A piece about great coaching written by Former Nebraska Volleyball Head Coach Terry Pettit that was posted in the Lincoln Star Journal.  Coach Pettit will be inducted into the AVCA Hall of Fame December 17, 2009.

I have a friend who tells me that in 1953 he could fix about anything on a Chevy with a combination wrench. Those days are gone.

So are the days when organized sport meant the kids in the neighborhood gathering at the end of the block, without their parents or other adults, to negotiate who would play on which team, who would be chosen last, and who would play right field.

Some people argue that in moving to a culture of spontaneous play to a culture of organized sport, we have improved the technical skills of our kids, while stunting the growth of other skills, such as negotiation, initiative, communication, and the ability to solve problems without adult intervention.

To put it bluntly, we are over-organizing our kids’ play and in doing so delaying their ability to develop the skills that will help them the most as adults.

The more our culture relies on organized sport to teach our children how to play and compete, the more expectations parents have for the coaches who work with our kids.

We want the coach to teach our kid how to play.

We want our kid to play shortstop when she’s not pitching.

If our kid gets really good, we want her to be on an elite team where she can travel to other places and develop at a faster pace.

And, most importantly, we want the coach to make the experience painless. We do not want our children to suffer the indignity of being a substitute, a role player, or approach any scenario that might be interpreted as failure.

We want all this for our children despite the fact that success in our adult lives is mostly about developing the skills to deal with bad hops, missed promotions, delayed gratification, and the occasional bounce of good luck.

This is a lot to ask of someone who has been trained as a history teacher, pipe fitter, surgeon or someone who is volunteering to coach because nobody else would. It would be a lot to ask of a professional coach with a master’s degree in sports psychology.

Given the fact that most of the people who coach our kids are not trained in coaching, it might be helpful to identify some characteristics of great coaching that are available to everyone regardless of experience.

Here are some behaviors you might bring forth if you are asked to coach a team, and you might look for these same qualities in evaluating someone as a potential coach for your son or daughter. These characteristics are just as important if you’re coaching the Little Bears as they are if you’re coaching the Huskers.

• All great coaching begins with hope. Great coaching is communicating through posture, language, chalk talks, and intimate conversations the ultimate belief that good things are going to happen.

• Great coaching is being able to communicate to an athlete that she already has the “right stuff” to get the job done. We may need to improve her fundamentals. We may need to work harder. We may need to make some adjustments, but we don’t need a heart transplant. We already have DNA that, combined with hard work, will allow us to be great.

• Great coaching is more concerned with the process and less concerned with the outcome (parents take note). Are we committed to behaviors that will lay the foundation for success? Are we on time? Do we look each other in the eye when we speak? Do we give great effort? Do we maintain the sacredness of the group by not voicing our frustrations outside the team? Do we encourage our teammates even when we are on the sidelines? Are we passionate about our commitment?

Committing to new behaviors is as important to a team’s success as a solid foundation is to a new house. It’s quiet and it doesn’t get much press, but nothing else can move forward without it.

• Great coaching understands the necessity for risk and the value of failure. There is no growth without pain. The surest way to not win a championship is to try to protect your success. If you are in the presence of great coaching, the coach is going to ask you to become a little bit more uncomfortable than you want to be as you risk new roles, new techniques and new expectations.

• All performance, whether individual or team, is based on trust. Athletes have the best chance for performing well when they trust themselves. Teams have the best chance for success when coaches and parents create a climate where athletes feel the the adult’s care for them is not based upon performance. The support is unconditional. Athletes have the best chance to learn what trust is all about if they see it modeled by their parents and coaches.

The days of ’53 Chevys and pickup games are gone and they are not likely to return unless our culture begins to place more value on neighborhood play and less dependence on mini-vans and organized sport.

In the meantime, my wish would be that everyone’s son or daughter has the opportunity to play for a coach who is hopeful about the team’s future, who believes your kid has the right stuff to get the job done, who encourages your son or daughter to commit to behaviors that will give her the best chance for success, and who creates an environment where kids have the opportunity to risk, rise, fall, and risk again. Then again, these characteristics would make for great parenting as well.

Source: http://www.terrypettit.com/recent/detail.html?news_id=1

I highly recommend his book: Talent and the Secret Life of Teams

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

In my previous blog, I mentioned Low Country Volleyball Club’s 18s Team winning the 18 Open Division of the USAV Palmetto Region to qualify the team for Nationals in Miami. I received the stats from the team’s championship weekend (we have a parent keep stats), and just for fun compared them with the offensive stats of the 2008 Final Four Teams: Penn State, Stanford, Nebraska, and Texas. I was testing a coaching theory of IPE (read my What is IPE blog if you are unfamiliar with this concept). Here are my findings:

• Final Four IPE average was .875, LC’s IPEwas .872 (better than Nebraska and almost as good as Penn State)
• Kill eff – LC’s was .433 (better than Nebraska and Stanford)
• Hitting % – LC was .310 (Nebraska was .270, Stanford .314, Texas .335, PSU .380)

I think at any level, the game comes down to efficiency and execution. Low Country proved to be efficient and executed at a championship level.

Fast Company Magazine, March 2009 issue, ranked The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies. #1 wasn’t Google, not Apple, nor Hulu (and if you don’t know Hulu, this blog’s for you), it was Team Obama. The headline reads, “The year’s most successful start-up took a skinny kid with a funny name and turned him into the most powerful new national brand in a generation.” The headline hits a soft spot; I’m a skinny kid, without the funny name. Maybe I’ll be President yet!

Before my coaching career, I spent 10 years in international marketing, selling millions of consumer goods through television, catalog, direct mail, and over the internet. I just might have some insight into effectively marketing your volleyball program. How will you differentiate your program? How will you, as a coach, stand out? In a tough economic time, what is it going to take to fill MORE seats? Are you already succumbing to the spiraling economy and have you already accepted a decrease in booster or fund-raising participation for the season? How are you going to INCREASE fund-raising dollars? What is it going to take to attract recruits in this “Twitter-ing” technology? Take a look at the Team Obama way…

Team Obama and the power of technology.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt took advantage of radio to win his presidential campaign, JFK demoralized Nixon on television debates, and Barack Obama exploited technology online. Team Obama’s campaign, known as the “Triple O” (Obama’s Online Operation), raised a record $750 million. Online donations totaled $500 million, a vast bulk in increments of $100 or less. How is your online fundraising?

In the interim between my volunteer position at the University of Minnesota and my next coaching gig, I lucked into an internet consulting position for the world’s “Guru of Customer Service” (as called by USA Today and Time Magazine), Mr. John Tschohl (JohnTschohl.com). For 38 years, Mr. Tschohl has been preaching service culture plans to organizations (see Diagram 1 on right). The message is eerily similar to Team Obama’s campaign plan: Create a Culture. See the Team Obama graph below and you’ll notice a similar upward rising trend. Both experts utilize a vast array of technologies to systematically remind and rejuvenate people over time. What is your program’s culture? I assume your program may come up with a single idea to stimulate fund-raising, or a new way to attract fans, or to bring in that top recruit. Albeit might be a great idea, it is just that, a single idea. After that fan visits once or you were able to get that recruit to contact you once, what happens after? Does the fan want to return? Does the recruit even remember the name of your mascot or have they already received the next call from the next school on their way home from visiting your school? Team Obama and John Tschohl are successful because they consistently present new, invigorating ideas through different mediums that your audience uses over time. They create a culture.

Terry Pettit did a masterful marketing job to create the Nebraska volleyball culture. He did not simply reach out and ask people to come watch a match. He understood that volleyball was a complicated game, fans needed to be educated, and going to a match one time might be more confusing than entertaining (Why didn’t that spike count and the ref is holding up two fingers? Why is the ref signaling a traveling call?). Instead, Pettit went out and sold season tickets to companies. Companies give away these tickets to customers and employees, who over time, continued to attend matches. Season tickets systematically reminded and rejuvenated these customers and employees to attend matches. These customers and employees eventually became part of the Nebraska volleyball culture that we love today.

Follow along (click on the Team Obama graph below) and compare Team Obama’s Triple O marketing plan to your program’s marketing plan. (Does your program have a marketing plan? Do you ever wonder why the University of Florida has great attendance? Mary Wise wrote a nice article about marketing your program a couple years ago in the AVCA Coaching Magazine). Team Obama’s first operation was to create a social networking website, mybarackobama.com. Through that website, over 2 million profiles were created and these members took the initiative to start over 200,000 offline events. Next, Barack Obama joined over 16 commercial social network websites like MySpace and Facebook. Do your boosters have an online place they can gather, chat, brainstorm, and commiserate? Your boosters love to talk about ‘their’ volleyball team. VolleyTalk seems to be a popular public forum, but it’s hardly linked to your program. How are you connecting with those members? What about for recruiting? Kids these days are the driving force of social networks. Myspace is slowly fading, but Facebook is all the rage with Twitter quickly catching-up. Wouldn’t it be great for these kids, potential recruits, to become associated with your program? A social-networking website or at least a MySpace and Facebook group is a good start.

But Chuck, my budget is being slashed! My club dues are too high already! We can’t afford to create a social networking website! I say, BOLOGNA! When there is a will there is a way. Have you looked into Ning.com? How about Clubspaces.com? These are free websites to create a social network. MySpace and Facebook are already free. But Chuck, I haven’t a clue how to set-up one of these social-networking websites! I don’t understand technology, let alone a social-network! I say, BOLOGNA AGAIN! You are around the driving force of technology every day, kids. Believe in their power and you have the world at your fingertips.

When I started my first e-commerce website in 1998 when the technology bubble was just blowing-up, I didn’t have much money to hire a fancy, high-tech company to develop a snazzy website. Instead, I went back to college. Not to attend, but to where technology was being created, by the students. I developed a relationship with the Dean of a small university in Ottawa, Kansas called Ottawa University. We created an educational program for college credits where the students experimented, designed and created the functionality and platform of this e-commerce website. The students attained real world knowledge of business and e-commerce. Not only did we develop a website at little expense, but we even hired a few of the graduating students to continue with the project. It was a low cost, highly effective way to implement technology. These resources are widely available within your institution, from high school to any university. Take advantage of your internal network!

Social networking websites are only one piece of the technology puzzle. When creating a culture, we need many ideas to remind and rejuvenate (the attention span of recruits these days lasts as long as a sneeze – they need constant reminding). The reminding needs to come from many types of technology mediums. If you ask a child how his day was when he comes home from school, isn’t the answer always, “Fine.” Don’t you think they are tired of that question? But if you ask the same question via text or email or video, the question doesn’t sound repetitive. The child might not think you are ‘bothering’ them (as much). You might get a text reply saying, “LOL gr8t day! ” Now you just have to translate the message. The point being is to use technology in different formats.

Continue along Team Obama’s political campaign path (in the graph above), notice his next technology tool was a YouTube video. By Election Day, 1,800 videos (created by his supporters for free) were posted on YouTube that generated over 110 million views! It is not difficult to upload a video on to YouTube (add a video to Google Video too – be seen – be on as many websites as possible). Upload part of a match or a press conference. Not a big enough program to have a press conference? Create your own and upload it to your school’s website. Why not video a practice or demonstrate a particular skill? Club and high school coaches are sponges, they love to learn. It’s a great way to make a better relationship with these coaches (continually reminding them too of your program).

Text messaging was next in Team Obama’s quest to world domination Today, people prefer text to annoying phone calls (tele-marketing anyone?). Obama had more than one million people signed up for his text message program, each receiving 5 to 20 targeted text messages per month. High School and Club coaches don’t have an issue with text messages, but before all my NCAA Coaches tell me they can’t use text for recruits, I say correct. But what about those high school and club coaches? Continue to build your affinity with them by an occasional text update. The nice part about building your program’s culture is that you do not have to text them but maybe once every three months. Between texts, you will have sent them an invitation to your social network, a link to your video, what about an email newsletter next?

Email newsletters should already be a common occurrence for your program. Each month (obviously with permission) an email update about the program should be sent out. Don’t make it a plain, text-only email newsletter! Make it a colorful and eye-catching newsletter, use pictures, graphs, and link it to your program’s website. If you have Scoutware, you are at an advantage, but any basic HTML program can easily create an interesting looking newsletter. I recommend after delivery of this email, post the newsletter in a blog. A blog? Yes a blog. Blogs not only offer a great way to deliver information, but its a great place to archive information by topic and date.

Bethany University Head Coach, Reed Duffus, has done a good job with his “Cup of Joe with Coach” Blog. His blog provides great insight into his fun character, “I must share that Dunkin’ Donuts ground coffee is very awesome – found some at the grocery store this past week. Back to volleyballand…”, and he even lets recruits know in his February 20th blog the tournaments he and his assistant coach will be attending. Awesome! Furthermore, players of your team enjoy blogs (like social-networks). Have each player submit one or two articles per season. It could be on pre-season training, a recent tournament, summer break activities, etc. Have them post pictures and maybe even mention something about a fundraiser or particular booster too. Not only will they enjoy it, but the coaching staff certainly gets a kick and some insight into their minds. And the fundraiser or booster who was mentioned, expect a check coming from them shortly!

Tweet, Tweet! This Twitter thing keeps chirping in my ear. Honestly, I haven’t figured out the fascination of Twitter, but it seems to be the rage. Team Obama posted Joe Biden as his running mate on Twitter before announcing it to the main stream media. Team Obama believes in fans first (heck they are part of the team now and they like thinking they’re on the inside). Twitter claims to be the answer to one simple question: What are you doing? It’s a real-time social network that allows a user 140 charcters to update their status. They can tell the world what they are doing at that particular moment. Just another technology avenue to keep your program name out there. Instead of a text, why not Twitter?

So how did Barack Obama become the 44th President of the United States? He created a culture through technology. Team Obama utilized a vast array of technologies to systematically remind and rejuvenate people over time. Social networks, video, texts, blogs, newsletters, emails, and Twitter were all essential to his campaign in continually peaking interest. But all these mediums still needed a focal point, a gathering place, a place to put it all together, and that was BarackObama.com. The website was not only the campaign’s anchor, but it boasted a clear, poignant, confident message: CHANGE, HOPE, YES WE CAN! These few words changed history. What words resonate throughout your program? What does your website say about your program?Your programs website should shout out its personality and culture!

Unfortunately, my job search has forced me to visit too many dull, boring University websites. For the most part, they are all the same and I have two pet peeves. The first is the URL addresses of these websites are ridiculous. Check out the University of Minnesota’s URL:
http://www.gophersports.com/SportSelect.dbml?SPID=3301&DB_OEM_ID=8400 This will look good on a marketing banner, not. Simply have it as www.gophersports.com/volleyball. Keep it simple. Recruits have an easier time remembering simple. The second pet peeve is the difficulty to find a coach’s email address! “Coaches don’t want to be bothered?!?!” That’s your job, be bothered! Get a second email address for players and staff if necessary. I’m always impressed with the best coaches that reply to my email almost as soon as I send them out.

It appears, most universities have contracted out their websites to third-party companies that provide a basic template that includes, coaches, roster, schedule, statistics, and archives. This content is necessary, but spice it up! Yes, there are NCAA Rules to follow, but the NCAA, like the government, is always too slow to keep up with technology. The University of Nebraska has a nice, non-template website that offers a large list of easily accessible information. Right at the top reads, “Welcome Recruits”. Click on it and it opens a page that has information like “Why Nebraska?” and “How to Contact a Coach” (although when I click on “How to Contact a Coach”it, it brings me to the 2009 Roster and says “No staff listed for this season”). And then there is the infamous “Recruiting Questionnaire”. They are all the same, so standard, about 30 questions to answer. Yawn. Don’t you think kids get tired of filling out these same questionnaires? They might fill out the school’s questionnaire they don’t have a chance of playing at and forget yours. Why not have a simple three question questionnaire. It asks: name, age, and email address. Maybe a player from Hawaii, that you would have never known about checked out your school’s website from a cool YouTube video posted by a fan and filled out your quick questionnaire by chance? Maybe you’ll take a look at them at the next tournament?

Along the same lines, have a place for fans to request a newsletter on your program’s homepage. Another quick and simple three question form: name, age, email address. This is a great way to build a fan base with a monthly newsletter (or video blog or text), especially as a reminder of your program in the off-season. How about have your program’s roster as a video? Each player can introduce themselves around different parts of your campus. A high tech method to show-off your school. Don’t forget to include the blog mentioned earlier or create a video blog. These technologies can all be easily implemented under your team’s current website or branch out and create a more exciting website. Remember, your school is a wealth of knowledge and resources. The students at your school could develop this website and I am confident they will paint a better picture of your school’s culture than any third party company. The University of South Florida has done a nice job with this concept: USFVolleyball.com. I’m not so sure I’d have the coaches as the main focal point of their website, but they do have a nice blog. Props to them for being different! It’s this differentiation that will give them a competitive advantage.

Phew, it sounds like a lot of work, and it is, but you will get 10 times more out of marketing then you put into it. The initial leg work is difficult, but over time, you are building a culture that will carry your program. Barack Obama is now President. John Tshohl, the “Guru of Customer Service”, has a service culture that’s lasted for over 38 years. When Donald Trump was asked what he would do if he had to do it all over again, his reply: “I would get into network marketing.” Mike Hebert is masterful at the many details of marketing and he’s got one of best and longest tenured fan bases going. Through this fan base, he has a great booster club. Through this booster club, he’s able to get ‘things’ for his program that other programs can’t afford (the University of Minnesota Team Room is awesome!). These ‘things’ bring in those top recruits. Those top recruits help make a successful program over the years. It’s what helps make the best the best and helps keep the best the best.

I received an email from a coach asking for feedback about players that miss practices and tournaments when part of a small club. In theory, the principle of missing practice and tournaments at a small or large club should be the same, but there are some unique instances that always spring-up. Following is my reply. Your feedback on this subject is appreciated too.

Missing practices and tournaments with a small club will always be a delicate balancing act. There is no real competition for girls to lose their roster spot, so certain concessions are inevitable. As you know, it spirals into a terrible precedent for the others on the team (what’s good for one, the others follow). Take a look for a moment, outside the small city in which you live, and the small club environment you are accustom to coaching. Check-out Northern Lights Juniors Club, the premiere club in Minneapolis. They own an 8 court training facility, including a state-of-the-art weight room. Each age group (12 – 18) is at least 3 teams deep. The dues can be as high as $3,500 per season. This type of club obviously has other issues, but missing practices and tournaments (which is flights around the country) isn’t considered. When someone is there to take your spot, you make practice, and missing a tournament is never an option. The underlying internal competition is what makes Minnesota volleyball great.

But when kids grow up in their “bubble”, the real world is not relevant. Making two practices a week, should not be an issue and tournaments are scheduled out enough time in advance. It comes down to what these kids really want and how do you motivate these kids that are raised in an unique environment? All kids at these small clubs will tell you they want to play volleyball in college, but they will also tell you that they want to be a professional golfer and celebrity actress too. Their parents are paying for them to take lessons in everything, and the local papers rave about their accomplishments, so they must be the next in line to be Annika Sorenstam and Jennifer Anniston. All they have to do is show-up…when they want to.

There obviously needs to be a paradigm shift for most of these kids to learn how to struggle and fight for what they want, but that will happen when the beach erodes. Don’t get me wrong, there are exceptions, but you know the overwhelming majority. Am I preaching to the choir?

So what’s the answer? I believe it is difficult to reign in the leash in the middle of the season. The precedent has to be set at the beginning of the season. From purely a coach’s perspective, it is great that kids were cut this past season at tryouts, the competition is good for them. I’m sure the girls that wanted to make a team didn’t miss a tryout? The problem is after tryouts is over, they enter the “safe zone”. Its during the initial organizational meeting, throughout tryouts, and at the first parent meeting announcements about missing practices and tournaments will not be tolerated. It needs to be followed-up with a written letter to the parents outlining the team guidelines, including the part of the Player/Parent Handbook about missing practices which they signed. Following is a letter that was written, in the most part, by Terry Pettit, University of Nebraska Hall of Fame Coach, to parents that was adopted by us at Georgia Southern. Along with this letter was an NCAA packet of rules and GSU Volleyball Team Guidelines.

Dear Eagle Volleyball Parents:

When your daughter comes to Georgia Southern University, I pledge that we will use all our resources to give her the opportunity to develop into an outstanding volleyball player, student, and citizen.

We will treat her the same way that we would like our own child to be treated, which means that there will be times when she will be challenged, encouraged and pushed to do things beyond what she believes she is capable. We will not physically or mentally abuse her. We will not ‘run her off’ to another school when we have the opportunity to recruit someone with more talent. This is our commitment to you.

Here is the commitment we need from you, the parents: There will be times in your daughter’s collegiate career where she may be frustrated, anxious, or angry for any of the following reasons. She may find the expectations more than she anticipated. She may be asked to play a role on the team that is not the one she dreamed. She may not enjoy competing every day against other athletes as skilled and talented as she is. She may not yet have an appreciation for delayed gratification. She may interpret information as judgment. She may long for something else that appears easier or more comfortable. She may be overwhelmed by a combination of these factors.

If she is, then she is having a normal college experience that is typical for someone who is moving through adolescence to adulthood. While this happens, there will come a moment when she calls, emails, or texts you and wants to do one of the following: leave school and come home, transfer to another school, or organize a plot to get us fired.

I need you to make a commitment that when your daughter calls you will listen, you will communicate your love for her, and then you will tell her to get back to the tough business of growing up and becoming accountable for the challenges that she is lucky enough to have before her.

If you cannot make this commitment, then you need to look at other options. If you can, fasten your seatbelt and welcome aboard.

Sincerely,

Of course, with this letter, we still had issues. This at least set a foundation. My second year coaching club at Low Country Volleyball Club in South Carolina (we had three teams in our entire club), I had to let a couple kids go during the season because of practice and tournament absences (among other issues). As a young coach, this was a gut wrenching decision, but a blessing in disguise. Principles must be upheld. So, we ended the season with 6 players. These 6 players and parents were much happier after the removal of the less committed kids. Coaching was much more enjoyable (knowing how many would show up at practice was a pleasure!) and we ended up winning the USAV Palmetto Region Power Division that year. There is a lot to be said for kids that want it versus those playing for other reasons.

In my opinion, a balance between being too demanding and too lenient must be determined. The rules of the club must be public, gone over (sometimes many times) and enforced. Sometimes your team might have specific situations and policies outside the club guidelines. The player and parents of the team must aware of these situations and maybe even allowed to meet together about them. It is also crucial that the the club director is involved and backs your decision.

In a tough economic time, especially for club volleyball, you have great empathy for the parents. I appreciate that, but look outside the bubble, look at a majority of the clubs across the country. These parents are not paying even half of what these other clubs charge. You coach club, just as I always have, on a volunteer basis. These parents don’t know how good they got it.