Hiroshima (Japan)

After five days of interesting matches, we can say that Russia, Brazil, USA, Bulgaria and also the surprising Puerto Rico remain the only teams with any chances to get the three Olympic berths.

In the next Round (in Fukuoka and Okayama) I believe that we’ll reduce further the group from five to four.

Today, while we are waiting for the crucial matches, I’ll write a commentary about a general matter.

How is changing the international Men Volleyball scenario?

I don’t want to focus too much on specific teams conditions as the Brazilian setter Ricardo absence or the up and down performances of other teams. I prefer to explore what happened in the last few years in the Volleyball World.

1) Behind Brazil, the World Volleyball dominator since 2002, the balance among the teams grew up. Nowadays, more squads than in the past could achieve important victories.

2) The physical power and strength become more and more important than of technical skills.

3)  Many countries are following similar systems, partly losing the characteristics that distinguished the old Volleyball schools.

4) Last but very important, the statistic analysis became a priority.

Simplifying, we can identify three areas in Volleyball:

1) the individual technical skill development
2) the physical preparation
3) the tactical and statistic progress

The first area enhanced fairly. The modern players have to face attacks faster and more powerful and they increased their individual skills mainly in digging and passing.
The attacking (much faster) and blocking improvements depend mostly on the better physical conditions than technical enhancements.

The physical conditioning is the area that advanced more. In the last years the physical trainers got a leading role in the teams. The athletes’ performances are much better than ten or fifteen year ago. The players jump higher, spike faster and move quicker.

The statistic studies became very meticulous analyzing in depth each rallies. In every match, all players have a full report about the opponents’ characteristics and averages. The match strategies are settled on the huge amount of information available. Constantly, several scout men scan the individual characteristics, the teams preferences and the rotations peculiarities of the other teams.

I believe that the second and third areas developed much more than the first because it’s easier to plan exactly the physical conditioning progress and statistic expansion. The trainers can rely on tested techniques and they don’t risk to waste too much time. Same for statisticians, they deal with numbers and, at most, they risk some sleepless nights.

Otherwise, discovering new systems and methods to enhance the individual technical skills is very difficult and risky. The progresses are not immediately recognizable and could take longer time than expected. The skills growth isn’t a straight line but an irregular and unpredictable bet.

Bye ye andrea zorzi