The various members of the defense have different responsibilities, and these
change depending on the attack. The principles described below apply to a middle back defense.
This can be summed up in a few simple rules:
1.Left front or right front - block the attacker in front of you, block middle
if there is time, otherwise drop off the net and cover
2.Middle front - block everything, cover the outside hitters when they are attacking
3.Left back and right back - dig cross-court attacks and cover behind
the blockers when the ball is attacked in front of you
4.Middle back - cover the back line (stay out of the shadow of the block)
Some typical problems:
1.Single blocks or poor double blocks - makes it much harder on the defense.
2.Left (right) side blockers not backing off the net when the ball is hit on the
right (left) side - now there are only 3 diggers.
3.Middle back not staying deep enough - middle back sees a lot of empty floor in
front of him and is tempted to cheat forward.
Now it's difficult to get the deep, hard hits that are his primary responsibility.
4.Left and right back cheating towards middle - again, they see a big hole in the middle.
Now they can't play the hard cross-court hits that are their primary responsibility.
5.Left and right back playing too deep - they think that the middle back can't
cover the entire back line. While they're probably right, they won't be able to dig sharp cross-court hits.