Overlapping
 

I am looking for some tips to recognize when players are overlapping.

Identify the setter and her "opposite" player. In each rotation, these two players should have two other players between them. Know where your setter should be on each rotation so you can easily look at the players on the floor and see the setter and her opposite player. If there are not two players between them, then someone is out of position and/or overlapping.

Another thing that I have seen for the last several years that, IMO, does not get called enough. In a serve-receive, the setter is in the center back position and is up near the net behind the center front player. The other two back row players will want to cover the back part of the court and may move toward the middle to better cove that open area. By doing so, they may overlap the setter who is up near the net. Usually, you can use some of the painted lines on the court to help "see" this overlap.

Andy, I have seen this a lot recently as well. As the receiving team, he setter is middle back and pushes the middle front to the net. I have seen the setter be closer to either sideline than the left or right back defender several times and it hasn't even been close. Definitely something to look for.

I made 7 or 8 illegal alignment calls in the varsity match last night - all but two were a variation the situation you describe. The two exceptions were the setter in LB position going way early on the serve.

I had an alignment issue on Tuesday that I missed:mad: on the first go around. The next time the tam went to that set I was ready to call it and suddenly the coach was asking for a T/O. The first thing he talked about when his team got close enough was the alignment I was about to call.:)

I felt good that I had noticed it, but was upset I didn't get a chance to prove I had seen it.

Some of the teams here play year round so most of our alignment issues are the players leaving early more than anything.

This method was suggested to me also, but to be honest, it doesn't work for me. I don't know why. I'm sure it's mental deficiency on my part. What I do instead is memorize two sets of opposite players on each team. If both of those opposites are where they should be, then the other two players must be where they're supposed to be, too.

The drawback of my method is that it can get tough if there are a lot of subs. But it's easier for me than the setter method.

One problem big guy
 

Scrapper,

I know what you are saying, but the problem is that the overlaps you see most often will include the setter. The setter is the person the whole offense run through, and it gets easy to find them. It also is the person more than likely who will be out of alignment, because of how they need to be in a certain position to run the offense.

Let me throw and idea out at you, and others can chime in. I hope I am not condescending here, if I am I apologize. I don't know if you use a wheel or not. If you don't, try it. Then during warmups, look over both teams and find out who the setter(s) is(are). Then mark the setter on your wheel. It will make the process much easier of working off the setter and his/her opposite.

You will also find that it won't take long to figure out the sub pattern of each team. Once you have that down, you will know who will replace who and why. If #24 is an OH and #42 is a 5'3" serve receive guy, then you will pick up real quick when they will sub for each other, and keeping the service order/alignment for them will be easy.

Also, I found that some off-season study was a great help. Learn at least a little about the major offensive sets teams use, the 4-2, 5-1, and 6-2. Once you start to understand what a team is trying to do, finding the setter and who is doing what is a lot easier to do. To me, this is one place where great officials in other sports become great VB officials, A lot of guys who do other sports and just do VB for some extra $$ (you know who you are), don't take the time to get familiar with the strategy/tactics of the game. Officials that do other sports have an intuitive grasp of what is going on in front of them and it makes the game easier to call. The same holds true for VB, it is just that a new official w/o a lot of playing experience has a lot of study to do to get the knowledge base needed to be a great VB official.

No problem. I didn't take any of your comments in a negative way. I appreciate any and all constructive attempts to improve my officiating.

I have one, and I have tried it as R2. I don't use it much because I think it's looked down on around here. Nobody (and I mean NOBODY, literally) else uses it in my area.

I've actually gotten a LOT better at that over the course of this season. I'm doing much better keeping track of the subs (usually done in pairs around here).

I have a match tonight (my first juco experience) and I will ask my (much more experienced) partner to help me grasp the setter-method of tracking the rotation.

One thing I don't understand
 

Scrapper,

You bring up an interesting point, and I wish other people would speak about the fact that the wheel is so hated in some places. I've heard and seen the same thing, but for me the wheel is great, and while I try to not use the wheel during a match, it is an easy way to keep track of service order.

Have fun wiht your JUCO stuff tonight. Moving up is always a good thing.