INTRO

Just to be clear you do not want your setter setting from his knees...something probably went wrong that he has to do that.  But he made a great play here, his right side Josh (slightly out of the photo) came in and got the kill.

A VERY BIG THANK YOU to Steve Turner for putting together the information below.  He's had to dig through the spreadsheet info on formulas to get this compiled. 

There is a Forum post on Serve (SRV) and Serve Receive (RCV) and down the road more on everything else including attacking

PART 1 - WHO SETS THE BALL?

The player that sets the ball is determined by the pass rating (RCV) from the receiver (the receivers are your two Outside Hitters (OH) and the Libero (L)).

For a receiver of the serve, if the pass rating is 0 then it is an ace for the other team's server. A pass rating of 2 (good) or 3 (excellent) always goes to the Setter (S) for him to set.

On a pass rating of 1 the setter depends who received the serve.  The setter could be your regular setter or the Libero or one of the Outside Hitters.  

Libero

- Setter will set 85.7%

- Front Row OH will set 7.1%

- Back Row OH will set 7.1%

Outside Hitter: 

- Setter will set 63.2%

- Libero will set 31.6%

- Other outside hitter will set 5.3%

PART 2 - WHO DOES THE SETTER SET THE BALL TO?

Note: in this section "setter" refers to the player that sets the ball rather than the player position.

This is determined by the pass rating (RCV) from the receiver and whether the setter is front or back row. On a pass 1 or 2 the middle blocker is never selected.

On a pass 1 (poor pass)

Back row setter: 60% better front row OH/RS, 25% other front row RS/OH, 15% back row OH

Front row setter: 60% front row OH, 30% better back row RS/OH. 10% other back row RS/OH

On a pass 2 (good pass)

Back row setter: 50% better front row OH/RS, 35% other front row RS/OH, 15% back row OH

Front row setter: 50% front row OH, 35% better back row RS/OH. 15% other back row RS/OH

It might seem wrong that a pass 2 is more likely to pick out the worse RS/OH than a pass 1 but a pass 2 is less likely to be blocked and the blockers are more likely to target the better attacker.

On a pass 3 (excellent pass)

The chance of the middle blocker being picked depends on his attack (ATK) skill and is 62% at 18 dropping 2% per skill to 48% at 11 and further to 30% at 7 or below. This is the same for front or back row setters. The following assumes a MB with attack 14

Back row setter: 54% MB, 31% Better front row RS/OH (these two numbers always add up to 85), 10% other front row RS/OH, 5% back row OH

Front row setter: 54% MB, 20% front row OH (always adds up to 74), 6% better back row RS/OH, 20% setter dump

A setter dump will only happen on a pass 3 with a front row setter.

PART 3 - HOW GOOD IS THE SET?

This depends on the pass rating and the set skill. Only set skills of 18, 14 and 10 shown here - numbers rounded.

Note that the set rating is like the pass rating:

1 - Poor set

2 - Good set

3 - Excellent set

Pass 3

18 set skill: 85% set 3, 13% set 2, 2% set 1

14 set skill: 70% set 3, 21% set 2, 9% set 1

10 set skill: 56% set 3, 25% set 2, 19% set 1

Pass 2

18 skill: 77% set 3, 19% set 2, 5% set 1

14 skill: 64% set 3, 23% set 2, 13% set 1

10 skill: 51% set 3, 25% set 2, 24% set 1

Pass 1

18 skill 74% set 3, 19% set 2, 7% set 1

14 skill: 63% set 3, 24% set 2, 14% set 1

10 skill: 50% set 3, 25% set 2, 25% set 1

The set rating combined with the attack rating will determine if the attack is 3, 2, 1 or 0. The set rating will also determine if there are 1, 2 or 3 blockers.

More on this in the attacking article coming soon.