What’s cracking (I’ve never used that and I don’t think I ever will again).

Anyways, the American Spikers League had their playoffs this weekend and we have some things to talk about. Honestly, it’s just results to keep you in the loop of the sport. Below you’ll find:

1. 🥳 ASL Recap

2. 🔍️ Skill Breakdown (serve tells)

3. 🎯 Quick Hits

Come with me (ominous voice) ⤵️ 

The American Spikers League Playoffs

This field was riddled with pro players. If you want a rundown of the event and the players participating, you can refer to our last newsletter.

We couldn’t wait for this tournament to play out, and let’s just say we weren’t disappointed.

Men’s Premier Division

The favorites won this week, and in absolute dominant fashion. The boys from Michigan who have been competing with each other for years teamed up as a squad and took home the gold. Livonia went 6-0 in the Rookies Division that included Max Model’s Long Island squad who came second in the division. 

Let’s review Livonia’s bracket play up until the finals

9-0 vs Syracuse, 8-1 vs Orlando, 9-3 vs Buddy Hammond’s SoCal team. Dominating their way through until they met the Canadian team from Montreal, Quebec. 

The Canadians got out to leads in all the games in the first round with Insytem’s duo playing strong. But Livonia didn’t come here to lose. They rallied back and took a 2-1 match lead heading into the second round and eventually won the entire match 7-6.

The Texas boys from Waco, lead by Rahul Murthy, also had a great tournament, getting a podium finish. Waco dominated all day long until they lost a close match with Quebec in the Semifinals.

The Premier Division was relatively top heavy all the way up until the Semifinals—not many close matches in the first two rounds of bracket play. It will take a couple years to have dense teams of eight that can all compete with the likes of Rogue or Insystem, but we’re so glad we got that battle at the end. 

Women’s Division

Another huge result for the Quebec club led by the Canadian National Champs, Kim and Genevieve, who were just dominant all the way through (side note… we’d love to see them at one of the majors this year 👀). They went head-to-head with TWINZ last year and held their own in the Finals of the Quebec Challenger event. 

The favorites from California led by Karah Hui also had a strong performance but came up short in the Finals. 

Contender Division

Congrats to the boys from Atlanta for getting their Premier card with a dominant showing in every match. Quick shoutout to the Forest City Roundnet club for making the Semifinals 🇨🇦

Full Coverage ⬇️ 

🔪 Reverse Cut Serve Tells

Are you scared, frightened and terrified trying to receive five different serves?

Let’s help you figure out how to counter those deadly reverse cuts.

What are reverse cut tells?

A tell is something that lets you know what’s coming. So what you want to look for is:

1. Inside toss vs outside toss. On a reverse cut the toss will be inside (close to the body) in comparison to a cut serve.

2. Open vs closed hand positioning. Open palm means a reverse cut is coming.

3. Hips fall back to make room for the inside toss.

Stay light on your feet. Don’t put your heel down or overcommit until you’ve evaluated the tells.

Know what you’re looking for so you can react accordingly. Make sure you’re learning tells throughout the course of the match.

👊 Quick Hits

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