How can Volleyball setters learn from John Bonham?
An interesting YouTube video shows a delightful explanation of why John Bonham not only has been a great drummer, but a revolutionary rock and roll musician. Setters in Volleyball should learn a lesson from him.
John Bonham keeps the rhythm, plays off-beats, plays "noiseless notes", is unpredictable but is
reliable nevertheless ("the music is not in the notes, but rather in between").
Of course, a setter in Volleyball has to be proficient in technical skills. Virtuosity on the other hand is
more than always playing the ball at the peak point, having short contact with the ball, having a
correct position in relation to the ball and tamely playing the ball from a neutral position.
So then, exactly what should a setter be able to do?
Tactically he has to have "gut instincts" about the attack efficiencies of his attackers and the
capabilities of the opponents block, to choose the right set. At the end he is accountable for the
attack of his team being better than with another setter. That does not mean however, that he is
always setting his attacker against a single block, but certainly maybe part of it.
He has to camouflage and deceive.
And what does he not have to do in my opinion?
He certainly does not have to set every ball at the peak point, he definitely does not always have to
have a short touch on the ball and he does not always have to camouflage.
Once one can achieve that, what else does it take to be considered world class? To be a genius, a setter has to be able to do much better – he has to be able to play off-beats, means to find different timings – play one set at the peak of the curve with fast fingers or play a delayed one with long contact. Best to play both in combination, like a 3m shoot with fast contact followed by an overload with extended contact between fingers and ball. With the "long" time he grants time for the opponents block to fall for the trick.
He has to adopt the speed and the different timings to the rhythm of all attackers and use them at
the exact location and point in time regardless. Despite his off-beats he must not lose the basic
rhythm of his own play, otherwise his error rate will increase. At the same time he has to find new
beats and off-beats against every opponent to stay non-predictable and unevaluable.
At the end he has to find back to the rhythm of his teammates, exactly like the drummer finds back
to the rhythm of his lead guitarist.
Listeners to the music of Led Zeppelin, in the same way as spectators of great Volleyball setters like
Grankin, Bruno, De Cecco, will recognize the change of rhythm and timing by intuition only, rather
than by listening/observing, without understanding why. After all that's what good music is about.
I think John Bonham might have become a great setter ...
In my opinion there is not enough importance attached to such skills during the education of young
players. The classic craftsmanship "playing in harmony / in beat" is the main focus of training. At the
end we have good, solid players, but no virtuously playing drummers ... sorry: setters.
(Translation by "Much" Mattes)