Morgan Classic Recap

Mark, Mike, Andrea, and myself (along with a few non-members) attended the Morgan Classic volleyball clinic last Saturday. It was a good time!

Here is a run down of what happened.

• We got lost getting onto the Pike from 495.
• We almost got lost getting off the Pike toward the school.
• We got lost going from the school to the hotel.
• We got very lost going back to the school from the hotel.

In total, we turned around to backtrack 6 times. :-> I was personally responsible for 1 of these backtracks. :-(

Now the fun part:

• We arrived at Springfield College (where the clinic and the evening matches would take place) before 9.
• At 9:30, we were introduced to a few people of consequence and almost immediately after, the Penn State coach and players took to drilling us. We had a simple passing drill that I think was intended to warm us up. (bumping back and forth)
  
• We then had a simple hitting drill. Penn State players set us which was awesome.
• We then had a blocking drill added on top of the hitting drill.
• And then a passing role was integrated into this now complex drill.
• Springfield college took over and did lots of standard drills that were excellent because they took to walking around and giving personal advice. My favorite was the overhead passing drill between myself and a really good setter. The constant nature of this drill (we literally passed over 100 times in a roll) was very effective.
• We broke for lunch and had a picnic with hummus, turkey, wheat break, roasted red pepers, and water. I think there were other ingredients (like cheese...yuck) but I fixated on the ones I mentioned.
• Ohio State took over and we did a bunch of fun team play drills after a somewhat lame serving drill. It was complex and people were confused but in the end, we had a bit of fun.
• Stanford took over and since it was the last session, we had play time with rules including an awesome 4 on 4 drill that required back row hitting. I will inform Bob of this drill due to it's awesomeness.
  

In the end, I learned the following things.

• Blockers should stay a couple of feet off the net with their hands over their chest. Standing too close is more limiting.
• Setting is almost exclusively overhead at the college level. It requires planted feet (unless the setter likes to jump set) and good timing.
• College players serve >10% of their serves into the net or out of bounds. This upsets the coaches to no end.
• The formations used for defense and offense are very different and I think we might try 1 or 2 as a team (because it won't work in Acton as there is no fixed team).
  

Well worth 50 bucks.