Jump Serve and How It Changed Volleyball

I was born in 1977. I remember very well the times when the 3 protagonists of this documentary, William, Renan and Montanaro (alongside with their teammates Bernard and Xando) were household names and almost national heroes. So it was exciting to recall the age where Brazil began its love affair with volleyball. We as a country felt so close to that national team, perhaps as much as to the football squad. And the effects last to this day - just yesterday Brazil clinched its 3rd gold medal.

The disappointment with the documentary comes from the title. Of the 26 minutes, only 60 seconds or so are about the jump serve, and we do not get the info we wanted. How did they come up with it? When? How hard was it to develop and perfect the technique? Were coaches involved? If you are going to do a piece about the 1980s generation, just name your documentary "the Silver Generation - how it all started" or something like that, instead of promising something you don't deliver. They could have given just 5 more minutes to the jump serve and use the rest of the run time to reminisce about the 1984 Olympics, and we would be both delighted and informed.

Since the 3 players themselves do not talk much about the jump serve, I strongly suspect that it was initially a documentary with the trio reminiscing about the 1984 Olympics, and only after seeing the footage the producers decided to change the focus. Maybe it was supposed to be a celebration of the 30 years of Brazil's first medal, but was released earlier. So they rushed to get interviews with other people talking vaguely about the jump serve - "oh, yeah, I remember that" and renamed the movie. A bit of a mess in the end.

As it is, the documentary is enjoyable for Brazilians my age or older, but it does not give much for other volleyball fans.