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.

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.



 

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:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXvjNcqZRzQ

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)

 

*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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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

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.

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

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

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.

 

 

 

 

 

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.