This morning, as I procrastinate from working--a bit annoyed that there are no decent seminars here at the AVCA Convention this morning, I came across a comment from someone that "Inequality is the root of social evil." It was attributed to Pope Francis--and it sounds like something he would say, but this is the internet, and like Abraham Lincoln says, "You can't trust every quote you find on the internet."
It reminded me of like in Westgate 307, the year I had Chris Gabel as a roommate, living in a suite with Steve Haugse and Dave Meythaler. Steve Haugse had a message board posted outside his door in case people stopped by while he was out--yup, this is long before email, cell phones, or text messages...back in the era when people actually talked with one another.
Sometimes Meythaler would post quotes on the board, and often, we found it fun to mess with him...and the quotes. The best was when he posted one of Barry Goldwater's most famous quotes:
"Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice."
(Editorial comment: Recent torture revelations certainly prove this an inaccurate assertion)
So we changed it a little:
*Liberty in the extremism of vice is no defense.
*Vice in the defense of extremism is no liberty.
*Extremism in the vice of defense is not liberty.
And we put every combination up on the door.
Dave wasn't amused initially. He'd posted the Goldwater quote as something profound and we made a mockery of it...which Foster House excelled at. If snark was an Olympic event, Foster House of 1986-88 would have been repeat Gold Medalists.
But having written all this above, what's shocking is that Goldwater's quote, considered outrageously radical in the early 1960s in a time of tension with the USSR, the height of the Cold War, today is accepted by more than half the American population--torture to get info from MAYBE-bad guys? Good. Lack of due process?--if it means "security", great, doesn't affect me. But at what point does it slide further--we already have tortured foreigners we thought could potentially be terrorists--when do we start the torture of citizens? When does it become okay to rectally insert food for the sake of stopping a string of robberies?
Would Goldwater appreciate that the LA School District now has a mine-resistant APC or grenade launchers? (Yes, that's right--a school district has THREE grenade launchers) Think he'd be happy with the increase in SWAT raids across the country, the accidental deaths of hundreds of people in those raids (the total over the past decade is now something like 105).
The answer is no. The world changed. Goldwater, once considered a conservative extremist, saw politics move in his lifetime (after white Southerners took over the Republican Party, infusing it with silly fundamentalist religious, political, and racist views) so that at the end of his political career, Goldwater was considered a moderate and on some issues "liberal". The man who admired Goldwater, Reagan,--Reagan couldn't be elected today--doesn't pass Republican 'litmus tests'.
I guess maybe we shouldn't have been so flippant about that Goldwater quote. It proved to be far more prescient than I, as a nineteen year old, could ever have suspected.
Friday, December 19, 2014
Monday, December 15, 2014
My team could beat an NCAA Final Four team. Really.
Okay--my LLCC team, really could beat an NCAA Final Four team, but there are a couple catches to all this.
A couple weeks ago, I was talking with Sandy Hamilton who played at Illinois as Sandy Scholtens a couple years before I got to work with the Illini volleyball team. Her senior year, Illinois went to the Final Four for the second time. They were a great volleyball team, probably the most dominant team in the Midwest, certainly east of the Mississippi.
My comment to her was, "If you suddenly teleported your team forward to now, we'd beat them."
Sandy: "No way."
Me: "Yup, I don't mean that cocky. Think about volleyball today."
The Illini lineup-1988
S: 5'7
RS: 5'9
MH1: 5'10
MH2: 5'10
OH1: 5'8
OH2: 5'8
(I put Mary Eggers at an OH, Bush and Brookhart as the MH for posterity)
LLCC lineup-2014
S: 5'7
RS: 5'11
MH1: 5'11 or 6'1
MH2: 6'1
OH1: 5'10
OH2: 6'1 or 5'10
We're a two-year college and 26 years later, I've got a height advantage almost everywhere. Just as important, I remember most of those Illini players, and at least two of my kids absolutely hit harder, probably two others as well. See why I say that? I think that says a lot about how volleyball has changed--just as importantly, how girls and women's athletics have changed for the better. What was once a collection of all-American NCAA talent, one of the four most dominant teams in the US, now would be the equivalent of a Top 15-20 NJCAA team.
Of course, if you put LLCC up versus the 2014 Illini, my goal's to get to ten points in a game.
Illini lineup-2014
S: 6'1
RS: 6'6
MH1: 6'4
MH2: 6'4
OH1: 6'1
OH2: 6'2
6'1 and taller across the board and while I've got kids I know hit harder than what the '88 team did, I'm not sure they hit harder than the '14 Illini players--not to mention my OH are giving up 6" of height against the RS block, and are shorter than even the setter.
So it's all perspective. And for the better.
In 1988, Midwest teams, East Coast teams, had never won a title. And then the dam burst--Nebraska...a lot of Penn State, etc. Ohio State's been to the Final Four, Michigan, Florida State, bunches of teams now beyond the West Coast. There are no longer four or five great programs, now there are twenty or thirty, and on any given night, those teams are capable of beating the other top teams.
USA Volleyball preaches (rightfully) that there's room for the game to expand (hence 'grow the game'). The above is a small example of how the game has changed, how the skill is improving as well as the athleticism of the women involved (I'd bet much of this is true for the men's side though I have no experience with it--but would love to hear thoughts on that). The NFHSA says volleyball is still growing. As that happens, and as the level of coaching improves through experience, the quality of the game will pick up.
* * *
In the 1960s-1970s, there were only a few dominant men's basketball teams...mainly Wooden's UCLA team. The NCAA Tournament wasn't that big either. With increased revenue, increased TV coverage, men's basketball has grown so that you can see amazing athletes at smaller colleges, and there's always one sleeper school advancing nowadays. I think volleyball's at that 1960s-1970s point in time. Yup, if history repeats itself, we're on the cusp of a golden age...we just have to keep pushing because once that ball gets rolling, be ready for a ride because it won't stop!
And now, off to the AVCA Convention and Final Four....after a talk to 5th graders on the value of education and an LLCC Athletics Staff Meeting.
A couple weeks ago, I was talking with Sandy Hamilton who played at Illinois as Sandy Scholtens a couple years before I got to work with the Illini volleyball team. Her senior year, Illinois went to the Final Four for the second time. They were a great volleyball team, probably the most dominant team in the Midwest, certainly east of the Mississippi.
My comment to her was, "If you suddenly teleported your team forward to now, we'd beat them."
Sandy: "No way."
Me: "Yup, I don't mean that cocky. Think about volleyball today."
The Illini lineup-1988
S: 5'7
RS: 5'9
MH1: 5'10
MH2: 5'10
OH1: 5'8
OH2: 5'8
(I put Mary Eggers at an OH, Bush and Brookhart as the MH for posterity)
LLCC lineup-2014
S: 5'7
RS: 5'11
MH1: 5'11 or 6'1
MH2: 6'1
OH1: 5'10
OH2: 6'1 or 5'10
We're a two-year college and 26 years later, I've got a height advantage almost everywhere. Just as important, I remember most of those Illini players, and at least two of my kids absolutely hit harder, probably two others as well. See why I say that? I think that says a lot about how volleyball has changed--just as importantly, how girls and women's athletics have changed for the better. What was once a collection of all-American NCAA talent, one of the four most dominant teams in the US, now would be the equivalent of a Top 15-20 NJCAA team.
Of course, if you put LLCC up versus the 2014 Illini, my goal's to get to ten points in a game.
Illini lineup-2014
S: 6'1
RS: 6'6
MH1: 6'4
MH2: 6'4
OH1: 6'1
OH2: 6'2
6'1 and taller across the board and while I've got kids I know hit harder than what the '88 team did, I'm not sure they hit harder than the '14 Illini players--not to mention my OH are giving up 6" of height against the RS block, and are shorter than even the setter.
So it's all perspective. And for the better.
In 1988, Midwest teams, East Coast teams, had never won a title. And then the dam burst--Nebraska...a lot of Penn State, etc. Ohio State's been to the Final Four, Michigan, Florida State, bunches of teams now beyond the West Coast. There are no longer four or five great programs, now there are twenty or thirty, and on any given night, those teams are capable of beating the other top teams.
USA Volleyball preaches (rightfully) that there's room for the game to expand (hence 'grow the game'). The above is a small example of how the game has changed, how the skill is improving as well as the athleticism of the women involved (I'd bet much of this is true for the men's side though I have no experience with it--but would love to hear thoughts on that). The NFHSA says volleyball is still growing. As that happens, and as the level of coaching improves through experience, the quality of the game will pick up.
* * *
In the 1960s-1970s, there were only a few dominant men's basketball teams...mainly Wooden's UCLA team. The NCAA Tournament wasn't that big either. With increased revenue, increased TV coverage, men's basketball has grown so that you can see amazing athletes at smaller colleges, and there's always one sleeper school advancing nowadays. I think volleyball's at that 1960s-1970s point in time. Yup, if history repeats itself, we're on the cusp of a golden age...we just have to keep pushing because once that ball gets rolling, be ready for a ride because it won't stop!
And now, off to the AVCA Convention and Final Four....after a talk to 5th graders on the value of education and an LLCC Athletics Staff Meeting.
Saturday, December 13, 2014
In honor of "Dead Week"...
So it is Dead Week in Ames this week, and for some reason, I got to thinking about the way Dead Week used to work--I have no idea how it goes any more.
Anyways, once you got to the week before Finals, everything had to be quiet for 23.5 hours. The only exception was 10-1030pm where the noise restrictions were lifted and pretty much anything would go.
Of course, it's important to realize that in an 'academic' building, things were usually quiet, and Foster House was in between an all-girls floor, and a group of uber-nerds on the floor above (Nelson). Nelson took their studies wayyyyy too seriously and would complain throughout the year about conversations they heard through the bulkhead-like walls of Westgate or music being played or any number of things. --I can still name people who lived on Stalker, Lowe, and of course, Foster, but the only name I remember from Nelson was Yvette Louisell, and I remember her because she murdered a paraplegic and now lawyers are arguing she was a minor and should be released because she's paid a 25-yr price. ...makes me want to vomit. So anyways, no one from Nelson ever did anything social. Ever.
So it was the winter of 1987 when we invented a new sport that burned like a meteor, played furiously for a week, then forgotten. The game was Hall Ball. Yes, a very original, unique name. Westgate's halls were only 7-8 feet wide, a narrow corridor, extending for maybe the equivalent of half a city block. The game involved however many people were around trying to kick a basketball from one end of the hall to the opposing end. There were no other rules....which meant tackling was fine. Elbows, gouging, everything, which was all the better given that there were 12-16 people playing. Ahhh, the noise was enough to even bring about the wrath of the girls living below us.
Do people do these sorts of things now? I remember we'd go in groups of 8-12 to get pop at KwikShop (and I remember one person at the end of the line drinking everything before reaching the register and then not paying at all...funny how that was amusing then and now strikes me as ethically unacceptable)
I also made sure during Dead Week and Finals to do a couple extra shifts over at KUSR--Ames' Best Choice for Rock and Roll, though now the station is KURE and soon they will be moved out of Friley Hall to locations unknown. Maybe reading about that triggered the urge to write this. I don't know.
What I know is that I lived with the greatest collection of personalities the world has seen. If you are one of those and read this--you are loved. If you are not reading this, you're loved, too.
Anyways, once you got to the week before Finals, everything had to be quiet for 23.5 hours. The only exception was 10-1030pm where the noise restrictions were lifted and pretty much anything would go.
Of course, it's important to realize that in an 'academic' building, things were usually quiet, and Foster House was in between an all-girls floor, and a group of uber-nerds on the floor above (Nelson). Nelson took their studies wayyyyy too seriously and would complain throughout the year about conversations they heard through the bulkhead-like walls of Westgate or music being played or any number of things. --I can still name people who lived on Stalker, Lowe, and of course, Foster, but the only name I remember from Nelson was Yvette Louisell, and I remember her because she murdered a paraplegic and now lawyers are arguing she was a minor and should be released because she's paid a 25-yr price. ...makes me want to vomit. So anyways, no one from Nelson ever did anything social. Ever.
So it was the winter of 1987 when we invented a new sport that burned like a meteor, played furiously for a week, then forgotten. The game was Hall Ball. Yes, a very original, unique name. Westgate's halls were only 7-8 feet wide, a narrow corridor, extending for maybe the equivalent of half a city block. The game involved however many people were around trying to kick a basketball from one end of the hall to the opposing end. There were no other rules....which meant tackling was fine. Elbows, gouging, everything, which was all the better given that there were 12-16 people playing. Ahhh, the noise was enough to even bring about the wrath of the girls living below us.
Do people do these sorts of things now? I remember we'd go in groups of 8-12 to get pop at KwikShop (and I remember one person at the end of the line drinking everything before reaching the register and then not paying at all...funny how that was amusing then and now strikes me as ethically unacceptable)
I also made sure during Dead Week and Finals to do a couple extra shifts over at KUSR--Ames' Best Choice for Rock and Roll, though now the station is KURE and soon they will be moved out of Friley Hall to locations unknown. Maybe reading about that triggered the urge to write this. I don't know.
What I know is that I lived with the greatest collection of personalities the world has seen. If you are one of those and read this--you are loved. If you are not reading this, you're loved, too.
Thursday, December 4, 2014
Greetings and welcome to
the annual installment of the Dietz Christmas Letter. I know, I
know...under most circumstances, you're thinking, “Ahh, holy crap,
they still have my email, still have my mailing address,” and you
know what—you're right. So suck it up, you get to take one for the
team.
I thought about doing
something nice (no, you still have to read this) and making an advent
letter, sending everyone a new letter every day of the Christmas
season because I know you guys would've LOVED 25 letters. Except
it's already December 3, so out the door that one went. I thought
about doing a crossword puzzle, but
SJTBWPSOWSWHWWLCLPSOCWMOTGCAKOFMHROKS informed me that I've done that
before. Crud.
So let's start with a
recap of the 2013 DCL: “I'm an athlete, baby!!!”
--and the witnesses are still alive who heard that.
And now, on to 2014...(and your free continuing education credit in poetic forms):
BRIGITTE (the name)
Brigi is the nickname they gave her
Brigi is the nickname they gave her
Right when she arrived in
Hungary for the year
It's fitting, but
sentimental, I prefer
Getty-Spaghetti or just Getty, but I haven't called her Debbie in months
I wish she could be home for the holidays
Though I can't describe my pride of her
Time abroad, it flies fast, so I'll see her soon enough
Except then she comes home just to head to college.
Getty-Spaghetti or just Getty, but I haven't called her Debbie in months
I wish she could be home for the holidays
Though I can't describe my pride of her
Time abroad, it flies fast, so I'll see her soon enough
Except then she comes home just to head to college.
SPECIAL BLOG BONUS--PHOTOS!!!
This is when we went and picked up a 1965 Mustang. My mom said to do something silly when I could with some of the money she left when she died. My mom loved Mustangs, so this felt right. Right now the car is having some restoration work done to it and a professional paint job. It'll reappear just in time for spring! (I may even let her drive it. Once. For half a block.)
Brigitte is studying
abroad this year with Rotary International. She was assigned to
Debrecen, Hungary, where she's gone to school, played volleyball
(which is REALLY important), and already traveled to Rumania and
Austria. This spring, she may hit most of the rest of Europe. After
that, she'll come home, spend the summer helping me with volleyball
working for slave wages because she loves me and looks like me (I'm
so sorry, sweetie), and then off to college. That's right—you have
to read NEXT YEAR'S amazing, spectacular 359th annual DCL
to find out where she decided to go to school.
This is Brigitte and three of her exchange buddies from August when they arrived in Hungary.
ERICK (the haiku)
Eats lots of pizza
College: Sleep, study,
student gov
Three semesters left
It's odd to think that
Erick's on the 'downside' of his undergraduate degree. It was only
yesterday he was in Poland, the day before we were playing boardgames
in the basement, and the day before that, he was crapping up his neck
in his carseat in the back of my old Saturn. I miss those days...but
not the crap in the hair rollin' down on I-74. Erick's still at
God's Own University (Iowa State) studying Material Engineering/Stuff
that Makes My Brain Bleed. He's no longer President of Friley;
instead (hey, notice the properly used semi-colon—this DCL is
quality, I'm telling you), he was elected as a senator
to the ISU Government of the Student Body. He also does tours for
the Engineering College—so if you're in Ames, you should take
one—he's not allowed to be snarky, has to be polite and
charming...really, I am not making that up. You have to see it to
believe it.
Erick is on the right. He's in the M-Shop, an Iowa State landmark known for great live shows. It's in the Memorial Union, upstairs (I THINK) from his government office.
MIKE/TMOC (the tanka)
Maker of chaos
Junior High, soccer and
band
Eats like there's no
tomorrow
Please send us money,
we're broke
Teenage boys eat so much!
This is Mike at Julie's department summer picnic outing with a co-worker's dog. Trying to find photos of Mike sitting still are difficult...unless he's laying under dogs or playing Xbox.
One of the great joys of
parenthood is seeing how kids develop. Mike has retained a love of
comic books, but has branched out by spending the summer at camp
doing rock-climbing and archery, and continues to play soccer
(football for the civilized readers), but he's also found he loves
being in the band playing clarinet—and this spring, I think he's
going to go out for track. I think that's where his aptitude is—he
can fly when he runs. The only sad thing—he hasn't really done
anything chaotic this year...well, other than manage the current
presidential administration's foreign policy. That's probably enough
for one thirteen year old.
JULIE (the cinquain)
My wife
Advising Prof
Knitting, church,
parenting
More help than a man could
deserve
Awe. Some.
(just enjoy the choir...these aren't our kids...not that I know of anyways. Then again, Julie knits a ton--remember her acronym...so these MAY be her hats...)
SJTBWPSOWSWHWWLCLPSOCWMOTGCAKOFMHROKS:
St. Julie, the Blessed Wife, Patron Saint of Women stuck with
husbands who write long Christmas letters, Patron Saint of Coaching
Wives, Mother of the Golden Children and Keeper of the Most Holy
Room-Occupying Knitting Stash. I could just copy/paste that every
year and you'd have the scoop. Julie decided to go musical (with
Brigitte) this summer and had a role in a production of The Music
Man, so you know where TMOC gets it from (there's a genetic joke in
there...think about it)
She's every bit as amazing today as in this picture. Me...not so much.
JIM (the ABC)
Another year of coaching
But this year, I added
time with USA Volleyball
Jolly Roger did well with
another new release (Kremlin),
My preference would be to
earn enough to retire as
I (but not Julie) grow
older
That won't happen writing
the DCL in multiple poetic forms.
(My group of athletes at USA High Performance in Las Vegas. I'm in my USA shirt. It's a big ego rush to be part of the national program. You wear the shirt with pride....and the program paid off later as the actual adult national team won the World Championship this fall. I owe big thanks to Denise Sheldon at USAV for trusting me to work with a great group of young athletes--I hope I lived up to expectations and hope to do this again in 2015)
Picked up win #500 this
year and had a fun season; the team improved all the way, but
unfortunately we hit the #1-ranked team in the country in our region
final and that was that (the equivalent of making the 2nd
Round of the NCAAs if you are unfamiliar with NJCAA sports). I also
got to work with USA Volleyball this summer—that was a lot of fun
and I got to enjoy meeting several coaches who are now friends
(Denise, Emily) and got to work with some amazing young athletes—I'm
jealous of what they are already capable of as 11-12 year olds!
Jolly Roger did all right—still in business. For my ego, another
book was accepted for publication and should've been out last month
(I understand publishing delays!) called “Kandahar”. I'm hoping
to submit a couple more in 2015—though if anyone knows an agent who
can help...that'd be great. Heck—find me an agent, I'll buy you
dinner!
(Dave Pieart, Greg Smith, me, at a vb tourney in Cedar Rapids. They can tear down Westgate...rat bastages...but Foster House expatriates will still join together wherever possible)
And for the rest of the
update—I'll spare you the poetic forms, though without question,
the greatest mother-in-law in the world (see how I schmooze there—yet
another tip for a better life provided free of charge
in the DCL) is deserving of a Homeric ode. Julie's parents are doing
fine, still in Herrin, other than the two weeks they went
road-tripping to San Padre Island for Spring Break—Julie's dad was
featured on MTV...I wish I would've seen it, but I only imagine...)
Julie's brother and his wife added a baby girl to their
family—Isabella. I would've named her Julie—that's the best
possible name for a beautiful woman to have (see the previous
schmooze comment).
So, Debbie/Brigitte had to
go and match—having babies is an arms race, so at the end of
December or start of January, I'll be an Uncle again. You know, me
and SJTBWPSOWSWHWWLCLPSOCWMOTGCAKOFMHROKS will get bled dry in a few
years when it comes time for graduation gifts...this is like 37
nephews and nieces now. You can help though—send me cash or a
check payable to “Help Jim and Julie Pay for Graduation Gifts or a
Vacation to Rio Fund”. We take PayPal also. She's fine, still
working for the VA, and her husband Chris is doing well—he does
amazing art stuff, both for people like hotels and small stuff! I do
worry about my oldest niece, Zayn, though—she's 11 and is already
worried about the recidivism of the proletariat as related to the
bourgeois angst related to the financial crisis of 2006.
Last, but certainly not
least, shortly after the writing of the instant-classic 2013 DCL, we
had a couple additions to our family here—because you can never
have enough chaos (That's chaos with a lower case 'c', not upper-case
'C' which stands for Michael...). We added two puppies to the
family: Kaiju and Jaeger. They were supposed to be small
rat-terriers we picked up from a rescue organization. Turns out the
people who gave up the dogs to the shelter lied—they aren't rat
terriers. They are partial terriers...but Kaiju, he's 50% rottweiler
(or rat-weiler) while Jaeger, she's got some collie blood in her.
Instead of 10-15lbs, they are MUCH bigger (Jaeger is 30, Kaiju is 47), quick as can be, and
really friendly and energetic (unless you are a cat, Christmas
decorations, a deer shaped archery target, or blowing paper—then you are
mortal enemies) With two kids out of the house, Kaiju and Jaeger
keep life loud here—between them, they eat everything—plastic,
string, paper. Julie turned her back and Kaiju was able to snag a
pound of bacon from the counter (yeah, our dogs have good taste in
real food...mmmm, bacon).
(At about 3 months, playing 'Let's Catch the Creature Hiding')
(At nine months...this was about 8-10lbs of weight ago. It was nice of them to pose for the picture, usually they are a blur of energy.)
(Notice Mike having to lean back? Yeah, Kaiju and Jaeger are lean, mean running machines unlike, say....me.)
That's the end of the
snark.
Far more seriously—we are happy you read this because it means you are friend or family. Too many people worry about power and money, just as many hate and live bitter—there's not enough time for that. I wish there was more time to spend with all of you—Julie and I value you more than anything, more so as years pass. If you are ever in the area, give a holler, spend a night. Send an email or a Facebook message. Take care and enjoy Christmas and New Year, enjoy the family time, the family 'arguments', the food, the chaos of kids and presents, the hugs, the music, all of it, and please know that you are in our thoughts and conversations here regularly. Except for Dave. We don't talk about him. (Yeah, you thought I could stay away from snark for the rest of this? Crap—that was SIX whole sentences of seriousness...it almost killed me)
Merry Christmas,
Me
SJTBWPSOWSWHWWLCLPSOCWMOTGCAKOFMHROKS
Brigi
Senator Palpati---Erick
TMOC
Kaiju
Jaeger
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
First Club Practice is in the books...attitude and change....
Well, tryouts are done and now, so is the first practice.
(Quick spoiler--when organizing a practice, I've always tried to use the stuff here, but this year--we're also 'forcing' the use of stuff you can learn here or in the 'Growing the Game' blog.)
There's also an anomaly in this--last year for club, it was recommended by physicians that I not coach a team or be active during practices. With a couple new coaches on board--that made it rough to effectively be a technical director! Yikes. But--that's important context.
Last year, the players we had got better by the end of the year--they reached their goals of not getting cut by a school team, being all-area, the usual goals kids have. But a lot of the practices were drill-oriented (yeah, I know...another one of THESE posts...) and a common comment was "I thought it would be more fun". Fair enough.
There's another club in our area--they want to be serious about volleyball. They are going to practice every day, travel every weekend--they told parents kids shouldn't be playing other sports...which really chafes my shorts, by the way--look, I coach college ball, so I'll give my opinion straight--go ahead and play all the sports you want, be in band and madrigals, if you're good, you're good. They talk about drills and the seriousness of it.
So there's an obvious contrast in approach going on.
Last night's training (it's KILLING me to change my use of 'practice' to 'training'...but I'm trying):
HP Dynamic Warmup
3 courts with stations:
1: one with serving/Serve-Receive, going both ways, so we get a lot of reps
2: Quick discussion of what we call our sets, then hitting lines--with an easy swing to the hitter, so they transition and pass before they hit.
3: Review of team defense, then a couple hitters hitting balls at 6 people on defense so they learn by doing.
--Groups rotated every 15 minutes, so no one stood around much or had time to get used to a routine.
We then put two teams on two courts and:
First: Played 6 on 6, working on players initiating play, not the coaches--and making sure that the next ball was entering play as soon as the last was down/out/finished, so we kept a brisk pace going. Players not in were responsible for counting balls--every 5, a person switched in on the fly (like hockey). The intent was to get a bunch of swings and using our set-designations while also playing team-defense.
Last: We played 20 minutes of Speed Ball. This forced players to move around and still call sets--but also gave us serve receive practice using 3 people (our most likely formation)
HP Dynamic Cool-down
And then it was over. And then the players complained--not that it was boring or too easy. They complained because they didn't want to quit! They didn't think two hours could fly by that fast. Before they were out of the gym, one text-messages a friend that she'd missed an awesome evening (her friend was at her hs team's end-of-season banquet) and at least a dozen kids told their parents there "I can't wait for Thursday." And I don't think we would've got that running drills.
* * *
One of the coaches for our high school teams this year is a former LLCC athlete, all-conference, all-Region. Afterwards, she asked "Are you sending a list of drills for Thursday?" I said "Nope," and explained the intent (...something I SHOULD have done before tryouts with her and our other new coach--and I 100% pooched it....I hate screwing up).
We discussed the value of game-like situations and the value over drills, etc--and her response, "Why couldn't you have been that way as my coach five years ago?
It's rough to change your ways. I TOTALLY get that--but as adults involved in teaching--it's our responsibility to get better, to show young people we are working to be the best we can be, so we can help them be the best they can be.
Not sure how to create a practice like this--ask someone. I certainly haven't invented the wheel here. Get to a HP clinic, heck--send an email asking for help to the USAV people...but give it a try. It DOES work.
(Quick spoiler--when organizing a practice, I've always tried to use the stuff here, but this year--we're also 'forcing' the use of stuff you can learn here or in the 'Growing the Game' blog.)
There's also an anomaly in this--last year for club, it was recommended by physicians that I not coach a team or be active during practices. With a couple new coaches on board--that made it rough to effectively be a technical director! Yikes. But--that's important context.
Last year, the players we had got better by the end of the year--they reached their goals of not getting cut by a school team, being all-area, the usual goals kids have. But a lot of the practices were drill-oriented (yeah, I know...another one of THESE posts...) and a common comment was "I thought it would be more fun". Fair enough.
There's another club in our area--they want to be serious about volleyball. They are going to practice every day, travel every weekend--they told parents kids shouldn't be playing other sports...which really chafes my shorts, by the way--look, I coach college ball, so I'll give my opinion straight--go ahead and play all the sports you want, be in band and madrigals, if you're good, you're good. They talk about drills and the seriousness of it.
So there's an obvious contrast in approach going on.
Last night's training (it's KILLING me to change my use of 'practice' to 'training'...but I'm trying):
HP Dynamic Warmup
3 courts with stations:
1: one with serving/Serve-Receive, going both ways, so we get a lot of reps
2: Quick discussion of what we call our sets, then hitting lines--with an easy swing to the hitter, so they transition and pass before they hit.
3: Review of team defense, then a couple hitters hitting balls at 6 people on defense so they learn by doing.
--Groups rotated every 15 minutes, so no one stood around much or had time to get used to a routine.
We then put two teams on two courts and:
First: Played 6 on 6, working on players initiating play, not the coaches--and making sure that the next ball was entering play as soon as the last was down/out/finished, so we kept a brisk pace going. Players not in were responsible for counting balls--every 5, a person switched in on the fly (like hockey). The intent was to get a bunch of swings and using our set-designations while also playing team-defense.
Last: We played 20 minutes of Speed Ball. This forced players to move around and still call sets--but also gave us serve receive practice using 3 people (our most likely formation)
HP Dynamic Cool-down
And then it was over. And then the players complained--not that it was boring or too easy. They complained because they didn't want to quit! They didn't think two hours could fly by that fast. Before they were out of the gym, one text-messages a friend that she'd missed an awesome evening (her friend was at her hs team's end-of-season banquet) and at least a dozen kids told their parents there "I can't wait for Thursday." And I don't think we would've got that running drills.
* * *
One of the coaches for our high school teams this year is a former LLCC athlete, all-conference, all-Region. Afterwards, she asked "Are you sending a list of drills for Thursday?" I said "Nope," and explained the intent (...something I SHOULD have done before tryouts with her and our other new coach--and I 100% pooched it....I hate screwing up).
We discussed the value of game-like situations and the value over drills, etc--and her response, "Why couldn't you have been that way as my coach five years ago?
It's rough to change your ways. I TOTALLY get that--but as adults involved in teaching--it's our responsibility to get better, to show young people we are working to be the best we can be, so we can help them be the best they can be.
Not sure how to create a practice like this--ask someone. I certainly haven't invented the wheel here. Get to a HP clinic, heck--send an email asking for help to the USAV people...but give it a try. It DOES work.
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Game-Like Volleyball Practice Planning
The beauty of volleyball is the people you meet (hey--buy my coaching book...I talk about that a lot!). ...it also means I've been spending more time thinking volleyball than on my business...yeah, like that's any different in 2014 than in 2005.
So I posted a previous entry on an uber-top secret coaching/training forum--it's about the advantages of game-like training over old-fashioned drills. The conclusion was that game-play fares no worse than drills in terms of results--but the surprise conclusion was that since making the switch, my team's games lost to injuries have dropped by SEVERAL HUNDRED PERCENT.
One of the coaches there was a young woman I met while working for USAV's High Performance camps this summer. She asked if I could give an example of a two-hour practice that emphasized/worked only with game-like drills, and I thought--"Hey, what better way to procrastinate on company business and a novel that's got me stuck than blog about volleyball practice! WOOT!"
(NOTE: The 'woot' was mental. I did not say it, nor was there any arm pumping....really)
Since all y'all reading this haven't been in my gym, a big influence on me as a coach was Jim Stone. I don't think in the three years I worked for him that he ever blocked drills or segments to take up a specific amount of time. Ohio State worked on things as long as they were productive--if something wasn't working and wasn't helping, OSU moved on. If something was going great, we kept going, extending the teachable moment.
What that means is--I don't 'time' my practices. I've put some times below as a rough guideline, but don't mimic them for the sake of imitation, for God's sake! I've also put comments in with what I am thinking for each part of the plan.
So I posted a previous entry on an uber-top secret coaching/training forum--it's about the advantages of game-like training over old-fashioned drills. The conclusion was that game-play fares no worse than drills in terms of results--but the surprise conclusion was that since making the switch, my team's games lost to injuries have dropped by SEVERAL HUNDRED PERCENT.
One of the coaches there was a young woman I met while working for USAV's High Performance camps this summer. She asked if I could give an example of a two-hour practice that emphasized/worked only with game-like drills, and I thought--"Hey, what better way to procrastinate on company business and a novel that's got me stuck than blog about volleyball practice! WOOT!"
(NOTE: The 'woot' was mental. I did not say it, nor was there any arm pumping....really)
Since all y'all reading this haven't been in my gym, a big influence on me as a coach was Jim Stone. I don't think in the three years I worked for him that he ever blocked drills or segments to take up a specific amount of time. Ohio State worked on things as long as they were productive--if something wasn't working and wasn't helping, OSU moved on. If something was going great, we kept going, extending the teachable moment.
What that means is--I don't 'time' my practices. I've put some times below as a rough guideline, but don't mimic them for the sake of imitation, for God's sake! I've also put comments in with what I am thinking for each part of the plan.
SAMPLE PRACTICE PLAN
USAV Shoulder Pre-Hab We alternate days for this. I freely admit to 100% stealing this out of the High Performance manual...just as important, our trainer at LLCC says it's great, too.
USAV Dynamic Warmup We rotate through with the three different versions. Combined with the Shoulder-Pre Hab, it gives us six different warm-up combinations.
TIME BUDGETED FOR WARMUPS: 20 minutes (this is done before our gym time starts whenever possible)
50-50-50 Variation on the butterfly drill...ball is thrown from 10ft line (Zn4) to Zn1, passed from there to target (if roster is big enough, setter will set to target, passer and setter move to cover target).
After 50 good passes (target is 5 feet off the net, NOT right on top of the net), thrower backs up to 20 ft from net. At this point, thrower becomes server and serves from 20ft. This is repeated from the end line. The intention of the 50-50-50 is to get passers to move/read the ball coming over and gradually warm up arms. Since all serves must go to Zn1, it also works on serve accuracy)
TIME BUDGETED FOR 50-50-50: 10-15 minutes...depends on the number of people in the drill, or sometimes we go 0-50-50 or reduce the drill length.
SERVE-RECEIVE: (15-30 minutes, depending)
*Serves going both ways, two or three passers, target (or setter+target), rotating every 60 seconds or so...servers are working on serving passing seams or specific zones, passers are reading server, setters are getting reps--and target will switch set of emphasis as well.
*Servers, three passers, non-setter setting+target. More passing practice and setters need to know how to pass, non-setters need to ball-handle.
*Serve, passer/hitter, setter. Serve comes over, whoever passes must also hit the set. (We will also do this where the passer cannot be the hitter)
*Serve, pass/hit/defender, setter. Competition--rotate after 3/5/10 points. Score a point for an ace OR a kill. Kill = hitter hits it and three defenders on other side cannot get two touches total. Hitters now have to think passing AND hitting, but also need to think defense immediately, work on reading a hitter's approach, judging the set, etc
SPEED BALL: (15-20 minutes)
I won't describe this. If you don't know it--think Queen of the Court on steroids...then go find examples of Speed Ball. You get something like 60% more contacts with SB than QotC.
We play games for time OR to certain point totals. Rules change with every game--they are explained once only; I want players to pay attention (yeah, good luck with that).
*Variation 1: Net serves = back to 0.
*Variation 2: No setting allowed, contacts must be forearm OR attacks
*Variation 3: Can not hit with dominant hand
*Variation 4: Aces count 3 points
*Variation 5: Tips to a specific location count extra
HITTING AROUND/OFF BLOCK:
This can also be done with live blockers. With the coach putting it over the net, we get a pass, set, swing, and players covering. You can have a player serve it over, but we do it this way so the focus is on the hit/cover, etc. I want balls put in certain places to start the drill and my players don't have the skill (and we don't have the time for them to get it) to do it. ...and sometimes I don't have enough players tall enough to put up a serious block...
This will take 10-15 minutes--more if it is going well.
ROTATIONS: We will play 6-on-6, working on our six rotations--this will include serve-receive, as well as defense. A coach will toss a ball in, the player immediately free-balls over to the other team...we want aggressively placed freeballs, not just lollipops to the middle where it's easily played.
15-30 minutes daily for most of the season. In the week before play starts, we'll spend more time on this. At the end, we'll spend less.
BASKETBALL (named because the eventual scores look like an NBA game *and* because you score 1-3 points per play): This is a game with two full teams, played in either two 10-minute halves or four 6 (or 8) minute quarters. Ball is entered by coach to Team 1 who freeballs it to Team 2 to play it out. This will happen for the first two quarters. At the half, teams switch sides and Team 2 freeballs to Team 1.
Points are scored differently each day we play... Variations:
*After 6 hitting errors in a quarter, your opponent is in the bonus and receives 2 points for all further hitting errors the rest of the quarter (or half if you wish)
*After 6 hitting errors in a quarter, your opponent is in the bonus and receives 2 points for all further hitting errors the rest of the quarter (or half if you wish)
*3 points for quick set kills / 2 points for tips landing in Zn 1 / 1pt for all others.
*3 points for RS kills / 2 points for tooling the block / 1 pt for all others
*3 points for BR attacks / 2 points for setter dumps / 1 pt for all others, bonus 1 pt each time someone on the other team dives unnecessarily instead of remaining on their feet.
Players get a drink break at the half.
The drill really works on transition and provides a ton of contacts. We play this about 75% of the days. At the proper pace, this drill also serves as great conditioning--players don't get time outs, they don't sub...they are out there the full length of the quarter, so if they are struggling--the other team gets to take advantage of that. It can add quite a bit of 'chaos' and the unexpected--good things in my opinion.
Basketball usually takes 30-40 minutes to play, depending on length of quarters and how long you give for the halftime break.
And that's a two-hour practice.
When it comes to picking teams for Speed Ball or Basketball, I don't pick the teams. I choose two players and they pick their teams. I like seeing who they believe is playing well--or who prefers to pick friends instead of players who will win them games.
Just as important from a coaching standpoint, I try and design practices which limit the 'control' of the coach--I don't hit a ton of balls because I don't get to during games.
Saturday, November 8, 2014
Running Drills Primarily vs. Using Game-Situations/Focusing on 'Playing'
As our season winds down, I decided to take a look at our stats for the past three years. A lot of discussion goes on about play-focused vs. drill-focused practices and that if you eliminate drills, you're going to hurt your team. A perfectly controlled experiment isn't really possible--every game is different, every year is different.
With the info below, for various reasons, 2012 was a drill-oriented year where 50% of the practice was dedicated to drills. In 2013, I made the switch to game-oriented practices, reducing the # of drills to at most 5-10% of practice. Our schedule difficulty remained the same. In 2014, I ramped up the schedule toughness, but we eliminated 'drills' completely, focusing everything on game-oriented work, so that everything was engineered to be game-like with players initiating contacts rather than coaches--the works.
So:
2012 2013 2014
With the info below, for various reasons, 2012 was a drill-oriented year where 50% of the practice was dedicated to drills. In 2013, I made the switch to game-oriented practices, reducing the # of drills to at most 5-10% of practice. Our schedule difficulty remained the same. In 2014, I ramped up the schedule toughness, but we eliminated 'drills' completely, focusing everything on game-oriented work, so that everything was engineered to be game-like with players initiating contacts rather than coaches--the works.
So:
2012 2013 2014
Hit Eff % .228 .239 .239
Kills/Set 12 12.5 12.4
Blocks/Set 2.25 1.75 1.75
Aces/Set 1.95 1.75 1.75
Digs/Set 18.5 18.45 17.9
S/R (3pt scale) 2.38 2.20 2.06
2012 note: Our libero was all-American for the second time, best juco libero in the country and went on to NCAA D-1 and awards at that level, too.
Kills/Set 12 12.5 12.4
Blocks/Set 2.25 1.75 1.75
Aces/Set 1.95 1.75 1.75
Digs/Set 18.5 18.45 17.9
S/R (3pt scale) 2.38 2.20 2.06
2012 note: Our libero was all-American for the second time, best juco libero in the country and went on to NCAA D-1 and awards at that level, too.
The difference between 2012 and 2013 is our libero. Weaker passing led to the need for more attempts, thus more kills. The blocking drop was us losing a 6'1 all-American MH.
The other drastic stats change is the Digs and S/R rating between 2013 and 2014--that was a recruiting failure on my part....our libero was fine, but the passing around her was weaker. Just as important, we ramped up the schedule difficulty, making it harder to stop hitters or have our hitters put the ball down.
But ultimately, in terms of the stats--the only real difference is 2012's blocking and S/R ratings, and those were because of the players, not running drills.
"But, wait, all that shows is there is no difference."
And that may be--but if we accept that, why wouldn't we use game-like play, ESPECIALLY with younger kids? Does anyone prefer drills to playing? Absolutely not!
No difference? --doesn't that suggest that drills are NOT more effective? And just as important, game-like play adds in an extra skill/practice time with teammates on a court. I don't know how to quantify volleyball IQ.
I suppose you could argue that this also shows game-like situations aren't 'better' than drills, either. But there's been one other difference in our program as we made the change to a system more in line with the philosophy of the national program--we've had fewer injuries.
Matches lost to injury
2011: 145
2011: 145
2012: 37
2013: 16
2014: 8
2011 is no typo. It includes malingerers though who were not invited back since they preferred to only be healthy on game days. But if we halve that--it's still 72.
So let me go back and check a couple other seasons....:
2010: 57
2010: 57
2009: 98 (includes 41 from a player who missed the entire season)
2008: 36
2007: 97 (including 50 from a player who missed the whole season)
The conditioning regimen remained the same, as did the duration of practice and the number of practices. The match totals varied between 42-50. But even if we add the two seasons of game-like training together, the total time lost to injury is still significantly lower than any other single season's total. Sure it's a small sample size...but it sure is tantalizing to reach a conclusion, isn't it.
Saturday, November 1, 2014
You Can't Save Them All---Hah! (A Commentary on Coaches...)
So...I belong to a couple of groups for volleyball coaches and pay attention to another called Volleytalk. The coaches group is limited to coaches and trainers by invitation only while Volleytalk is for anyone/everyone interested in volleyball--VT is the 'wild west' of volleyball discussion.
So, this blog started percolating about a week ago. In one of those forums, someone started posting about 'Why do I coach? Why do I keep doing this?' ...because there are days, a ton of them actually, where it feels like you're scraping (not even banging) your head against a brick wall. There were good responses, and it helped me some, too. Every year you get to the point that it's a grind for a while--practice, travel, recruiting...dealing with drama, fund-raising, tons of things and you wonder that question....just being honest. If you're reading this, you're nodding anyways.
Well, it reminded me of a conversation I had a dozen years ago with a club director, and in hindsight, I think that's the point I realized I wasn't going to be coaching for that club much longer...
There'd been a few kids that switched clubs--to a club with poor coaching (my opinion) and charging twice as much. Now, I run my own business, so that if I lose a customer, I always do a ton of hand-wringing...what could I have done to keep that business? I feel the same way about coaching club. If you lose a bunch of people--you have to ask why? Are they valid reasons (because sometimes they are)? The response I got from the club director was, "Jim, you can't save them all," and so the club continued in the same direction.
Now the problem is bigger--because the club had some kids who weren't improving as quick as I wanted (and as technical director...I thought that was my duty--they were paying $500/kid...by God, they were paying a ton, so they needed to get better). Some of the kids were laid-back, some had never been taught how to work hard, and some just didn't improve fast--not everyone does...but when I raised the question of their improvement and whether the technical director (me) was doing his job and whether our coaches were teaching the skills--you should know the response I received: "Jim, you can't save them all."
Boy, that steamed me, because I hear that from teachers regularly, too. "Feh, oh well...I don't care about the kid reading a novel in Math...can't reach them all." WHY OH WHY would you get into coaching youth or teaching if you weren't committed to reaching everyone in some fashion?
I don't think there's a kid alive who sits there and says "I don't want to get better. You can't make me."--whether it is school, sports, other activities. Every human enjoys improving--if only I could somehow get good at StarCraft or my vertical jump... Kids WANT to get better, and they want coaches/teachers who care.
This isn't my first year in volleyball. Goodness sakes, it's 24 seasons now. I'm older, maybe wiser, and I know I'm not going to reach everybody--not in a moment, maybe not even over the course of a club or collegiate season. Heck, as a former classroom teacher, there've been times that a student's reached out to me more than five years later to tell me "Hey--holy crap, you were right." Those are the moments you live for as a coach/teacher.
And that's what bothered me in that club director's comment that you can't reach everyone. I know that's true in the short term, but ultimately, as a coach--that's my responsibility, the commitment I made when I chose coaching as an avocation.
Why do you coach? Are you coaching to make a difference? Are you working on leadership and teamwork skills? Or is it, for you, just about the points on the scoreboard--and if that's the case, why not just play?
Anyways, the thing is--that's what really gets a good coach tired, sometimes tired enough to consider not coaching. It takes constant effort to do the little things, the invisible things, necessary to help kids, things they'll never see or know about--heck, they'll fight some of them (so will their parents).
But you can't give up. Children deserve, they need, that effort. That's the payoff--that someday, they'll look back and it will click.
So yeah, that club coach was right--if you aren't going to put in the necessary work, you aren't going to save them all. The thing is...if you put that work in, you can get through to them--every last one of them.
So, this blog started percolating about a week ago. In one of those forums, someone started posting about 'Why do I coach? Why do I keep doing this?' ...because there are days, a ton of them actually, where it feels like you're scraping (not even banging) your head against a brick wall. There were good responses, and it helped me some, too. Every year you get to the point that it's a grind for a while--practice, travel, recruiting...dealing with drama, fund-raising, tons of things and you wonder that question....just being honest. If you're reading this, you're nodding anyways.
Well, it reminded me of a conversation I had a dozen years ago with a club director, and in hindsight, I think that's the point I realized I wasn't going to be coaching for that club much longer...
There'd been a few kids that switched clubs--to a club with poor coaching (my opinion) and charging twice as much. Now, I run my own business, so that if I lose a customer, I always do a ton of hand-wringing...what could I have done to keep that business? I feel the same way about coaching club. If you lose a bunch of people--you have to ask why? Are they valid reasons (because sometimes they are)? The response I got from the club director was, "Jim, you can't save them all," and so the club continued in the same direction.
Now the problem is bigger--because the club had some kids who weren't improving as quick as I wanted (and as technical director...I thought that was my duty--they were paying $500/kid...by God, they were paying a ton, so they needed to get better). Some of the kids were laid-back, some had never been taught how to work hard, and some just didn't improve fast--not everyone does...but when I raised the question of their improvement and whether the technical director (me) was doing his job and whether our coaches were teaching the skills--you should know the response I received: "Jim, you can't save them all."
Boy, that steamed me, because I hear that from teachers regularly, too. "Feh, oh well...I don't care about the kid reading a novel in Math...can't reach them all." WHY OH WHY would you get into coaching youth or teaching if you weren't committed to reaching everyone in some fashion?
I don't think there's a kid alive who sits there and says "I don't want to get better. You can't make me."--whether it is school, sports, other activities. Every human enjoys improving--if only I could somehow get good at StarCraft or my vertical jump... Kids WANT to get better, and they want coaches/teachers who care.
This isn't my first year in volleyball. Goodness sakes, it's 24 seasons now. I'm older, maybe wiser, and I know I'm not going to reach everybody--not in a moment, maybe not even over the course of a club or collegiate season. Heck, as a former classroom teacher, there've been times that a student's reached out to me more than five years later to tell me "Hey--holy crap, you were right." Those are the moments you live for as a coach/teacher.
And that's what bothered me in that club director's comment that you can't reach everyone. I know that's true in the short term, but ultimately, as a coach--that's my responsibility, the commitment I made when I chose coaching as an avocation.
Why do you coach? Are you coaching to make a difference? Are you working on leadership and teamwork skills? Or is it, for you, just about the points on the scoreboard--and if that's the case, why not just play?
Anyways, the thing is--that's what really gets a good coach tired, sometimes tired enough to consider not coaching. It takes constant effort to do the little things, the invisible things, necessary to help kids, things they'll never see or know about--heck, they'll fight some of them (so will their parents).
But you can't give up. Children deserve, they need, that effort. That's the payoff--that someday, they'll look back and it will click.
So yeah, that club coach was right--if you aren't going to put in the necessary work, you aren't going to save them all. The thing is...if you put that work in, you can get through to them--every last one of them.
Sunday, October 26, 2014
In Honor of our 20th win this year...
So today...we won our 20th game of the year. That's a good achievement given a couple of big things:
1 - We have eight freshmen and only three returners this year.
2 - I jacked up the schedule toughness to heights only Kevin Hambly or Karch Kiraly would appreciate. Really.
And still, twenty wins--only ranked team with more than 12 losses...you KNOW it's a tough schedule when that's the case. But that's not completely the point.
Here for posterity--my years as a head coach (and since I'm procrastinating from working on my next novel anyways...)
2013: 33-8 ...the 'heart attack' season. Missed a month, and that was enough for individualism to replace the team. A lot of complaints about who was getting set, who was doing the setting (an all-American, btw)...cost us a chance at Nationals and likely the Elite Eight.
2012: 33-9 ...The only LLCC team to date to go to Nationals, a lot of credit to the sophomores for stable leadership. It's the season the ceiling fell on Hollie.
2011: 34-13 ...the 'injury season'. We had only four people (of 14) healthy come the post-season. Of course, a couple were faking injuries (really) to get out of practice. Another shot at Nationals lost to selfishness, but this was the year I did my best tactical coaching--we had matches with no healthy OH, a stretch of 10 matches with NO middles, and had a match where our all-American libero had to be a hitter. I would've been happy with 20-22 wins...instead, disappointed falling a couple points short of Nationals.
2010: 34-11 ...another great season, featuring LLCC's first all-American selection. Lost in Gm 5 of the Region championship to go to Nationals on a freeball that hit the net and dropped over, lost 13-15. I think that loss hurts more than any other in my nine years at LLCC. Laura, my current assistant, still can point out (like me) where the ball landed on Lincoln College's court. Dammit.
2009: 34-12 ...Too much tension between sophomores and freshmen, a great hitter lazier than most. I remember this year though as the year Caitlyn worked to balance being a mom, a student, and a volleyball player--a real struggle that she succeeded at (now has her BSN, two babies, and a great husband)
2008: 33-14 ...The year Jesse Blazek helped. The only thing I really remember from this season is that it was the year Lauren Mason hit .300--first hitter to ever do so at LLCC.
2007: 38-14 ...ended with a loss to SWIC in SWIC's last year of greatness. Awesome group of sophomores--my first recruits to LLCC. This was the last year of playing to thirty points. SWIC was better, but I remember the very last point, all six players on the court in pursuit--would've had it, but it hit off a ceiling beam and bounced where would've been better off not pursuing. Every kid left it all on the court. I loved that.
2006: 29-21 ...first year at LLCC, always interesting to make a transition between coaches. I was better prepared than at Allen. The previous LLCC coach left a nice list of evaluations and things to do. That helped, even though I didn't follow many of her recommendations.
2005: 18-22 ...the second year at Allen. I loved the team, and I still am sad I had to leave ACCC, but it was family--and when Julie (my wife) wasn't permitted to apply for a job there in administration because we are married--it meant finding a job back home. We were able in the postseason to take a game from Johnson County though--only team to do that (even if they then stomped us the next three...)
2004: 16-24 ...I took over ACCC two weeks into the season after a coach left without notice, emptying the program computer, leaving NOTHING, not even a list of state volleyball coaches. The worst was his promise to the returning players that they'd go to nationals. I've never been so thankful to have a season over.
2003: 20-12 ...the final year at Satan's School, the decision year, given a choice of playing a 6'2 kid or a 5'5 kid. Played the better kid (6'2) and was fired for it. It's also the year we lost a regional title because the cheerleading coach called a mandatory practice the day of the title game and our best player busted her ankle....but you know how it is, that cheerleading competition six weeks later was vital.
2002: 18-16 ...rough year with only two seniors, after the third was dismissed. It has to be hard to follow two great groups that dominated playing time, and sometimes people aren't meant to be leaders. Odd year..18-16, but we beat Normal U High and won the conference to boot.
2001: 30-6 ...The IHSA sent Mater Dei over to Casey-Westfield past a couple other sectionals/super-sectionals to take out a private school. We scored 10 on them...best a team did in the post-season. I remember this for my 'fight' with Jody at the Michigan summer tournament and her yelling at the basketball team for jacking around while we practiced for the Sectional title game.
2000: 33-4 ...Bobbi F-ing Mattingly officiating. Best team in the history of Satan's School, and I've never coached a team with better work ethic. Ever. Not at ACCC, not at LLCC. The only one I can think that worked harder was MAYBE the 94 Ohio State team.
1999: 24-7 ...the year of the great senior teammates--they understood the juniors were better, ditto the sophomores, but they worked hard, played hard, and contributed. That was great leadership, and it led to a very successful season. Without those seniors, the 00 and 01 seasons never take place.
1998: 18-12 ...dysfunctional JV coach and a couple crappy seniors--actually, amazing we won 18. But philosophically, would the following group of seniors have been as good without going through THIS season? I don't think so. It wasn't a fun season, that's for sure.
1997: 13-16 ...A season with limited senior leadership. It was a group caught following the previous class who had started four years, been the group of 'destiny'. Writing this, reflecting on things, this has happened several times to teams I've coached. Maybe I need to consider that more often after seasons are complete.
1996: 26-5 ...First year as a coach. It was a great season, though I would've handled a ton of things differently now...of course that's 18 years of experience under my belt to learn from. I got a few things right, but messed up far more--even if no one would ever realize that accept another coach.
1 - We have eight freshmen and only three returners this year.
2 - I jacked up the schedule toughness to heights only Kevin Hambly or Karch Kiraly would appreciate. Really.
And still, twenty wins--only ranked team with more than 12 losses...you KNOW it's a tough schedule when that's the case. But that's not completely the point.
Here for posterity--my years as a head coach (and since I'm procrastinating from working on my next novel anyways...)
2013: 33-8 ...the 'heart attack' season. Missed a month, and that was enough for individualism to replace the team. A lot of complaints about who was getting set, who was doing the setting (an all-American, btw)...cost us a chance at Nationals and likely the Elite Eight.
2012: 33-9 ...The only LLCC team to date to go to Nationals, a lot of credit to the sophomores for stable leadership. It's the season the ceiling fell on Hollie.
2011: 34-13 ...the 'injury season'. We had only four people (of 14) healthy come the post-season. Of course, a couple were faking injuries (really) to get out of practice. Another shot at Nationals lost to selfishness, but this was the year I did my best tactical coaching--we had matches with no healthy OH, a stretch of 10 matches with NO middles, and had a match where our all-American libero had to be a hitter. I would've been happy with 20-22 wins...instead, disappointed falling a couple points short of Nationals.
2010: 34-11 ...another great season, featuring LLCC's first all-American selection. Lost in Gm 5 of the Region championship to go to Nationals on a freeball that hit the net and dropped over, lost 13-15. I think that loss hurts more than any other in my nine years at LLCC. Laura, my current assistant, still can point out (like me) where the ball landed on Lincoln College's court. Dammit.
2009: 34-12 ...Too much tension between sophomores and freshmen, a great hitter lazier than most. I remember this year though as the year Caitlyn worked to balance being a mom, a student, and a volleyball player--a real struggle that she succeeded at (now has her BSN, two babies, and a great husband)
2008: 33-14 ...The year Jesse Blazek helped. The only thing I really remember from this season is that it was the year Lauren Mason hit .300--first hitter to ever do so at LLCC.
2007: 38-14 ...ended with a loss to SWIC in SWIC's last year of greatness. Awesome group of sophomores--my first recruits to LLCC. This was the last year of playing to thirty points. SWIC was better, but I remember the very last point, all six players on the court in pursuit--would've had it, but it hit off a ceiling beam and bounced where would've been better off not pursuing. Every kid left it all on the court. I loved that.
2006: 29-21 ...first year at LLCC, always interesting to make a transition between coaches. I was better prepared than at Allen. The previous LLCC coach left a nice list of evaluations and things to do. That helped, even though I didn't follow many of her recommendations.
2005: 18-22 ...the second year at Allen. I loved the team, and I still am sad I had to leave ACCC, but it was family--and when Julie (my wife) wasn't permitted to apply for a job there in administration because we are married--it meant finding a job back home. We were able in the postseason to take a game from Johnson County though--only team to do that (even if they then stomped us the next three...)
2004: 16-24 ...I took over ACCC two weeks into the season after a coach left without notice, emptying the program computer, leaving NOTHING, not even a list of state volleyball coaches. The worst was his promise to the returning players that they'd go to nationals. I've never been so thankful to have a season over.
2003: 20-12 ...the final year at Satan's School, the decision year, given a choice of playing a 6'2 kid or a 5'5 kid. Played the better kid (6'2) and was fired for it. It's also the year we lost a regional title because the cheerleading coach called a mandatory practice the day of the title game and our best player busted her ankle....but you know how it is, that cheerleading competition six weeks later was vital.
2002: 18-16 ...rough year with only two seniors, after the third was dismissed. It has to be hard to follow two great groups that dominated playing time, and sometimes people aren't meant to be leaders. Odd year..18-16, but we beat Normal U High and won the conference to boot.
2001: 30-6 ...The IHSA sent Mater Dei over to Casey-Westfield past a couple other sectionals/super-sectionals to take out a private school. We scored 10 on them...best a team did in the post-season. I remember this for my 'fight' with Jody at the Michigan summer tournament and her yelling at the basketball team for jacking around while we practiced for the Sectional title game.
2000: 33-4 ...Bobbi F-ing Mattingly officiating. Best team in the history of Satan's School, and I've never coached a team with better work ethic. Ever. Not at ACCC, not at LLCC. The only one I can think that worked harder was MAYBE the 94 Ohio State team.
1999: 24-7 ...the year of the great senior teammates--they understood the juniors were better, ditto the sophomores, but they worked hard, played hard, and contributed. That was great leadership, and it led to a very successful season. Without those seniors, the 00 and 01 seasons never take place.
1998: 18-12 ...dysfunctional JV coach and a couple crappy seniors--actually, amazing we won 18. But philosophically, would the following group of seniors have been as good without going through THIS season? I don't think so. It wasn't a fun season, that's for sure.
1997: 13-16 ...A season with limited senior leadership. It was a group caught following the previous class who had started four years, been the group of 'destiny'. Writing this, reflecting on things, this has happened several times to teams I've coached. Maybe I need to consider that more often after seasons are complete.
1996: 26-5 ...First year as a coach. It was a great season, though I would've handled a ton of things differently now...of course that's 18 years of experience under my belt to learn from. I got a few things right, but messed up far more--even if no one would ever realize that accept another coach.
Saturday, October 25, 2014
Hey--read any of these? (and some random thoughts on writing...)
Okay...so it's self-promoting...I get that. But have you read any of these?
Have you passed these on to friends or others who like reading, I mean--it doesn't hurt you, right?
Until the Goodnight Smile --Ever wonder what life is like as a teacher? This is pretty much a 'day in the life' of one. I was prompted to start writing by a former student, Dallas Schumacher, and one of the lessons I remembered from grad school was--write what you know about. So I did. The funny thing is that once I started, I realized the influence for how I structured the book: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, a story of the Russian gulag (prison) system. Funny, because there were days school feels like a prison (to students AND teachers). Is it intentional that the secondary education system in the US grinds kids down and wears them out? If not, why do we persist?
The Five Days of Osan --This is an e-book (so self-published...which means if you check it out...I'll actually make money). I wrote it because I realized how little fiction has been written about 'The Forgotten War'. So, I started doing some research--of the wars of the past 200 years, it was one I knew the least about--and found that the US was criminally incompetent in its initial actions, sending Task Force Smith in without any preparation to face the Communists. TF Smith gets smeared, and I thought that would make the basis for a good story. So 'The Five Days of Osan' is a modern retelling of the classic tale of the Spartans at Thermopylae.
The Last Post -- This is a nice review: "If you like THE KEEP by F. Paul Wilson, weird war stories, or really, horror novels in general, you will thoroughly enjoy THE LAST POST by Jim Dietz. It's clear Dietz has done his research -- every detail rings true -- and that makes this darkly brilliant historical novel of the macabre even more entertaining." It starts off making you think, 'Yeah, yeah, Saving Private Ryan'...and then 'Yeah, yeah, Dirty Dozen, I get it'...and then it goes off the tracks. I wrote most of it while Julie was watching Agatha Christie, including 'Ten Little Indians' and that may have affected how this goes. The funny thing is, Dallas Schumacher--who caused the first book--actually wanted me to be writing this one. His comment (way back in '01) was "Hey, I bet you would write an awesome Lovecraft-type story. Do it, Dietz." Here it is.
The Human Side of Coaching -- I'm still frustrated as a coach/writer/teacher. If you go looking for coaching books--regardless of sport, you're going to find books that guarantee success through 'magic drills' and formations and stuff. Often they are written by coaches out of touch with their sport at other levels. THSoC was written because a college volleyball coach talked about how wonderful his system was with short players--6', 6'1....completely missing that the coaches in his audience considered 6' giant and that short kids in hs are 5'2, 5'3. So I wrote this--it doesn't have drills; it's about the relationships formed between people while coaching, it's about how you can take education strategies and apply them to coaching and sports. It's about how to help kids balance multiple sports. Everyone who has read it has loved it--I just wish more coaches would read it.
Road to Kandahar (no link yet...coming soon!) --The whole legacy of the US in Afghanistan is going to be confusion. Afghanistan has been the Graveyard of Empires for more than 3,000 years, so why would the US fare any differently. Kandahar is the story of an intelligence officer called back to duty to investigate the seeming assassination attempt on the President by an American army officer gone rogue and what happens when that officer is found. Is the officer crazy? Is he brilliant? Is he both? And does he have a plan for bringing peace to Afghanistan and the tribal territories of Pakistan that can work? If it sounds like it was inspired by Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", you'd be correct.
So help a brother out--check these out...pass them on to someone who would be interested!
Have you passed these on to friends or others who like reading, I mean--it doesn't hurt you, right?
Until the Goodnight Smile --Ever wonder what life is like as a teacher? This is pretty much a 'day in the life' of one. I was prompted to start writing by a former student, Dallas Schumacher, and one of the lessons I remembered from grad school was--write what you know about. So I did. The funny thing is that once I started, I realized the influence for how I structured the book: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, a story of the Russian gulag (prison) system. Funny, because there were days school feels like a prison (to students AND teachers). Is it intentional that the secondary education system in the US grinds kids down and wears them out? If not, why do we persist?
The Five Days of Osan --This is an e-book (so self-published...which means if you check it out...I'll actually make money). I wrote it because I realized how little fiction has been written about 'The Forgotten War'. So, I started doing some research--of the wars of the past 200 years, it was one I knew the least about--and found that the US was criminally incompetent in its initial actions, sending Task Force Smith in without any preparation to face the Communists. TF Smith gets smeared, and I thought that would make the basis for a good story. So 'The Five Days of Osan' is a modern retelling of the classic tale of the Spartans at Thermopylae.
The Last Post -- This is a nice review: "If you like THE KEEP by F. Paul Wilson, weird war stories, or really, horror novels in general, you will thoroughly enjoy THE LAST POST by Jim Dietz. It's clear Dietz has done his research -- every detail rings true -- and that makes this darkly brilliant historical novel of the macabre even more entertaining." It starts off making you think, 'Yeah, yeah, Saving Private Ryan'...and then 'Yeah, yeah, Dirty Dozen, I get it'...and then it goes off the tracks. I wrote most of it while Julie was watching Agatha Christie, including 'Ten Little Indians' and that may have affected how this goes. The funny thing is, Dallas Schumacher--who caused the first book--actually wanted me to be writing this one. His comment (way back in '01) was "Hey, I bet you would write an awesome Lovecraft-type story. Do it, Dietz." Here it is.
The Human Side of Coaching -- I'm still frustrated as a coach/writer/teacher. If you go looking for coaching books--regardless of sport, you're going to find books that guarantee success through 'magic drills' and formations and stuff. Often they are written by coaches out of touch with their sport at other levels. THSoC was written because a college volleyball coach talked about how wonderful his system was with short players--6', 6'1....completely missing that the coaches in his audience considered 6' giant and that short kids in hs are 5'2, 5'3. So I wrote this--it doesn't have drills; it's about the relationships formed between people while coaching, it's about how you can take education strategies and apply them to coaching and sports. It's about how to help kids balance multiple sports. Everyone who has read it has loved it--I just wish more coaches would read it.
Road to Kandahar (no link yet...coming soon!) --The whole legacy of the US in Afghanistan is going to be confusion. Afghanistan has been the Graveyard of Empires for more than 3,000 years, so why would the US fare any differently. Kandahar is the story of an intelligence officer called back to duty to investigate the seeming assassination attempt on the President by an American army officer gone rogue and what happens when that officer is found. Is the officer crazy? Is he brilliant? Is he both? And does he have a plan for bringing peace to Afghanistan and the tribal territories of Pakistan that can work? If it sounds like it was inspired by Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", you'd be correct.
So help a brother out--check these out...pass them on to someone who would be interested!
Sunday, October 19, 2014
Coaching lessons...
I came across this because of John Kessel at USA Volleyball. It isn't his--he took it from Australia's Rugby League Coaching Manual, going back to 1993 (because of that...some of the suggestions will seem quaint, given modern technology). This does not lessen ANY of its value.
I'd add that I think that's one of the important things that is often missed with coaching--how much you can learn from other sports and how they approach teaching, teamwork, and competition.
1. Plan
2. Develop communication skills and never stop trying to improve them.
3. Learn to effectively utilize the Internet and email.
4. Never stop learning. Learning is life.
5. Be open minded. Never say never.
6. What you may lack in knowledge, make up for with enthusiasm, desire and passion
7. Be a role model for your athletes
8. Accept constructive criticism as a positive. Learn from mistakes, take steps to improve from the experience and move on.
9. Allocate time every day for personal health and fitness.
10. Keep a detailed diary and record work actually done by athletes not just what was planned to be done.
11. Embrace effective change.
12. Use sport science wisely. The art of coaching drives the science of performance.
13. Seek out information - don't wait for the "secret to success" to fall into your lap.
14. Coach with your heart but don't forget the basics. Secure adequate training facilities, keep good records, observe O.H. and S. principles, maintain a commitment to safety and equity. Having the ‘nuts and bolts' organised allows you to focus on what you do best - working with athletes.
15. Believe in your athletes - they believe in you.
16. Steal ideas from other sports (& improve on them)
17. Strive to make yourself redundant - develop independent athletes
18. Listen with your eyes and watch with your ears.
19. Attitude + application + ability = achievement
20. Coach the person not the athlete. Coach the person not the performance
21. Develop a network and support structure. Be a resource manager
22. Best, better, brilliant - there's always room for improvement
23. What you believe will happen will happen. What the mind can conceive it will achieve.
24. Persistence pays - never give up
25. Learn basic business skills. Understand the basics of insurance. Be familiar with legal liability. Understand the basics of taxation and the GST. Make coaching your business.
26. Give an ounce of information and a ton of practice
27. Communicate - clearly, concisely, calmly, constructively, consistently and cleverly.
28. Seek out a critical friend - they are your greatest asset.
29. Help develop your sport not just your current athletes.
30. Mix with successful people - success breeds success
31. Delegate, delegate, delegate - give athletes, assistants, parents and officials responsibility for aspects of your (their) program.
32. Enthusiasm, encouragement, energy = excellence
33. Look for things to improve in yourself.
34. Have fun - life is short. It takes 20 years to become an overnight success. Successful coaches have a combination of experience, skill,
education and practice, developed ways and means of getting the best out of themselves and their athletes.
35. It's easy to coach athletes when they are performing well. Do you have the ability to help athletes deal with the tough times.
36. Focus on the long term even when trying to achieve in the short term.
37. Contribute to the development of other coaches. You may learn from teaching and students are often the best teachers of all.
38. Listen to your athletes.
39. Develop peripheral vision - in your mind.
40. Present information at coaching courses and workshops. Be willing to share.
41. Treat athletes like customers - coaching is the ultimate in client service.
42. Read journals from alternative industries and seek out principles that you can apply to sporting situations
43. Be flexible in your methods.
44. Embrace the principle, ‘For the love of it, not the money in it!'
45. Athletes develop confidence through competence. Nothing develops confidence like a thorough preparation.
46. Constantly challenge yourself and your athletes
47. Create a safe, stimulating, interesting training environment where athletes enjoy coming to train.
48. In preparing athletes: leave nothing to chance, nothing untested, don't rely on luck, make your own!
49. Subscribe to Sports Coach!!!
50. Do your homework. Know the strengths and weaknesses of your athletes, yourself, your opposition. Know the standards - what are the
world records, national records, state records, regional records, club records - what are your goals?
51. Look to help athletes achieve their best - no matter what that level is. Not all athletes want to be the world champion.
52. Be innovative. Be creative. Dare to be different.
53. Try not to overcoach. You don't need to talk all the time.
54. Never lose confidence in yourself. You can do it!
55. Encourage your athlete to have ownership of the program.
56. Maintain good appearance - look like a professional.
57. Technology is your ally not your enemy. Use it wisely.
58. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Mental toughness is still a key component of competition.
59. Adopt the D.R.A.M.A. approach, 'Do, Record, Analyse, Modify, Act.'
60. Confront problems calmly by talking directly with the athlete - don't rely on rumour, relayed messages or other second hand methods of
communication. If a message CAN BE misinterpreted it ALREADY HAS BEEN.
61. Empathise don't sympathise.
62. Keep the reasons you coach at the forefront of your mind and your goals close to your heart.
63. Desire - keep the dream alive - every day. Motivation is a lifestyle not a one-off event.
64. What makes a great coach? - Great athletes!
65. Be firm and fair.
66. Build your program around the five Es: EQUITY - ENJOYMENT - EXCELLENCE - EMPATHY and EMPOWERMENT.
67. Share a joke - not sarcasm - just a funny joke when appropriate.
68. Field questions and throw back answers. Challenge athletes to discover the answers for themselves and to learn lessons.
69. Observe, ponder, respond - be an observer of human behaviour.
70. Share experiences willingly.
71. Establish open and effective communication with all stakeholders - parents, athletes, administrators, officials and important others.
72. When in doubt, pause and check it out. Don't be afraid to say ‘I don't know.'
73. Employ actions that minimise risk. The primary responsibility of all coaches is the SAFETY of their athletes.
74. Encourage your athlete recovering from injury involve them in the program in some capacity.
75. Be aware of and carry out your legal responsibilities.
76. Efficient coaches take responsibility for their own effectiveness.
77. Self reflection is your constant companion: be your own best critic but strive to be objective rather than self destructive.
78. Recognise the contribution of others - players, parents, officials, assistants - everyone enjoys being appreciated.
79. Recognise, publicise and reward. Praise in public - criticise in private.
80. Lead front the front and support from the rear.
81. The coach is the creator of positive experiences.
82. Proper prior planning prevents pitifully poor performance.
83. Praise and positive reinforcement are tools for the coach.
84. Think about what you say before you say it. Then watch for reactions to your words before saying anything else.
85. Body language replaces many words: it's not what you say but how you say it.
86. A nod is as good as a wink.
87. Coaching is a two way process: The athlete feels but can't see - the coach sees but can't feel.
88. Get to know something personal about your athletes. They are people who have chosen to play sport: not just sportspeople.
89. Holistically challenge your athlete - mental skills can be developed just like physical skills.
90. Athletes listen when the coach listens to them.
91. Know when to say NO.
92. Demonstrate, explain, demonstrate again, practice and give constructive feedback.
93. Concentrate on the performance not the outcome.
94. Process goals (how to achieve) should predominate over outcome goals (what to achieve).
95. Facilitate motivation by allowing athletes to fulfil their goals in some way at every session.
96. Coach your athletes to distinguish between attainable and unobtainable but to never stop dreaming of what's possible.
97. Buy a video and refine your filming and reviewing skills.
98. Sports officials give your athletes the best opportunity to achieve the best result - work alongside them
99. To coach well you'll need to know the CURRENT interpretation of your sports rules and regulations.
100. Coaches have a great opportunity to easily expand their social circle - you'll never be lonely.
101. Last year's programs produce last year's results. Resist the temptation to coach by routine or habit.
I'd add that I think that's one of the important things that is often missed with coaching--how much you can learn from other sports and how they approach teaching, teamwork, and competition.
1. Plan
2. Develop communication skills and never stop trying to improve them.
3. Learn to effectively utilize the Internet and email.
4. Never stop learning. Learning is life.
5. Be open minded. Never say never.
6. What you may lack in knowledge, make up for with enthusiasm, desire and passion
7. Be a role model for your athletes
8. Accept constructive criticism as a positive. Learn from mistakes, take steps to improve from the experience and move on.
9. Allocate time every day for personal health and fitness.
10. Keep a detailed diary and record work actually done by athletes not just what was planned to be done.
11. Embrace effective change.
12. Use sport science wisely. The art of coaching drives the science of performance.
13. Seek out information - don't wait for the "secret to success" to fall into your lap.
14. Coach with your heart but don't forget the basics. Secure adequate training facilities, keep good records, observe O.H. and S. principles, maintain a commitment to safety and equity. Having the ‘nuts and bolts' organised allows you to focus on what you do best - working with athletes.
15. Believe in your athletes - they believe in you.
16. Steal ideas from other sports (& improve on them)
17. Strive to make yourself redundant - develop independent athletes
18. Listen with your eyes and watch with your ears.
19. Attitude + application + ability = achievement
20. Coach the person not the athlete. Coach the person not the performance
21. Develop a network and support structure. Be a resource manager
22. Best, better, brilliant - there's always room for improvement
23. What you believe will happen will happen. What the mind can conceive it will achieve.
24. Persistence pays - never give up
25. Learn basic business skills. Understand the basics of insurance. Be familiar with legal liability. Understand the basics of taxation and the GST. Make coaching your business.
26. Give an ounce of information and a ton of practice
27. Communicate - clearly, concisely, calmly, constructively, consistently and cleverly.
28. Seek out a critical friend - they are your greatest asset.
29. Help develop your sport not just your current athletes.
30. Mix with successful people - success breeds success
31. Delegate, delegate, delegate - give athletes, assistants, parents and officials responsibility for aspects of your (their) program.
32. Enthusiasm, encouragement, energy = excellence
33. Look for things to improve in yourself.
34. Have fun - life is short. It takes 20 years to become an overnight success. Successful coaches have a combination of experience, skill,
education and practice, developed ways and means of getting the best out of themselves and their athletes.
35. It's easy to coach athletes when they are performing well. Do you have the ability to help athletes deal with the tough times.
36. Focus on the long term even when trying to achieve in the short term.
37. Contribute to the development of other coaches. You may learn from teaching and students are often the best teachers of all.
38. Listen to your athletes.
39. Develop peripheral vision - in your mind.
40. Present information at coaching courses and workshops. Be willing to share.
41. Treat athletes like customers - coaching is the ultimate in client service.
42. Read journals from alternative industries and seek out principles that you can apply to sporting situations
43. Be flexible in your methods.
44. Embrace the principle, ‘For the love of it, not the money in it!'
45. Athletes develop confidence through competence. Nothing develops confidence like a thorough preparation.
46. Constantly challenge yourself and your athletes
47. Create a safe, stimulating, interesting training environment where athletes enjoy coming to train.
48. In preparing athletes: leave nothing to chance, nothing untested, don't rely on luck, make your own!
49. Subscribe to Sports Coach!!!
50. Do your homework. Know the strengths and weaknesses of your athletes, yourself, your opposition. Know the standards - what are the
world records, national records, state records, regional records, club records - what are your goals?
51. Look to help athletes achieve their best - no matter what that level is. Not all athletes want to be the world champion.
52. Be innovative. Be creative. Dare to be different.
53. Try not to overcoach. You don't need to talk all the time.
54. Never lose confidence in yourself. You can do it!
55. Encourage your athlete to have ownership of the program.
56. Maintain good appearance - look like a professional.
57. Technology is your ally not your enemy. Use it wisely.
58. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Mental toughness is still a key component of competition.
59. Adopt the D.R.A.M.A. approach, 'Do, Record, Analyse, Modify, Act.'
60. Confront problems calmly by talking directly with the athlete - don't rely on rumour, relayed messages or other second hand methods of
communication. If a message CAN BE misinterpreted it ALREADY HAS BEEN.
61. Empathise don't sympathise.
62. Keep the reasons you coach at the forefront of your mind and your goals close to your heart.
63. Desire - keep the dream alive - every day. Motivation is a lifestyle not a one-off event.
64. What makes a great coach? - Great athletes!
65. Be firm and fair.
66. Build your program around the five Es: EQUITY - ENJOYMENT - EXCELLENCE - EMPATHY and EMPOWERMENT.
67. Share a joke - not sarcasm - just a funny joke when appropriate.
68. Field questions and throw back answers. Challenge athletes to discover the answers for themselves and to learn lessons.
69. Observe, ponder, respond - be an observer of human behaviour.
70. Share experiences willingly.
71. Establish open and effective communication with all stakeholders - parents, athletes, administrators, officials and important others.
72. When in doubt, pause and check it out. Don't be afraid to say ‘I don't know.'
73. Employ actions that minimise risk. The primary responsibility of all coaches is the SAFETY of their athletes.
74. Encourage your athlete recovering from injury involve them in the program in some capacity.
75. Be aware of and carry out your legal responsibilities.
76. Efficient coaches take responsibility for their own effectiveness.
77. Self reflection is your constant companion: be your own best critic but strive to be objective rather than self destructive.
78. Recognise the contribution of others - players, parents, officials, assistants - everyone enjoys being appreciated.
79. Recognise, publicise and reward. Praise in public - criticise in private.
80. Lead front the front and support from the rear.
81. The coach is the creator of positive experiences.
82. Proper prior planning prevents pitifully poor performance.
83. Praise and positive reinforcement are tools for the coach.
84. Think about what you say before you say it. Then watch for reactions to your words before saying anything else.
85. Body language replaces many words: it's not what you say but how you say it.
86. A nod is as good as a wink.
87. Coaching is a two way process: The athlete feels but can't see - the coach sees but can't feel.
88. Get to know something personal about your athletes. They are people who have chosen to play sport: not just sportspeople.
89. Holistically challenge your athlete - mental skills can be developed just like physical skills.
90. Athletes listen when the coach listens to them.
91. Know when to say NO.
92. Demonstrate, explain, demonstrate again, practice and give constructive feedback.
93. Concentrate on the performance not the outcome.
94. Process goals (how to achieve) should predominate over outcome goals (what to achieve).
95. Facilitate motivation by allowing athletes to fulfil their goals in some way at every session.
96. Coach your athletes to distinguish between attainable and unobtainable but to never stop dreaming of what's possible.
97. Buy a video and refine your filming and reviewing skills.
98. Sports officials give your athletes the best opportunity to achieve the best result - work alongside them
99. To coach well you'll need to know the CURRENT interpretation of your sports rules and regulations.
100. Coaches have a great opportunity to easily expand their social circle - you'll never be lonely.
101. Last year's programs produce last year's results. Resist the temptation to coach by routine or habit.
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Educational Theory and Coaching
Okay--this is actually from my book on coaching. I think that the stuff here is applicable beyond volleyball--across all sports. (But if you really like it...consider buying the book. It's not a collection of magic drills--it's about the more important, less considered points of coaching)
* * *
There
are a lot of misconceptions about coaching, from observers and
fans,
as well as by coaches themselves. There’s the presumption that a
high-level
athlete will automatically become a high-level coach. This is
not
a volleyball-specific observation. With the NFL, I’ve never seen a
highlight
with John Harbaugh or Bill Belichick playing, but they sure
seem
to know how to coach the heck out of their sport. How many World
Series
did Yogi Berra or Ted Williams win as managers? The answer:
a
lot fewer than guys with limited ability to play like Tony LaRussa or
Tommy
Lasorda. There is also the stereotype that coaches are just ‘dumb
jocks’
hoping to relive their glory days, but can you think of a successful
coach
who fits this stereotype in sports now? It’s difficult whether you
are
talking collegiate or professional coaches.
If
you are going to come up with synonyms for ‘coaching’, what do
you
think
of? The ones that pop into my mind: teach, instruct, educate.
Unfortunately,
many
people don’t equate coaching with those other words.
They
think of coaching … differently, as you can find out if you attend
your
average boys high school basketball game on any given Friday
night.
That’s too bad because coaching IS
teaching. What goes on in a
gymnasium,
when you are truly coaching, is no different than a classroom,
other
than the fact that there aren’t desks in a gymnasium, track,
or
soccer field. John Kessel, director of youth development for the US
National
Program, asks coaches, “Where’s your white board?” driving
home
the point that the gym is a classroom.
The
catch is that most coaches are conditioned to think otherwise.
We
buy into the belittling comments that ‘it’s just sports’ or
‘you’re just
a
coach’ and lose sight of the bigger picture (don’t worry, it’s
not like I
haven’t
done the same thing; it happens all the time). Except I can see a
protest
forming as you read this: “But, Jim, I’m not a teacher.”
That
doesn’t matter. We teach and learn all the time, and we don’t
have
to be a professional educator to do that (or a student on the other
end
of things), but if we think about some basic elements of education,
we
can improve our coaching. We should take what works in the classroom
and
use it in the gym.
I’m
not well-versed in educational theory, and a valid argument can
be
made that a lot of educational theory is best left as theory because
it
isn’t practical and doesn’t work with most groups of students.
That
hasn’t
stopped me from learning a few things and becoming dangerous
though.
To start with, as a coach, I think there are three different methods
of
teaching that work in a practice:
• Direct
Instruction
• Inquiry-based
Instruction
• Cooperative
Learning
DIRECT
INSTRUCTION:
Anyone
who’s been in school is familiar with ‘direct instruction.’ A
professor
stands at the front of a lecture hall, puts formulas and facts on
a
board via a PowerPoint, and students sit and take notes on what he
says.
When the hour is done, students close their notebooks and leave.
There’s
little effective interaction taking place with direct instruction,
perhaps
a question taken at the end of class. Otherwise, it’s up to the
student
to reach the proper conclusions or fit the pieces together on her
own.
In
the gym, how many times have you seen coaches stand and explain
a
skill with players circled around, the players doing nothing but
staring
at
the coach? Or the other variation of this — the players stand,
hands
on hips, as they watch the coach demonstrate the skill. In both
scenarios,
the players are passive, and though there’s a time and place
for
that, direct instruction doesn’t work as efficiently as other
available
strategies
though it does allow you to reach more people (the whole lecture
hall
of 500 or a gym full of campers).
Think
about your team and you as a coach. How many times have you
grumbled
to yourself that your kids don’t have patience? Exactly! Don’t
worry
— as coaches, we’ve all done it, but this is the big issue with
direct
instruction.
It is the least effective means of instruction for younger
students;
they are still learning patience and have trouble focusing on
instructions
for more than a few minutes at a time (if you are a parent,
you
understand this as well!). Take it a different direction. Think back
to
time in college. How many students were asleep during lectures? I’d
wager
a lot more than were sleeping through their chemistry labs.
There’s
another big problem with direct instruction, especially when
you
are coaching younger players. Imagine you are in a math class and
the
teacher is going over the Pythagorean Theorem. What if two students
have
already completed Calculus II and three others just started
introductory
multiplication and division? Direct instruction can’t deal
efficiently
with widely varied levels of ability. In terms of volleyball,
how
effective would it be to explain how to hit a quick set to a group of
players
where two are collegiate all-Americans, others are high schoolers,
while
several are starting their first day of volleyball ever? The
collegiate
athletes
have mastered the skill (relatively speaking), the high
schoolers
understand and now need the requisite practice with it, while
the
younger athletes will simply stare and go, “Bwah???”
So
I think the question becomes — how much do I, the coach, rely on
direct
instruction? Truthfully, I relied on it a ton when I started because
I
was insecure and wanted to prove to my players that I knew what I
was
talking about. Over the years, I’ve changed and I save the use of
direct
instruction
in practice for certain things like reviewing handouts on
team
rules or our schedule, etc., but generally things that don’t
require
critical
thinking and where the players all are on a level playing field.
I’ll
use it when we hold camps, too, but only for a few minutes until we
break
campers into significantly smaller groups of kids. So when you’re
evaluating
yourself, can you identify where you are using direct instruction?
Are
you matching the good points of this style to what you need, or
are
you using it out of habit?
INQUIRY-BASED
INSTRUCTION:
This
is one of the newer trends in education, and it’s one I liked using
when
I was a high school teacher though I didn’t know it had a
hoity-toity
name.
With inquiry-based instruction, the emphasis is on problem solving
and
critical thinking. It’s tougher than you realize; young people
are
conditioned at a young age to shut up, pay attention, and memorize,
memorize,
memorize, and that only stupid people ask questions. Emphasizing
standardized
tests has not helped. It’s not a new issue — an
early
’80s Doonesbury cartoon addressing this very issue. When I taught
U.S.
History, I preferred giving essay questions that required critical
thinking,
something like:
“There
are many reasons for the start of the Civil War. In your opinion,
which
were the more important factors, the economic, political, or social
issues?
Choose one and explain why it was more important.
Provide
concrete examples for your assertion.”
This
gave students a choice, and it forced them to think about their
answers,
though I’m not naïve; I’m sure many students chose based on
what
they knew the most about regardless of their belief, but that was
fine
because that required thinking, too, a realization of their limits
and
what
would/wouldn’t work for them. In a science classroom, I suspect
this
style of education is much more hands-on than in social studies
classrooms,
just not always. In college, I took a class called “Simulations
in
the Classroom” for Political Science that set up simulations based
on
this style of instruction (though again, I’m not sure Dr. Rasmussen
knew
the label for what he was doing), but went one step further. After
working
through problems, the class returned to the beginning and
went
through each step of the process, exploring how different individuals
and
different groups reached their decisions. Those class discussions
provided
fascinating insight into thoughts, not to mention how the
simulations
were designed to manipulate particpants’ actions.
But
can this work in a sports practice? Again, I was skeptical. After
all,
when coaching, young people need focus, they need specific tasks
and
goals assigned. How many drills have you pre-determined are lasting
for
100 tosses or 50 good passes or 20 kills? Look at basketball
practices;
for
the past 20 or 30 years, basketball coaches start the clock in
the
gym and run drills for a predetermined amount of time and woe be
to
God if they deviate from the schedule! Essentially, coaches have been
conditioned
to believe practices must be regimented and organized down
to
the last miniscule detail. We’ve been led to believe that the coach
is
the
center of practice and that without the coach in direct charge of
everything,
practice falls apart. To steal from an old poem, “The center
cannot
hold; mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.”
Except
it isn’t true. Oh, trust me, I spent years following the trend of
micro-managing
practices and details,until a couple of years ago. That
was
the point I realized — I’m an idiot. It started with a
presentation I
attended
at the American Volleyball Coaches Association’s annual convention.
The
presentation was by John Kessel, USA Volleyball’s Director
of
Sport Development. Kessel’s responsibility is improving coaching
at
all levels of the game, 'grow the game', and finding ways to
incorporate research from
other
avenues into the sport for the betterment of the game. I went in
to
his talk with the mindset that turning practice over to the players
and
an inquiry-based strategy was silliness, especially since my job as
a
college coach is to win (while developing better adults … the
reality is
that
few college coaches remain in their jobs if they lose more often than
win
over the years), and I was equally certain that it was foolhardy with
younger
players since they lacked the skills and knowledge to play the
game
at a high level.
One
hour later — and that’s all it took, one hour —I realized I
was
missing out. Worse still, I should’ve known better from past
experience
in
a gym (more on that in a bit). Kessel’s presentation took place on
a
demo court and for his demo players, he was coaching a dozen 12- and
13-year-old
girls of various experience levels. Over the next hour, he
showed
how inquiry-based theory works in a gym. He set up the basics
of
a drill and told the players to begin, ‘ignoring’ the players as
he talked
with
the attending coaches. Behind him, some of the girls caught on
right
away while others struggled. A-ha! It wasn’t working. But then
the
kids started trying different ways to work things out, started
talking
with
one another, and within 5 or 10 minutes, they had the knack of
things
and the drill proceeded smoothly. Once the drill was going well,
Kessel
stopped it and explained a more complicated drill before backing
out
again and allowing the players to figure it out themselves. If they
had
a question, he answered it, but otherwise he let them work unimpeded.
The
kids got it. Just as important — they liked it, you could see
it
on their faces. Only one hour of court time and there was an obvious,
tangible
look of accomplishment on many of the girls’ faces. I was
gobsmacked.
Not
only were those girls better on the court, he’d helped (if
only
in a small amount) increase those athletes’ self-confidence and
self-esteem,
which
is exactly what we are supposed to be doing as coaches of
young
people.
Just
as important, afterward, John spent another 30 minutes helping
coaches
work through various ways of implementing this sort of
approach
into practices, applying inquiry-based instruction with the
coaches
he spoke with, just in a different form. I appreciate what Kessel
did
because it offered rudimentary mentoring, it created peer
relationships
between
coaches, and though it wasn’t part of his seminar requirement, he
remained
to speak with those coaches above and beyond what was necessary. I
didn’t
dwell on that at the time though. I was kicking myself because I’d
seen
something similar years before when I was at Ohio State (though
again,
I don’t think Jim Stone was thinking in terms of tangible
educational
theory).
Jim
Stone didn’t organize practice with a clock or with set times in
mind;
instead, his practice plan was almost always written on the
front
half of a 3x5 index card. His logic was simple — if the drill is
going
well,
why stop it? If the drill is going poorly, why continue? Instead,
move
on to one you can succeed with. I’m simplifying it, obviously.
There
are
times as a coach you continue with a shaky drill to force players to
work
through a specific issue; there’s value in that, but Stone
understood
that
it was more important to keep players’ minds in the game. This next
part
should sound familiar. Many times in practice, Stone set the drill
up,
asked if there were questions, and then when the players started, he
backed
up and observed. In those drills, if a coach was involved, it was
only
to start play with a freeball or down-ball, otherwise, it was the
players
trying
to beat the drill and figure out what would bring success.
Over
those three seasons, Stone’s teams went 74-18 and in 1994, won the
Big
Ten
and made the Final Four. So why the heck did I blank that from my
mind when
I
became a coach? You imitate what you know and what works, yet I
blanked
those memories from my mind until Kessel’s presentation.
Now
I actively incorporate inquiry-based instruction into practice. I
set
a drill up, put challenges into the drill for the players to get
past,
then
sit back and observe. Sometimes I’ll take it further, and ask the
players
what they think we need to work on, what drills they think will
fix
problems or improve our team. When I did that this year, I was
surprised;
my
team didn’t shy away from hard drills, whether physically
or
mentally demanding. They enjoyed having input, and other than a
hiccup
in September, the program enjoyed its best season ever. Indeed,
I’ve
tried this approach with my club kids the past two seasons, and
used
it to teach them different systems of offense and defense, and I’ve
been
stunned at the results. We’re better physically — that comes with
practice,
but their real improvement has been mental. The players have
a
better understanding of what the opponents are doing, know what we
should
be doing, and no longer require constant coach input to act —
they
now show initiative. Better still, the athletes enjoy practice more
and
I’ve relaxed because I don’t need to nag or carp constantly. I
like it. I
just
wish I would’ve remembered Stone’s practices sooner or seen
Kessel
give
that presentation a decade ago. My bad.
COOPERATIVE
LEARNING:
You
see this in schools regularly. Teachers break a classroom down
into
small groups who then circle their desks and work together on a
project
as the teacher supervises, overseeing the groups work. As a
teacher,
this is more efficient as you only need to supervise a few groups
while
the students do most of the work. Ideally within a group, the
students
do
equal work, but that’s theory; reality doesn’t work quite as
well.
There will always be some who work harder than others. When
you
choose small groups, you hope for one of two things. If the students
are
of equal ability, they push one another to do quality work. If the
students
are of mixed ability, the teacher hopes that the better students
help
the weaker students, so that everyone is successful and can work
to
their strengths (which will get discussed a little bit down the
road).
When
I taught, I used cooperative learning in two projects, one on
music
and the other, “The Space Race” game. The music project involved
writing
a paper, research for information, listening to the appropriate
style
of music, and a group presentation with visual aids. This was done
so
that students with different skill-sets could work together; some
students
were
whizzes with PowerPoint and technology while others enjoyed
public
speaking, and still others were adept at regular research. I
never
assigned people to the various sections of the project. The groups
did
that on their own.
The
Space Race went further. Using a simulation called “Race to the
Moon,”
I modified it with my friend Dave for classroom purposes. We
then
took it a step further and made the simulation a competition between
his
classes (as the USA) and mine (in the role of the USSR), so that
the
students were required to cooperate within their group and across
the
other groups within their class (each represented a various
government
agency
or branch), so that at the end, success could be judged in
multiple
ways and we could dissect the value of cooperation. Indeed, at
points
in the simulation, the two opposing classes had to cooperate to
avoid
disaster, but were limited to communicating via emails relayed by
the
teachers. A decade later, many of our former students still remember
details
that I’ve forgotten, so that when they mention them, I smile,
nod,
and say “Oh, yeah, that was great.”
Without
thinking of the theory behind it, you’ve seen this used in gyms
before
and probably used it yourself. When you pair kids up to work on
a
skill, you’re using cooperative learning. Three-person over-the-net
pepper
— cooperative learning. It sounds silly, but even doing 6-on-6
freeball
drills falls within the definition of cooperative learning. Isn’t
that
the
ultimate purpose of a youth team, to learn values like cooperation?
The question
to
consider is whether you should let the kids pick their own groups or
if
you,
the coach, should. There’s value in each method, just as in
dividing
them
by skill level.
The
big issue I’ve had in the classroom or gym has been personality.
Some
kids have dominating personalities and regardless of skill, that
will
overwhelm a group. If the kid’s got a positive personality, it can
be a good thing
that
pushes her group to work harder which also means you probably
don’t
need to supervise them much. Unfortunately, negative personalities
have
the opposite effect and worse, left alone, they slowly wear
down
other kids who have reasonable work ethics.
Obviously,
the answer is to use all three of these methods. How you
do
that is up to you and what you feel your strengths and weaknesses
are
as a coach. Think of your role-models. Who are the best teachers you
remember
from school (best, not necessarily the ones you liked)? Which
coach
got the most effort from her players, regardless of skill level?
Don’t
hesitate
to talk to those coaches. Ask what their strategies were; the truly
great
coaches are happy to teach whether it is a junior high athlete, an
All-American,
or a fellow coach; they understand what USAV and the AVCA
are
attempting to do—grow the game. We do that with players and
coaches.
Fans,
too.
There’s
another part of education that’s important. I understood it
because
of my mom and sister before I learned the psychology of it. For
me,
school came easily. I never took notes. I sat, listened, and
distilled
the
essence of a lecture whether it was History, English, or Astronomy. I
don’t
know why I have that ability — I just do. My mom didn’t have that
though.
Neither did my step-father, so neither went on to school after
graduating
high school.
But
when I was in high school, my mom did start college. She got married
right
out of high school and after a divorce, returned
to
school. Because she hadn't worked hard in high school, Mom struggled
with
taking
notes during class and processing the information put on the
blackboard.
Instead,
she tape-recorded the lectures to play them back at home, listening
to
them
several times, stopping each time she didn’t understand something
to
check
her notes and the textbook. The process meant she put in 8 or 9 hours
daily
to get her work done. Being young and cocky, I taunted her with how
easy
classes came to me (something I regret now, but it was the callowness
of
youth).
I shouldn’t have. She found a strategy that worked for her. Four
years
later,
she graduated at the top of her nursing school class, earning her
BSN.
My mom, the valedictorian.
My
stepfather hated school, also, and after he died, I found two letters
from
his high school principal talking about his poor behavior and
attitude,
especially
in English classes. Disliking school, he went straight to work
before
owning his own automotive business. From the time he was five, he
loved
taking apart machines. Like most kids, he was better taking them
apart than
putting
them together, but eventually, he got good at putting them together
again.
Good enough that while I was off at college, he got tired
of
his Bronco’s performance, so he took it completely apart, and I
mean
completely.
He cleaned each part, replaced worn-out ones, and put that
vehicle
back together so that it looked and performed better than one
coming
off the Ford assembly line, and never needed to consult a manual to
do it.
Could
you do that? I sure as heck couldn’t — that was the work of a
mechanical
genius.
That’s more family detail than you probably want, but it
illustrates two
critical
points:
• There
are many different ways people learn and if we can combine those,
we’re
more
likely to be effective coaches and teachers.
• Success
has many different definitions and we must always be
aware
that how I define success as a coach may not be how a
player
defines success (or happiness for that matter).
Again,
I’m not an expert, but I have stayed at a Holiday Inn. I came
across
the theory and explanation for all this while teaching Psychology
(I
taught Psych because I admitted to taking two Psych classes in
college.
That made me more qualified than anyone else apparently). The
textbook
referred to it as VAT-K, an acronym referring to the three
primary
means of learning used by people: Visual, Audio, and
Tactile/Kinesthetic.
How
do you apply each of these in your practice?
VISUAL:
There
are some simple things you can do with visual. Have you
watched
video footage of your matches? Players are always intrigued to
watch
matches from a different perspective, and with modern editing
technology,
it is much easier to assemble footage relevant to players of
the
same position or even for a single individual. Have you considered
filming
practice? There is good software available for tablets of all types
that
allows you to film 30-60 second snippets and then play it back in
slow-motion
or with Madden-esque telestrator markings. Of course, you
also
have the traditional use of video: watching an opponent’s match
and
scouting them to figure out a strategy for an upcoming match.
The
problem with these visual strategies is that they require time,
which
is a precious commodity when you are teaching or have a regular
day-job,
or else they require manpower. It isn’t efficient for the head
coach
to focus on filming individuals during practice when you also have
to
keep an eye on anywhere from 10 to 30 other players. Do you have a
team
manager? Can players film one another? Do you have a parent you
trust
who is willing to help all players equally?
Another
less conventional alternative is visualization. Used by religion and
checked
by science, there are tangible positive results that
come
from visualization. Mike Hebert advocated this while at Illinois,
asking
his players to picture key game situations and their actions at
those
points in the match. In 2012, though I suspect my players don’t
remember
us doing it, I asked them to think about the Region Championship
match
and what they were going to do when we won. I emphasized
that
I wanted them to have it planned out so that we celebrated
right.
The catch with visualization though is whether the players take it
seriously.
That’s your judgment, but at least visualization doesn’t require
significant
resources and can be done in small doses, perhaps on a bus
before
a match or at the end of a practice.
AUDIO:
There’s
an old Greek saying, “We have one mouth and two ears, so
that
we may listen twice as much as we speak.” There’s truth to that.
We
learn a lot through our ears, whether it is listening to instructions
or
other sounds. If two players set back and forth over a net, a coach
can
tell
if they are doing well or not from the sounds of the ball contacting
the
players’ hands. You don’t need to see a home run hit; you can
hear
the
crack of the bat and the roar of the crowd to know something has
happened.
Listening is important, but how can you emphasize that other
than
repeating its importance over and over (losing your temper and
the
value of your words with each implored repetition to ‘LISTEN!!!’)?
With
high school and college kids, you reach the point where you can’t
be
all serious with them. They get tired, especially towards the end of
two-a-days
in the fall, and when they tire, things like communication
are
the first things to go. Consider changing drills to emphasize
communication.
I
like to do that in an absurd way when our communication
is
on the fritz.
We
play a game called “Oink, Moo, Woof.” It’s a normal 6-on-6
drill
where
you keep score (you can do it however you want actually), except
there’s
a catch. No one can talk or say anything, except for one of the
three
animal sounds. Team A will say ‘oink’ if they are going to pass
the
ball,
‘moo’ for a set, and ‘woof’ if they are hitting while Team B
switches
it
up, saying ‘oink’ for a hit instead. The two teams use the same
words,
but
for different purposes. If you don’t use your words or if you use
words
other
than oink/moo/woof, you lose the point. Pretty soon, you have hitters
trying
to woof multiple times to signal what they want to hit and
passers
will start mooing early if they know a freeball’s coming over the
net.
We can’t play it past a game to 15 because we wind up laughing, but
it
gets the point across concerning communication.
At
a recent seminar, Jim Moore, Head Coach at the University of Oregon,
dealt
with communication a different way. Because Oregon runs a fast
offense,
communication
is vital, so he limits his players to calling for a set with
a
single word. Middles don’t yell, “One! One! One!” They say it
once. You
can
use that, too. Restrict what can be said and players learn to listen
much
closer,
communicating quickly and efficiently the relevant information.
Just
as important for audio-learning, how loud are you in practice? If
you
are giving instructions, can your players hear you on the other side
of
the floor? What about on a second court? You can test this by setting
up
a tape recorder. Listen to it after practice — can you hear
yourself
clearly?
If you can’t, chances are the players didn’t hear you either,
creating
confusion
during practice, maybe frustration, but also a definite
loss
of efficiency. If volume is a problem, you can fix it easily —
encourage
your
players to say something if it wasn’t loud enough, and then
make
a conscious effort to be louder. That’s right; you need to practice
being
louder.
It
also sounds boring, but ask your players to repeat instructions
back,
forcing them to take what they’ve heard, process it, and
repeat
it, a mini-game of Telephone. If they struggle to repeat the
information,
you
need to repeat it or consider a different way of teaching
the
information, or consider the possibility that you must break the
information
into
smaller chunks.
Finally,
when I coached high school, I liked taking players to college
matches. Very few
top-level
college teams struggle with communication (at least from the
perspective
of high school coaches and athletes). If asked to watch the
communication
between players (or players and coaches) beforehand,
high
school athletes are shocked by the difference. I used to get feedback
such
as “They all talk all the time;” “Did you hear how loud she
called
for
that?” or “They get together and huddle after every point, not
just
celebrations.”
TACTILE-KINESTHETIC:
This
is the most obvious. People learn through touching and doing,
not
just watching and listening. Steve Kerr didn’t learn to hit treys
by
watching
the NBA on NBC and Peyton Manning didn’t become the best
quarterback
of the past 20 years by playing Madden 2014. They excel
because
they practiced their skills, hundreds and thousands of times.
The
more kids touch the ball, the faster they get better.
This
is a critical point and can help turn a team’s fortunes around
quickly.
What do you do in practice? Are you scrimmaging with one ball
in
play, 12 people playing and six standing on the sides? Are you
hitting
balls
at lines of diggers, so that one athlete is performing a skill while
17
stand
waiting for their turn?
We’ll
come back to the gym in a moment. For a second, think about
your
experience in math classes throughout grade, junior high and high
school
(sorry if this causes queasy stomachs or bad flashbacks). When
you
had math homework, did you just do one problem on a page? Dear
God,
no. Every day in math, Mrs. _______ sent you home with dozens of
math
problems. Is there anything less thrilling for a 15-year-old than
taking
home 14 geometry proofs for class the next day? But the reality
is,
the more you practice a skill, the better you get. You don’t get
good at
math
doing one problem per day, and you don’t get proficient at reading
by
ignoring your Lit book and only reading the day’s Far Side from a
calendar.
You
practice, you correct, you repeat, and eventually it becomes
ingrained—you
get it right so that being correct becomes the norm, automatic.
Back
to the gym. Sports are no different. If you can figure out how to
increase
the number of times your athletes touch the ball, the better
they
will get. Most volleyball coaches have used hitting lines in
practice.
How
can you improve that basic drill?
1.
Why not use two lines—one setter pushing it to the OH and the
other
setting quicks for the middle hitter or sets to the RS?
Now
you have two hitters going at the same time and two working
on
hitting while two are setting. This doubles the effective ball
contacts.
2.
What if you had hitters toss the balls to themselves and set the ball
to
the setters instead of just tossing the ball?
Now
we’re getting two ball-control touches in addition to the swings
and
sets. Without adding much time, we’ve added even more useful
contacts
to the drill.
3.
How about we move the lines of hitters to the other side of the net
and
start the hitter at the net. As the first in line tosses the ball,
the
hitter
comes off the net and sets the ball after it comes over the net,
then
hits the ball?
Now
suddenly, we’ve got setting, we’ve got hitting, we’ve got
transition
footwork,
and we’re playing a ball after it comes over the net.
Without
much extra delay, more contacts.
4.
Put a back-row player deep behind the hitter. The toss over the net
goes
to the passer, so the hitter must be ready for a potentially
worse
pass. If you worry about too many bad passes, have the coach
toss
directly to the setter if the ball is shanked.
Now
we’ve added a passer to make it more serve-receive like. We
can
rotate from tosser to passer to hitter and we now have a multitude
of
appropriate volleyball contacts. We haven’t added much
time
to the practice, but now we’ve got two lines of full volleyball
contacts
going, simulating serve-receive under controlled circumstances.
Essentially,
we’ve increased the number of contacts 50%
and
made them more game appropriate, and if you have players
with
enough skill, instead of tossing the ball over the net, they can
hit
down-balls. Better still, they could hit them from balls set to
them
by other players, yet again increasing the number of contacts.
We
can do this with any number of drills — when serving, put passers
on
the court and setters for the passers — because how often do you
serve
at an empty court during a game? Working on blocking? Why not
use
two blockers rather than one? Why not toss to a setter who possibly
sets
to multiple hitters — thus giving you hitting practice, not to
mention
a
more ‘real’ sense of the timing and issues blockers will face
during
a
game? Think of your practice and where you can add touches to
the
ball, footwork repetitions, anything, so that players are not
standing
and
watching unnecessarily.
John
Kessel writes a blog with good ideas in it, and I’ll be honest, I
“steal”
stuff from him on a regular basis. One of the great games he
explained
at the 2012 AVCA Convention is “Speedball,” an improved
version
of Queen of the Court. Queen of the Court has a winning side
and
when the winners lose, you lose time standing around as players run
under
the net to reach the winning-side. That’s lost time, not to mention
that
running under the net during a volleyball match never happens.
Speedball
puts multiple kids on both sides and requires that the losing
side
serve immediately after a point is over. It saves (roughly) five
seconds
between
plays and players are constantly ready, aware that the ball
will
come over immediately. Now you’ve got kids hustling, aware they’ll
lose
if not ready, you’ve got a server who has to immediately get on the
court
to play defense, and a dozen other little things — I won’t
mention
them
all because I think you get the point.
Once
you start increasing the reps, the skill level will improve. You may
not
notice it immediately; the change will be gradual, so keep it in mind
over
the long haul and enjoy the comments you get from people who
watch
your team because the praise from observers is as rewarding as that
huge
paycheck you earn.
As
a final observation regarding education, there’s an ongoing debate
regarding
the importance (or lack thereof) of class size for teaching
young
people. Some argue that there’s a link between academic success
and
improvement with small class size while the opposition argues that
the
link is far less important as issues such as teacher salary,
location,
or
the initial aptitude of students.
How
does that hold for something like volleyball? Look at the education
methods
discussed previously; how many of those are effective with
more
than 12-15 athletes at a time? How many athletes can you fit onto
a
court? And even then, if you can squeeze more kids onto a court, is
that
conducive
to their learning environment — have you tried to corral 25
excited
9-year-olds before? How many times can a player touch a ball?
This
was discussed earlier in terms of high school programs, but doesn’t
this
matter for club volleyball as well? How much playing time is there
if
we put 12 players on a team rather than eight? With a roster of
eight,
you’re
increasing playing time by 50% over a roster of 12 (presuming you
are
trying to do the right thing and give everyone who has joined your
team
a chance to play). The excuse for a larger roster that I hear is,
“The
value
is in practice, and during matches those players are learning as
they
watch.” Again, with eight instead of 12, you have more opportunity
to
touch the ball in practice and the coach’s attention is better
focused,
not
to mention the argument that learning-by-doing is often a superior
method
of improving physical skills. Is a club’s bottom line hurt? Sure,
because
you now have four less players per team and you’ll need more
coaches,
but isn’t the trade-off worth it? If the object is to provide the
best
possible instruction, it is our obligation as coaches to do our best
to
achieve
that.
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