In reference to p.144 today’s topic is: Help, the setter did the receive; who’s going to toss?!
Summary
Obviously you don’t want the setter to do the receiving as he’s the one who’s specially trained to do the toss for the attack. But sometimes it happens, either ‘cause the ball goes astray (e.g. after a one-touch of a block) or because you opponent aimed for it. Honestly it’s one of the best positions to hit the ball at if you can’t do a proper attack because it’ll obviously put your opponent in a pinch. (Other positions are: short behind the MB aka right in the middle or a really long ball in the far left corner.)
So what can you do?
Generally you’d still try to bring the ball to the setter’s position. It’s generally the opposite/right WS’s job to sub in for the setter when the setter can’t make the toss. Just what Daichi did here. Of course they’re not as well trained so a quick would usually not be something to do and they’d generally just do the easiest toss, meaning they’ll send it to the left WS. (Though I’d like to think my “normal” set to the middle wasn’t that bad.) A back attack is also an option.
Alternatively instead of the opposite subbing in, that toss could also be done by the MB. That’s what our coach was trying to teach us for the last seasons that I played. Though it’s quite hard to relearn that after doing it one way all your time. ^^’ I think the reason was that the MB could give the toss to both sides (right and left WS). At least when the MB turns himself in the designated direction (and doesn’t go for a back toss), it’s the same kind of toss for both WS, therefore the MB wouldn’t have to differentiate between different tosses and compared to a toss for the MB it’s definitly easier to do.
Depending on the position of the setter and how easy the receive is, the setter could also do the toss right away. Meaning doing the toss with their receive and the second ball contact already becoming the attack. Your players have to be ready for that though and the receive obviously can’t be too difficult.
Another option, especially if the receive goes off to the left side, is for the libero to do the toss (obviously not a toss whith hands up but rather the move when you do a receive (not sure how that’s called in english; in german it’s “baggern”)). He’s already trained to have a good control of the ball with that movement, so bringing it properly to any position other than the setter shouldn’t be too hard. It also gives you the advantage of technically having all positions free to do an attack.
TBC as there’s a comparable scene in the next chapter (had a somewhat long train ride recently) but I don’t want to do spoilers. 