In volleyball, the setter is said to be the most important player on the team with the most opportunities to touch the ball, as they are responsible for setting the ball, which allows their teammates to attack.
In addition to theoretical findings revealed by natural scientific methods, practice is essential for the improvement of athletic performance in sports, and it is necessary to accumulate practical research targeting subjective information and sensations when practicing for a competition. Subjective information on the athletic performance of superior athletes in a transferable form will make it possible to present knowledge on how to exercise a superior training regimen.
This qualitative study aimed to examine the volleyball setting technique of leading Olympic volleyball setters and identify subjective information about unique characteristics of their set, including ball contact. The setting techniques of two Olympic setters, Akihiko Matsuda and Kosuke Tomonaga, were studied.
The results were as follows.
While the ball contact of the setters followed the Overhand pass operating principle, they were individually skilled, and Matsuda may have manipulated the ball with an automatic tendency, whereas Tomonaga manipulated it with an active tendency.
The two research subjects’ intentions and meanings of practicing one-handed sets with the right hand may include the common intention of practicing accuracy and the specific intentions of “tame” against the opponent and “ma” against the ally.
Both the research subjects have mastered “tame/ma” and manipulate subjective time by raising the set mainly with their right hands slightly above their heads and to the right. The manipulation of subjective time is particularly useful because it is unlikely to be derived from natural scientific methods because it is derived phenomenologically in this research as the construction of setting and attacking tactics to break through the defensive tactics of the opponent.
As with their ball contact, the backsets of the two research subjects are as individual as the ball contact, and are important in practice in terms of the realization of the setter’s athletic task of raising an accurate set and the manipulation (reduction) of the subjective time (another team’s players) by not allowing the opponent to realize the backsets.
Subjective information about the set of these top setters was structurally revealed.
The structure of the practical knowledge of setting presented in the findings of this study will contribute to the field of practice by providing players and leaders insight into better practices.
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