From: wang@ibma1.cs.uiuc.edu (Eric Wang)
Subject: Re: Under the Net & Out of Bounds
Keywords: Nike Air Bohemians
Reply-To: wang@ibma0.cs.uiuc.edu
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 12:11:11 GMT

cdt@sw.stratus.com (C. D. Tavares) writes:

>In article <1992Jul19.152853.24623@sunb10.cs.uiuc.edu>, wang@ibma1.cs.uiuc.edu (Eric Wang) writes:
>> On the other hand, I believe that the setter, having
>> gone out of bounds, is an ineligible player, and must touch his own
>> court before becoming eligible again.  (This is the rule that prevents
>> players from running up a nearby wall, a la baseball outfielders, to try
>> to save shanked digs.  As soon as you touch the wall, you become
>> "ineligible".)

>What set of rules is this?  USVBA says nothing about eligible/ineligible
>players due to position (except at service).  Commentary on Rule 1 parts 
>7 and 8 says a player may play from anywhere on his own side of the next 
>except from unplayable areas (like the benches or bleachers).  Part 9 
>defines walls as unplayable areas if you don't have a foot on the floor
>too.

That's the rule I meant.  The use of the word "eligible" was a bad idea;
it's not official terminology, just my own way of explaining the rule.
The idea is that you can't use peripheral objects off the court as
springboards to aid in attempts to play the ball; you have to jump with
both feet from the floor.  If you jump off the wall and play the ball,
it's a violation and the ball is dead.  If you jump off the floor, play
the ball, and then hit the wall, it's OK (but you may not be).
[Commentary 1.9 requires you to have a foot on the floor only when you
touch the wall _before_ you play the ball.  It says nothing about
touching the wall _afterwards_.]  Conversely, it is legal to charge a
wall, jump up onto it to stop your momentum, drop back to the floor, and
then play the ball, again by Com 1.9.  Similarly, if you happen to play
a ball and then run three levels up into some courtside bleachers, you
can't play the ball again until you return to the court.  That's what I
meant by saying that you have to touch the floor again to become
"eligible" to play the ball.  (I was wrong when I said "court"; I should
have said "floor".  So in my example, the setter on the other side of
the net is not "ineligible", and may dive back under the net and dig the
ball w/o first touching the floor.)

I think, however, that either this rule is not strictly enforced, or
FIVB uses a slightly different interpretation.  In one of the recent WVL
playoff matches (2nd USA-Holland match, I think), Eric Sato took a
flying leap over his own bench to save an errant dig, taking off from
inside the court, playing the ball *in the air*, and landing in the open
area behind the bench seats.  Technically, by USVBA Com 1.9, this is a
violation, since Sato didn't have a foot on the floor when he played the
ball.  Maybe FIVB requires only that the player *take off* from a
playable area.  In any case, no violation was called, play continued,
and I think we lost the point anyways.

>> Apparently, touching the net outside of the antenna is not a
>> violation, either.

>USVBA Rule 9 Article 3 says very clearly that it is.  Again, what rules
>are you quoting?

Okay, I was wrong about this one.  One of the Brazilian players in our
local group pulled some wool over my eyes.  (Brazilian rules may be
different; that might partially explain why they like REALLY tight
sets.)

Eric Wang
wang@ibma0.cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: rec.sport.volleyball