"Lift" - Rule Language

[Back In The Saddle]

Originally Posted by Scrapper1

Interesting. So what if you bend over so that your hands are below your waist?

Ok, serious question. What if a player makes a bad first hit which deflects off a teammate's foot but bounces up into the air where it could be legally hit over the net? Is the unintentional contact with the foot illegal and the end of the rally?

In NCAA-W, we don't worry about this, right? There's no provision for "above the waist".

In NFHS this is an illegal hit and does end the rally.

[refnrev]

What BITS said.

[MCBear]

And next year, we will submit to the NFHS VB Rules Committee to get rid of the prohibition against contact below the waist. If a player can get to the ball with ANY body part, let's play and give credit for an athletic play.

[BlitzkriegBob]

Originally Posted by MCBear

If a player can get to the ball with ANY body part, let's play and give credit for an athletic play.

While I wouldn't have any objection to a change in the rules, I would never have characterized any contact below the waist that I have personally seen as an athletic play. It has always been the result of somebody completely missing the ball or shanking a pass so badly that it just manages to hit someone in the leg right before it hits the ground. I can honestly say that in my five short years of officiating volleyball that I have never seen a ball saved after a contact below the waist.

[OmniSpiker]

I can say that in EU league, it is never an athletic play and always a desperation play. Anything else after that, is just pure chance of luck.

[MCBear]

Omni, I gotta agree, but that is what makes it so totally cool! It is an awesome sight when, out of the blue, a ball that looks like it is going to be out of play gets saved because a player can get a foot under it to send it back to the court and over the net. It may be desperation, as you say, but it is also athletic because the player was able to pull it off.

I have had it happen a couple of times in the last 3 or 4 years, and I have had to kill the ball during High School matches and allow the play to continue in USAV Juniors matches.

As always, YMMV.

[Retrozetti]

Originally Posted by MCBear

Omni, I gotta agree, but that is what makes it so totally cool! It is an awesome sight when, out of the blue, a ball that looks like it is going to be out of play gets saved because a player can get a foot under it to send it back to the court and over the net.

Best move I saw was when a team jumped up to block, the ball deflected off the blockers arms and fell downward towards their court. The nearest blocker, while the ball is dropping right in front of him, he "hackey-sacked" the ball with the side of his foot, and it went straight up and parallel to the net, to their outside hitter (a beautifully perfect set, under any standards) and that hitter clobbered the ball down to the opponent's court. Luckily, it was a USAV match... under NFHS rules, I would have cried having to call the fault on them. I'd be required to call it, but thank god it was a USAV match.

Having that said, I also understand wherein NFHS is structured to teach the fundamentals. When they get to USAV at college, then they can show off... but master the basics first.