Professional Volleyball Notes

One of the free channels we get here in the LA area is Universal Sports, apparently an NBC entity that shows various sports that otherwise never get shown on television: cycling, track and field, rowing, obscure water sports, rugby, etc.

The other day I checked it out to see what it would be, and it was international volleyball.

I'm not sure who's heard or not, but the AVP, Association of Volleyball Proffesionals, has dissolved and is no more. This is the organization that used to represent the tours, the prize money givers, the television rights, and the general marketing for professional volleyball players. It's been replaced by a new organization, the NVL (National Volleyball League). We fans of volleyball hope it remains financially viable.

But, the AVP and now the NVL, most matches on television, all marquee events, and our national volleyball identity (Misty May and Kerri Walsh) are all beach volleyball entities.

I would never complain about a sport and television product that has scantily clad young women getting sweaty and covered in sand hitting the crap out of a ball. Beach volleyball is exciting, with the two-on-two game, but it has a rather halting pace. The back and forth and lack of rallies sets the pace closer to NFL than to soccer. Bikinis generally make up for that.

What I got to see the other day was the volleyball both Corrie and I lettered in in high school; the six-on-six hardcourt variety. That shit was exciting. Excuse the profanity, but I'm vehemently in favor of showing more 6-on-6 volleyball on television.

I was watching the men play, and watching twelve sweaty guys on a gym floor is not the same as girls on the sand, but try comparing two-on-two men's beach to six-on-six men's hardcourt? Oh my goodness, it's not even close.

I was watching a middle round match between the American team and the Brazilian team. The Americans squeaked by the Brazilians in Beijing for Olympic gold in 2008, and the Brazilians wanted revenge. They spent the past two years building up their volleyball infrastructure and professional leagues. They beat the Americans in the match, but it was pretty even, with the Yanks just not executing when they needed. The arena where they played was in Brazil, and it was packed. A fifteen thousand plus sellout was partisan and loud. They wanted the Brazilians to avenge their silver medal.

It was said that in Brazil, Serbia, Hungary, and especially Russia, the professional volleyball hardcourt leagues are able to give the volleyball players enough time, since they're making money playing, to mature into their prime. It was said that the prime is early to mid thirties, while in America, since there's no money for players to play competitively for that long, that our good players bloom earlier but never peak.

The lack of a pro league has something to do with that, but really, there's another factor. If you're a person who's 6'6" but have a wingspan (middle finger to middle finger) of 7'1", you play basketball here, not volleyball. Over there it's pretty evenly split between basketball and volleyball.

It was said that Brazil has the best volleyball teams, and some of the best players (some players in Brazil make the equivalent of a million dollars a year playing for a six month season), but Russia had the deepest crop of raw talent, of guys who just kill the ball and think that hitting it hard is the same as playing well.

Back to the excitement on my idiot screen: it was six giants playing against six other giants, in a cramped space that fits on the TV without panning a camera, with just non-stop action. The serves are all jump serves, basically a spike from way out, every pass is nice, the sets are crazy accurate, and every spike is loud and beautiful. Digs happen more often than in beach, but so do kills, which ramps up the pace. Since they did away with the side-out rule (the rule stated you could only score on a serve, and winning a volley that you didn't serve generated no points and just gave you the serve) and changed it to what we call rally scoring (every serve generates a point), the games go by fast.

It's the perfect sport for television. It might even be the best and most exciting sport I've ever watched, which means something if you know my thirst for sporting entertainment. The pace is fast, so it's never boring; the kills are hit as hard as a tennis serve but are louder and usually directed at a person; and the scoring happens on every serve, so the games are over fast.

It's fast paced, action packed, violent, loud, and over quickly. It's perfect or America and American television.