules for both sides. On top of that, we'll do the most professional job at it. Otherwise, I could be tooting my whistle almost everytime and no play actions would really commence. I let them play becuase the parents seem to enjoy it more that way. On top of that, I can discern if the other coaches really has some tact in strategizing.

Long story, no easy solutions. The region does try their best to promote fair play by the rules, but you can't police everyone all the time. I don't know if it is common practice that these things happens, becuase I don't see other coaches challenging a clearly bad call, Like when a line judge calls out even before the ball made contact with the floor inbounds by two feet. Even inexperience certified officials don't listen to the more experience ones, like when they decided to toot the whistle to make a call before the ball had contacted the floor whereas no one on the officiating team saw where it landed. I clearly observe out of bounds as a spectator, but the official refused to call a replay and decided that it was inbounds when the whistle was blown. Honestly I thought I was the weak link, since I am the rookie. My observations is proof to myself, that may not be the case. So all I have to do now is legit myself with more exposure, gain some more experience with some of the courtesies of the sport, and a few certifications. Yep, my experience would have scared any other coach away.