The USAV Palmetto Region is where I started coaching many years ago (although I did have a year stint in Cactus Region, but I wasn’t ready to coach way way back then). I appreciate the opportunity to give back to a region that has helped me to get to where I am today. John Kessel and Palmetto Region Commissioner, Jimmy Peden, invited me to be a panelist on the most recent Impact Clinic for the Palmetto Region. It was a fun opportunity to join two creative thinkers of the game as well as a great opportunity to refresh my mind on the fundamentals of the game. Here are some notes I took throughout the clinic:

• Create a Mastery Climate

o   The coach [player] that knows how will be beaten by the coach [player] that knows why

• The gym is an “Exploratorium”

o   A free environment that enhances learning through creativity

• The best learning is by implicit learning

o   Learning by doing

• Guided Discovery

o   Teach why and let them learn how

• The most important skill to teach in volleyball is reading the game

o   Players need to know timing before they know how

o   Sign on the wall in Kessel’s club: “Use of the court without the use of the net is prohibited”

• Specificity vs. Generality

o   Positive to specificity

o   Be specific with encouragement

§  “Great pass by holding your angle to target”

• Random vs. Block Training

o   Random consists of multiple skills movements performed together

§  Pass to hit, serve then run on the court, set then cover, etc.

o   Block training comes from the old Chinese style of repetitive pattern movements

• Drill format

o   Doug Beal

§  The best passing drills are “pass – set – hit”

§  The best setting drills are “pass – set – hit”

§  The best hitting drills are “pass – set – hit”

• Teach players to hit as hard as they can and then guide them to find the court later
• Teach drills to throw/hit away from players, not to them
• Send freeballs to zone 1 & 2 – called the “Golden Zone”
• Team warm-ups

o   “We may lose the warm-up, but win the match”