“Three Ideas” Newsletter
Three Ideas
A Newsletter by Jim Stone
3/31/25
Hello, everyone! Several coaches provided some positive feedback on the video library. I’m glad that the library is providing a resource that is readily accessible. I’ll be putting a video of the week in the newsletter, but you can access the video library at your convenience. On a different note, I enjoy the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments. I relish the possibility of the “Cinderella” team making it to the Final Four. However, no team from a mid-major conference made it to the regionals. Hopefully, this will not be a trend that will include volleyball. However, I have no reason to believe that volleyball can fight this trend.
A new feature of the newsletter is presenting a past blog article for your coaching development. I’ve written over one hundred blog articles on various aspects of the game and coaching. I hope that you will find the content interesting and that you might try it with your team.
As always, if there is any topic that you would like me to explore, feel free to let me know.
Thank you for reading!!
Jim
This Week’s Three Ideas
#1 – XONTRO – A Game Your Team Should Be Playing in Practice – Coaches spend more time working on team systems as the club season winds down. Xontro will provide a fresh option to a 6v6 competitive environment. Former Wisconsin head coach, Pete Waite, developed a game he titled “Xontro” that focuses on team play, works on specific aspects of the game, and provides a fun diversion to usual team activities. “Similar to the dice game Yahtzee, teams have a list of various skills to be performed during a timed game. As the players perform the skills the required number of times, they earn points. At the end of the game, the team with the most points wins!” The game includes five laminated reusable scorecards, two dry-erase markers, and a carrying case. Coach controls the difficulty of the game and what skills they want to work on by selecting the various cards or filling in their own. Highly Recommended!! Purchase Information
#2 – Hands Under the Ball When Blocking – In general, there are three hand positions that a blocker will have when blocking: 1) Over the ball, 2) On the ball, and 3) Under the ball. Coaches spend a lot of time on the first two hand positions; we spend much less time on hands under the ball, which occurs frequently during a match. In this video, we explore the importance of this skill. Movie – Blocking, Hands Under the Ball
#3 Coaching Thought: Take Caution in Connecting Process with Outcome – There is a tendency to connect performance or outcome with your system or process. If we win, the process is good. If we lose, there must be something wrong. The same goes for individual player performance. If a player plays well, all is good. If the performance is sub-par, the coach needs to make a substitution. Wharton professor Cade Massey says, “There’d be a whole lot less drama in the world if people understood variance, even a little bit.” Teams and individuals will revert to the average of their historical performance. Singular events should not mandate a change to your system or process. The challenge is to keep improving the average performance of the team or player.
Video of the Week: In this week’s feature video, we examine the hand position on the ball when setting and working with your setters in less-than-ideal scenarios. WATCH THE VIDEO. The video library is free (link below).
Archive Blog Posting—In this post, we present a video and discuss options for organizing your middle hitter attack. The focus is on “fixed” vs. “floating” attack zones. Both systems of attack have benefits. The “floating” system is more advanced and requires the setter to be very accurate, and the middle attacker must align themselves with the setter in various situations.
I speak at the Art of Coaching clinic in Denver on May 17/18. For registration information, go to AOC-Denver. I’ll be joining Russ Rose, Terry Liskevych, Emily Kohan (CSU), Megan Pendergast (Denver), and Jenny Glenn (Metro State).
Thanks for reading. Have a great week!
~Jim
