QuestionQUESTION: Can you please explain for me how the so-called "russian defense" works in volleyball? Thank you very much.
ANSWER: Good evening and welcome to www.allexperts.com.
I had never heard of this phrase in all my 26 years until about about a month ago, when a one of my "I Can't Wait" members from Colorado asked me, "Tom, I'm looking for some insight on how to create good practices to prepare my team to play against a team that uses a Russian Defense. Do you have ideas?"
So I asked him, "I'm not familiar with that phrase."
He said, "Russian D, by some is referred as Red D. Setter from back covers her blockers during opponent's attacks."
That's all I need to know.
Now, is that what you wanted to know?
Or would you like to know more?
Coach Houser
p.s. What is an "I Can't Wait" member? They are the over 300 coaches who have bought my "I Can't Wait" Drill Collection and two huge ebooks. You can see them at www.coachhouser.com. There are several free drills and articles to download. Please make yourself at home.
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QUESTION: Thank you very much Coach Houser. I am from Colorado as well, and perhaps the phrase "Russian Defense" has for some reason gained some purchase in my area. I first heard it used about two weeks ago.
I assume that your answer means in a russian defense when a setter has rotated to the back row so that she is penetrating to set on offense, when she transitions to defense her blocker coverage and other defensive responsibilities are equivalent to the "player up" in a "red defense" or "6 up" defense, is that correct?
If so, I find the concept a bit troubling because with younger teams so many shots are conciously or unconcisouly hit or deflected by the blockers into the shallow middle of the court. If the back row setter is responsible for digging them, she may well be forced to make the "first touch" on many occasions so that, without a very capable opposite, her team would instantly be out of system. Do you agree?
With younger teams I have had great success with a defense where my team's libero shifts to the center of our half of the court as soon as our team serves the ball or as soon as we play the ball back over the net for the first time when the other team serves. Then she plays in the exact center of our side of the court for the rest of the rally, and is resonsible for handling tips, blocker coverage, and roll or any other off-speed shots dropping into the middle. Meanwhile, the defensive wings are positioned wide and "split the court" behind the libero. I believe this defense has been so successful because of the scarcity of truly strong and consistent hitting attacks until the collegiate level. Do you agree with my reasoning, and is this defense properly referred to as a "6 up" or is "player up" or "red defense" more accurate? Thanks again for your advice.
ANSWER: Good evening and welcome back to www.allexperts.com.
I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you. Club vball practice Tuesday night & Wednesday night, then my high school math classes have a quiz or test every class.
From what I can figure, the 6-up, player-up, Russian Defense and red defense are all the same. Maybe someone reading this will correct me if I'm wrong.
Some thoughts about what you said:
a) I used the 6-up defense from the time I was a rookie coach in 1985 until the middle of my 3rd year. Since then, I haven't used it for club ball (14's through 18's) or for middle school, JV, or varsity. It creates such a mess in the middle of the court, people are screened, there are more seams to deal with, etc. I haven't ever coached a team younger than 14's, so I might prefer the 6-up at those age groups.... I'm not sure.
b) Now, that doesn't mean athletes can't make the 6-up work! It's just, in my opinion, athletes can make the 6-back work better.
c) I disagree with your idea that there is a "scarcity of strong hitters in high school". Or maybe you have had an opportunity to see them. :) If you visit ANY National or Open division of Crossroads Qualifier this weekend, you will see blistering 15's, 16's, 17's and 18's hitters. I myself, have several hitters on my team who would scare the poop out of anyone in the "up" position. In my opinion, the 6-up defense will not give the defense the best chance of making plays. Here is the website to see when teams are playing: http://www.coloradocrossroads.org/index.html
d) MY PHILOSOPHY: Since I coach teams that want to win conferences, states, nationals, and since it is my belief that the 6-up won't give the best chance of beating those teams that you will see at Crossroads, then we play 6-back from the start. And we learn to recognize, then dig, those tips and rolls shots. No, the balls that get through the block aren't dug; but we don't feel like the benefits of having a girl at the spiking line who can maybe pick up one of those a match outweigh the benefits of having an extra girl back to dig the blasting Crossroads-like hit.
e) I think the reason many people assign the setter to the up position is b/c, if she's one of the wings, she will be so far away from target on frees/digs. I see the advantage of having your libero there; but, then where is your setter? Is she front row? So are you running a 4-2 offense. OK, that's more palatable.
If you have more thoughts, please contact me here or at my email address,
[email protected]. And will you do one favor for me? Please visit my team, my staff and me at www.coachhouser.com. This coming summer, we already have ELEVEN site camps scheduled. It's going to be an amazing summer! And we have room for more. Please contact me if you have any questions.
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QUESTION: Coach Houser, thanks again for your time. I certainly appreciate your thoughts, and here are some of mine in response.
You may have misinterpreted one of the remarks in my eariler question. I didn't say that there is a "scarcity of strong hitters in high school." I said that there is a "scarcity of truly strong and consistent hitting attacks until the collegiate level." The operative word there is "consistent."
I am fortunate enough to live near Monument, Colorado, the base of a club called Colorado Juniors that consistently, year after year, places very high in national tournaments and rankings. In addition, Colorado Juniors puts its team statistics for all ages on its website at www.ColoradoJuniors.com. These statistics show that at all ages, this club averages about 10 kills per set. That kind of consistency is not too scary.
Over President's Day Weekend, I was at the huge tournament in Omaha. Among other things, I saw a well coached young setter 14 years of age playing in the "National" division. She is adept at scoring with an array of tips and dumps using either hand. She can score pretty much at will against any player back defense, but she has been taught not to do it unless and until the score is close near the end of a set so that the "set is on the line," what we call "Tebo Time" around here. At Tebo Time, she shreds the middle of the player back defense that is in such wide use nearly everywhere. Using this tactic at Tebo Time on the second day of the tournament, in three matches she made 16 attack attempts and had twelve kills with no errors resulting in three matches won. Statistics like these explain my interest in "player up" defenses.
My schedule is nearly as wild as your own! Last weekend I was at Crossroads for the 15 and younger teams and this weekend I am there for the 16's through 18's group. As soon as I have the chance, I will certainly visit your website, I have enjoyed our dialogue very much.
AnswerGood afternoon from Virginia!
I don't think I misunderstood, I just have a different philosophy.
I train my team this way: "We will stay back to dig the big hits, but yet we WILL read well enough, talk to each other enough and be quick enough to pick up the tips, rolls and campfire balls. The 14's team you're talking about .... I would be pretty upset if my 12 girls and 2 coaches .... ALL 14 OF US.... can't see/read/pick up the setter dump. Whether she is front row, back row, whatever. I have four 8th graders on my 11-member 15's team now. I treat all 11 like they're varsity starters. We WILL dig those tips & rolls while playing a 6-back perimeter defense. Here's the short version of what I will tactfully try to say to a 14 year old: "If you can't make that play, maybe someone can who is standing over here with me."
From my experience:
The more skilled/athletic the team, the more they will hit, and the less they will tip roll. The success that that team experiences will make them more macho, more confident, maybe even cocky. It's an upward spiral. The result is MORE macho/confident/cocky, so the MORE they will hit, and the less they will tip/roll.
THESE are the teams that my teams must beat in order to achieve our goals. The lesser teams? (Or one may call them the "smarter" teams.) If we're not athletic/mature/experienced/quick enough to pick up their tips/rolls/dumps, then we will not only struggle vs. them, but we will lose vs. the macho teams.
My philosophy is: I must design my offense & defense to be able to deal the best hits & serves that we'll receive from the best teams we will play. And if we can stay with those teams, then we have a chance to reach our goals. But.... then..... we lose to the smaller/weaker team that is tipping/rolling? Really? Unacceptable. Cannot happen.
This philosophy (along with some other strategies/ideas) help my teams beat "superior" teams about 10 to 20% of the time. Meanwhile, I believe we beat the "inferior" teams 99% of the time.
* We've been mentioning Crossroads. Right now, I'm checking the results every 5 minutes b/c a Roanoke Va team is there.... their starting libero played on my team the past 2 years, and one of their MB's played on my team last year. YES FIRST DAY AT CROSSROADS 2 wins, 1 loss! YOU GO!!! Going in seeded 48th of 68 teams in the National division, and now they will take over the #25 spot.
