Pontification on Refs, the Rules, and Other Topics of Import

By: Your Club President
September 12, 2002
updated: September 22, 2005
updated: December 4, 2005

Pre-ramble on the Rules

The Volleyball Club Rules are set up so that, if problems arise, we can resolve them because we agreed to do so in this way beforehand.  That way we avoid arguments and get back to the good stuff: playing volleyball.  The most helpful thing I have found is being able to tell the ref how we want to handle certain situations.  Try to remember when extra rally points are to be played (see below), so you can advise others.

Speaking of the refs...

Working with the Officials (or Refs)

The Referees are paid by GLC with the fees collected from the Volleyball Club, and as such, they are effectively our employees.  They are meant to be impartial observers and enforcers.  If something happens that you and the opposing captain agree about, you do have the right to ask the Ref to enforce things as you see fit (this does not apply to form infractions, like lifts, etc., but to situations, like "foreign ball on the court", that may endanger players that are not aware of it).

When dealing with Refs, ALWAYS BE COURTEOUS.  Since they will likely be reffing several of your matches, if you make yourself a memorable annoyance, you may be dealt with in a less than objective way later.  And I won't blame the refs for that.

When you do have a ref complaint, try to work the problem during the match first.  And remember, both captains should agree on whatever the issue is for it to carry any weight.  If your on-court remedies fail, you may contact us Volleyball Club officers to hear your case, and we may be able to do something.  But please remember, this is a recreational league--let's concentrate on having fun.

Roster and Substitution Policy

The rules go into some depth about who's considered "on a roster", and how many times someone can sub for another team, etc.  These rules are there because they were there when I got this position.  I don't intend to enforce them unless there are some blatant problems--like if we have a tournament, and you call in your good friend Karch to play a qualification match (the rules don't deal with "ringers" anyway, but it sounds like a good problem).

The substitution and roster rules take a backseat because my number one objective is to use the court and ref time we've paid for.  I simply don't see a "forfeit" as being a pragmatic thing to have in these economic times.  Feel free to pull in people from teams that have just played if you need some bodies.  But don't abuse this--I've seen situations where a team pulls a top player from another team--not one of their "usual" subs--to play a critical match.  Yes, this is supposed to be for fun, but you're just asking for complaints to be lodged.  And I don't want to have to deal with angry volleyball teams!

I do want you to write down your subs on the score sheets so I can get an idea of who's subbing on a normal basis for what other teams, and whether some team is having problems getting their players out for matches, etc.

Scoring and Standings

The scoring in this league is really straightforward, I think.  Each match is three games: all are played to 25 points, win-by-two.  All games are rally-scored.  The first two games are capped at 27, the last game is not.  If the ref calls time on a tied game, you play one extra rally to determine the game winner.  If you get in two games, but the ref calls time before the start of the third game and both teams scored the same number of TOTAL points (can only happen if each team won one game), you play one extra rally to determine the match winner. Note: it is possible to have to play two extra rallies: one to win the second game, and then one to win the match.

We used to play three games to 13, side-out scored, because because we would be able to get three games in most of the time, with a significant amount of scoring in the third game, most of the time.   Rally scoring for all games had been considered for some time, but most people felt more comfortable with the "classic" volleyball side-out scoring (things changed!).

It had been suggested to just rally score the third game to add more scoring, since the third is likely to be cut off on time.  But I didn't like the idea of changing the rules for just the third game--it just confuses people, and the ref.   Despite my reservations, for our first foray into rally-scoring in Fall 2004, the third game was pretty different from the other two--scored to 15, win by two, or time.   This third-game setup is used as a tiebreaker in most situations; since I really would rather play that third game to 25 or time, just to be consistent, and not as a tiebreaker, the third game scoring was again changed in late Fall 2005 to what it is now.  Note that we do not cap the third game--we really WANT to run out of time playing, because that means that we used up our court and ref time, as we paid for it.

So now we are now rally scoring to be "current" with the rest of the volleyball world, and most players are happy with the way the matches are scored.

As for computing standings, I've been raked over the coals for not using "winning percentage" instead of just wins as the first tiebreaker.  The reason I do this is philisophical: I count what you've done, not what you haven't.  Percentages factor in losses;  but in our system, losses don't count for anything, they're just lost opportunities.  And then I think of a case where I'm asked to rank a 3-0 (three 1-0 match wins) team against an 8-1 (two 3-0 match wins, and one 2-1 match win) team.  Unrealistic, yes, but it gets to the point: I think the 8-1 (.889) team is better than the 3-0 (1.000) team!  Don't you agree??

Rules or Policy Changes

Despite all of this discussion, you can still propose rules or policy changes.  I will submit the proposal to all teams, and each team will get one vote.  I break any ties, and implement any change that wins approval by majority vote.

Scoresheets

I live close enough to GLC that I try to collect scoresheets every week.  But occasionally I do not.  If you notice that I am not around at 10:30pm to pick up the sheets after the last match, please remind one of the refs to put the sheets in the GLC office.  I will drop by and get them later.  I really appreciate your willingness to help out.

Thanks

Thanks for reading this far, but more importantly, for participating in the Club.  Have fun!!