So, recently the Swedish volleyball federation (that is also organizing the official beach volleyball tournaments in Sweden) decided that they will remove the double touch rule for handsetting in beach volleyball in the official competitions within Sweden. This is of course a very controversial move, as the rule has had a central role in beach volleyball for at least several decades (if not throughout the whole history of the sport.) The rule is supposed to be removed for one season (the 2025 season) and then be evaluated, and it will be in effect for all levels of tournaments.
Personally, I believe this will be a mistake if adapted long term (more about that soon), but I am also kind of curious to see what will actually come out of this experiment.
Anyway, so the whole process started with an announcement from the federation that this was about to happen, with a few weeks to send in counter-arguments for their proposal, before they would take a final decision in the matter.
Here is a translated version of the announcement from the federation:
Proposal for a new interpretation of the handset rule
In connection with the annual process of setting the competition regulations for beach volleyball, a group involved in the sport has submitted a proposal regarding a new interpretation of the judgment of handsets. The movement (meaning players in Sweden) now has the opportunity to provide feedback as the proposal is being sent out for consultation. If your club has any comments, please send them to info@volleyboll.se by November 10.
The proposed new interpretation, in short, suggests that the double-hit rule for setting (second ball) with hands will be removed. If the proposal is adopted, there will be a test season in 2025, and it will be evaluated afterward.
The full proposal is below.
Detailed Rule Change
New rule § 9.2.2.5:
"At the second hit of the team, if an overhand finger action is used, consecutive contacts are permitted provided the contacts occur during one action."Change § 9.1.1:
Add § 9.2.2.5 to the list of exceptions.Reference rules: FIVB Beach Volleyball Rules 2021-2024
(Link to external website)
Please note:
The rule (§ 13.2.5) regarding attacking with the fingers only in the direction of the shoulders remains unchanged.
The rule (§ 9.2.2) regarding holding the ball is also unchanged.
Justification
Development: Today, many players (especially new ones but also experienced ones) are hesitant to use handsets during matches. By removing the rule, new players will be able to incorporate finger spikes into their game from the start/early on.
Cultural Change: Many established players use a handset technique that involves “holding the ball” according to the current FIVB guidelines, and many new players develop an overly long handset technique. Removing the rule would facilitate a cultural shift in Swedish volleyball, aligning it with FIVB standards.
More Consistent Judgment: Since beach volleyball referees sometimes interpret the double-hit rule differently depending on level and experience, inconsistencies in judgments can arise. Removing the rule would make decisions more uniform and reduce potential disputes or frustrations among players.
Increased Attractiveness for the Sport: The double-hit rule for handsets is one of, if not the most, difficult rules to explain to uninitiated audiences. Removing it would make the sport easier to understand and more fun to watch.
Anyway, so this announcement sparked off some discussion in our local Facebook group, with people arguing both for and against the proposal. I could literally write half a book with counterarguments against the proposal, but I both don’t have the time to write that book, and also probably nobody would read it, so I won’t, but I decided anyway to write a bit of an essay with counter-arguments to this proposal that I posted online in Swedish. It was a bit of a combination of arguments that other people who didn’t like the proposal brought up, combined with my own.
I wanted to translate it and post it here in English, so that if this proposal becomes reality in even more places around the world, people have a bit more stuff to refer to. There is a part of me that wishes I’d have the time to refine the text a bit more, but this fall has been a very hectic one for me so this is the text I ended up putting together one evening, better than nothing. Note also that some of the communication around the proposal had an undertone of “we believe this will make Sweden a better beach volleyball nation, so that we have a higher chance of producing even more beach volleyball Olympians in the future.” I wholeheartedly agree that Sweden should do what it can to produce more future Olympians, but I don’t necessarily agree with the proposed methods.
My counter-argument text is formatted as an “answers to the justifications that the federation brought up”-type of text:
Counterarguments for the proposal to remove the double-touch rule
Development (Justification by the federation): Today, many players (especially new ones but also experienced ones) hesitate to use fingertip passes during matches. By removing the rule, new players will be able to use fingertip passes from the start/early on in their play.
Counterargument: If the overarching goal is to promote the level of Swedish beach volleyball (both the highest level at the top, as well as the average level), I believe the question should be: “How can we get more players to become as good as possible at setting?” rather than “How can we get more players to use handsets, regardless of how good they are at handsetting or as setters in general?” Of course, the answers to these two questions may overlap somewhat, but I think it’s important to stay focused on what the actual goal is and ask ourselves the right questions to achieve that goal.
So, if we want to develop as many good setters as possible, we need repetitions, but first and foremost we need relevant repetitions. If the rule against double touches is removed entirely, players will, first of all, “train incorrectly” because, in many situations where the double-touch rule currently has the effect that the correct decision for the player is to play the ball with a bumpset, it will now be more rewarding to perform a handset with a double touch.
A large part of athletic skill is knowing when to perform a move and when to choose to perform some other move, and removing this training element entirely for all of Swedish beach volleyball could be argued to create a “false competence” effect where players think they are good at the sport, but in reality, as soon as they go to another country or start playing on the world tour, they realize they have only become good at something different from what real beach volleyball (as played worldwide) actually is.
Personally, I believe that if we want to create more world tour players, we should give them the opportunity to practice these decisions under competitive pressure long before they start playing on the world tour. It’s a very late stage in their careers to get a “cold shower” (think of “coddled” children who are later unprepared for “adult life”.) I can see a point in relaxing the double-touch rule at lower levels (SBT 1*, maybe also 2*), as this would allow “new players to use handsets early on,” as stated in the development section above. However, removing the rule entirely for levels where players are dedicating significant time to becoming good players (3* and higher) would, in my opinion, create a “dumbing down” of Swedish players. Simply put, Swedish players wouldn’t be training actual beach volleyball and would therefore get worse at the actual sport of beach volleyball.
Cultural Change (Justification by the federation): Many established players use a handset technique that results in a “held ball” according to FIVB’s current guidelines, and many new players develop a handset technique that is too long. Removing the rule would facilitate a cultural change within Swedish volleyball that aligns with FIVB.
Counterargument: If Sweden has an issue with established players holding the ball longer than allowed by FIVB, one might think the right approach would be to tighten the rules/interpretation/officiating around lifting, rather than removing another rule.
(Note that the “change” regarding lifting that FIVB made a little over two years ago caused many players to be called for lifting during 1 or 2 tournaments, until there was such an uproar that the judgment was reverted back to approximately what it was before the “change.” FIVB now allows somewhat lifted handsets, at least much more lifted than is usually seen at the professional level in indoor volleyball. Additionally, the official example videos FIVB used in their communications featured players who clearly weren't that skilled at handsetting, so the videos provided very little clarity on how to judge professional players, who typically have much better touch on the ball than the players in the example videos. This “change” is one of the most unprofessional things I’ve personally seen from FIVB. You shouldn’t use video examples of average-level players to show how to judge professional players.)
I don’t quite see the logic here, because in the previous point, you want Sweden to have “looser” rules than FIVB (so more players will dare to use fingertip passes), but here, you don’t want it to be looser than FIVB, because it apparently creates a different culture than FIVB? Why not just judge like FIVB? That would logically create a culture most similar to the one at FIVB, if that’s the goal.
More Consistent Judging (Justification by the federation): Because beach volleyball referees sometimes interpret the double-touch rule differently depending on level and experience, inconsistencies in rulings can arise. Removing the rule would make decisions more uniform and reduce potential disputes or frustrations from players.
Counterargument: Of course, this is an unfortunate reality in all sports that involve judgment calls. But no matter how you twist it, there will always be a judgment involved with handsetting (one theoretical extreme is to allow volleyball to be played with up to 4 hits, as long as hits 2 and 3 are played by the same player with different hands... I don’t think anyone wants to go that far, and so there will inevitably be a judgment moment). So, if you're ready to change beach volleyball into a sport where up to 4 touches are allowed, you can remove the rule. If not, the judgment moment will still exist. Rather than removing a rule, I’d suggest trying to create a culture in Sweden where everyone is explicitly aware that handsets are a judgment call and can be judged in various ways. We could create a new “norm” where referees or refereeing players explain their reasoning/strictness on handset judgement before each match, this explanation wouldn’t need to take more than 10 seconds. (In other words, it should be perfectly acceptable for a player-referee at, say, the SBT 1* level to admit they don’t fully understand the handsetting rules and will likely let most handsets slide, while at SBT 3*, a player-referee might explain their strict stance on both double-touch and lifting, and maybe show a couple of examples of what would be allowed and what wouldn’t.)
In my opinion, beach volleyball is a sport where you must adapt to changing circumstances—wind, sun, and rain can, for example, change from one match to another. Part of being “a good beach volleyball player” is being able to adjust to new circumstances quickly. I see the shifting interpretations of handsetting rules from one referee to another as part of “circumstances that can change from match to match within the sport.” That is, a good player should be able to play under several different “strictness levels” of rule interpretation and quickly adjust from one referee to another. If you lack this knowledge/skill, you're simply not that good at handsetting in beach volleyball and should consider training more to reach the level you desire. However, I believe that if we in Sweden “collectively accepted” this reality and started with the norm that the referee explains how they’ll judge handsets before each match, we as a beach volleyball nation would get better at this very skill of adaptation. Over time, everyone would improve at handling this, as it would become a part of the game that we focus on, rather than something only a few people think about while the rest of the players walk around frustrated that the judgments shift from match to match (which will always happen) and then try to change the rules of the entire game to “fix the problem” without realizing that they aren’t fixing the problem, just shifting it somewhere else, possibly making it even worse.
Increased Attractiveness of the Sport (Justification by the federation): The double-touch rule on fingertip passes is one of, if not the most, difficult-to-explain rules for an uninitiated audience. Removing it would make the sport easier to understand and more fun to watch.
Counterargument: Whether the sport would be more interesting for uninitiated viewers without the double-touch rule is debatable. The argument for is that it might be less confusing to watch. However, I can also see the opposite being true: if you remove one of the most important skills in the game, even some dedicated players will stop watching (and bringing their friends) and the game will be just as confusing for newcomers (didn’t you say there were 3 hits in volleyball? They did 4!).
The truth is, we don’t know whether the uninitiated would like watching the sport more or less without the double-touch rule, and it would take several years of play without the rule before we knew this. So, the increased attractiveness of the sport is currently pure speculation at this point. We’d need to see what new techniques develop over more years, and whether uninitiated viewers enjoy watching that or not to really know the answer to this.
What I can say with more certainty is that Jonatan and David’s Olympic win this summer has increased interest in the sport in Sweden. And they won because they are good at playing the sport according to FIVB rules. Therefore, if you want interest in the sport to grow in Sweden, I think you should:
Focus on rule/cultural changes that, on average, make Swedish players better at playing beach volleyball the way it is played worldwide.
Stay away from rule/cultural changes that would make the average Swedish player worse at beach volleyball.
This way, you create more opportunities for Sweden to produce better players.
Bonus: The opinions above are ones I know I'm far from alone in holding. My next opinion might be unique, though, but I think it would make the handset rules easier to judge and understand for the uninitiated:
I believe handsets should be judged as incorrect if:
1. The ball moves in two different directions while being held in the hands or comes to a stop in the hands (this should be judged as a lift, just as per FIVB's current rules).
2. The ball rotates more than one full turn in the air after a handset (you can also choose 0.5 turns or 1.5 turns, depending on how strict you want the rule to be). This should be judged as a double hit, which would lead to much less ambiguity in judgment compared to the current rules.
3. If the ball clearly and noticeably touches one hand and then the other during a handset (this should be judged as a double hit, though such cases where this happens without rule number 2 about ball rotation occurring at the same time are extremely rare, so this rule will almost never need to be used).
If these three rules were applied, it would acknowledge the reality that handsets have always been and will always be a judgment call, but at the same time, there would be clearer and simpler rules to follow for both referees, players, informed fans, and casual spectators. At the same time, there would still be a requirement for "clean" handsets (no double hits), so players would still be subject to similar standards as FIVB and in play outside Sweden. It would also be very easy to apply different strictness in judgment at different levels (for example, SBT 1* could have a maximum of 2 rotations as a rule).
Personally, I believe this rule change would genuinely not lead to any differing judgment from FIVB's ruling in at least 95% of all handsets made, but at the same time, it would be easy to both judge and understand.
Bonus 2: It is somewhat unclear how true this is, but many coaches around the world argue that the path to a world-class handset involves first lifting the ball too much for a period so that the hands learn to sync with each other and the "soft touch" is developed. Afterward, the handsetting movement is "sped up," but the softness of the touch is maintained. This may not prove anything, but I know that at least David Åhman went through this process. Personally, I have called him for a lift a few times when I thought he was starting to get an unfair advantage from it, and we know that David is quite a good setter today after he sped up his previously too "lifted" handsets.
Regardless, if the method above is actually the "best way to develop a world-class handset" (one can argue both for and against), but Sweden at the same time created a culture where double hits don't exist but lifts are judged very strictly, we would, in reality, have created a system that incentivizes players to only learn very fast, very "snappy" handsets, which in many ways is the complete opposite of the process above. I foresee a worst-case scenario where, in a few years, Sweden realizes that through this rule change (removing the double hit rule), we created an effect that systematically led Swedish beach volleyball players to get more handsetting reps, but at the same time made it harder for those same players to get reps that actually lead to good handsets. It would simply have systematically created a beach volleyball nation where an unusually high number of players are unusually good at making bad handsets... (Quick, snappy, double-contacted handsets that become impossible for the attacking partner to read.) I don't think this will lead to more Olympic medalists, more people wanting to watch the sport, or any other good outcome either. It doesn't matter how good you are at doing something the wrong way; it will still be better to do it the right way.
Anyway, I’m too tired to write more, and I think most people won’t read this much, but there are of course more arguments both for and against if anyone wants to dig deeper. But those can be addressed elsewhere. However, I think this is an interesting conversation (at a personal level), so I encourage anyone who has read this document/blogpost and has arguments/counterarguments to the proposal/idea that I might not have thought of, to email them to alex@learnbeachvolleyballfast.com. I am more than happy to read them, and I often change my opinion when I hear a truly good argument that goes against what I think!
Thank you for taking the time to read this! I believe we all need to stay engaged in our sport (for example, by having discussions like this) if we want to continue enjoying our favorite sport to the fullest!
That was basically it. The result was that the federation did not listen to my counterarguments (at least not enough) to stop the proposal, and Sweden is now headed into one season of this experiment. I will create a podcast episode with some thoughts about this soon, but in short I am actually quite curious to watch this go down. (EDIT: Go here for the podcast episode or listen to episode 22 of the Learn Beach Volleyball Fast Podcast in your favorite podcast app!)
As far as I know, this experiment has not been run at scale in beach volleyball for a long long time (if ever!), and as stupid as I might think it is, and as little as I want to participate in it myself, I am still thankful to be able to probably sit at the side and watch the whole thing go down. I am curious to see both what kinds of new techniques might get developed (if some competitive players actually end up believing that this will be a long term rule and start adapting their game fully to the new reality, including new ways to attack etc), and what can be learned from this experiment.
At the same time I feel a bit sorry for all the “guinea pigs” aka players that will be participating in this experiment, which also includes myself in the case that i decide to compete in Sweden during next years season. Regardless, by doing new things, one usually gets to learn new stuff, and this I believe will be the case here regardless if the learned stuff is “good” or “bad”.. But I guess the future will tell!
Until then, thanks for reading, and here comes some shameless self promo:
One of my most viewed and liked Youtube videos on how to learn good handsetting (no lift no double): Handsetting video
For learning more about my coaching, where I through unique but effective methods regularly accomplish teaching also adult players some of the “mysterious” techniques of beach volleyball, like how to have a clean handset, how to be relaxed and controlled in serve receive, or how to create explosive hitting power in an effortless way, go here: www.learnbeachvolleyballfast.com/coaching