#the kind of libero who can kill a hitter without even coming close to the ball | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

everywon-woo · 7 years

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SMH volleyball AU

I went to see Paris Volley play yesterday bc I miss volleyball and it got me thinking about the SMH as a volleyball team. I know that these boys aren’t tall enough to play professional volleyball (hockey tall is definitely not the same thing as volleyball tall) but i’m just gonna pretend they are.

Americans are really weird and I’m too lazy to look up their rotation system so you’ll just have to deal with how the rest of the world (or at least Europe) does it.

Chowder is a libero. He’s pretty decent outside hitter, but he is a Great libero. He’s one of those libero’s that get asked: “but you’re so tall! why are you a libero?!” bc he’s fucking good at it, deborah. Other teams fear his receive. Some games he actually takes half of the field and the other coach is still like DON’T FUCKING SERVE TO THAT LIBERO

He shares his position with Bitty. I don’t think it’s a thing that many male teams do but I did it when I was a libero so I’m just gonna say Bitty and Chowder do it too. Chowder is the reception libero, he’s on the field when the other team serves.

Don’t get me wrong, his defense is great too, but Bitty’s is better.

Which bring me to Bitty, who is the defense libero. He is fast af, hitters on other teams hate him. You think you see a hole in the defense? You’re definitely gonna score now? Nope, Bitty will magically appear bc he is a defense god.

he was a setter when he was younger, but when he got to higher leagues he realised that he was just too small to be a setter, so if he ever wanted to go pro, he’d have to become a libero. Thanks to his years as a setter, he has a pretty nice set, so he’s a dangerous little guy when the setter takes the defense. I’m gonna get back to this later when I talk about the setter.

his reception (when the other team serves) isn’t that great, though, because he missed a crucial part of his technical education by spending those years as a setter. The double-libero-system with Chowder is just working perfectly for both of them tbh

This got long so I’m putting it under a cut.

Dex is one of those middle players who you might think is kinda tall and lanky and has zero control over what his body does. You are Very Wrong.

his shoot and his first tempo shorts are good, but his fly is something else. Holy shit. Incredible. Which is why his coaches always make sure that he’s in in front while the setter is in front too, bc damn. That fly is something beautiful. And deadly. you don’t want to be the other team.

His block is okay. Solid (i mean, otherwise he wouldn’t be a pro middle player) but not as feared as his hits. However, I will come back to his block in a moment.

His defense is pretty shit. Like he’s not absolutely awful, but he’s glad that he doesn’t have to stay in the back for 3 rotations.

His reception is absolutely awful. Thank god for the concept of a libero.

don’t piss him off, you’ll regret it. Whenever the ref makes a bad call or the other team gets away with something bad, he turns into a ball of rage. an insanely powerful ball of rage. he will either spike a ball within the first 3m (10ft? who knows) or he will kill block you so hard that there’s a hole in the floor. you will cry.

Nursey is an opposite (or right wing hitter, whatever you want to call it), and a damn good one. He’s one of those players that look too chill and seem like they don’t really care, but I can assure you, he cares. He plays almost nonchalantly, but he’s actually really technically skilled and he can easily alternate between full power spikes (which you don’t want to get in your face, believe me) and technical shots that drive the defense crazy.

He also has a pretty solid block. Until he gets in front with Dex (which is only one rotation in three, unfortunately, because Dex is always at the net with the setter as much as possible). Together, they become a wall. This wasn’t the case when they first started to play together. There were often holes in the block and they argued a lot about the positioning but after a while they got their shit together and now they are widely hated by outside hitters.

He seems pretty chill during games, but this is mostly an act. During easy games he manages to stay mostly calm, but during close games Derek Malik Nurse is definitely Not Chill™.

which results in someone getting hugged koala style when they win a close game. It is mostly Dex. who acts like he hates it. He loves it.

Jack. I could probably talk about Jack as a volleyball player for hours. Bob is a volleyball legend. He was the best opposite in the world for years. Jack wanted nothing more than be as amazing as his dad. He practiced hitting and serving (bc that’s a big part of what you do as an opposite) and he was good at it. he was good enough at it for his junior coaches to never question his position and they just let him play as an opposite. Until he was around thirteen, and he got a new coach, who told him to play one game as a setter.

Let me tell you, the other team was all over the place. Even at 13yo, Jack Zimmermann made sure the other team’s blockers questioned the purpose of life after the game.

Sure, he’s technically skilled. He has great hands, his sets are accurate, he’s left handed (which is great for a setter).

The thing that really makes Jack world top is his volleyball IQ. He is the block’s worst nightmare. Truly fucking exceptional. If you like volleyball, you want to see Jack Zimmermann play.

He’s still a decent hitter though (technical, but also powerful), which is where Bitty comes back into the picture. on the rare occasion that Jack takes the defence when he’s in front, he’ll just attack like the rest of the team. The block dies on the spot. There are 5 attackers now. The Bitty-Jack combo has an incredible scoring percentage. It always results in hugs. Bc they love each other. (you didn’t think i was gonna make a check please post without mentioning zimbits, did you?)

His hitting skills also come in handy when he does second hand balls. sometimes they’re just feints, but when he has the time and he sees that the block is not following him, he’ll hit that ball and his scoring percentage is probably close to 100%.

I was having a convo with my dad at the game last night about how Montpellier’s setter seemed very calm and in control, communicating with his hitters but not in a bossy way, and about how that’s what we like in a setter. Jack is like that. He might not always be internally calm, but he’s very in control on the field, he instructs his teammates (he’s also the captain) and he’s just a born leader.

Ransom is an outside hitter. He’s not a small guy, so he has nothing to compensate, but he still jumps incredibly high. He’s not quite on Leonel Marshall’s level (if you like volleyball, watch this guy. My brother and I worshipped him when we were younger) but he’s that type of player.

his reception is solid. Not libero level of great, but good.

his defense is not that great. I mean, he manages, and it’s not bad enough to really hurt the team’s prestation, but it’s not his biggest forte.

I will talk more about Ransom in a bit

Holster is the stereotypical middle player. He’s tall, he’s not clumsy but a bit stiff sometimes, and he’s blond (this might just be me but lately all the middle players I see are blond).

He has a solid shoot, but his first tempo shorts (front and back) are his best attacks. He never does a fly. He’s just not really that type of middle player.

His block is great. Just very fucking solid and closed. No holes.

However, when his block is combined with Ransom’s block, the other team’s hitters will cry. Calling them a wall is an understatement.

when they get a good kill block, they just roar at each other for a few seconds and than hug before joining the team hug.

when i was watching the game yesterday i noticed how often volleyball players touch each other’s butts and I hereby declare that Ransom and Holster are The Worst™. When they’re standing at the net waiting for someone to serve, their hands don’t leave each other’s butts. It’s weird. It’s not sexual, it’s just a sign of support. It might be sexual too, you decide

Shitty is also an outside hitter, but he’s just not on Ransom’s level. He doesn’t have that raw talent that most of the guys on the team have, but he has achieved as much as he has through sheer willpower, determination and hard work.

I kind of see him like Daichi from Haikyuu!!

his hits aren’t necessarily the best, but he manages

his defense and his reception are solid. Not because of talent, but because of hard work and hours and hours of training.

He just really loves the game and he’s so thankful for getting to play on an amazing team with amazing people.

Whiskey is the second setter. He’s a decent setter, he has good hands, he has that same calm attitude, but he’s no Jack, so he doesn’t get to play that often. He’s still a good setter, though, and the team doesn’t fall apart if Jack can’t play due to an injury of whatever

Tango can play as an outside hitter or opposite. It kinda depends on where they need him.

he often plays in Shitty’s position. those two just kinda switch all the time

when nursey can’t play, tango plays in his place. He’s nowhere near as good as nursey, but he manages.

Lardo is the coach. Male volleyball teams don’t often have female coaches (i’d almost say never but that’s probably not true) but let me tell you, these boys wish they had a male coach. Lardo is relentless. She’s good at her job though, and the boys love her (except for when they’re dying and she makes them run some more).

she loves the boys too. she seems though (and she is. don’t try to hurt her team bc you will regret it) but she really cares about her dorks and she regularly invites them over for dinner.

maybe they have some kind of rule that she has to prepare dinner for them every time they win a set and the other team has 10 points or less. that was a rule in my club. we didn’t eat at my coach’s place that much. my brother did. My dad (who was my brother’s coach) still owes them approximately 20 dinners.

Bonus:

Kent is that outside hitter that is too small to be an outside hitter but he compensates by jumping high and being very technically skilled.

“I’M NOT THAT SMALL”

Tater spent a very long time being a middle player bc he’s tall and coaches often just make the tall kids be the middle players.

when he’s around 16yo he finally gets a coach who sees that he’s actually a much better opposite than he is a middle player.

hugs

you score? hug

you dig up a difficult ball? hug

good block? hug

good serve? hug

you will never feel discouraged when tater is on the field bc he will just hug the courage into you

I want to add that they don’t have their names on the back of their jersey like normal teams do. They all have a hashtag in front of their name, like Paris Volley (I laughed about this the entire game oh god). It was probably Nursey’s idea. When they’re on the field, wearing their jerseys, he pronounces the hashtags. “That was a nice block, hashtag Poindexter” he has been hit more than once but he won’t stop.

#omgcp #omgcheckplease #omgcp au #jack zimmermann #eric bittle #i still have many more opinions on this #chris chow #william poindexter #derek nurse #justin oluransi #adam birkholtz #shitty knight #larissa duan #volleyball

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