Blocking

What the Block Is For

Blocking is the front-row defense at the net. You jump, press your hands over, and try to stuff the ball, get a touch to slow it down, or take away the hitter's best angle.

A successful block does not always mean stuffing the hitter, it can be creating a block that takes away an angle and sends the hitter into the libero already waiting, getting a touch to slow down the spike, or even just being in the right spot to help the defense.

A touch on the block does not use one of your three team hits. If the ball stays on your side, you still have three contacts to play it, and the player who just blocked may take the next one.

You may reach over the net while you block. You may not contact the ball on their side before they attack it, and you may not touch the net during the play. Hands that cross the plane after the hitter has swung are a block. Hands that grab the ball out of the setter's hands are a fault.

Ready, Then Jump, Then Press

Stand about an arm's length from the net, close enough to press and far enough that a normal jump does not carry you into the tape. Feet a bit wider than your shoulders, knees bent, hands around shoulder height. Weight on the balls of your feet so you can move down the net. Eyes on the pass first, then on the other setter.

Jump straight up. Drifting into the net is a point for them. Drifting off the net means your hands never get over, and the hitter hits a shelf. Take off under the spot where you want your hands to finish.

On a pin attack, jump slightly after the hitter. You want to be at the top when their hand hits the ball. Leave too early and you are coming down while they are still going up. They hit over you, or they wipe the hands that are already dropping. Against a quick attack you cannot wait that long. If you leave late on a one-foot slide or a first-tempo set, you watch it.

Pressing means your hands cross the plane of the net and reach onto their side. Hands above the tape, still on your side, give the hitter a shelf. The ball hits your fingers and pops up for another swing.

Reach over as far as your jump allows. Angle the hands toward their floor. Keep them firm, fingers spread, thumbs up, so the ball goes down instead of sitting on your palms. Get your wrists close to the tape. The hole between your hands and the net is where hitters wipe you or slip the ball through.

The outside hand, the one nearest the antenna, turns slightly in. That keeps a ball from skipping off the edge of the block and landing out on your side. Coaches call that closing the block, or sealing. If your hands are loose, a hard swing pushes them back and the rally continues on their terms. Firm hands, close together, wrists down by the tape.

Getting There

You have to move along the net and still be square when you jump.

For a short move, a step or two, shuffle. Slide without crossing your feet. Stay low and keep your chest to the net. You can see the setter the whole time, which is why the shuffle is the right footwork when the hitter is already close.

For a longer move, pin to pin, a shuffle is too slow. Turn your hips a little, cross the outside foot over, take a running step or two, then plant and square up before you jump.

A swing block is that crossover with an arm swing, a lot like a hitting approach moving sideways along the net. The last step plants facing the net, and the arms drive you up so the press is stronger. This is how a lot of college and pro middles get from the middle to a pin in time, and plenty of pin blockers use it to close on a quick. It is faster, and it is easier to mess up. If the last step is late, you drift into the net or you jump facing the sideline. Finish the plant, then leave the ground.

Where Your Eyes Go

You do not have time to stare at one thing. The sequence is short, and skipping a step is how you block the wrong person.

Before the serve, know who hits in this rotation and which way they like to swing. After the pass, glance at the ball long enough to see if the pass is in the window or off the net. A good pass means every hitter is live, including the quick. A bad pass usually takes the quick away, so you can start toward the pin earlier. Then look at the setter's shoulders and hands. When the set leaves, follow it to the hitter. Their approach and shoulders tell you the shot. Be set at the net and time the jump off their arm, not off the moment the ball left the setter.

If you watch the ball the whole way, from pass to set to hitter, you find out who is hitting after you needed to move. If you jump before the setter shows you anything, you are guessing. If you never look at the setter, you give away the half-second their hands are offering.

Read, Commit, or Soften

Read blocking is the default. Watch the setter, see where the set goes, then move and jump. You can end up on any hitter. Against a fast middle you may not get there in time to make a real double block, and that is the trade.

Commit blocking is for a middle who is hurting you. Your middle jumps with their middle even if the set goes outside. You take the quick away. If the setter goes to a pin, you are in the air and your team is blocking with one fewer person. Use it when that middle is getting set on the good passes and you would rather give up a pin swing than another quick in the seam. Do not commit on every play because the idea sounds aggressive. Commit when you have watched them score that way.

A soft block turns the hands back toward your own court, and the ball deflects up on your side so the rally continues. Use it when you are late, when the hitter has a clear shot over you, or when a touch your defenders can play beats a reach you cannot finish. Hands caught halfway, short of a real press and short of a soft block, trickle the ball off your fingers for an easy putback.

Two and Three Blockers

Two or three blockers help when the hands are together. A gap between them is a target, and hitters are happy to swing at it.

The pin blocker sets the spot and takes a shot, usually line or angle. The middle closes to that blocker and puts their hands against the other hands. No gap at the seam, and no hole between the wrists and the tape.

Say it out loud. "I have line" or "I have cross" tells the defenders what is left. If the block is silent, the line defender and the cross-court defender end up in the same place, and the open court is empty. The call has to happen before the hitter swings, early enough that a defender can still move.

Blocks That Get Tooled

Jumping forward into the net gives them the point before the hitter does anything. Jump up, from a plant that is already finished.

Hands wide apart give the hitter a hole, and a wide outside hand gives them a wipe. On a double block, the inside hands should be touching. Turn the outside hand in.

Pulling your hands back when the ball arrives pops it up on their side. Keep the press. If you truly cannot get over, soften on purpose and play the ball up for your defense.

Jumping early is the timing error you will make most. You are on the way down, they are at the top, and a good hitter sees it. Wait on pin swings.

Hands that never cross the net turn into a rebound board. Press over so the ball has a chance to go down. If you cannot press because of the jump, move closer to your starting spot next time, or work the swing block so the jump has some pop.

How to Practice

At the net, shuffle and crossover with a partner moving on the other side. Mirror them. Do not jump yet. The goal is to arrive square and balanced, chest to the net, without drifting.

Then jump and press with no ball. Reach over and get the wrists to the tape until you can do it without thinking about your fingers. Film it once if you can. A lot of blockers feel like their hands are over when the video shows the fingers still on their own side of the tape.

One on one, a hitter on the other side, you read and block. Start with sets you know are coming, then mix the location. Count touches, not just stuffs. A ball you slowed down, that your defense could have played, counts.

For the eyes, have a setter run a simple offense and move to the hitter without jumping. If you cannot get to the right pin before the approach finishes, adding a jump will not fix the read. Then add the jump.

For closing, the middle starts in the middle. The set goes outside. Close, seal hands to the pin blocker, and be in the air on time. Getting there late with a gap between the hands is the same as not going.