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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2016 2:28:23 GMT -5
I only watched the men so here are my hot takes: I think this was an excellent Olympics for the United States. The men's team was really entertaining and they just lost to an excellent Italy team. They definitely gave away chances against Italy in the semis, nobody would dispute that. The young players played fantastically this cycle except for Russell getting aced a ton with float serves. Even with that considered I have nothing negative to say about this team - they were really good. Matt, Max, Micah, DLee, Eric, Taylor, Aaron, and squad: we salute you. Super entertaining tournament - my noob volleyball colleagues were big indoor fans by the end! This team, with a few tweaks, will be legit in Tokyo. US coaches should basically change nothing. Only maybe crazy thing for next cycle is that I'd like to see what James Shaw brings to the table at setter. As good as Micah was these last few weeks I think James could possibly be better. Congratulations USA! Think Ma'a will be in the mix and Delfaco will give Jaescke a run. That 7 foot freshman at Irvine will be in the mix too with Averill, jendryk and Stahl to replace Lee and Smith ( who is already 31 and barely played don't see him making it as a 35 yr old) |
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Post by akbar on Aug 22, 2016 3:53:28 GMT -5
I only watched the men so here are my hot takes: I think this was an excellent Olympics for the United States. The men's team was really entertaining and they just lost to an excellent Italy team. They definitely gave away chances against Italy in the semis, nobody would dispute that. The young players played fantastically this cycle except for Russell getting aced a ton with float serves. Even with that considered I have nothing negative to say about this team - they were really good. Matt, Max, Micah, DLee, Eric, Taylor, Aaron, and squad: we salute you. Super entertaining tournament - my noob volleyball colleagues were big indoor fans by the end! This team, with a few tweaks, will be legit in Tokyo. US coaches should basically change nothing. Only maybe crazy thing for next cycle is that I'd like to see what James Shaw brings to the table at setter. As good as Micah was these last few weeks I think James could possibly be better. Congratulations USA! Think Ma'a will be in the mix and Delfaco will give Jaescke a run. That 7 foot freshman at Irvine will be in the mix too with Averill, jendryk and Stahl to replace Lee and Smith ( who is already 31 and barely played don't see him making it as a 35 yr old) Did DeFalco play any international ball this summer? Talented player who has upside on sand and indoor. For the future: Anderson - 4 more years at least Holt - 4 more years at least Christensen - 8 more years at least Shoji - 8 at least 12 probable Russell - 12 probable Sander - 8 at least Jaeschke - 8 at least Troy - 4 at least 8 possible Lee? Smith -doubtful Priddy -done K. Shoji -doubtful * We saw 3 guys 38,40 and 40 years old playing lights out on that last day of matches from premier federations. |
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Post by ironhammer on Aug 22, 2016 4:01:57 GMT -5
Well folks, another Olympics have come to an end. US was disappointing, but I'm not going to dwell on that since there are plenty of discussions over it already. So looking at the tournament overall, how will you rate this edition of Olympic volleyball compared to previous ones? In terms of team's performance, how did each of the teams do according to expectations? I heard some say the level of volleyball this year seem worse than before? Any truth to that? Or is that just arm chair commenting? I think you are totally wrong and I think the level of play at this Olympics was higher than ever. The number of rallies we saw in this tournament was amazing. The defense we saw over the last three weeks was basically unprecedented in the mens game and it made for SUPER entertaining matches. I was telling anyone who'd listen that Men's indoor volleyball was by far the best olympic sport and by the end they agreed! This tournament was an excellent showcase for our sport. Not going to dispute your assessment. I didn't say I said that , I said some are saying that.  |
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Post by xin on Aug 22, 2016 4:56:45 GMT -5
The level of play in the women's side is significantly lower than the previous editions. Would this current Chinese team be able to take a set off Brazil 2008 team? Or how about with the Russian team of 2004? My answer would be no. I would say no too but, do you remember which team won the Olympics in 2004? It was China and they defeated Russia in 5 sets. So this is not a meaningful comparison at all. 12 years have passed and the world of volleyball has moved on a lot. in general, back in 2004 top ranking teams had better passing and less powerful spiking. the average height for the Chinese team was 10cm lower than the current squad. They were more precise in ball control, a lot quicker in attacking, a lot more complicated in combination attacks. Whereas now, the Chinese team adapted a more efficient, more powerful and simpler team attack strategy. |
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Post by ironhammer on Aug 22, 2016 6:07:22 GMT -5
The level of play in the women's side is significantly lower than the previous editions. Would this current Chinese team be able to take a set off Brazil 2008 team? Or how about with the Russian team of 2004? My answer would be no. I would say no too but, do you remember which team won the Olympics in 2004? It was China and they defeated Russia in 5 sets. So this is not a meaningful comparison at all. 12 years have passed and the world of volleyball has moved on a lot. in general, back in 2004 top ranking teams had better passing and less powerful spiking. the average height for the Chinese team was 10cm lower than the current squad. They were more precise in ball control, a lot quicker in attacking, a lot more complicated in combination attacks. Whereas now, the Chinese team adapted a more efficient, more powerful and simpler team attack strategy. That raises the question, why did China abandoned that approach of complicated combination attacks? Were the new generation of players not cutting it in term of skills to adopt that approach? I remember I read that when Lang first became head coach of the Chinese team, she was shocked by how poor their reception ability was. If you can't receive well, you can't set up complicated attacks. But I'm not sure if that is the real (or only) reason. |
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Post by xin on Aug 22, 2016 9:11:53 GMT -5
Lang Ping did touch on that when she was giving an interview before the Olympics. She was asked by the media why the Chinese team couldn't play a fast-attacking game like they used to years ago or like the current US team does. Her answer was that she could only work with what she's got. She explained that speeding up is not that easy. It starts from passing, the ability of the setter and the hitter being able to keep up with the rhythm. Most of the hitters in this team are very tall girls, they just can't produce the same quality of passing nor can they run attacks fast and accurate enough. I guess that explained the change of style. |
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Post by JB Southpaw on Aug 22, 2016 9:26:39 GMT -5
I only watched the men so here are my hot takes: I think this was an excellent Olympics for the United States. The men's team was really entertaining and they just lost to an excellent Italy team. They definitely gave away chances against Italy in the semis, nobody would dispute that. The young players played fantastically this cycle except for Russell getting aced a ton with float serves. Even with that considered I have nothing negative to say about this team - they were really good. Matt, Max, Micah, DLee, Eric, Taylor, Aaron, and squad: we salute you. Super entertaining tournament - my noob volleyball colleagues were big indoor fans by the end! This team, with a few tweaks, will be legit in Tokyo. US coaches should basically change nothing. Only maybe crazy thing for next cycle is that I'd like to see what James Shaw brings to the table at setter. As good as Micah was these last few weeks I think James could possibly be better. Congratulations USA! Think Ma'a will be in the mix and Delfaco will give Jaescke a run. That 7 foot freshman at Irvine will be in the mix too with Averill, jendryk and Stahl to replace Lee and Smith ( who is already 31 and barely played don't see him making it as a 35 yr old) it will be interesting to see if DeFalco chooses Beach over indoor.... |
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Post by cardinalvolleyball on Aug 22, 2016 11:49:31 GMT -5
Well folks, another Olympics have come to an end. US was disappointing, but I'm not going to dwell on that since there are plenty of discussions over it already. So looking at the tournament overall, how will you rate this edition of Olympic volleyball compared to previous ones? In terms of team's performance, how did each of the teams do according to expectations? I heard some say the level of volleyball this year seem worse than before? Any truth to that? Or is that just arm chair commenting? I think you are totally wrong and I think the level of play at this Olympics was higher than ever. The number of rallies we saw in this tournament was amazing. The defense we saw over the last three weeks was basically unprecedented in the mens game and it made for SUPER entertaining matches. I was telling anyone who'd listen that Men's indoor volleyball was by far the best olympic sport and by the end they agreed! This tournament was an excellent showcase for our sport. I think there were more rallies because less teams had true terminators all over the place. I feel the overall level of play was lower than the past but there were more teams in the mix this year which created some really exciting volleyball throughout. Both Indoor teams are in good places, if we get past the fact our current captains on the womens team said gold or bust. Both teams are young and will have a lot of firepower coming back and up through the pipeline. The only worry for the women is not having a true terminator on the pin, but that's why they sped up their offense; so we don't need one. It was interesting to hear about the depth in the US pipeline, but when we were in crunch time the bench looked pretty sparse. I still think for both teams that the current team and the pipeline are in great shape and both teams should be challenging for medals for the foreseeable future. |
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Post by ironhammer on Aug 22, 2016 12:06:25 GMT -5
Lang Ping did touch on that when she was giving an interview before the Olympics. She was asked by the media why the Chinese team couldn't play a fast-attacking game like they used to years ago or like the current US team does. Her answer was that she could only work with what she's got. She explained that speeding up is not that easy. It starts from passing, the ability of the setter and the hitter being able to keep up with the rhythm. Most of the hitters in this team are very tall girls, they just can't produce the same quality of passing nor can they run attacks fast and accurate enough. I guess that explained the change of style. I'll say its a testament to Lang's coaching ability that she could turn a not-so-promising group of players into Olympic champions. Speaking of tall players, I remember that former Chinese player, rather fat...what's her name, yes, Wang Yimei. She had a really powerful jump serve that would just destroy her opponents. But she just could not receive or dig a ball at all. I don't see how such a one dimensional player could succeed under the current squad. |
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