Warriors' tips are sure to improve your game

By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

We feel your pain.

You have a libero's build, can't speak in an exotic foreign accent and the darned shoelace keeps slipping off your forehead.

Still, if you can't be a volleyball player, you can be a volleyball poseur. The University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team offers tips, including middle blocker Brian Nordberg's shoelace-as-a-headband suggestion of "tying it in the back, just like it's on a shoe."

• How to serve: Timing is everything, said outside hitter Costas Theocharidis, who holds the school record of nine aces in a match.

He suggested tossing the ball high and then hitting it with an open hand, using the same swing as a tennis overhand. "It's like slapping something," Theocharidis said. "I like to spin the ball. You can vary the speed. The more you practice, the better it gets."

• How to pass: It's all in the forearms, outside hitter Eyal Zimet said. He locks his fingers, creating a natural triangle, and bumps the ball with his forearms, in the area just below his elbows.

"Your arms have to be straight," he said.

He said the best training is to try to receive Theocharidis' serves. But since Theocharidis doesn't make house calls, "you can practice against a wall," Zimet said.

He throws a ball off a wall, then tries to pass it to a specific spot on the wall. "You move yourself around, but still try to hit the same spot," he said.

• How to set: In setting, as in most jobs, half of the work is showing up on time. Once Kimo Tuyay locates a pass, "I want to get there while it's still above my forehead. ... If you get underneath the ball, and position your feet properly, you can set it pretty good. It's all about getting to the ball, squaring up and keeping it above your forehead."

Tuyay said he will keep his hands a few inches apart, trying to "engulf a ball as much as possible. From there, he will use his fingers to project the ball.

"When you flick it, you get a good result but not as much control as you want to," he said. "It's like swinging a bat or swinging a golf club. You want to follow through as much as possible."

• How to hit: Even at 6 feet 3, Jose Delgado is considered to be an undersized outside hitter. "It's hard when you have someone 6-8 or 6-10 blocking," he said.

Delgado said if he faces a single block, he will hit a crossing shot. If he is up against a double block, he will try to angle the shot so it will ricochet off the blockers and go out of bounds.

"Because 75, 80 percent of the time somebody will touch the ball, the main thing is to hit high and smart," he said. "If somebody is going to touch it, you want it to go out of bounds."

• How to block: On block attempts, middle blocker Dejan Miladinovic suggested, it is as important to read the setter as much as the hitter.

"The setter will tell you where you need to go," Miladinovic said. "It's a mind game between the two of us."

Once he decides where he will defend, Miladinovic will jump as high as he can with his open palms facing the hitter.