What is in your head when the serve is hit?

[bbodb]

I'm just a couple of years into VB officiating and I do NOT have any experience with this sport as a player. Thus far, it's been an interesting experience and one I want to continue in as an official. I know I need to develop more of an understanding of the game (from a technical and tactical standpoint) to become a better official but I am struggling with how to do accomplish this.

One area I have struggled with to this point is what information to keep in your head (and how) with respect to back row attack when a play starts.

To date, I've developed the habit of remembering the two players on each team who should be opposite each other in a proper lineup. For example, using the following serving order for reference:

1 6 15
4 12 11

I'll keep a date in my head for each team (jan 11 in this example) to remember who should be opposite each other. That works fairly well for checking the alignment when this team serves but given the weird receiving alignment used by many teams, this info is not of as much use when this teams receives. Also, during play, this info really doesn't do much good in watching for a back row attack by #12 or #4 (because I'm not 'remembering' them).

I've tried to seek out more experienced referees and ask what they remember in this case but every conversation with an experienced referee starts with something like "If a team is using a 6-2 formation, I would do the following...." or "If a team is using a 4-2 formation, I would do....."

I DON'T UNDERSTAND 6-2, 4-2 OR WHY IT IS SO IMPORTANT TO IDENTIFY THE SETTER (since the experienced referees frequently claim it is the setter who is most likely to violate the back row attack ... huh???)

With all of that in mind, let me ask the following questions:

1) What info do you put into your head to help you identify/determine back row attack?
2) How do you quickly check / verify that each player on the court is in the proper rotational position?
3) Is there a book anyone can recommend to shed some understanding on VB formations?

I know this is a lot but thanks in advance to anyone who can offer any idea(s) on where (and with what) to start.

[MCBear]

bbodb, the reason we want to identify the setter is because she is the quarterback on the court. She is going to touch every second ball for that team. We need to know if she is coming out of the back row if she decides to do a quick dump trying to catch the opponent off guard. If she executes a dump as a back-row player, while the ball is completely above the height of the net, she is guilty of an illegal back-row attack.

To get a perspective on 6-2, 5-1 and 4-2, study Section I - Offensive Alignments and Overlapping starting on page 81 and going through page 87 of the 2010-2011 NFHS Case Book and Manual. See if that doesn't help.

To answer your specific questions:

1 ) I track all six rotations on both sides of the net and I always try to know where the setter and the captain is on each team.

2) I will quickly ask my scorekeeper to "Give me the next three servers on the receiving team." That gives me the front row in order and, since I KNOW the setter's number, I now know whether she is front or back-row.

3) The NFHS Case Book and Manual as I suggested above.