Club and high school volleyball leagues introduced a new rule last year that has changed the game and will be in effect this weekend for the senior girls (but not boys) volleyball provincial championships.
It's a good change and could be even better.
This fall for the first time at every public high schools in Vancouver, the roof is in play.
When a serve or spike smashes off a player's outstretched forearms or straining fingertips and rifles roof-ward, the ball will remain in play if it hits the ceiling. Players prepare for zany bounces characteristic of the electric, exciting sport and know they can still compete for a point.
Previously, the roof was out of bounds. When the ball hit the roof — or a rafter, beams, a light, cables, ropes or a basketball net — the play was whistled down and the other team awarded a point.
This was problematic in high school volleyball for several obvious and inescapable reasons.
First of all, school gymnasiums are designed as equal-opportunity spaces where many sports can and should be played. Just look at the rainbow of lines on hardwood floors. The different, overlapping colours accommodate basketball, volleyball, badminton and handball, to name a few.
All public school gyms are egalitarian in this respect but not all are created equal. Players try to avoid low roofs, exposed structures and hanging lights and pass around the consequences of imperfect designs that mean some basketball backboards are suspended over volleyball courts.
In other words, teams are inadvertently punished for the low ceilings and (important) multi-purpose function of school gymnasiums.
Second of all, the international governing organization for volleyball has already made significant improvements to make the game more exciting and entertaining. Eliminating side-out rules was one of them. This means a point can be scored every time the ball is in play, not just by the team that served. The roof rule fits with this spirit. (It does not apply on a serve or a spike, meaning a served ball cannot hit the roof before reaching the opposing team.)
International volleyball doesn’t need such a rule since the courts are mostly in cavernous arenas like Earls Court where London hosted Olympic volleyball in 2010. But last year the rule was spearheaded in this country by Volleyball Canada.
After a year-long review, James Sneddon told me Volleyball Canada will not implement the rule at the national championship but will leave the provincial organizations to do as they see fit.
“The initial reason for testing the rule was to see if it could keep the ball flying,” he said over the phone from Calgary. “The model is to keep rallies going and generate interest in the sport.”
I’ve always thought volleyball is one of the best sports to watch live. Mesmerizing (also exhausting) rallies are a highlight and are completely riveting.
Consider this:
The girls will keep this rule through all provincial championships. The boys kept the rule in the city league but not at regional playoffs or provincial championships.
Sneddon, the domestic development director for Volleyball Canada, said the national and international game doesn’t need such a rule but the youngest athletes stand to benefit, especially elementary school players where gyms ceilings can be especially low. A bump-set-spike rally at this age is an accomplishment and no iron hoop should get in their way.
“If we can get a rally going, then it’s exciting and the roof tends to stop it,” he said.
For older athletes in high school and club leagues, Sneddon said the feedback was indecisive.
The high school coaches and referees I talked to certainly had opinions but all agreed the rule didn’t advantage any team over the other.
One coach said, “It’s fair for everybody but doesn’t really teach kids to control and pass — they just spray the ball, don’t absorb it.” He thought calling for a re-serve would be a better rule instead of leaving the ball in play.
I like the rule but I’d chance it, too, based on what I saw at the Lower Mainland AAA senior boys volleyball championships two weeks ago at Hamber secondary.
Hamber Griffin Kevin Chau scored four straight points on a rocket-fuelled jump serve — more a missile launch than anything — and no one could handle his power. Each time, the opponent could do nothing more than bang the ball straight up and into the roof.
If the ceiling rule were in effect, he wouldn’t have counted a single ace for the Griffins.
I’d keep the ceiling rule but would make it exempt on serves. A team must be able to receive a serve and control it in order to continue the rally.
I’d draw the line at spikes, however, and keep the rule in play at the net. Killing the rule on a kill shot would shorten a rally in the middle of the action. But on a serve, the rally hasn’t yet begun and there’s nothing that fires up a team and can change a game like an ace from the service line.
