The Pass

Articles In This Section:

· The Pass

· The Chest Pass

· Conclusion

A truism, which cannot be too often repeated, is this: team success in any competitive sport demands a mastery of fundamentals. This generality, important in so many games, is particularly relevant to volleyball, where basic procedures are repeated over and over again, endlessly, on both attack and defense, on both sides of the net, and in a numberless variety of situations.

The fundamentals of volleyball are usually listed as these: the serve, the block, and the big three (the game's great triumvirate) of the attack: the pass, the setup, the spike. This discussion will be concerned essentially with the pass, which is the attempt to hit the ball to the setter who in turn sets it up for the spiker. It must be said at once that the nature of the game is such that none of the closely integrated techniques of the big three may be entirely divorced from the others, even in theory. The pass, the setup, and the spike are parts of a whole, like separate members of the same body, and they are interwoven in such a closely knit pattern that when one fails to function properly, the others suffer, sometimes beyond repair.

The bridge between passer, setter, and spiker is skillful ball handling, magic words to be noted well and remembered long. "Ball handling is basic to the game, and from now on no team can expect to win a national tournament without being outstanding in the ball handling department." ¹

The man who is responsible for keeping this bridge in good repair is the passer. Perhaps his most difficult passing assignment occurs when he receives the serve. The passer is not a man whose excellence is appreciated by the galleries, and in this respect he may be likened to the blocking back in football—a man who prepares the way for the climax of the attack. The finest running back is of little avail if his blockers fail to do their work and leave him unprotected from the assaults of defensive tacklers. Likewise, the proudest spiker in California can be frustrated if a hopelessly bad pass is slapped into the face of his setter, who is, therefore, unable to make a decent set.

"Getting the ball up on the pass is one of the major plays in the game. Its true value is lost in the scoring plays which always get the plaudits of the crowd, but regardless of this, the 'good pass' is a key to successful volleyball." ²

"The greatest variation of teams and players comes in this department (passing), and I consider it the key to the whole game." ³

Some of the specialized techniques of ball handling will be treated at length in other chapters, but we desire to comment briefly on the subject here.

The wise player will eliminate completely from his repertoire the two-handed contact of low balls with the palms" of the hands turned upward, thumbs out, and backs of the hands flat toward the floor. Whereas the ball can be legally hit with the underhand pass, the practice is not recommended for two reasons. First, the chest pass and the dig pass are much more efficient means of playing the ball. The chest pass is volleyball's most important and effective method of passing,⁴while a dig pass allows a player to cover a much greater range than does the underhand pass. Second, the underhand pass leads to many ball-handling errors. The rules forbid the ball to visibly come to rest. ". . . it is commonly known that a player is most likely to allow the ball to visibly come to rest if he plays the ball with the palms of two hands underhand, from behind his shoulder, from behind his head, or overhead with his back to the net. A ball played in this manner acts as a red light and should cause any official to look very closely for visible rest at contact. It is possible to play it lawfully, but it is poor playing technique to follow consistently." ⁵