Help your partner by calling the open court
These tips are great for helping you to make a side-out, and more importantly, help your partner to make a side-out.
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 back court. 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 back court 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 close to the net.