Passing at that level, as you can imagine, is setter specific. At this time Lloy Ball was the setter, who famously was 7 feet tall. For the US, a perfect pass was higher than usual to give Lloy a chance to get a good pure set.

The center line between the pins along the net was divided into I think 10 zones (pretty much 1 meter segments) kind of like how most universities divide it up for calling plays, but in this case it was for passing. The area between the center line and the 3 meter line (as it is called internationally) is divided into three one meter segments.

Ideally the pass would fall in zone 6-2, 15 to 18 feet from the sideline just off the middle. As you can imagine, middle blockers at that level are...good. Ridiculously good. But it didn't have to do so much with their height. One of the coaches explained to me that it had more to do with their lateral movement (how quickly can you shift to the pins on your block) and ability to read the blockers on either side of them (when you are able to put up a triple block, are you bumping into the other blockers). He knew I was from BYU, so he used Scott Bunker as an example. He said Bunker was only 6'5", short for a middle, but he was the best middle blocker in the nation because he excelled at those things and reading the setter. Anyway, a pass to the setter right there allows the setter to set to any position, and use quick sets at all of them. This is to hopefully immobilize the middle or at least take one of the blockers out of the picture.

On the other side of things, you want the set to fall between 3 and 6 feet off the net. The reason for this is obvious. You want to avoid trap sets. Don't think there's any more explanation needed there.

Anything outside of that 3x3 square would automatically drop it from a 10. Like I said, because of Ball's height, it needed to be higher than usual. International refs are strict with lifts and double hits by the setter, and the hands must be over the head when setting. But there's another reason as well. It allows all other hitters time to get set. Apparently its a delicate balance between who covers the hitters and who goes in motion (through the entire hitting motion that is) to fake out blockers. Anyway, too low of a pass drops points. I didn't bother to ask if there is such a thing as too high of a pass.

These coaches loved the offense McGown ran at BYU back in the day. The quick-spread, as they called it, was so simple (quick up the middle every time with low sets to the outside) yet it was BYU's ability to perfectly execute it so often that made their offense so dangerous. The opposing defense never had a chance to get set and BYU was able to get a lot of 1 on 1 situations. Passing was the key to this whole offense.

What they didn't tell me was at what point they would choose to drop someone from the lineup or change positions. But that's kind of obvious.

That's the condensed version. Very eye opening to me.