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Post by udubhuskiefan on Jul 10, 2020 11:54:00 GMT -5
Hi guys! I feel like I ask a lot of questions on here, so sorry about that. Being as there might not be an NCAA season, I'd like to follow pro volleyball, given that also the olympics are coming up. Would anybody mind explaining the system to me? The leagues? What countries have the best leagues? How to watch?
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Post by beachvolleyball23 on Jul 10, 2020 14:10:47 GMT -5
I've got a question I'm too embarrassed to ask anywhere else: How do players practice when playing club in a country where the primary language is not English? For example, a lot of players play in Japan, but they can't possibly learn Japanese in a year. That being said, there's no way they hold practices in English, Turkish, Italian, Chinese, Russian, Japanese, dutch etc. all at once, even when the team starts players from those countries. So how do they deal with the language barrier?
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trojansc
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All-VolleyTalk 1st Team (2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017), All-VolleyTalk 2nd Team (2016), 2021, 2019 Fantasy League Champion, 2020 Fantasy League Runner Up, 2022 2nd Runner Up
Posts: 28,098
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Post by trojansc on Jul 10, 2020 14:21:50 GMT -5
I've got a question I'm too embarrassed to ask anywhere else: How do players practice when playing club in a country where the primary language is not English? For example, a lot of players play in Japan, but they can't possibly learn Japanese in a year. That being said, there's no way they hold practices in English, Turkish, Italian, Chinese, Russian, Japanese, dutch etc. all at once, even when the team starts players from those countries. So how do they deal with the language barrier? I’m sure you can get more specifics from certain people here on each individual league, but just because a league is in a specific country doesn’t mean instruction will be in that language. Even on national teams — we’ve seen Turkey, South Korea, Netherlands, Azerbaijan (I think), Germany and a couple other national federations actually have English-speaking coaches and communicate using English. I remember South Korea specifically using a translator. I do remember De La Cruz having some communication issues when playing for Dinamo Moscow — but her English isn’t that great and not many Russians knew enough Spanish.
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Post by Wiswell on Jul 10, 2020 14:48:59 GMT -5
I've never figured out what the revenue stream is for most pro teams. Can someone explain that? It can't all be ad revenue.
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Post by Wolfgang on Jul 10, 2020 14:56:57 GMT -5
I also doubt the big $$$ salaries sometimes posted here.
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Post by c4ndlelight on Jul 10, 2020 15:02:49 GMT -5
I've never figured out what the revenue stream is for most pro teams. Can someone explain that? It can't all be ad revenue. Local/regional government and corporate sponsorships.
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Post by Murina on Jul 10, 2020 15:22:17 GMT -5
I can only speak about Europe, the Asian & South American teams may use a different model. As far as language goes English, Spanish & Russian are fairly widely spoken & it's likely that players & someone in the club structure speak one of them. Most 1st division coaches speak at least rudimentary English. As far as financial model most continental European countries have laws that give tax incentives to companies that sponsor sports clubs. This is where the bulk of the money comes from. It's not unusual for a top club to have around 100 sponsors at various levels. It's important to realize that these clubs have an entire structure of junior & adult teams below the professional team and the entire club is considered to be an amateur club. This is what the tax subsidies were intended to support. Over the years, the money got bigger In this same vain, municipalities often contribute money & facilities to the club. In some cases you have a few rich people who are into volleyball enough to take a large role in the funding & administration of their club. Turkey has a couple of club models: Most Turkish clubs are like Fenerbahce & Galatasaray - old multi sport clubs that are driven similarly to the above model. These clubs also sell memberships which is a big revenue stream - mostly soccer fans, but the membership money also goes to the basketball, volleyball, gymnastics, and chess programs (yes, some of them have chess programs). A handful of Turkish clubs are corporate clubs - Vakifbank, Eczacibasi and now Turkish Airlines for example. These clubs can be single or multi sport, and are directly run buy the company as advertising and a "give back" to the community.
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Post by c4ndlelight on Jul 10, 2020 16:39:26 GMT -5
I've got a question I'm too embarrassed to ask anywhere else: How do players practice when playing club in a country where the primary language is not English? For example, a lot of players play in Japan, but they can't possibly learn Japanese in a year. That being said, there's no way they hold practices in English, Turkish, Italian, Chinese, Russian, Japanese, dutch etc. all at once, even when the team starts players from those countries. So how do they deal with the language barrier? I’m sure you can get more specifics from certain people here on each individual league, but just because a league is in a specific country doesn’t mean instruction will be in that language. Even on national teams — we’ve seen Turkey, South Korea, Netherlands, Azerbaijan (I think), Germany and a couple other national federations actually have English-speaking coaches and communicate using English. I remember South Korea specifically using a translator. I do remember De La Cruz having some communication issues when playing for Dinamo Moscow — but her English isn’t that great and not many Russians knew enough Spanish. You also don't need to be fluent to effectively volley-communicate. A little can go a long, long way.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 10, 2020 16:50:34 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Jul 10, 2020 17:15:43 GMT -5
Hi guys! I feel like I ask a lot of questions on here, so sorry about that. Being as there might not be an NCAA season, I'd like to follow pro volleyball, given that also the olympics are coming up. Would anybody mind explaining the system to me? The leagues? What countries have the best leagues? How to watch? Italy and Turkey have the strongest teams. Italy's league top to bottom is probably the toughest. The Champions League is one of the biggest competitions where teams throughout Europe play. There are also lower level continental competitions for teams that do not qualify for the Champions League, called the CEV Cup and the Challenge Cup. Imoco in Italy is the best team in the world right now. China, Japan, and South Korea are the biggest leagues in Asia I believe (they're harder to follow with the time zones). The best clubs in South America come from Brazil. I don't follow the league closely, but I believe Minas, Praia Club, and Rio de Janeiro Vôlei Clube are the top clubs. There is a worldwide competition called the Club World Cup where the best teams from the three federations (Europe, Asia, and South America) compete for the "world title". The Turkish teams have been the most successful in this competition but Brazil's teams have also had a lot of success and recently Italy too. As for how to watch.... that might be a thread dedicated to itself (i should get on that) Anyone can feel free to correct me or add on.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 10, 2020 17:20:30 GMT -5
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Post by donut on Jul 10, 2020 17:23:42 GMT -5
Hi guys! I feel like I ask a lot of questions on here, so sorry about that. Being as there might not be an NCAA season, I'd like to follow pro volleyball, given that also the olympics are coming up. Would anybody mind explaining the system to me? The leagues? What countries have the best leagues? How to watch? I'll do my best to explain a general overview: Best leagues: The most competitive leagues (today) are the Italian (Serie A) and Turkish (Vestel Venus Sultanlar Ligi) leagues. The next most competitive, IMO, are China, Russia (Women's Super League), Brazil (Superliga Feminina) and Japan (V.League V1). Then, there's another group of France, Poland, Germany, South Korea, etc., but I'd recommend just starting with the top 6 (and probably even just the top 2). One thing to note is that most of these leagues have various divisions, so if you want to see the top volleyball, make sure you are looking at the top division (which is why I included the names in parentheses, which should be the names of the top leagues/divisions in each country). Keeping "Serie A" in mind or "Vestel Venus" is helpful when skimming websites in other languages. League structure: Each league is set up differently. In general, the European Leagues run longer than the Asian leagues. Also, the European Leagues allow for more foreigners on the court/on their rosters. Both Japan and South Korea only allow one foreigner. Most leagues run a round robin regular season format, and have a final tournament of some sort. Some have mid-season or pre-season tournaments/exhibitions as well. League style of play: Italy, China, Turkey and Brazil are going to be the most robust in terms of different playing styles, different types of hitters, etc. In Japan or South Korea, you're going to see very fast volleyball, with one terminator (usually the foreigner) getting something like 40% of the swings. Russia you're going to see a slower, high-ball offense. FIVB Competitions: In the FIVB, there are 5 continental federations, and 4 of them have their own Club Championship competitions. So, in Europe (for example), all of the top teams compete in the CEV Champions League (I'm linking you to the Wikipedia page just because Champions League is a lot to explain in itself). To note: in Champions League play, there are no foreigner limitations, so for some teams (especially the Turkish teams), you usually see much different, more competitive line-ups. The only other Club Championship maybe worth tracking, IMO, is the one for the Asian federation, the Asian Women's Club Volleyball Championship. But it's nowhere near as robust as the Champions League. All of the champions then compete (usually sans the champion from the African tournament) in the FIVB World Championships (usually with 2 wildcard teams selected as well). How to watch: I'm usually scrambling to find free links for games or I just watch them afterwards on Youtube (big games are always on Youtube). I'll let others chip in here.
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Post by udubhuskiefan on Jul 10, 2020 17:26:34 GMT -5
Hi guys! I feel like I ask a lot of questions on here, so sorry about that. Being as there might not be an NCAA season, I'd like to follow pro volleyball, given that also the olympics are coming up. Would anybody mind explaining the system to me? The leagues? What countries have the best leagues? How to watch? Italy and Turkey have the strongest teams. Italy's league top to bottom is probably the toughest. The Champions League is one of the biggest competitions where teams throughout Europe play. There are also lower level continental competitions for teams that do not qualify for the Champions League, called the CEV Cup and the Challenge Cup. Imoco in Italy is the best team in the world right now. China, Japan, and South Korea are the biggest leagues in Asia I believe (they're harder to follow with the time zones). The best clubs in South America come from Brazil. I don't follow the league closely, but I believe Minas, Praia Club, and Rio de Janeiro Vôlei Clube are the top clubs. There is a worldwide competition called the Club World Cup where the best teams from the three federations (Europe, Asia, and South America) compete for the "world title". The Turkish teams have been the most successful in this competition but Brazil's teams have also had a lot of success and recently Italy too. As for how to watch.... that might be a thread dedicated to itself (i should get on that) Anyone can feel free to correct me or add on. Great explanation! Thanks for this.
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Post by udubhuskiefan on Jul 10, 2020 17:27:42 GMT -5
Hi guys! I feel like I ask a lot of questions on here, so sorry about that. Being as there might not be an NCAA season, I'd like to follow pro volleyball, given that also the olympics are coming up. Would anybody mind explaining the system to me? The leagues? What countries have the best leagues? How to watch? I'll do my best to explain a general overview: Best leagues: The most competitive leagues (today) are the Italian (Serie A) and Turkish (Vestel Venus Sultanlar Ligi) leagues. The next most competitive, IMO, are China, Russia (Women's Super League), Brazil (Superliga Feminina) and Japan (V.League V1). Then, there's another group of France, Poland, Germany, South Korea, etc., but I'd recommend just starting with the top 6 (and probably even just the top 2). One thing to note is that most of these leagues have various divisions, so if you want to see the top volleyball, make sure you are looking at the top division (which is why I included the names in parentheses, which should be the names of the top leagues/divisions in each country). Keeping "Serie A" in mind or "Vestel Venus" is helpful when skimming websites in other languages. League structure: Each league is set up differently. In general, the European Leagues run longer than the Asian leagues. Also, the European Leagues allow for more foreigners on the court/on their rosters. Both Japan and South Korea only allow one foreigner. Most leagues run a round robin regular season format, and have a final tournament of some sort. Some have mid-season or pre-season tournaments/exhibitions as well. League style of play: Italy, China, Turkey and Brazil are going to be the most robust in terms of different playing styles, different types of hitters, etc. In Japan or South Korea, you're going to see very fast volleyball, with one terminator (usually the foreigner) getting something like 40% of the swings. Russia you're going to see a slower, high-ball offense. FIVB Competitions: In the FIVB, there are 5 continental federations, and 4 of them have their own Club Championship competitions. So, in Europe (for example), all of the top teams compete in the CEV Champions League (I'm linking you to the Wikipedia page just because Champions League is a lot to explain in itself). To note: in Champions League play, there are no foreigner limitations, so for some teams (especially the Turkish teams), you usually see much different, more competitive line-ups. The only other Club Championship maybe worth tracking, IMO, is the one for the Asian federation, the Asian Women's Club Volleyball Championship. But it's nowhere near as robust as the Champions League. All of the champions then compete (usually sans the champion from the African tournament) in the FIVB World Championships (usually with 2 wildcard teams selected as well). How to watch: I'm usually scrambling to find free links for games or I just watch them afterwards on Youtube (big games are always on Youtube). I'll let others chip in here. Thanks! That was a cool in-depth explanation.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 10, 2020 17:43:07 GMT -5
TV is a bit tricky unless you either 1) use sketchy streams 2) wait to see if they get put on Youtube 3) get a good vpn. Flovolleyball in the past has had the Italian League and the Champions League rights in the past. If you do not live in the US or have a good VPN, there are a lot more options. VolleyballWorldTV airs the Club World Cup along with some of the international team competitions. EuroVolleyTV shows all of the continental cups in Europe. LVFTv is Italy's streaming service. This is a paid service for the Italian League games. www.pmgsport.it/ will have Italian League matches with a VPN that is free, unlike LVFTv. And then there's always the option of online streams... but those aren't as reliable or safe. There's a lot up in the air about the season and probably TV rights. I'll update whenever more info is available in a thread. And be more detailed about specifics.
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