Anyone that is everyone with volleyball in the United States is here at the AVCA Convention.  I had a great time presenting to the AVCA Convention First Time Attendees.  Presenting for the second time gave me a great opportunity to provide better advice for this year’s AVCA Class and it was much easier on the nerves.  Following the presentation, Brian Swenty, Kyrsten Becker, and Mary Leventis did a great job with the post First Time Attendees reception.  Bravo to them. Continue Reading

As many of you know, I had the privilege to spend time with Head Coach Mike Hebert while at Minnesota.  People still ask what I learned most from my experience…and I have a journey full of ideas.  Much of what I learned was through listening, watching, small talk, and brainstorming.   The times I appreciate most were those brainstorming sessions – bouncing ideas around.  I recall a time talking about what makes an ordinary person extraordinary and coming up with a list of things great players do.  This list was ranked and separated into levels.  The levels were used to recognize the number of items on that list an extraordinary player accomplishes during their volleyball career. Continue Reading

This is it…the Most Wonderful Time of the Volleyball Year. The NCAA VolleyMadness is in full swing, the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight are this weekend. Certain matches of the Sweet Sixteen will be viewable online and the Elite Eight matches will be shown on ESPNU (NCAA Volleyball Championship Schedule).  The following week is when volleyball mayhem Continue Reading

At the University of Minnesota, Mike Hebert introduced me to the works of Dr. Paul Arrington. Dr. Arrington is a humble man from Hawaii that has been around volleyball for many years.  He has coached juniors for over 25 years in Hawaii, much of his work has been published by the AVCA, he is quoted in countless books, and he is now an Assistant Coach at Dartmouth University.  He chose Dartmouth because he prefers to live in a small town.

Dr. Arrington spends countless hours studying and researching top programs.  He compiles a wealth of data to come to factual conclusions that often proves or disproves common volleyball theory.  Dr. Mike Hebert believes Dr. Arrington’s work is consistent with the late, great Dr. Jim Coleman, one of the early revolutionary strategists of volleyball.  That’s a lot of volleyball doctors Continue Reading

All good things must come to an end…even the Minnesota winters.  It’s time to bid farewell to a great opportunity as Volunteer Coach at the University of Minnesota.  “The opportunity was priceless”.

The coaching staff was incredible Continue Reading

When I first started coaching, I scoured the internet for the best volleyball drills – the drills that would make my team great. I also purchased AVCA’s 101 Winning Drills, Mary Wise’s Volleyball Drills for Champions, and the like. Then I was fortunate to witness practices run by some of the great coaches, Mike Hebert, Mary Jo Peppler, Bill Neville, and Beth Launiere. To my surprise (and maybe dismay), they all ran similar drills! I came to realize there are only so many ways to teach a particular skill. Ultimately, its not the drills that makes a team great, its how the drills are applied by the coach and executed by the players. Continue Reading

I was looking at your resume and trying to figure out how you made the jump to college coaching. I would love to coach at that level, but am not sure when and how is the best way. Obviously the competition is steep. Continue Reading

The mental game. Do we coach it enough? Do coaches know how to coach it? In club, it is sprinkled throughout practices. When I coached at Georgia Southern, the team had the benefit of working with a sports psychologist. He provided some great team insight and exercises, but he wasn’t utilized enough. I think many collegiate programs incorporate a sports psychologist with their programs because its what everyone else is doing, to “keep up with the Jones’s”. Mick Haley uses a team psychologist, Mike Voight, throughout the season with, I believe, great benefit. At the University of Minnesota, Dr. Mike Hebert handles the team psychology lessons. He prepares his “Championship Manual” during the Continue Reading

During the season at the U of MN, Mike Hebert received an email from a club coach of which he passed along to me. The club coach was concerned with devising an offense system for a team with very little height. The club coach was quick to point out that the team had three great liberos. Here is my reply with Mike’s blessing, it also gives some insight of things I learned at the U of MN:

I hope this email will help save some trees and save you some money from all the paper you are using trying to devise an offense. But let’s look at two things first: 1) Defense 2) Height, and then we can discuss offense. Continue Reading

So I offered a little insight into what Mike Hebert is like in an earlier post, so why not continue on with Karch Kiraly? “Working” at the U of MN offered incredible accessibility to the greats of the game. Continue Reading

I.P.E. is an acronym for In Play Efficiency. It is simply the opposite of hitting error percentage (IPE = 1 – error %). It’s putting a positive spin on hitting errors. Many coaches tell players, “Don’t make hitting errors”; this focuses on the negative. Instead, IPE focuses on the positive and encourages players to keep the ball in play. For example, Penn State’s Hitting Error % for 2008 was .126. This roughly equates to 1.3 hitting errors for every 10 attempts. The positive spin on Penn State’s error % or what we consider “IPE” is .874 (1 – 0.126). This means for every 10 attempts, 8.7 swings were in the court. IPE is a positive hitting goal for any team. A player can easily recognize an IPE goal of .900 or simply to keep 9 out of 10 attempts in play. An
attainable outcome goal a player can work towards. Continue Reading

One of my best moments coaching at the University of Minnesota was a pre-season match against, at the time, #4 ranked Cal. Yes, the U of MN swept Cal 3 sets to 0, of which is a highlight in itself, but looking back, it isn't what made that moment great. During the second Cal timeout in set 1, Mike pulled me aside and he said, “Just look at this clipboard as I pretend to write something…” I was a bit bewildered. He then said, “Can you feel it?” I was still confused. “Listen to that crowd. Look at the fans going crazy. Awesome isn't it? This is what its all about.”

It was an awesome moment, in many respects…

View Match Point