Basic Digging (227k)
As you watch this clip (.mov) , look for the following keys:

• The digger starts on the sideline, moving slightly into the court as she prepares to dig. this positioning keeps her outside the "shadow" of the block and gives her maximum reaction time.
• As she pre-hops (or "split-steps") into her defensive posture, she plants her feet "toes first," so that her heels are off the floor throughout most of the sequence.
• She times her pre-hop so that she is stopped, with both feet on floor, the moment the hitter contacts the ball. (note that her weight is far forward at this moment.)
• Her hips and chest are low and her hands are well in front of her knees before the hitter contacts the ball.
• She moves her hips and torso toward the ball, not just her arms
• As she moves to the ball, her "platform" -- i.e., her hands and forearms -- remain well in front of her knees (difficult to see from this angle).
• Her arms stay relaxed throughout the contact, with virtually no followthrough.

Hitting the floor (290k)
Sometimes, as you dig, you find that you must hit the floor after you make the play. The most common (and simplest) way to hit the floor, without doing lots of damage to your body, is to sprawl. In general, your mentality should be, "dig the ball first, then worry about the floor." but when executed correctly, the sprawl is a natural continuation of the digging action. As you watch the "sprawl" clip (.mov) , look for these keys:

• The digger propels her hips and torso toward the ball with an explosive extension of her "offside" leg (her left leg, in this case)
• Her "onside" knee flexes deeply, allowing her body and platform to move toward the ball (and the floor)
• Though moving, she makes the play in a controlled body position, with her platform well in front of her body
• As her momentum carries her sideways, her onside knee keeps pointing forward (not directly toward the floor). Consequently, as she hits the floor, her onside knee makes only glancing contact while most of her weight lands on her thigh and her side/abdomen.
• Her onside arm extends in the direction of the sprawl while her other hand makes only tangential contact with the floor.

To summarize the keys to an effective and safe sprawl: 1) Dig first; then contact the floor with large, wide, fleshy parts . . . not small, pointed, bony parts.

"Base" to defense (743k)
When your opponents pass the ball, they have several attack options -- setter dump, middle attack, outside attack, etc. As a backrow player, you need to defend all those options. To do so, you must worry about "first things first": defend the dump, then defend the quick, then defend the outside attack. Since most dumps tend to be very shallow in the court, and since that is your opponent's first option, you need to be shallow in the court during the opponent's pass. Most coaches call this "base" defense. If the setter dumps, you've got it; if s/he sets somewhere else, then you have to move to the appropriate position to defend that attack. This clip (.mov) shows a leftback player shifting from his base position to his defensive assignment for a leftside attack. As you watch it, look for these keys:

• During the opponent's pass, the digger is within 2'-3' of the sideline, which allows him to focus on reacting only in one direction (into the court) to dig the dump.
• As the opposing setter receives the ball, the digger reacts for a middle attack, stepping to his left to stay outside the shadow of the block.
• When the set goes outside, the digger hops backwards, parallel to the sideline.
• He plants both feet before the hitter contacts the ball.
• As he reads the angle of the hitter's approach, the location of the block, and the hitter's body position in the air, he hops away from his sideline and into the court to make the dig.
• Throughout the sequence, his butt remains low and his chest forward . . . which enables him to react to anything at any moment. (a good reminder: whenever the ball is in your opponent's court, no backrow player's head should ever be more than 4'6" from the floor.)
• Lastly, note that you can never see the digger's hands or arms, because they are always out in front of him -- they never drop between his legs and only collapse to his sides after he makes the dig.

Updated February 2005.