VNA Still looking for more of your Slang!!!

[Mike Wabschall]

I hate to overstate this :?)

Volleyball in Austin, a new WWW site for us Vbers and produced solely by an
avid Volleyballer in Austin humbly askes for your help.

First of all, I'd like to thank those who have contributed so far. I still
firmly believe that VNA will be a good site, but to insure this...I need your
help.

I am looking for Slang.

Let me give you an example:
ROOF!!! (usually complemented with a few pats on the butt)

I am talking about the absolutely absurd termonolgy and the absolutely basic
terminology and all that crazy stuff in between. Trust me, I can use anything
and I welcome you to send me Email with your list or entry.

(Email reminder : Wa...@mail.utexas.edu)

I am also looking for information on officiating. Are you an official? Have
a story to tell people wanting to become an official? A horror story? A
funny story? How did you become an official?

If you write me your story, I will absolutely positivitely include your name
with your contribution...one of the main tenet for this page is that it is
communal in the sense that though I (which is one) write the page, you (which
is many) can contribute.

(Email reminder : Wa...@mail.utexas.edu)

Also if you are a volleyball supplier on the net and would like me to link to
your URL (no charge, non profit WWW) on the page...I'd be more than glad to.
Just send me it on the Email thing.

If you have anything you'd like to contribute...anything except that silly
Girls looking for Volleyball Fans to Cum...shees...please send it along to me
and I will let you know if I can use it.

I will post to this Newsgroup (until I get enough responses :?) ) the URL on
the grand opening.

I hope you are all well and thanks once again to those who've helped out!
Wa...@mail.utexas.edu

Take Care,
Mike

[hobd...@aol.com]

Terms used in the old days:

Hobie- (ho as in hole, bie as in bee ) --a whiff by an attacker on a set
ball. A clean miss of the ball on well set spike attempt (Enough wind to
run a Hobie cat?) Hey, happens to the best sometimes.

Drainer- a block that comes off the arms and down the blocker on their
side of the net like water down a drain.

Confound--(on the court, "nf" was grunted airily by the defense)-a block
attempt that upsets the hitter's timing resulting in a poorly hit or
tipped ball. In a confound, the presence of the blocker impacts the
spiker's timing at exactly the instant the spiker makes the instinctive
decision about velocity and location. The resulting hit is often put in
the net, slid off the hand weakly, or tipped. (or the spiker just gives it
up and slams it into the block and hopes for the best.)

A great blocker may slow the attack so the back row has an easily
handled ball 9 of 10 times, and may actually touch the ball only once, so
on paper, they have fewer total blocks than a less sophisticated blocker
who gets three blocks out of ten hard spikes. But, a blocker who
confounds is far more valuable to the team.
A confound is kind of like a "hurry" in football or a block move in
basketball that makes it look like the shooter took a bad shot. Once you
see someone who does it well, you'll be seeing sophisticated blocking and
know instantly its value.
Break for story time---
(This year I saw a kid who was really good at it this at a local high
school when TWO all-metro hitters, 6' & 5'11, on the same team, went
against an unheralded senior middle, listed as 5'10, in a conference game.
The middle failed on the first spike block (blown back onto her side for a
"drainer"-our kids crush 'em), so she adjusted and blocked the next try
solo and real clean, then stopped the other all-metro's 2 spikes with a
clean solo block and a two-player block, and the two all-metro got careful
and tipped over the middle's block and danced for the next seven tries
because she was waiting for them each time they wanted to kill and they
knew it. They tried a couple more hard ones, and got one by, but after
that it looked like the coach changed the attack. I asked later, and the
middle got credit for four blocks (three solos) in that game. In the old
days, she would have been credited with four blocks and at least six "C"s
on the sheet.
Apparently that middle sits part time because she "doesn't have that
many blocks" on her stat sheet -no kidding-who wants to hit at her and be
blocked all the time--and they don't run many quicks (she was real fast at
quicks in warm-up, but they didn't hit with their middles). But when she
was in, our side sure put a lot more into the net and sent a lot more easy
balls over. Good thing her coach didn't record "C"s. He might have gone to
state instead of us-well, maybe not. The rest of them weren't that good
even though it took us four to win. We lost the only one she was in.)

Deep- It is said short and quick and a little loud, as in Peep!-- a serve
that is not quite an ace, but still good enough make the opponent's first
contact poor enough to return the ball without being able to get it to the
net for a spike. A deep gave us the edge, and since aces were rare, these
were one of the measures of a great server.

(That same middle had an awful lot of deeps off of floaters, too. I had
watched her play against us specifically to see if she had any other
tricks.)

Boing- a deep that is so poorly judged it comes back over the net from the
first contact in the back row. Much fun because everybody went "deep
boing" (Partly from the sound and partly from Gerald McBoing Boing, in
the nearsighted Mr McGoo cartoon)

I don't know if some if the way we used these might be considered
acceptable sportsmanship today- a lot were from marines ranking on marines
and a lot of stuff got by us that the girls might not adopt--but it was
fun.

Quick-- heard it used to describe a hit from a real short up-set-
different from a "skimmer" aka "3", a horizontal set along the net top.

Floater-- a ball that, untouched, shifts suddenly out of its flight path.

Eat wood- fall down

Eat net- get your face in the net strings.

Facial- spike in your face.

Tarzan- a crossing spike attempt where you have to twist your body in the
air and your arm is reaching up and out and your legs are flying- looks
like a chimp hanging from a tree by one arm- a hot dog move.

Lay a Hooker- a move in marine corps sand volleyball, highly illegal
anywhere else, where the opponent hooks your leg under the net with his
leg and takes out your feet- best done and often done when he's in the
air. Illegal to touch the ground, but not their surface.
Has to be a quick controlled swipe, touch, and pull, 'cause while the
hooker is OK and any retaliation other than a return hooker is not
condoned by all, kicking a marine is not well accepted by the receiving
party- period. Creates an instant maladjustment and definite condoned by
all retaliation to remind the offender that sloppy is just not good
enough.

enough nostalgia- take care