When is hair contact a contact?

[OmniSpiker]

Back In The Saddle, that would be the first time I hear about that. I've always been told that the hair and anything in it is part of the body as well as the uniform and any sleeves or loose strings. It has been (over ten) years, though. Times have changed...Only within the last few years, have I been convinced that sleevless, collarless, and nylon spandex uniforms have their more advantages by evasion of ball contact. I've also changed my recommendation to braided hair rather than the up pony tails which were the major offenders of hair contacts.

Jan, there's no doubt to me when a ball gets deflected off the head. When the ball merely grazes the hair and you see hair dancing in the air and the player didn't make an evasion attempt, it's easy to determine a 'no touch' judgment. Problem mostly comes when a player is ducking to evade a ball and it catches their hair. Many times in those situation there is visible ball slow down after hair contact. Not as obvious as a delfection. I will change my contact calls to a more lenient judgment.

"Let them play" guidelines is a challenge to my own volleyball fundamentals. It's hard to let the 'coach' in me accept things on the court.