No major changes were made to the rules that govern the sport of volleyball at the annual congress meeting that was held in Anaheim, California last week, but the slight adjustments are expected to produce a better quality of the game. The worldwide membership body that comes under the Federation of International Volleyball (FIVB) all agreed that the screening on service rule needed to be expanded to include individual and team restriction of the "view of the server" as a violation, or alternatively, restriction of the view of "the flight of the ball" as a violation.
A closer look at the reception rule showed that players started catching the ball instead of making precise passes. As a result of this, the members wanted to eliminate what is known as "ugly volleyball" making it a fault to make double contact on the overhand pass or flick. The two changes were immediately incorporated into the international rules so the effect should be seen in the local arena in short order, this according to the Bahamas Volleyball Federation (BVF) President Don Cornish. "During the London Olympics, which was one of the testing grounds, they actually looked at all the things that might have affected the game or slowed it down per say," Cornish noted.
"There was improvement in the jump serve and we all know the velocity has caused players to move from the overhand reception. Not too many persons want to put their hands on the ball because of the velocity of the ball. The hard driven ball on the service has caused people to go back to the underhand or the bump and that has created a better quality pass. "Generally people are happy that volleyball isn't getting to a point where people were catching the ball and throwing it back.
It got really bad because some players got really good at catching the ball, so the whole idea of it, when the rules were changed initially was to allow for the hard driven balls in service not to become or counted as a fault. It was intended to make volleyball a better television sport." It was not revealed if there were any changes made to beach volleyball at the congress meeting, but the latest changes will affect the indoor game which was invented by William G. Morgan in 1895 and added to the Olympic Games in 1964.
Since its inception many adjustments were made to the sport, the biggest being in 1998 when the libero player and colored balls were introduced. Coaches were also given leeway to stand during rallies without having to take time-outs. A new 25-point rally scoring system, in the first four sets, was also implemented. The next major updates and changes came in 2008 just before the start of the Beijing Olympic Games. Cornish said: "People got a little bored watching the game because of all the interruptions we used to have with the side-out and other stuff.
There were too many time-outs, too many breaks and the referees needed to focus more on the game. Since then play has improved. The standard has improved, and the quality of play, especially in the men's game. People don't generally notice that the referees are blowing their whistles because the transition is so fast, so the whole idea is to get away from poor defense and making persons get back into quality passing and all that other good stuff. There were absolutely no objections from any of the delegates from the 200-plus countries regarding that change.
As far as the screening rule is concerned, I think that is more of a concern because that is primarily the official's decision. "If I make a double fault, or have a bad reception that is pretty obvious because the projectory of the ball changes. Naturally that is an easy call to make, but if you are saying that an individual and team on the opposite side is screening and obstructing the vision to the ball, that is something that needs to be considered.
What it says now that you must have a better understanding of where I am on the court, and whether or not I deliberately obstructed the view of the server. That is going to be a difficult call to make. It is purely discretionary and it is, in my mind, more difficult to manage going forward." Cornish believes the first step to the new adjustments on the local end is to ensure that all of the officials are brought up to speed on the new changes. He also said that it is important for all players and coaches to know so when the officials make the calls it will not create a problem. During the congress meeting, Dr. Ary Graca de Silva of Brazil was elected as the new president of FIVB.
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