I am amazed at the reach of my blog and the people I have met while writing about my passion.  It’s great to be surrounded by and learn about others with the same passion.

I received a call from Lynn Ray Boren, Head Coach of the USA  Deaf Women’s Volleyball Team, to offer a compliment of my blog.  For this small bit of attention, I am grateful.  Of course we started talking about volleyball (via a “relay operator”) and realized how small the world of volleyball is.  When I played at Arizona State University, our arch rival, the Continue Reading

This weekend I enjoyed being a kid again.  I went to the Mall of America near Minneapolis which has an amusement park in the middle of the mall!  A friend’s 8 year old nephew, Alex, and I got to run amuck through the park.  Last year, when he visited the mall, he was not tall enough to ride the “big kid” rides.  This year, he was 3 inches above the required height of 48 inches, a major right of passage. 

He was like “a kid in an amusement park” trying to decide which ride to go on first while we purchased tickets.  “The Spongebob Roller Coaster, or the Avatar Skateboard, or the Log Ride!” he’d yell out while dancing around the ticket counter.  As we entered the park, what ride did he choose?  The first ride he saw, the Spongebob Roller Coaster.  It was his first “big kid” rollercoaster he’d ever ridden and I must admit, he chose the scariest of them all first.  This ride literally has a vertical drop and a couple loops.  He admitted he was nervous, but he was so excited, he danced through the entire line.  The picture taken of us while on the ride showed the pure little boy joy in his face.  I’d say it was a priceless picture, but $15 for the picture is ridiculous

After the roller coaster, it was the bumper cars, as that was the first ride he saw after exiting the roller coaster.  Then it was the Pepsi roller coaster which was adjacent the bumper cars.  Next was the Avatar Skateboard, a short walk from the Pepsi roller coaster.  His ride decisions were completely impulsive.  The next ride that caught his attention, made his decision.

As we stood in line for a few rides, I would ask other kids their choice for best ride in the park.  One said Ghostblaster (an “It’s a Small World” type ride, just with a light gun to shoot at ghosts), another said the log ride.  Alex said would say to me, “Let’s ride Ghostblaster after we get off this ride” of which he would completely forget about after we got off the ride, as a different ride would catch his attention.  This happened a few times.

It wasn’t until the end of the day, when we had only enough tickets left to ride two more rides, did he actually, start thinking about his choices.  The extra sensory noise of rides certainly caught his attention, but you could see him weighing the options in his mind.  “If I ride that ride, I’m not going to be able to ride the log ride.”  Alex decided the last ride of the day was to be the Spongebob Roller Coaster, but after walking up to it and remembering how scary it was, he decided the Pepsi Roller Coaster was the right choice (although he wouldn’t admit to me that Spongebob was too scary, he told me he liked them both equally).

After reading the book How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer (a John Kessel recommendation), the amusement park became a great cognitive adventure to me into the mind of an 8 year old.  It made me wonder how impulsive volleyball decisions are made while playing.  Do hitters swing at the first impulsive option?  Do setters decide to set a player that is the noisiest or the first one they hear?  When a coach provides the best option for a player during a timeout, do they completely forget that option once the player starts playing and that situation then arises (such as the best choice ride recommended when standing in line versus the choice made after the ride is complete)?  How do players decide?

At the early development stage, players choose the most instinctual option.  As the player plays, they learn through their mistakes and start to adjust.  Coaches are there as reminders for the players, to continually remind players their options.  It is through constant reminders and patience (lots of patience) will these players finally learn the best choice.  Advanced players are then able to analyze the game through scouting and apply coaching strategies to situations.  It is the best players that can visualize situations that they may have never encountered and make the correct decision before it happens.  It is the best coaches that can create this visualization for the players, to provide a comfort level and confidence  through knowledge, to make the best decisions when unfamiliar situations arise. 

Predicting future events on the court and knowing the right option.  All this through an 8 year old’s day at the amusement park.

Basic Team Systems and Tactics
By: Doug Beal
USA Volleyball CEO and 1984 Gold Medal Winning Coach

Excerpts from the FIVB Manual

In volleyball, we must work very hard to position our bodies correctly before returning the ball.

In volleyball defense, we want to be aggressive to create opportunities to score points.

The coach must train his team to actively “win” the game as opposed to waiting for the opponent to “lose” the game.

We believe that since the universal player is “the ideal”, we must spend time training players in all volleyball skills.  This becomes virtually an impossibility in real-world situations.  There simply are not enough hours in the day to train all players equally well  in all volleyball skills.  The coach’s role, relative to rotation, is to work within the rules to build in specialization and overcome the idea of the universal player.  This is consistent with all sports for achieving success.

Great specialization always equals greater success.

Each movement and contact in volleyball is part of an unbroken chain.  Players who perceive it this way contribute to a strong team more effectively than players who perceive their actions and movements as independent and separate from team patterns.

Volleyball is dominated by movement before contact and player movement between contacts.

Volleyball is really six distinct games within one game.  Each rotation presents a different team and a different set of criteria to the players.  To be successful in the total game, we, as coaches, must see it from the rotation point of view.

Players must be trained to compete within themselves.

Players must be coached to be the best they can be.  If they are content merely to be the best on their team or better than the opponent, they will eventually fail.

Each player on a team must have a specific and critical role in team strategy and tactical outline.

Players must understand their roles and the roles must fit their technical abilities.  You can never expect a player to perform within a tactical construct outside his technical capabilities.

It is important for the coach to understand that each player on the team must have a specific role.  The player must accept the role, feel comfortable with it, and feel confident that the coach will, in fact, use him or her consistently whenever that role is required regardless, if the player is the best or the poorest on the team.

In selecting the team, the “twelve best players” are never chosen because the “twelve best players” will never make the best team.

Players willing to subjugate their egos for the good of the team, are more valuable than those better players who may not be starting players and who will destroy the internal fabric of team cohesion.

Generally we look for nine potential starters – three who will not start, but who will replace, by position, the six starters.   The balance of the squad is made up of specialists who have one or two outstanding skills which have the capability to directly score points, to change momentum, or to prevent the opponent from gaining momentum.

Create a very specialized tactical system which takes maximum advantage of the players’ abilities.  Specialization is most likely the key.
Pre-match warm-up – the team should ignore the opponent as much as possible.

Immediately before the game begins, the coach should gather the players together so the last thing they hear before going to the court are the two most important elements of the team – strategy and tactics.

During the course of the match the coach must constantly remind the players about the strategies and tactics to be used.  The key element is to constantly refocus the players’ attention, which will naturally stray off the game plan, back to those tactics which will bring success to the team.  You must constantly focus and refocus the players’ attention.

It is important for substitutes to be used early, especially in a match that the coach expects will be a long, close, difficult one.  For a substitute to be effective, he cannot be put into a match for the first time and be expected to perform at a high level.

Substitutions should not be made simply to allow players to play.  Players to do not have the “right” to play, they have an obligation to do what is best for the team – that, by definition, is what the coach decides.

Coaches Must Develop a Philosophy with which the Team can Identify

Every team will take on the characteristics, the demeanor, the emotional nature of the head coach.  The coach must be aware of this and must strive to create a positive environment so that his strong characteristics will be adopted by the team and the team will benefit by the very natural association that they have with the head coach.

It is critical the coach exhibit some of the following traits:

a)    The coach must be prepared at all times.
b)    The coach must demonstrate to the team that he is extremely organized.
c)    The coach must demonstrate confidence.
d)    The coach must demonstrate technical and tactical competence.
e)    The coach must demonstrate maturity.
f)    The coach must be a behavioral role model for the players.
g)    The coach must define leadership as seeking the answers when an unexpected situation or a conflict presents itself that must be resolved.
h)    The coach must demonstrate flexibility and must demonstrate the ability to deal with players on a multitude of levels.
i)    The coach must never forget that his own will to win, his own leadership, his own competitiveness, his own persona will be transmitted through the team and that the team’s success or failure will be his success or failure.

Defense must be thought of as an aggressive, risk-taking component of the game.

The keys to developing a strong defense begin with the block and we must think in terms of matching our best blockers against the most likely point of attack.  We must move away from the concept of a pure middle blocker who is always in the middle of the court of in position #3; to a more flexible system which has equal blockers in terms of their ability to block in position 2, 3, or 4.

Click for the complete FIVB chapter

TV Schedule of the USA Volleyball Gold Medal team (not all the same players from that team) in World League competition on ESPN. Continue Reading

This is painful to watch.

By: Charles Cardinal
Canadian National Team Head Coach
Excerpts from the FIVB Coaches Manual

From an athlete’s point of view, the reward and motivation comes from the fact that through training and coaching they are able to do today what was impossible yesterday.

Teaching the Mechanics of a Movement (Level 1)
At the start of technical training, no matter the method, an athlete must imitate a model as closely as possible.  This model is usually a coach or a successful athlete who demonstrates the proper execution of a technique.  To reproduce the model exactly, an athlete must have an accurate mental image of the movement.

A coach must ensure that the exercises are properly executed if he wants to develop habits which will allow the attainment of technical efficiency.

Familiarization with a Movement (Level 2)
A coach progressively increases the requirements on an athlete, while continuing to maintain a high level of quality as far as execution of the technique is concerned.

Following are different variables that can be manipulated by the coach:

• Speed of execution of the movement
• Strength of application or resistance
• Distance to be covered for a given time
• The height or length to be attained
• By playing with intensity and recovery time

Calling for accuracy of a movement and consistency in performance: It is not sufficient in this stage to just return the ball to a partner; it must also be returned accurately.  Furthermore, an athlete must be able to repeat the movement regularly and efficiently, even if the conditions are changing.
Add, before or after performance of the skill different types of movements or changes in direction.  A coach can also introduce going from one skill to another or changing rhythm of performance of the same motor skill.

Technique will be assimilated as quickly as possible in a systematic but kinetic way, by modifying the conditions of execution.

Emphasis should only be on one role or only one technical element being stressed.

The technique becomes consolidated and stable so that a player can bring his selective attention to more complex tactical tasks.

Only basic motor skills are stabilized.  As soon as an athlete has fairly mastered he basic motor skills, a coach can introduce variations to these movements thus increasing his repertory of tactical solutions.

Developing Tactical Intelligence (Level 3)
The behavior of a highly skilled player shows efficient application of successive skills.  “This application of successive skills is the basis of team play” (Mahlo).
If a player does not need to focus attention and intellectual ability on the performance of these skills, he can instead concentrate on the more complicated tactical tasks.  “These combinations of movements will then be guided by kinesthetic sensations and by perception.”

It then becomes vital at this stage of an athlete’s evolution, to be able to pick up pertinent information on teammates and opponents so he can act in time and not react to a situation or the ball.  Pertinent information can be translated by reading keys that will reveal an athlete’s tactical intent before he/she plays the ball.

Programming of proper motor responses meets the requirements of a situation based on the gathering of pertinent information.  This information comes from the following sources:

• Direction, trajectory, speed and landing spot of the ball.
• Position and play actions of partners.
• Position and play actions of opponents.
• External conditions such as score, refereeing, rhythm and momentum of the game, lighting, space around the court, height of the ceiling, spectators, etc.
• The tactical intention of the athlete playing the ball.

By creating actual game conditions in training, a coach can manipulate one or several of the following variables:

1. Include the skill in a succession of motor skills
2. Increase the difficulty of the task by properly manipulating the intensity of the exercise, the recovery period, length of the exercise, and frequency.
3. Increase the complexity of the task so the player has to think about the situation and choose the proper response from several alternatives.

Integrating a Player/Skill Into a System of Play (Level 4)
At this stage of a player’s development, one of the coach’s goals should be the methodical development of actions (technical-tactical movement) and of tactical thought.

“Without common awareness of concrete realities and without harmonious tactical knowledge, the potential unity of play favorable to a team is not possible.” (Rioux et Chappuis)

The highest form of technical-tactical movement conveys the importance of the intellectual component through tactical awareness, topped with independent productive thinking.

It is creative thinking in the sense that new concrete solutions are found and that it is a source of new general knowledge.  (Mahlo)

Click for the complete FIVB chapter

There are a few volleyball forums in cyberspace, but the hands down favorite is VolleyTalk.  It is an anonymous board with many enthusiastic volleyball coaches, players, parents and fans that offer their advice about anything volleyball.  The only issue is the website name: http://volleytalk.proboards.com/index.cgi The URL is not easy to remember.  When my bookmarks aren’t readily available, I often have to do a google search to find it.  It’s worth the ‘hassle’.  I highly recommend checking it out.

There are a few others that you may find of interest:

PrepVolleyball.com, John Tawa’s website,  does a nice job with the high school/juniors volleyball scene.  PrepVolleyball.com is a fee based website, but the forum section is free.

Volleyball Magazine has a good following for men’s and junior boy’s volleyball.  I will add that Volleyball Magazine is coming out with a new print and online format to the magazine.  There have been mixed reviews as the publication is attempting a more mainstream media approach using volleyball as its avenue.  I hope it helps to bring in new volleyball fans.

Volleyball Forums treads water with their forum.  It has become a place where an RSS feed posts the latest news from around the volleyball world.

Volleyball.com’s forum was treading water for a while too, but I think it has sunk.  There might still be some good information within old posts.

The AVCA and USA Volleyball have both attempted a discussion board, but those have not caught on.

Enjoy the discussion boards, quite a bit can be learned from them (although take-in the information with a grain of salt), and post away…carefully

In my recent post Volleyball Camp – How to Choose the Best Camp, I mentioned that at most Division I universities, especially the elite universities, scholarships have already been offered and accepted by high school juniors and seniors.  This article is proof:

Twins are youngest players to commit to Nebraska Volleyball
By: TODD HENRICHS / Lincoln Journal Star
Thursday, Jun 18, 2009

Amber and Kadi Rolfzen can forever debate who was the youngest player to ever commit to play at Nebraska.

The identical twins, recent graduates of Papillion Junior High, share that label after making their college plans known to Nebraska volleyball coach John Cook. The twins attended camp at NU last week.

“They recruited him, and he said, when you’re ready to come here, to let him know,” said Gwen Egbert, who will coach the pair at Papillion-La Vista South High School beginning this fall.

“They’re ready,” Egbert told the Journal Star on Thursday. “Obviously, it’s their dream.”

Members of the 15-and-under Premier Volleyball club team, the Rolfzens both stand about 6-foot-2 and can touch 10-feet.

Kadi plays as outside hitter and setter for her club team, while Amber plays as a middle hitter. Egbert said both are likely to play outside hitter in high school and at Nebraska.

“Athletically, they’re there,” Egbert said. “Hitting- and blocking-wise, they’re there.

“Defensively, their passing, they need to get better, but already, they can thump the ball.”

Recent NU graduate Jordan Larson gave the earliest commitment to the NU volleyball program, unofficially becoming a Husker only days after wrapping up her sophomore year.

The Rolfzen twins are still two years from that point. They’ll sign their letter-of-intent in November 2012 and join the Huskers following graduation in 2013.

http://www.huskerextra.com/articles/2009/06/18/volleyball/doc4a3a821c143e2574477041.txt

The Functions of a Volleyball Coach

By: Yuan Weimin

Yuan had one of the most dominant teams in the history of our sport during the late 1970s and 1980s when the Chinese women won every major event for a span of three years. He put together a team that was one of the smoothest, most error-free, remarkable ball control teams that has ever played the game. It was identified mostly in the personality and performance of Lang Ping, but it was one of those teams where you could have identified any player as an all-world performer.  ~ Volleyball Hall of Fame

Some coaches are short-sighted.  They are likely to be dizzy with success and easily discouraged by failure, thus they lose their judgment in setting proper goals for the team.  The establishment of correct goals will make the team’s future bright.

The way to victory is always difficult.

A coach must work patiently with players to bring every positive factor into play and make the players conscious of the goal.  The team’s development is largely dependent on the strict management of the coach.

A coach must be able to predict the problems before they occur and solve them as quickly as possible.

The coach stands the trial of setbacks and losing, but he never withdraws before defeat.  Of course, sometimes he will be greeted with flowers which is also a trial for the coach – especially before the grand victory.

Even the greatest victories are not perfect.

The rate of blocking is only 20%, even in high level matches.

Three cases of effective blocking:
1.    Kill block
2.    Received block (a block that is received by the attacking side)
3.    Saved block (a block that rebounds to the blocker’s side and is retrieved easily)

Saved blocks account for only 30%.  The backline players have to bear the brunt of attacks.  The female backline players on top-notch teams are capable of receiving 60% of the unblocked attacks.  This necessitates a greater intensity in the training of setting in counter-attacks.

Hitting and blocking are the two chief scoring means, accounting for two-thirds of the points won.

The number one outside hitter is responsible for 30.6% spiking and 17.5% blocking.  The number two outside hitter is responsible for 18.3% spiking and 39.0% blocking.  Although the percentage of blocking comes third in the total of main spiker’s technical movements with the ball, it comes first in the supplementary spiker’s total.

The coach may pit a main spiker against a supplementary spiker, so that the former will have more practice in spiking and the latter more practice in blocking to meet the needs of actual combat.

Click to download the complete FIVB chapter

What is a Volleyball Coach?

By: Yuri Tchesnokov
Russian Gold Medal Men’s Head Coach and Player
Excerpts from the FIVB Coaches Manual

A volleyball coach is a teacher and an educator, especially for a coach who is working with children and junior teams.

A volleyball coach is a person with a great knowledge of life.  Players need advice and support in many different life situations.  This is why one can say that a coach is a senior comrade and a life assistant.

A volleyball coach is a sport specialist.  He works on the development and the popularity of volleyball in his own country, in a club, in a university, etc.

A volleyball coach is an organizer.  One of his main duties is coordinating the work of all his assistants by keeping in touch with the management and the national federation.

The coach is a professional head of a team who is responsible for the preparation and performance of single players or of a team as a whole.  A coach is a person who is responsible for the result.

In other words, a coach is a leader who must answer two questions:

1. “What is he to do?”  This defines the main goal and those problems which must be solved in order to achieve this goal.  It means an analysis of the whole activity of a coach.
2. “How is he to do his work?” These are the means and methods which help in solving training problems in order  to get result.  This means the individual mastership of a coach – his creative work.

The team’s result is a true measure of the coach’s success.

Click for the complete FIVB Chapter