Daniel Castellani
My first cue for these Olympic Games in London are for USA men’s team, which impressed me a lot. I admire the way they do programmes for the Olympics. They made it once… Ok, maybe it was by chance. Twice, they were lucky maybe. But three times, and now they’re doing it again, no way: there’s a clear plan behind that. They are the only country which can plan so carefully the physical and technical preparation. In four years’ time we saw some of these players growing really well and becoming real top players. A programme means that everything’s expected. You’ll have a time to work, then you will face a crisis; you’ll have a time to seed and days when you harvest. You will have heavy losses and nice wins before your final goal. This is a system that in other super-professional volleyball countries is impossible to plan because the pressure of sponsors or media will kill you. USA Volleyball knows how to obtain results by targeting sport events and how many losses you’ll have to face on your way to the podium. Some countries are trying to do the same, some others are living day by day, getting the best from what you have: then if you win you’re good, if you lose you’re an idiot.
Regarding a confrontation with Beijing, everyone now plays faster. At the same time, the blocks adapt their technique to catch those balls. If you don’t set extremely well, with maximum precision, the block will at least touch, or eventually block, every single ball. In London the spectators can realize how much the block can follow the fastest plays. Being fast of course does not mean doing quick attacks with the middle blockers: the key is for the setter to get the ball higher and set a ball trajectory almost parallel to the court floor, over the net. These balls simply need less second fractions to be spiked by the attackers jumping at the net’s extremes.
The setter used to mask their hands once, faking sometimes, and cocooning the ball. Now they ask for higher passes to get the ball over the net and speed up their game. This is what we’re watching in Earls Court: modern top volleyball.
