抄録
What makes volleyball strategies fascinating is how attack and defense involve seizing or parrying “Ma-ai” （interval or distance between players）, with the ball as the medium.
This research seeks to clarify various aspects of the generation of “Ma-ai” in real time in volleyball attack and defense from the viewpoint of “generative theory”.
A volleyball match generates a continuous stream of spaces or gaps （“Ma”） in time and space between players. Included in this stream of “Ma” are the “Ma-ai”, which are generated “intersubjectively” or “interphysically” between players and are what enable exquisite, coordinated plays. “Ma-ai” refers to the tight connection between players that occurs when their “Ma” are aligned. Using “Ma-ai”, players are able to predict how events will unfold according to each other’s movements and intentions during a rally, and the movements of individual players are synchronized to realize various coordinated plays.
The opposing teams vie to see how much they can rally by using their own “Ma-ai” to make plays while preventing their opponents from doing the same. In other words, each team seizes “Ma-ai” for defense against the opponent’s attack, while trying to prevent the opponent from doing the same （by parrying their attempts to seize “Ma-ai”）. This process constitutes the attack and defense of “Ma-ai”.
The most important aspect of this process for the generation of “Ma-ai” is to create a stationary “Ma” at the zero point, that is, a fixed position in the formation, before the opponent does. By doing so, a team can increase its frequency of possession of the ball, facilitate a wider range of attacks, and make it harder for the opponent to predict the next move.
