These tips are great for helping you to make a sideout, and more importantly, help yuor partner to make a sideout.

As soon as the set leaves your hands, look to the defense. This means that you have to have your setting skills at the point where you can do that. If you have to concentrate so hard just to handle the set, best you work on your setting first before you look for the call.

Look to the back row and not the blocker. If there is one man back that means there’s a blocker. Call the open spot in the backrow. Let the hitter deal with the block. If you cue off the front man, you can get faked easily, and in any case the hitter sees the block much better than you.

If the digger tries to respond to your calls you can use various tactics to counter. If the digger stays neutral and reads your call; you can call softer or use a simple code (is there such a thing under pressure?); you can wait longer; you can read the “lean” of the digger. I prefer to use misinformation. Have the attack go to one spot no matter what the call is-(deep angle is almost always undefended). After awhile, go back to your regular calls. Few diggers have the stamina to keep up with a good call making setter.

Needless to say, the correct call if you see 4 legs in the backcourt is NO ONE.

When in a fiddle, go deep middle. It is the weakest point in the defensive formation and can be hit with the hardest hit. The back line has the greatest amount of open sand.

Observe who comes over to cover the deep middle. That tells you where the opening is for your next shot that you really need.

Against teams that don’t block, set dimes.

Always set dimes against mixed teams.

Set like you caress a woman-smooth and easy.

Setting a beach volleyball

Move 1/2 way to the passer and 1/2 way to the net upon contact. Float there for a split second at contact. This the place that allows you to get good position on the most types of shanks as well as still allowing you to get to a perfect pass in good position.

Note: Always assume your partner will make a good pass.

Do not get caught up in the broken rhythm of a scramble play or bad pass. Maintain and correct the flow in order to get rhythm back into the attack.

The key to setting is time. Each hitter has a unique timing and any deviation will detract from the attack. The setter adjusts for the pass in various ways so as to maintain the timing of the attack.

If extra time is needed, say for the attacker to recover from a difficult pass or to travel a long way to the approach point: try not to buy time with a higher set as is commonly done. This throws off the rhythm of the attacker. If possible buy time by setting the same set but from a lower position. You can do this by getting lower or by bump setting. The timing of the set then remains unchanged and that makes for a better attack.

If the attacker has to travel a long way to the approach point, buy time by setting a little back off the net. This keeps him from netting and maintains the rhythm of the attack.

Always try to take a peak at the blocker before you set. If the blocker is slow to come up or too fast or too tight to the net, don’t hesitate to dump the set over especially if the server serves from way back and is late coming back in the court. This keeps the defence honest and is one more thing for them to think about.

If there is no blocker, set right on, otherwise set 3-4 feet back and look for the backrow hole.

The easiest set to hit, one that has the most options is one that is vertically dropping (no horizontal vector). For each place on the court, there is only one place in the sky where the set can peak if a vertical drop is to be achieved. Good setters find this place instinctively.

The further from from the perfect setting spot the pass is, the higher the set has to be to achieve a vertical drop and the more factors come into play.