first year volleyball official

[refinks]

I registered to be a volleyball official for the first time this year. I have never done volleyball before in my life, and I am nervous. I looked through the rulebook and officials manual, and I am confused on rotations, screening, overlapping. any advice for me? I have my first match in 2 weeks and I'm clueless

[MCBear]

refinks, welcome to volleyball officiating. What level is your match - HS, MS or JH? Do you feel ready to officiate? Contact a respected local vb official who has experience and ask questions. Ask if he/she would be willing to mentor you.

[refinks]

It is JH, and yes, I think I will be ready. I am going to a clinic this weekend and working some scrimmages next weekend. I've always heard vb will be easy to pick up, so I'm hoping I have no troubles

[MCBear]

Boy, did someone ever feed you a line! It's only easy if you aren't willing to make the effort to learn how to officiate the sport correctly with knowledge and understanding. Like I said, find a respected volleyball referee in your area to be a mentor for you. Good luck,

[Bishopcolle]

I am also a new VB official who missed the first (and probably only) year's clinics....I will be doing largely JR. HS since I missed the clinics and my Northern Chapter contact doesn't sound terribly encouraging....Any suggestions on a good video training series?

[outathm]

Volleyball is only easy if you are only there to stand and watch the game. Learn what you need to do and there is a lot to learn. It is a harder than wnyone ever lets on at the beginning.

[MCBear]

If anyone EVER tells you that volleyball is an easy sport to officiate, RUN - do not walk to get away from them for they have no idea what they are talking about. As my good friend Felix Madera says, "Volleyball is an easy sport to officiate unless you want to do it well!" If you want to do it well, you are going to work your tail off learning about the game. However, with that being said, DON'T try to eat the elephant in one bite...make it small manageable ones.

[#13]

Maybe when someone said Volleyball was easy to pick up they meant physically? In that respect, it is far easier than learning the positioning and needing the hustle of softball, baseball, football, etc.

As far as the rules and as the guys say, to be good and respected by the coaches out there, it takes time to get the rules down, feel for the game and to be confident.

Speaking of rules, I just got back into Volleyball this year after a 4 year layoff. I felt like the rulebook was all new again. So many small details.

Cool thing about Volleyball.......no rain outs! Have a great season y'all. I'm sure to have questions for discussion and it is great there is some communication I am seeing now on this board seeing as softball is practically over.

[Scrapper1]

Originally Posted by refinks

I registered to be a volleyball official for the first time this year. I have never done volleyball before in my life, and I am nervous. I looked through the rulebook and officials manual, and I am confused on rotations, screening, overlapping. any advice for me? I have my first match in 2 weeks and I'm clueless

Originally Posted by refinks

It is JH, and yes, I think I will be ready. I am going to a clinic this weekend and working some scrimmages next weekend. I've always heard vb will be easy to pick up, so I'm hoping I have no troubles

First, I like your name. "Refink" reminds of "Rat fink", which is what my dad used to call me when he would pretend to be upset about something. I was always the "rat fink, crummy kid". As in, "Who ate the last chocolate chip cookie? Was it that rat fink, crummy kid???" And naturally, I had the crumbs still on my shirt.

Anyway!! I'm just starting my third year and I still am very inadequate at a number of things -- including rotations and overlaps. I'm hopeless when it comes to back row stuff. You're nervous, and that's to be expected, and you just have to go in and realize that you're not going to see everything very well for a while.

Which is why I am laughing to myself when you say that you think you'll be ready. NOT!! And that is not a dig at you, honest. It's just that there's too much to know for you to be ready the first time out.

As for being an easy sport to officiate, I will tell you what I tell everybody else. Some parts are VERY easy and other parts are IMPOSSIBLE. My advice is to get real good at the easy stuff (in/out, lifts, net faults) and not worry too much about the really hard stuff (back row attacks, overlaps on the receiving team). Be aware of it, and grab an obvious one if you happen to see it; but don't feel too bad when you don't see it.

[MCBear]

If anyone is interested, I have a really good PowerPoint on Illegal Alignment (i.e., overlaps) that I can e-mail. Contact me at [email protected] with IA PPT in the subject line and I will be glad to send it to you,

[Scrapper1]

Originally Posted by MCBear

If anyone is interested, I have a really good PowerPoint on Illegal Alignment (i.e., overlaps)

I have it, too!! (Thanks, Jan!) It really is good.

[refinks]

Scrapper, you are 100% correct. I can handle the little stuff like net play, line violations, illegal hits. but the stuff that R2 looks at, with the subs, and libero, and especially the illegal allignments, rotations, overlapping, back row attacks, setters, stuff like that, is like a foreign language to me.

[TimTaylor]

Refinks,

Welcome to volleyball! As others have said, it will take time to become a competent official - Jan's recommendation to find an experienced mentor is a good one. In addition to this forum, there is one at the NFHS web site (nfhs.org) you might want to check out. Lots of officials with every level of experience imagineable contribute and it's a great way to learn more about the art of officiating volleyball.

While officiating volleyball may not be as physically challenging as some other sports (although being on the stand for 2+ hours in a 5 set match is no picnic), it is extremely mentally challenging. At every contact with the ball during play there are several criteria that the R1 has to judge, and it has to happen in maybe half a second.

What I would add to the advice already given is to "eat the elephant a fork full at a time." If you go into it expecting it to be a walk in the park, you may quickly find the intricacies and subtle nuances of the sport extremely frustrating. It takes a lot of time, experience(years) and hard work to become a competent and consistent volleyball official. I hope you enjoy the journey!