As with any other sport, with volleyball you can focus your team more on the defense or the offense. This can be done by setting up your team in certain ways, putting this player in the front and the other in the back, telling a player to block the ball going that way so the hitter can only aim to the other side and so on. You can also choose to play in a more ‘smart’ way instead of just hitting the ball as hard as you can. I will explain all of the sorts of plays in the article below.

The first defensive play you can do is having position 1 closed. What this means is that the blockers are standing on the edge of the field to block the spike from the hitter on the opposite team. There is no room between the outside of the net and their hands. With this play you focus more on having good passers in the back row. Because when you put the blockers in that place, the hitter on the opposite team has no other choice than to hit the ball diagonally over the court. When they try to hit the ball so that it goes in a straight direction, there should be a block. The setter, who is standing in the back row is in this way ‘ protected’ from having to pass the ball and having somebody else take over the set. This is not optimal because then everyone is playing something that they’re not as good in as their positions. When this happens the ball is more likely to go wrong which means a point for the opposite team.
When position 1 is open, the setter is standing just behind the blockers for the balls that are just being tapped right over the blockers.

Tapping or bumping the ball is also a smart way to score a point for your team. When you do this, you tap the ball lightly over the net instead of spiking or hitting the ball as hard as you can. This is effective because most of the time, everyone is ready for receiving a ball that is going very fast. When you just tap the ball, most of the time the players are not there on time to pass the ball. You do have to place this ball in the field where there are no players, otherwise it is easier to pass this ball.

Then there is the option of leaving position 1 open. This means the blockers stand lightly to the left and the attacker on the opposite team has a clear view and space to hit the ball going in a straight direction. This also means that the setter has to defend if necessary, and has to stand in the back. The outside hitter that is standing in the front row now has to defend the balls that are tapped just over the blockers. This tactic is used to ‘close’ the route of the ball going diagonally. Because most hitters are right handed, they all spike mostly diagonally over the field as this is easier. When you want to spike straight ahead when right handed, you’d have to rotate fully before spiking. This is way harder then just spiking diagonally. This is the reason most teams use the tactic of leaving position 1 open for the hitters of the opposite team to strike. There is more chance of blocking the ball this way, because there is also a bigger chance that the hitters will strike that way. When blocking like this, you’re protecting the back row from the hard spike, and instead making it easier for them to pass this ball.

When thinking about this, you’ll notice that there is always a ‘hole’ somewhere in the field for the opposite hitters to strike. This is, however, unavoidable. So as a coach or trainer, you always have to decide where that hole is going to be and train your team to fill and defend that hole as much as possible. This is also depending on what the dominant hand is of the opposite teams hitters. For lefties it’s easier to spike the ball straight ahead, so you might consider ‘closing’ that position. When the hitters are right-handed it’s smarter to have your blockers leave position 1 open. And when you notice that the opposite teams are tapping the balls mostly just behind the blockers, you can decide to close position 1 again so the setter is there to pass those balls.

These tactics are decided by the coaches, as it is easier to focus on those things when you’re not playing. They tell it to the players, who have to defend accordingly.