She Doesn't Look like a Volleyball Player (revisited)

Originally, "She Doesn't Look like a Volleyball Player" was the first volleyball-related article I wrote which was published in a large forum.  It was based off a blog post (on my other blog which somehow I no longer can figure out my access to...sigh) and revised so that it came out here:

AVCA Article

 

It then became a chapter in my book on volleyball as well.

 

I've added some notes down below that bring it up to date since it was actually written more than three years ago.  The new comments are in italics.  Thoughts are welcome.

I'm going to scream, I think. This spring, I heard the phrase "She doesn't look like a volleyball player," a total of five times in describing players, and in one case, it was followed by me clenching my jaw when the coach followed up with, "Wow, she can actually play!"

 

This hasn't changed.  I still hear the comment regularly, and there have been a few times when I've used the line to keep a 4-yr coach's attention, making sure to remind the coach--watch how she plays, what she does.  If I can't kill the phrase off, I might as well try and use it to the athletes' advantage.

Doesn't look like a player...that's great, but if I look through the rules (yeah, like a coach would ever read the rule book…), I don't think I'll find anything that gives my team bonus points or victories for 'looking' like volleyball players. Crikeys--what exactly does a volleyball player look like? Is it the 6-4 stringbean? The 6-1 stocky kid? How about the 5-8 girl who's built 'big', or the 5-4 girl who is a three-sport star? Which is it?

Some of the best volleyball players I have coached don't 'look' like volleyball players. Heck, some of the best results I've had as a coach have come from thinking outside the box--and really, that's the most important thing of my rant...don't stereotype! Not in sports, not in life. Back in '98, the 8th grade coach at Satan's School for Boys and Girls only played one kid at setter: "Jim, she'll be a star. She'll start for you. She's great." Maybe, maybe not. Of course, the girl’s decision to play tennis rather than play volleyball in high school made that moot. Her decision meant there was no JV setter. None of the kids "looked" like a setter either (I was young, forgive me).

 

So...the article doesn't mention Satan's School, but that was how I originally wrote it.  I've put it back in.  I'm frustrated still by that coach, as well as the coaches who followed me.  They started playing only the front six or seven kids and were shocked when the numbers of girls participating dropped.  In my last year at Satan's School, I had 32 girls out for high school volleyball and 29 for junior high.  Last fall, they had 11 in the high school program and I THINK have 17 for junior high. 

And that's a big frustration going beyond this article.  Coaches complain about declining participation, especially at younger ages--but then those same coaches don't ever let those kids actually play.  Why would a rational 14-yr old go out for an activity, put in 10-15 hours per week, and get no reward for it--other than watching the same 6-7 kids play all the time?  Answer-->they don't go out.  Duh.

 

Out of nowhere, a kid who'd been on the bench as a backup outside hitter in 8th grade volunteered to set and asked me not to laugh because she hadn’t ever done it before. She didn't look like much, but the kid had the guts to volunteer. Ok, fine--the job was hers. By the end of the season, she was dressing varsity.  She started three years on the varsity, went 24-6, 34-3, 30-6, she wound up in the state record books, and earned a scholarship to play in college. Not bad for a kid who didn't "look" like she could play! Funny thing is, by her sophomore year, she sure looked able to play.

 

Since I wrote this, that setter invited me to talk with her fifth grade classes about education, working hard, and how sports help when you are an adult.  The funny thing is--Katie's the best example of that I know.  She got into teaching so she could make a difference--I'd like to think that my "decision" to have her set and give her a chance helped with that (even though I know its more because her mom is a teacher as well...)

Here at Lincoln Land, my first year I inherited a player who was a DS for the previous coach...'too small' to play outside hitter. When I was hired, I asked what position she played and she "I'm a DS, I don't get to play front row". I'd learned my lesson by then (I wasn't an old dog yet)--I told her if she was one of the two most effective outside hitters, she'd play OH.

 

Her response, "I'm too short."

Mine: "I'll be the judge of that."

 

To her credit, she busted her butt and was absolutely BY FAR the best outside hitter her sophomore year. 5-4 and she wound up all-conference and all-region.  Height does not equal ability!

It happens in evaluating coaches, too. My current assistant played for me in 06 and 07...the first person I signed. No experience, not 'mature' (read: "She's too young"...bah...), she's still in grad school...all sorts of justifications for why I shouldn’t hire her and take someone else instead. I looked past those. She’s responsible, she plans out her homework, and from her days as a player, she listened, constantly searched for ways to improve...LOOK PAST THE OBVIOUS...

So here she is now, one year in, handling recruiting (and we have good recruits coming in), coaching a 16s travel club team, managing our non-traveling league of 12 teams--120 kids! She supervises their tournaments, practices, concessions...and oh yeah, she still has found time to revise and improve our strength and conditioning program.

 

Kelly's no longer my assistant.  She got a full-time government job and is in the process of getting married now.  But those recruits--Kelly's last year was the only time so far LLCC has gone to Nationals, so it worked out well.  She's been succeeded by Laura, who is also an alumni of the program.  Laura's doing the same work, though she isn't coaching a club team.  Kelly always insisted she wasn't working too hard/burning out, and then it happened POOF.  I've talked about all that with Laura to help avoid the same thing happening.  Laura had it worse actually--no experience in 2013 and then I got benched for a month because of a heart situation, so 28 days into her coaching career and she had to take over the program completely for a month....they went undefeated during that month, not bad.

And those are the examples that fly off the top of my head.

Others? We had an outside hitter named Anna Becker who became a top-flight libero by looking deeper into her ability and personality (same thing with our current libero,Emily Orrick--great hitter, better passer). Does a player’s reputation blind us as coaches to changes which may be better for both the athlete and the team? How do we avoid that dreaded evaluation: She doesn’t look like a hitter / blocker / setter / passer / volleyball player?

 

Orrick left LLCC as the program's first two-time NJCAA all-American.  She wound up at Illinois State where she was all-Missouri Valley twice, MVC Libero of the Year twice, and all-American as a senior.  Not bad for a two-year college kid, huh?  And to think--no one offered her a scholarship coming out of high school, other than community colleges.  That ought to be enough of a lesson right there--first, there's some high-level volleyball going on at the two-year college level; second, this 'doesn't look like a player' stuff matters...a completely overlooked kid went on to be all-American three times in her career!

What about off the court? What about real life? Who have you stereotyped lately? Have you looked past someone's skin to find a deeper answer? I'm not innocent of this, not by a mile. I'm chucking stones at my own glass house. But I'm trying...every day, I'm trying...

 

 

 

Volleyball

Some observations on a season entering its third weekend as we ride our bus to God's Country (Iowa) and, in addition, to a chance to spend a weekend with volleyball, to see a couple of long-time friends.  Volleyball, friends...only thing that would make it better is if Julie, the puppies, and family were there, too!

*I was feeling a bit depressed yesterday--lack of sleep and basic exhaustion, mental and physical.  I have to watch for that--depression can take your mind and emotions in unhelpful directions.  It skews your weltanschauung.  (Yeah, that's right, I used 'weltanschauung' while discussing volleyball)  So in the middle of all this, Laura (my assistant)  comes up during a drill and says, "You know, you've been awesome this year with practices."  Not what I expected, so I responded with the eloquent "Huh?"  She then explained that she's liked some changes to drills, the warmups, etc.

A lot of the credit goes to John Kessel as well as Denise Sheldon for giving me the opportunity to do evaluations with USAV High Performance and then work with the Future Youth Selects in Vegas back in July.  You see, every coach has doubts about things--teaching ability, recruiting, whatever.  The time with HP confirmed some things to me in how I coach--and I've become more confident in those areas--and more sure that I'm right in my approach, too...something some of my players last year had me doubting unfortunately.

--You need to be specific, Jim.  (That's my inner English teacher speaking...correctly, I might add.)

Since the first time I heard Kessel talk, about four years ago at the AVCA Coaches Convention, I realized that I'd been approaching coaching wrong.  I KNEW I was wrong, knew what I was doing wasn't working optimally, but I didn't realize how to improve.  That seminar gave me my 'A-ha!' moment.  In Vegas, I got to see how those principles are applied at the highest skill levels (regardless of age).  I knew, but didn't know, that this was practiced as well as preached.

*If it's good enough for national-level programs, I'm stealing it for my team.  I did that with the dynamic warmups, the shoulder pre-hab to avoid injuries.  It's been good.  We haven't had any serious shoulder soreness, fewer injuries, and our trainer loved the dynamic warmup--thought I'd been studying up (I told her the truth though)

*The doubt I have about this current season remains--did I increase the schedule's toughness too much?  We dropped two tournaments with weaker teams, replacing them with this weekend's tourney and then another two weeks from now...in those eight matches, it is possible we'll play SEVEN NJCAA Top-8 teams, and the eighth team has a win over a D-1 Top 15 team.  When you play a schedule like that, you can lose quite a bit--and I hate losing.  A lot.

But there's the catch--how much better are you by playing weaker teams?  So I decided to follow the lead of teams like Illinois or Iowa State--we're going to schedule the equivalent of Long Beach or Stanford.  Those matches will prepare us for the post-season.  Could it keep us out of the national polls?  Yup.  I suspect if we make the polls, it won't be until October as the post-season nears.

*Are kids tough enough to deal with a ton of losses?  We are 3-5 right now, but we've lost to a couple ranked D-1 schools, another D-1 who WILL be ranked (since they've started the year 10-0), a top 10 D-2 team, another who'll be ranked this next week.  We beat D-2#14 in there with our wins, and one of those D-1 losses was actually and truly due to an official and not the teams involved. So we are playing well.  But can young athletes handle that?

I think the answer is yes.  Many players lose a ton of games during their club seasons--playing teams with accumulations of awesome talent.  How is this different....other than a W/L record is officially kept?  To me, it is the same thing. But I know there are examples of teams who lose out there that self-destruct, turn on each other or the coaching staff, and through that negativity/drama, destroy their chance at greatness--unable to look past the scoreboard for a match or two (in matches that are irrelevant--only region matches count for us for post-season standings and these have not been region matches)

*If the answer is no, and we DO have issues with the loss total, what then?  The answer is--steady on course.  I know we're on the right path, so I have to make sure we don't waiver and doubt.  That'll be critical.

*I received a list of academic-honored schools in the mail this week.  We aren't on it.  But I was annoyed by the list, seeing some of the schools.  Why annoyed?  Because I know kids who have transferred to those schools from LLCC--and while they struggle for "C" grades at LLCC because LLCC really does push for academic excellence (really!), they then go to those other schools and pick up 4.0 GPAs taking/retaking the same classes, then those schools get honored for being so awesome academically, when really--the kids are getting a grade, but not an education.

When did that happen?  It sounds crotchety, but it wasn't when I was in college--it's a phenomena of the past 20 years, I think (for things other than basketball/football), and it goes beyond sports.  Tuition rates have gone up so much--I'd bet grade inflation has the same curve.  Oh well.

*Do I hurt my team's chances of success by switching systems?  By teaching players multiple positions?  The educator in me says it is my responsibility to teach them the game, and that means all positions, all skills.  Middles need to know how to pass, setters to hit, etc.  Kids are forced to specialize way too early--so I have to provide the general fundamentals missed in jr high/high school.  The problem is that the competitor in me wants to win, hates losing.  How do I balance that without stressing myself out too much?

Well there you go...random bus musings from I-55.  Four hours to game time.  I don't know how the score will go--but I'm hoping we improve on last weekend--fix the errors, improve the good points.  Small, steady steps forward...

A Love Letter to Losers (Reflections on Coaching and the National Title Game)

So I'm home from Chicago and the AVCA Spring Convention and Men's Volleyball Final Four.  I learned some new stuff--technically and in regards to psychology and communication, which is good.  I worry that at some point I'll go to a convention and learn nothing or worse still, have no motivation to learn.

In any event, Loyola showed that yes, indeed, they deserved to be #1 in the country by beating Stanford in the championship Saturday evening.  It was a good match.  Loyola's short middle with the beard hit well (unlike on Thursday) while their hitter, Jaeschke, had a good night (or so it seemed from the stands).  All night, Loyola kept USC off balance and the Trojan hitters were just plain ineffective, and Stanford's setter (who was freakin' amazing--setting a '4' with one hand? Really?  Setting above the antennae? Really?...probably helps to have a quality coach for a father, too).

And then Loyola crushed USC in the fourth game.  Played at Loyola, the crowd went wild (in a good way), and then I left--I couldn't bear to watch the awards ceremony.  I've found I dislike awards ceremonies in general for champions.  It's not actually the pomp or anything like that, and it isn't just volleyball.  I turn off March Madness before the awards.  Heck--I even turned off the Iowa State games this year as soon as they won.

And I realize why--I love winning, but I'm 40+ now.  And I hate losing, and I empathize with all of those athletes who don't quite make it, fall just short for all the work that got put in.  Watching Shaw put his hands behind his head, stand and wait to shake hands--that's painful.  To see Stanford's team waiting while the awards ceremony was being set up, forced to stay calm--painful (and classy on Stanford's part...I've seen teams act like jerks before).

When Iowa State won their first game of the tourney this year, you know what stuck with me?  It wasn't State and how they played, it was the opposing coach hugging his two seniors--the ones who kept the game close, left it all out on the court.

It's why losing in the Regional in 2010 for us hurt--because most of the sophomores I had gave it their all.  That damned last point.  That damned net.  0.1 inches higher or lower and we go to nationals.  It's why 2000 hurt at Satan's School...we put it on the court and had Bobbi Mattingly screw us over intentionally.

And I see those kids who are done--no NBA careers for them, no million-dollar contracts, and I understand the emotion of it.  It hurts--I feel it.

I even feel it for the pro guys now when the end comes and the body can't do the amazing any more, whether it's Payton or Jordan or a Maddux.  It sucks to watch it take down Tiger Woods' golf game, even if I know that time is undefeated against every athlete.

So here I empathize with Stanford, even though I'm excited for Loyola.  If the results were reversed, my empathy would be with Loyola, maybe more since the defeat would've been in front of their fans. 

So--for you reading this, the players, the coaches, everyone who winds up on the wrong end of the score...I love you.  I love the effort you put in to your season.  I love your dedication, the sweat and pain.  I love seeing the friendships and brotherhood, I love seeing athletes grow into young men and women and later into adults.  I love watching when you win with sportsmanship, and love when you lose with grace and dignity.

Many in the media say today's youth is struggling, that we've lost a generation--but when I see teams play and win or play and lose--I know the world is fine.   Maybe my emotion isn't commiseration for the losers after all; maybe it is pride to know that with the next generation, the world's in good hands and I'm witnessing it.

And maybe, just maybe, I need to stay and watch those ceremonies after all.