Back on one to the server: Ouch!

What's the problem? Serving team players sometimes fail to cover the court properly until their server gets back onto the court.

This is especially likely when the team is playing with five players instead of six. I suppose the reason is that the players in the front row figure covering their own back row area during their own serve is not their responsibility. They are wrong, of course.

When a team has only four players, the players tend to be more generous in their coverage.

It's simple to take advantage of this:

Do your opponents leave their server’s court position (their right back corner, deep left from your position) uncovered while their server is serving? Is the server usually slow to move up and cover that area of the court?

Step One: If so, send the served ball, with just one touch, back across the net to the server's corner.

Usually, this is best done with an open-handed "set" type of pass. This is how my co-ed team lost a point last night.* A 6-foot male opponent, in their right-front position, received the ball about head-height and "shot" it back across the net and over the reach of our right-front player to land about twelve feet deep and four feet from our side-line. But I've seen bump passes work with the same success: a quick and easy point.

That's it. There is no Step Two.

Sometimes there's a bonus: your opponents blame each other for the lack of good coverage but they don't agree on how to prevent it from happening. In that case, repeat Step One.

It's simple to prevent this from happening to your own team:

1. Your two non-serving players in the back row (middle back and left back) should ensure the court is properly covered while your setter is off-court. Split the back of the court down the middle and each take a half.

Note: Do you realize that the server can serve from anywhere across the entire back line of the court? There is no longer a "service box" of just a few feet at the right end of the line. One or both of the other back row players can be to the server's right if they choose.

Some players get lazy about coverage and tend to play their own position, like one of the spots on the "six" side of a die. They line up by rote: "I'm in the middle-back position so I will stand exactly half-way between the two sidelines even though my teammate who is serving is entirely off the court to begin this play."

Well, duh-Uh!

2. Your front-right player should, usually, back away from the net to about the 10-foot line (attack line). This will help cover the back-right position's usual territory until the server has time to return to the court.
3. Your server should move into defensive position immediately after serving.

4. Your whole team is responsible for every point. If an area is apt to not be properly covered, each player is allowed to anticipate that and alert her teammates to the potential problem. Some useful alerts might be:

"Cover the server's spot!"

"Watch out for it coming back right away!"

"Look out for a one-back!

And, pointing: "Hey! MOVE!"

Scoring by putting the ball to the uncovered server's spot on the first touch is sometimes derided for not using all three available touches, for not demonstrating interesting athleticism and for being "cheesy" or cheap.

But it's still a point. And the team giving it up should have covered that part of the court.

* We won that game, anyway.