M.S. asks, “What do you mean Sammedy telegraphs her dinks?”
John: A volleyball dink is, in a sense, analogous to a change-up in baseball. The most effective change-up I can remember was thrown, frequently, by former Twin Johan Santana. I remember a split-screen video of Santana throwing his 92 mph fastball and his 78 mph straight change. Santana’s grip, invisible to the batter, was different of course, but his stride, his arm angle and his release point were identical. Watching side-by-side, you couldn’t tell which was which. And Santana loved to throw it, especially when he was ahead in the count.
Sammedy has thrilled us, over the past 3 years, with an effective variety of power shots, especially her sharp-angle cuts and her surprisingly right-down-the-line shots. But Sammedy seems not a natural or instinctive dinker, mostly dinking out of frustration when her power is temporarily not working. Much harder to see on TV, but when I’m watching at the Pav, I can tell when she’s going up for a dink — and usually the defense can too. Maybe she’ll get better — if it’s important to her.
W.P. asks, “When we were training for the Geezer Nationals, you told me my sets would be called carries if there was any side-spin on the ball. But there was usually side-spin on Shaffmaster’s sets in this opening match, and she never got called?”
John: Referees vary. The last time we played in the Geezer Nationals, that one ref whistled us more times in one match than all the other refs in our other 9 matches put. together. MN high school refs are notoriously fanatic about side-spin sets. And I think Big Ten refs are much harder on non-setters than on setters. (Especially when Pittman was a freshman, I remember her drawing whistles more than once for sets that looked good to me; the refs didn’t believe that a gal that big could have such great hands.)
But as the level of play and the level of officiating goes up, there is more emphasis on letting great athletes play. (How many times did you ever see Michael Jordan get called for traveling?) Big Ten refs assume, correctly, that Big Ten setters have great hands, and therefore rarely call carries on them. And even though Shaffmaster is a freshman, her reputation proceeds her; and she gets away with a little side-spin.
Son Ethan (taller and stronger than even Landfair, who played men’s club-volleyball for the Badgers) asks, “Why don’t McCutcheon’s teams ever run ‘high-tempo’ attacks? (Meaning a quick, flat, set to a hitter already in the air.)
John: Never is a strong word. During the 2018 season, All-American Seliger-Swenson fed a steady diet of quicks to her under-sized and lightning quick Middle Taylor Morgan, occasionally even when setting from the 10-ft line (an amazingly-high-degree of difficulty). But generally, Ethan is correct, the Gophs don’t run a lot of high-tempo stuff. And when I was in London watching the 2012 Olympics, I didn’t see McCutcheon’s Silver Medal American gals running much high-tempo either.
Of course, McCutcheon’s Silver Medal squad had Destiny Hooker, at that time the dominant, most powerful Women’s Volleyball hitter in the world. And this year’s Gopher squad is absolutely loaded, with more power than his line-up can accommodate. I don’t have any secret link into McCutcheon’s mind, but if I had to guess, my guess would be that his thinking is, “Don’t beat yourself.” Run a high-tempo (and high-degree of difficulty) attack once in a while to keep the defense honest, but when you’ve got the bigger, stronger, front line, stick with the basics.