Have you ever wondered how the spectacled and mildly unco-ordinated spiker playing opposite you has just hit through your block? How the placement was exactly right? How that spiker appeared to know more about your block than you did?

The chances are a guess was made about where to hit and that guess happened to be right. Or maybe the hitter just banged away and the spike hit the lucky spot. OR-highly unlikely in your opinion-there was some clue giving away where to hit.

How do spikers make choices anyway? How do they learn to see the blockers when just hitting the ball down into the opponent's court is so difficult. Let's follow a leftside spiker learning to hit, expanding the number and types of hits and responding to the formation of the block.

As all hitters with a good memory can attest, spiking is a sophisticated skill. It can be compared to place kicking in football-an approach and a swing at a ball, except that the spiker is required to swing at a moving target.

The difficulty is in timing the spike approach with a set whose final destination, even when performed by the highest level setters, is unknown. Let's start with a spiker skilled enough to hit the ball into the court most of the time. That hitter follows the play, gets into position to hit and then spikes the ball. It gets blocked.

The spiker has focused all her attention and energy in getting into an attack position, making an approach, and hitting the ball. There wasn't any time left to see the block.

At this point, all the spiker can do is play more matches, expanding the ability to organize what is seen.

Once the spiker has progressed to where there is some time to spare, choices can be made before the play begins. This usually takes the form of hitting the line once in a while, especially when the player judges that the opponent is "cheating" in the direction of the angle.

The rookie's first hit down the line in competition always follows a decision made before the ball is served (unless it is an accident.) This is not deception, since the spiker usually makes the approach in the direction the hit is supposed to go. It does, however, bring another shot to the attention of the blockers.

Another way for the spiker to mix-up shots is to "hit the ball that is set." In other words, hit the angle on sets that are inside and perfect; the line on balls set outside. This greatly decreases the likelihood of getting blocked. One exception however, is the set that arrives well outside of the sideline. In order for the ball to stay in bounds after the hit, the ball must be hit at an angle.

This is a tough ball to contact but the hitter can make the adjustment to hit the ball in bounds on the opponent's court.

Learning to read the block and then adjust the attack route and type of spike to place the ball over, around, through or off the block is a skill that can only be mastered through constant practice and persistence.

In general, the spiker finishes facing in the direction the ball was hit. This not only develops power in spiking, but allows the player to readily see the court.

Seeing the block can vary from moment to moment or game to game. One game, the hitter sees nothing but the ball. In the next game, the same spiker's vision includes the movements of the blockers. This usually occurs in the middle of a match, when a player's ability to process information is at its greatest.

Furthermore, a player's view of the action is not consistent from one game to another. It becomes more and more clear as the player develops the ability to consistently perform the sequence of skills leading up to the final contact of the ball. The less a player has to think about performing the skills the more time that is created to take in and synthesize additional information and develop physical reactions.

Once a player begins to see the block forming, the possibilities for developing additional options begins to open up.

One of the easiest ways for an attacker to keep two shots (line and angle) in mind during competition is to approach the angle but think all during the approach "I am going to hit the line."

The spiker now has two possibilities. If the outside blocker is giving the line, the hitter uses what she is thinking-turn and hit down the line. If the line shot is being blocked, then that option is easily changed to the cross-court attack, which is in the direction of the approach.

As the player's vision of the court increases with play, choices can be refined. The alert hitter sees not only the positions of the blockers, but the blockers' arms and hands as well. In addition, the blockers appear sooner, giving the hitter more time to judge their eventual position.

Now the hitter can retain the line option and add the possibility of "using" the outside blocker who is not covering the line.

The angle attack brings more interesting possibilities.

The spiker who watches the middle blocker can work the angle with three main shots. These shots take advantage of the middle blocker's overrunning the outside blocker, arriving late to setup and forming a block that is not square or one that does not reach over the net.

When the middle blocker crowds his outside blocker, a common mistake, the outside hitter cuts a shot just inside the middle blocker's hands. The spiker includes the inside arm or hand of the middle blocker as the target. If the middle blocker has shown a tendency to cheat to the inside, the hitter must allow for this.

When the middle blocker is late, the attacker spikes just inside the outside blocker's hands (the space between the outside blocker and the middle blocker) gaining a large part of the court as a target.

When the middle blocker's hands are not square to the net, or do not reach over the net, the spiker can hit right at the middle blocker.

All of these hits benefit from the spiker hitting the ball as high over the net or as deep into the opponent's court as possible.

A high or deep ball is not spectacular, but conservative. A mistake by the spiker leads to a deflection off the top of the blocker's hands. Sometimes these deflections result in a point; other times they are saved by the other team's diggers. They are almost never stuffed by the blockers.

A spike on a sharp downward angle is dangerous. It can result in a spectacular point or be easily stuffed.

A deep set (five feet or more back from the net) can be a problem when the block is well formed. The target area for the spiker is bounded on the lower side by the blockers' hands and on the upper side by the backline. The spike must be squeezed into this area.

The hitter expands the lower part of the target by including the top half of the blocker's hands. Anything deflected from the blocker's hands will disrupt the backcourt player's digging rhythm. It may gain a point out of bounds.

After taking into consideration the top of the blocker's hands, the hitter needs to concentrate on the back line. With experience, its location can be sensed surprisingly well.

Hitting directly towards the corner of the court increases the upper limits of the target, giving the hitter a "free zone" in which to hit, bounded by the middle of the blocker's hands and the back court line.

This allows for another key shot-the "soft" spike which, for deep sets, is one of the most underrated shots in the game. Two positive things can result. If the player takes an aggressive approach and jump, it will likely freeze the backcourt players in their digging stance. They cannot move their feet quickly. Or, a player who has a good sense of the court can place the ball extremely close to the back line. Often the diggers let this ball fall thinking it is out.

Anytime the possibility of a hard spike has been ruled out, the hitter focus complete attention on the back line, forgetting about both the block and the net. Neither of these should present a problem, since the spike-having some arc-is likely to go over both.

More important, the hitter who has chosen the soft spike must forget about a fake that involves turning away from the angle of her approach. A rotation fake only serves to reduce the capacity to imagine the location of the back line.

At the highest levels of volleyball competition, the play by the individuals involves a waiting game. Whichever player commits first is likely to lose.

For the spiker, this means waiting until the blocker has arrived to make the choice of shot (assuming a high set.) Success is still not assured since the blocker may be faking to one area with the idea of closing off another.

When two or more highcaliber players face each other, considerable guessing goes on. A player, whether a spiker or a blocker, can only wait so long before making a decision. That decision is a guess.

And so it is with the high school player. If you are the spiker, with your advantage over the blocker, you can often guess right.