The Vertical Concept

The vertical concept is one of the most versatile and effective patterns in the passing system. Like the drag concept it is a two man game concept, it is also installed day one because the techniques are used in other passing concepts. "This concept puts extreme pressure on the deep areas and allows attack on any defense with with a high degree of confidence in a completion." (Gonzalez 74). Although some of these concepts might seem advanced for high school players, as long as they practice the concept will not be to hard to grasp. Below is a diagram of the vertical concept structure.

 Now that you know what the vertical concept is do you think you would ever use this play? If no then what would be your reason?

The Drag Concept

In this offensive formation it represents one of the most versatile means of attacking a pass defense versus multiple techniques and coverage. The person running the drag has the freedom to adjust to different types of coverage like man-to-man, zone, etc. This strategy combines a quick-rythem pass to one of the teams best players with the ability to adjust to different situations. "Two primary tags exist: drive which is used in 3-1 formations, and cross, which is matted with 2-2 formations" (Gonzalez). To create the same picture for the quarterback these two tags create the spacing of receivers across all formation categories. Below is a diagram of the basic route mechanics for the drag concept.

This offensive formation provides the team with a lot of versatility and is a reliable formation, Now that you know what this formation is, have you ever seen a football team use this offensive formation?

Serve Receive in Volleyball

                  Many coaches say that the two most important parts of the sport of volleyball are the serve and the serve receive that comes along with the serve. In order for a team to get a point, they must side out and win the serve receive. This means that teams must serve tough and pass well to be defined as a good team. Because of this, I support the idea that the aspects of serving in volleyball are the most important components of the game. 

                  For the last few practices, I have been working on the techniques that Marv Dunphy and Rod Wilde recommend in their book, Volleyball Essentials. A seam is defined as "the area between two receivers on a serve" (Dunphy Wilde 22). As I played with my team during practices, I began to notice that the servers would tend to serve those spaces and lots of times, the placement would tend to be effective. Noticing these trends, I found that calling which seams you would take if the ball landed there prepared me better to take the ball and make the good pass. Another result of me calling the seams before the other team served, was that my teammates talked as well. This led to all three of the serve receivers in at that moment to be a strong line that knew whose balls were whose. 

                   On the other end of serving, Volleyball Essentials helped me practice better techniques for giving the receiving team a tough serve or getting an ace, where the receiving team isn't able to send a playable serve back over to the other team. A floater is a type of serve that doesn't have spin, which causes the ball to move in various directions (Dunphy Wilde 22). Instead of sending the ball over only aiming to make the ball have a flat trajectory, I tried practicing this jump serve. Jump serving proved to cause the other team difficulty than standing and serving. Jump float serving caused me to become a more dangerous server that the other teams couldn't pass easily. In Volleyball Essentials, it says that the weakest areas in a serve receive are "deep corners, the sidelines, the short middle area, and the seams" (Dunphy Wilde 68). To put all of the serving strategies together, I created a jump float serve for myself that ended with my team getting more aces and getting easier balls from the other team in result of a tough serve. 

                    So comes a question concerning volleyball service. What is more important: serving or serve receive passing? Both are essential for a team to be considered great, but if you had to pick one over the other to be really good at, which would you choose?

Dunphy, Marv, and Rod Wilde. Volleyball Essentials: Video-Text. Total Health Publications, 2014

Football passing: Basics of being a quarterback

Football can be a very complicated sport with all the rules and fundamentals. Although one of the most basic things in football is passing, or that's what everyone thinks. The passing game in football is much more complicated as it seems, as shown in this book Teaching the Modern Passing Game. This book is written by Dan Gonzalez and he shows us the basics to the passing game. He first describes concept based passing and shows us what a quarterback should do. The way Gonzalez defines this as is "The specific coordination of the quarterbacks feet and eyes in regard to certain spots on the field" (Gonzalez 10) This is just a basic understanding of this concept, after he describes this concept he shows us a diagram.

I sat in my room with a ball just visualizing this. I would hold the football in my hand and get a better feel for it.

He also includes two more diagrams for us to look at and observe.

In these diagrams Gonzalez stated that each concept have the following characteristics

• A feature of consistent rhythm
• An advantage player or conbination
• A pressure outlet in the quarterbacks face
• The ability to adjust to multiple formations

(Gonzalez 11)

These are just the basics to being a quarter back and where you should be looking when you throw the ball. Have you ever been a quarterback for a football team and used this concept based passing? If not then are you ever going to start try or use this method of passing?