Balls are falling when serve receive with 14s....3 person? 4 person? cup?

Question
Thank you very much for your previous answer and diagrams on serve receive. I have tried them with my 14's but its taking some getting used to .
We are not allowed to use a libero in our division so i can;t take a weak passer out for the libero.
I'm also finding a lot of serves dropping in front of the girls when in a 3 man line to serve.
I'm wondering if a cup or 4 man serve receive would cover more area?
Do you have any ideas about this or do you think this is a good idea? or whether it would allow me to hide my one middle who is a poor passer, while my other middle is actually my best passer? Thank you for your time.

Answer
Hey Mark:

A few ideas.

First:  At the age your coaching, many many more balls will fall in front of your players than behind them.  This happens b/c of the lack of physical strength of your opponents and b/c of all the times the ball accidentally comes over.  When I'm coaching 14's, I use the phrase, "Do NOT get beat in front of you.  If you are, then move up, move up, move up.  If you get beat behind you, I'll take the blame.  But if you get in front of you, it's your fault and I will eventually put in someone else."  

This will make an impact on your defense, your serve receive, everything.  

The 4-person and the cup serve receives are good, but that can create more confusion b/c there are now more seams.  Your girls MUST know who has the ball that's landing in each seam. Most coach say, "If the ball is to your right, then it's YOURS!"  

All serve receive formations have pros %26 cons.  My stepd's college coach is committed to a 3-person, even if one or two girls aren't that strong.  A varsity high school coach in our area is committed to a 2-person serve receive in every rotation when she doesn't have 3 of her best passers available.  Whoa.  One of the passers is a 9th grader.  Wow. But I know why she does it.  She figures that if her 2-person formation gets aced, then it probably would have gotten aced with one of the other girls in the formation.  BUT, when one of her good passers get to the pass, it'll be a better pass!  So she figures that her team benefits in the long run.  

You can always hide one player, but it sure will be tough when you'll have to teach your 7th and 8th graders a different serve receive for every rotation.  Also, will it hurt the feelings of that one girl who's 13 and 14 when you have to take time in practice to hide her?  Yuck.  Better idea:  I recommend that you put in a player for her.  If you're using the National Federation rule book, you're allowed 18, and I haven't seen a coach run our one single time since rally scoring began in around 2002.  

I hope that this helps some.  If you have more questions, please email me or post here.  

You can always send me your starting lineup, tell me who you want to serve receive, identify your setters, and I'll scratch something up for you!  YOu can also send me a DVD and let me see what you're doing.  

I'm in Charleston SC today for the Radford vs. Charleston Southern vball match.  Can't WAIT!!

And you are considering inviting my staff to come to do a site camp at your school right?  :)  All the info is at www.coachhouser.com.  

Have a great day.  
Coach Houser