Less Is More: Revisiting the Two-Player Receive

Less Is More: Revisiting the Two-Player Receive
By Albert Arrington

As a new coach and coming fresh off a playing background, I was eager to train elite, college-bound athletes in the intricacies of shot selection, the finer points of blocking strategies, and the art of the jump serve. As fortune often does, however, my first coaching position was as a JV coach with a brand new high school, training a roster of players who had never played the game outside of a recreation team level. With our first game a week away, I had to quickly implement a serve receive system.

First, I decided to implement the 3-player serve receive. We played several matches with this format, yet our team faced many issues that we continually struggled to overcome; communication, movement, and inconsistency with the passers. So, I took a gamble, walked into the gym and changed it up.

Conventional wisdom tells coaches that the most advanced teams run 3-man serve receive. The medal-winning USA Olympic teams, collegiate powerhouses like Texas and Penn State, and elite club teams across the country all run this system. My inexperience led me to automatically choose and put my team into this configuration, trying not to limit their growth abilities.

In contrast, common thought for the most junior teams (middle school and JV teams) is to run a 4- or 5-man serve receive and strive to get to 3-man to be considered ‘top level’. While I did look at this option, I in fact ended up implementing the less common 2-player reception pattern. My team’s serve receive improved significantly overnight.

While I don’t dispute the strategies of the top teams, I wanted to look further into the less experienced teams and make the case for success in utilizing a 2-player service reception at this level.

First, recognizing that the 2-player serve receive is not for everyone, let’s go ahead and talk about some situations where receiving serve with two players may not work as well as other formations would.

• 1. Your opponents can consistently serve within the last 3 feet of the sidelines. Do the servers have the ability to manipulate the ball to spin or float? Can the servers pinpoint the serve to specific locations on the court? Highly precise players earn points by placing the ball where even the fastest passers are unable to contact the ball.
• 2. Your opponents can consistently serve harder and faster than your passers can react. Top-level hard-driven serves are like backrow attacks from the end line and truly hinder the reaction time and accuracy of the passers. How much time do the passers have to react after contact? Low, flat, short serves all decrease the amount of time that passers can react. High velocity servers earn points by rebounding the ball off a passer’s platform and off the court.
• 3. Your team is very balanced in their passing abilities. This serve receive may be ill-advised if your team has many interchangable passers. Running this pattern allows for you to highlight a libero and outside hitters in the passing schemes.

Now, with those factors laid out, let’s talk through some advantages of the 2-player serve receive.

• 1. Backrow holds it’s own, hitters focused on offense. Since my team was so new to the game, I needed to keep things simple. Passing with a 3-player serve receive in an advanced offensive system (I was running a 6-2 at the time), the setter is intentionally running from the back row to set. In any serve receive system you need to be worried of overlaps and getting into offensive positions quickly. Using the 2-players system, I simply told my setter to go to target and talk to her hitters about the offense. The two back row players- my two passers - talk about the server.
• 2. Reinforces passer movement. Since there are only two passers, the coach can stress to the players that they have to move fast to pass the ball. In practice, you must challenge the players to see how much court they can cover. With teams that move poorly, subtracting players seems to speed up your athletes.
• 3. Less seams and communication issues. The players still call the ball early, but having only two passers limits the number of seams among players. Passers discuss the middle communication prior to serve and do not run into each other as much. I have also given responsibility to my libero to always take the middle, but this formation provides clear ownership of seams.
• 4. Forces the servers to serve the middle of the court. Since your passers are spread, teams can bait the servers into zone 6 thinking they can split the passers. This is an easier pass for the team to pass to the setter and for your offense to convert.
• 5. Serve Receive and Freeball coverage are similar. Since in a 6-2 you release your setter from the backrow on a freeball, you demonstrate to your team that serve receive and free ball formations and movements are similar. This continuity allows your team to feel more comfortable in coverage and empowers your passers to each take control of half of the court.

I made this change from the 3-player to the 2-player formation about two weeks into my first season and have seen great success with it. It is amazing how the passers have embraced their responsibilities and stopped relying on others to pass the ball. With my most inexperienced teams, I expect the off passer (she who is back in the serve receive but doesn’t pass the serve) to accept the responsibility of recovering a shanked ball, so she naturally shadows the actual passer. As the players advance in the game and other coaches move towards the 3-player serve receive, it also naturally lends to all the right tendencies. I know it’s against the grain, but for the youngest teams, it could make sense. A two player serve receive pattern is simpler to learn, re-enforces movement and passing ownership, and minimizes communication issues on the court. So in many respects, less is more.