Stellar · Volleyball rotation trainer · updated 28 July 2026
The rotation model, resolved
The card has been read. Six players, one middle — which kills the seven-player explanation
and confirms every behaviour it predicted. The rule below now generates all six rotations with no exceptions.
Confirmed from the card: six players, not seven · the libero appears in every rotation box ·
the libero is always back row · the middle is never back row · M and L are always opposite each other, and in
the odd-looking rotations they trade so M stays front and L stays back.
All four claims tested against all six rotations, including the three that were derived rather than read.
Every one holds.
The rule
S, RS and both OHs follow the shared six-zone cycle
FL→FM→FR→BR→BM→BL→FL with zero exceptions, every rotation.
M and L move as a locked pair, always three apart, M always in front and L always in back.
Each runs its own three-step cycle inside its own row —
M: FM→FR→FL · L: BM→BL→BR.
Written this way there is no special case at all.
The “weird rotations” are only weird if you insist on running M and L through the shared six-zone cycle.
The same rule, described as motion — which is what needs animating: at 2→3 and
5→6, M and L trade destinations. M was headed to BR and L to FL; instead M takes FL and L takes
BR. Everyone else just steps one zone.
Player
Path 1→6
Follows the shared cycle?
S
FL → FM → FR → BR → BM → BL
Yes, every step
RS
BR → BM → BL → FL → FM → FR
Yes — always 3 behind S
OH ×2
FR/BL → FL/BR → FM/BM → (repeat)
Yes, both
M
FM → FR → FL → FM → FR → FL
No — own 3-cycle, front row only
L
BM → BL → BR → BM → BL → BR
No — own 3-cycle, back row only
Where the checks stand
A
The roster line Answered
Six players, one middle. My seven-player explanation (two middles, libero covering the
back-row one) is wrong. The libero plays the middle's opposite slot instead. Same diagrams
either way — the correction changes the story, not a single cell.
B
The libero across all six boxes Answered
Present in every box, always back row, never front. This was the check that could have
killed the model. It didn't.
C
Rotations 1–3 — still derived, not read Open, low risk
The confirmed rule plus rotations 4–6 produces 1–3 uniquely, and they've been checked
against the rule. But nobody has read them off the card. Derived-from-a-confirmed-rule is not fabrication —
it is also not evidence. One glance settles it, and the diagrams below are what to glance at.
D
Which OH is which Open, matters
The handwritten correction in rotation 1 (an OH2 relabelled toward OH1) says the card
distinguishes the two outside hitters. The six-token model throws that away — which makes “who serves next”
ambiguous in The Streak and makes some Tag the Photo faults unstatable. This is information being discarded,
not information nobody has.
Which zone is the correction in, and which way does it read on the original?
Do other rotation boxes distinguish OH1 from OH2, or only this one?
E
Serve and defense — inventory only Open, deferrable
Don't decode. Just count, so Mode 1's bank can be sized — and consider whether these are
wanted at all. Receive-only would cut the bank by two thirds and remove a blocker rather than solve it.
One question left that the card cannot answer. These diagrams are being read as base
rotational positions. Teams also legally shift players away from base to receive serve — an overload — and if
that is what the card draws, the arithmetic has been validating a coincidence.
The loop closing in both directions is strong evidence against an
overload, since overloaded formations wouldn't survive it. But it's one question to the coach:
“Are these where they rotate to, or where they stand to pass?”
All six rotations
Read from the card Derived from the confirmed rule◆ The M/L pair — always opposite, M front, L back
Rotation 1Derived
Net
SFL
MFM
OHFR
OHBL
LBM
RSBR
Baseline / server
Rotation 2Derived
Net
OHFL
SFM
MFR
LBL
RSBM
OHBR
Trade happens after this one
Rotation 3Derived
Net
MFL
OHFM
SFR
RSBL
OHBM
LBR
After the trade
Rotation 4From card
Net
RSFL
MFM
OHFR
OHBL
LBM
SBR
Baseline / server
Rotation 5From card
Net
OHFL
RSFM
MFR
LBL
SBM
OHBR
Trade happens after this one
Rotation 6From card
Net
MFL
OHFM
RSFR
SBL
OHBM
LBR
After the trade
Rotations 2→3 and 5→6 are the two trades. In both, M jumps FR→FL across the front row and L
jumps BL→BR across the back. Every other token steps one zone.
What this unblocks
The rotate animation can be fixed now. It currently slides all six tokens one step along
the shared cycle, which is right for four and backwards for M and L at the two trades. Rebuild it to
show the trade — the two of them crossing while everyone else steps. That crossing is the single most
teachable moment in the subject and the app currently hides it.
Rotations 1–3 stop being “coming soon.” Mode 1's bank triples, and Stories becomes
buildable at all — it needs 8–10 frames and three rotations couldn't supply them.
The whole table is generated by two rules. She doesn't need to memorise six diagrams; she
needs the cycle, plus M-and-L-stay-opposite. That reframes the app from memorisation to derivation, and it is
exactly what Stories should be aimed at inducing.