USA Men's Team in Japan (Game 2)

[OC24]

USA Men Rebound to Defeat Japan in Five Sets
www.usavolleyball.org/VolleyballNews/news.asp?id=655

OOTSU, Japan (April 25, 2004) – Clay Stanley scored a match-high 22 points to lead four players in double figures as the USA men’s national volleyball team rebounded from two-sets down to edge Japan, 3-2, on Sunday afternoon.

Stanley (Honolulu, Hawaii) had 18 kills, three blocks and one service ace in the 20-25, 24-26, 25-22, 25-18, 16-14 victory in the second of a four-match series between the two teams.

Reid Priddy scored 17 points, Kevin Barnett tallied 16 points and Tom Hoff posted 14 points as the United States improved its season record to 7-1.

Priddy (Richmond, Va.) had 14 kills, two blocks and one ace, while Barnett (Naperville, Ill.) added 13 kills, two blocks and one ace and Hoff (Park Ridge, Ill.) blasted nine kills with a match-high five blocks in the win.

Donald Suxho (Korce, Albania) had seven points, Scott Bunker (Beaver, Utah) chipped in with six and Curt Toppel (Pacific Palisades, Calif.) recorded two to cap the scoring.

Kenji Onoue scored a team-high 20 points on 20 kills to lead Japan.

The series continues on Tuesday when the two teams face off in the city of Fukui. The final match will be in Osaka on Thursday, April 29.

[sistahsledge]

Anyone know what position Toppel is playing? I vaguely recall a comment from Beal last year that he was going to use him as a Middle Blocker.

[doctordubya]

sistahsledge said:

Anyone know what position Toppel is playing? I vaguely recall a comment from Beal last year that he was going to use him as a Middle Blocker.

I recall that comment too. Seems odd to me, given that Toppel has been a dominant force out of the opposite position in the college game, as well as in the World University Games a couple of years back.

Presumably Beal feels he has the opposite position locked up with Stanley and Billings and is just looking for a way to fit Toppel into the team.

[roy]

doctordubya said:

I recall that comment too. Seems odd to me, given that Toppel has been a dominant force out of the opposite position in the college game, as well as in the World University Games a couple of years back.

Presumably Beal feels he has the opposite position locked up with Stanley and Billings and is just looking for a way to fit Toppel into the team.

I think you are correct. Toppel is an awesome player with a great deal of talent. He could become a force on the international level. But to beat out Billings and Stanley is going to be really hard, so to give him some experience, he is experimenting with other positions. He may turn out to be like the Hochevar for the women. They are both players with a lot of potential but there is just too much experience that they can't find a position.

[AAVolley]

Toppel was a middle his whole high school and club career, which included a couple of gold medals with the Los Angeles Athletic Club. He became an opposite at Stanford his freshman year only because the team was in dire need of players after the whole Larry/Andy Witt, Gabe Gardner debacle. He went on to set the all time kills record that year which should stand forever, not only because he was getting almost 20 attack attempts a game but also because it was the the last year of regular scoring. And so an opposite was born. In my opinion though, while Toppel is capable of competing as an opp at the international level, he is better suited and capable of dominating (in time of course) as a middle at the international level.

[BarcelonaBob]

AAVolley said:

Toppel was a middle his whole high school and club career, which included a couple of gold medals with the Los Angeles Athletic Club. He became an opposite at Stanford his freshman year only because the team was in dire need of players after the whole Larry/Andy Witt, Gabe Gardner debacle. He went on to set the all time kills record that year which should stand forever, not only because he was getting almost 20 attack attempts a game but also because it was the the last year of regular scoring. And so an opposite was born. In my opinion though, while Toppel is capable of competing as an opp at the international level, he is better suited and capable of dominating (in time of course) as a middle at the international level.

Not to mention the fact that it will probably save his arm from falling off. Toppel has always had funky mechanics, which were amplified by hitting alot of high balls from the right and the D. Alot of people didn't think he would make it through his Stanford career without messing up his shoulder. Almost reminiscent of another Stanford guy, Matt Fuerbringer, who had big-time international potential (6'7" guy who could pass, he was better than Lambert IMHO), but shoulder problems cut short his indoor career. Hitting quick in the middle won't put as much strain on Toppel's shoulder. He has size, is a decent athlete, and is quick enough laterally to excel as a middle for the USA Men. He could be a mainstay in 2008, as I don't think Hoff or Millar will stick around after Athens.

[hwy101]

Did Toppel have funky mechanics because he switched from MB (in high school) to Opp (in college)? I've never seen him play the middle position. Did he have a funky swing as MB in high school and club?

[BarcelonaBob]

HWY101 said:

Did Toppel have funky mechanics because he switched from MB (in high school) to Opp (in college)? I've never seen him play the middle position. Did he have a funky swing as MB in high school and club?

I never saw Toppel play MB, but the "funkiness" in his swing on the outside somewhat contributed to his hitting effectiveness. Most hitters contact the ball at the peak of their jump, whereas Toppel hit late on the desceding phase of his jump. Tough guy to block, drove opponent's crazy. The other part of his funky swing was the fact that he didn't draw his elbow back into classic bow-and-arrow position (Marv Dunphy calls this the "hitting package"), his elbow kinda flares out to the side perpendicular to his shoulder line. Anyway, that won't hurt him as much in the middle as it's a quicker/more compact swing, and oftentimes quick hits are hit at less than full extension.

[AAVolley]

Keep in mind too that Curt played club before the libero rule was implemented so he could play middle in the front row and still run a gap/pipe/d ball out of the backrow. Obviously once at the collegiate level, cutting out most of his backrow rotations would be silly. I agree with Bob as far as his arm swing goes, and would add that for his height Curt is very agile and quick to the ball and jumps higher than most his size. However, he has always had a tendency to block with his head down, and thus may struggle in the ever important blocking department as an international middle.

[doctordubya]

BarcelonaBob said:

The other part of his funky swing was the fact that he didn't draw his elbow back into classic bow-and-arrow position (Marv Dunphy calls this the "hitting package"), his elbow kinda flares out to the side perpendicular to his shoulder line

There's a great section on armswings in "Arie Selinger's Power Volleyball" (in fact, there's great sections on almost everything to do with technique, tactics...).

Although Selinger accepts that the bow-and-arrow position is very much a standard technique, he does not advocate it as the optimum armswing for an outside hitter. The way BB describes Toppel swing sounds like what Selinger would call a limited circular swing.

Interestingly, Selinger says that the circular swings actually put less pressure on the shoulder than the bow-and-arrow. The main shoulder stress during the bow-and-arrow comes with the deceleration of the arm to a standstill, and then propelling it forward again. With the circular swings, the arm is brought round in a more natural loop, never decelerating to a standstill. Selinger felt the limited circular swing was good for both outside hitters and middle blockers.

This book was written in 1984, and I still haven't seen a better coaching manual.

[doctordubya]

AAVolley said:

However, he has always had a tendency to block with his head down, and thus may struggle in the ever important blocking department as an international middle.

Blocking with your head down is not so much of a problem for a middle blocker. For an outside blocker it certainly is bad, as at the highest level you need to be able to reach for the line or angle according to the tendency of the hitter (particularly in a solo situation) - and so need to be watching the hitter.

For a middle blocker, this is less of an issue. In a read-block situation on the quick, there isn't time to get your head down and make a full jump anyway, so it is not a factor here. And when sealing to the outside, the key factor is to get next to the outside blocker rather than to be able to set the block.

Two examples of top-level middles who block with their heads down (that spring to mind) are Andrija Geric of Serbia and Ruslan Olikhver of Russia.

[jbspaw]

doctor, thanks for the book recomendation, I found it online used for only $5.

[doctordubya]

jbspaw said:

doctor, thanks for the book recomendation, I found it online used for only $5.

Five bucks! That's a bargain and no mistake.

Combine Selinger's book (technique and tactics) with a good conditioning/drills manual (the recent Al Scates/Mike Linn book on conditioning for volleyball is very good), and you've got pretty much all you need...

[VBbeast]

Biggest difference between your average middle attackers swing, and your average outside hitters swing is that middles supply most of their power from the shoulder. They don't make the big reverse pike move that delivers a lot of power from their torso into the shot.

Toppel will help more in the middle position for the forseable future than at the OP. Id say thats a good move by Beal. .....who I'm sure will be very reassured to hear me say that. ;D

[banthony2]

I saw Toppel play MB at Loyola, but when he played after his sophomore and junior years at LAAC (Denver and Dallas) was on the outside? Am I remembering wrong?