FIVB to eliminate overhand reception

The rule change will change the men's game so much more than the women's. You can take a group of semi-athletic HS boys and they can figure out how to hand pass relatively mediocre within a week. For them to figure out how to forearm pass at the same mediocre level.. months, maybe years.

Women take forearm passing to heart since most are starting at a younger age when they lack the strength to hand pass. Even in HS, many do not possess the strength and quickness to make hand-passing worthwhile.

+1

I guess this all depends on what you want for the game. If you want to continue seeing guys go back and bomb away at the service line missing a high percentage of their serves, even at the highest levels, then yep the rule stinks. If you want to see the ball get served into the court and maybe even some rallies, then the rule is a correction to a modification that had unforeseeable consequences on the flow of the overall game.

To me the most interesting potential impact of this rule is that a higher emphasis will be placed on passing and serving accuracy. If I am a Libero, Outside, or Right I am stoked about this rule. There are going to be more balls that are not playable in the middle. Setters will need to adjust and Middles are going to get less chances due to passing limitations.

Lastly, I think this enhances the opportunities for guys that are passers first (Liberos, DS, smaller outsides). The game becomes less of who can make their serves and hit .650 out of the middle, but instead who can pass and win rallies by staying in system to set up the high percentage plays.

Should be interesting....

You will see pretty much zero difference on how teams serve, especially at the highest levels. People aren't bombing jump serves because passing floaters with "hands" is too easy. They also don't bomb the jumper because passing floaters in the men's game w/o hands is ALSO easy. They bomb jump serves because of how the game changed with RALLY SCORING. In the old S/O system, missing serves also meant you couldn't score points. Now with the punishment for a missed serve not being as severe in rally scoring...going for broke on your serve will still be the "correct" game strategy play for the mens game.

As for bringing back the little OH into play, again...won't change the game much at all. Yes...you may not be able to get away with 2 total goons who can't pass at OH, but you will still easily have 1 bomber who doesn't have to pass anything but jumpers. Kiraly and Berzins showed that you can pass floaters with 2 guys 30 years ago. If they played now...one would not start because 2 passing OH's is overkill, since we have a libero.

Really? Let me ask you a question. Have you ever played the game when you couldn't pass with your hands?

If you haven't...then no offense...you have no idea what you are talking about. I won't go so far as to name call like you did, but passing floaters w/o your hands isn't some mystical power that guys won't be able to handle.

Again...30 years ago Kiraly and Berzins were passing 2.5+ on a 3 scale vs. floaters. Now with every team having a libero, you will only need 1 of your 3 pin hitters to be able to pass a floater...eh gads...w/o their hands!

My point isn't that some guys/teams may indeed have a few more guys more skilled at the art of float serving now. My point is the GAME now in the RALLY SCORING ERA will still revolve around your ability to score points off your serve. The game is not going to suddenly turn into 6 guys serving floaters all game because the floater is an evil devil of a tool that will wreak havoc on passers worldwide!!!

Phildunphy,

I am going to disagree with your statement, "People aren't bombing jump serves because passing floaters with "hands" is too easy". If that were the case why are guys standing at 12' on the court to receive the floater? It is clearly because the receiving team knows that they can attack the floater with their hands and not get called for a lift.

As a result of the new rule, court spacing will be deeper and players will need to pass with their arms, the smaller of the two platforms. This is more difficult on a quality jumper that is slicing away/into the player and a decent float. As someone else stated, the average jump is too straight and falls nicely along the up/down orientation of the forearm passing platform. I cannot see a college/pro coach continuing to tolerate the high number of missed serves from the average server when an average float server can cause just as much havoc. Of course, the serving stud is going to still be given the green light.

In the day, yes I was around then, waiting on a good floaty to get down to those arms was nerve racking. That ball moves in what seems to be every direction while you are waiting.....