`Volleyball is tough and professional now’

Chennai, Nov 26: Well-built, but soft-spoken Dr Zdenek Valasek may be of a different generation from a different country. But talk to him...

Chennai, Nov 26: Well-built, but soft-spoken Dr Zdenek Valasek may be of a different generation from a different country. But talk to him volleyball, he opens up and pours out the experience he has accumulated for half a century. The coaches who attended the FIVB Level-I Coaches Course were all praise for the way he handled one of the toughest tasks he was asked to do.

"Volleyball is spreading fast", he said talking to The Indian Express "From 180, three years ago, we have about 220 affiliated federations now."Valasek, who has more than 30 years of coaching experience of which three years with National women’s team, has his own views about the new rule changes. He was non-committal about the rally point system, although it has brought in a major change in the approach of the game.

He pointed out, it was good in a sense. The RPS (Rally Point System) has considerably cut short the duration of the game and is to the liking of the younger players.

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Since each error is counted, the players require moreconcentration during play. But as a player of older generation, Valasek thought it has affected the game badly when a team trailed heavily, thus taking out the thrill and excitement of a fightback.

He justified the introduction of libero. Upto the ’60s, there were a lot of short players because the rules then allowed only to use the palm while handling the ball. The rule change during this period was to the advantage of the tall players. And the present average height of a player is 2.0 (metres) plus. He thought a short player can move faster on the court and so a libero will be of immense use.

This is something like the three-pointers in basketball which has come handy to short players. A libero is basically a defender. Defence is the base of attack in volleyball. In other words, good receiving is vital for attack.The `let’ service "is still in experimental stage", he said. He personally felt it was not advisable in volleyball as it gave undue advantage to the serving team.

The contemporary volleyballis very tough and professional. So, to reach the top level, a vast base is needed. Valasek said that in Prague alone there are about 300 teams in five categories. Considering the population of Czech Republic – about 10 million – this is really an encouraging figure.

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Volleyball is the most popular game in his country especially among women – there is no contact, it’s a clean sport and not much aggressive like football or ice hockey, the other games very popular there.

Czech Republic as Czechoslovakia were twice World champions in the ’60s. Now also they have very good players, but most of them prefer to play National leagues abroad, specially in Italy, where there is a lot of money.

Apart from playing in the I division league, Valasek was also an athlete, table tennis player and was quite good in ice hockey and winter sports. But those were the days of outdoor volleyball. Once it has come indoors, the present-day players get a lot of time to practise even during winter months.

"Spread volleyballwherever you are," were his parting words. The FIVB’s target itself is to make volleyball top sport in the World by 2001.