Three Ideas Newsletter 4.29.25
Three Ideas Newsletter
A Newsletter by Jim Stone
4-29-25
Hello, everyone! As club tryouts for next season are being planned, it is a good time to ensure your staff is evaluating the players with an eye to the future. Especially at younger ages, you never know which players will grow or have the motivation to improve their skills. It’s easy to decide which player is better at the moment. It is much harder to tell which player will develop their skills. Additionally, do not focus on the position a player will hold on a team. Place the focus on developing all-around skills for the players. Positions can be a focus later in the season. In general, taller athletes tend to develop their movement skills later in their careers, so be open to keeping the taller player who may not yet be the finished product. Also, look for players who won’t be your star, or perhaps not even be a starter, but will make your practices better with their attitude and work ethic.
I encourage all coaches to do one thing this summer to improve their coaching or experiment with a new concept for their team. It is essential always to be curious about ways to improve.
As always, if there’s any topic you’d like me to explore, please don’t hesitate to let me know. Thank you for reading!!
~Jim
Quote for the Week: “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s that I stay with problems longer.” ~Albert Einstein, Physicist
This Week’s Three Ideas For Your Team
Idea #1 – Weight Errors Based on When They Occur: Statistical programs weigh errors the same, regardless of when in a set they occur. However, not all errors have the same value or relevance to winning a set. For example, making a serving error at 1-1 will have less impact on winning the set than a serving error at 23-23. A service error at 1-1 allows most of the set for the team to recover from that error. However, making an error at 23-23 gives little time to recover. The impact of the error in late stages of a set is greater; therefore, it should be evaluated differently.
You can prepare your team for this understanding of the importance of end-of-set errors by creating scenarios that replicate these situations. For instance, when scrimmaging, if an unforced error (such as a service error, ball handling error, net error, or hitting error) is made from points 20-24, the offending team must return to 20 points. You can throw in a wrinkle by putting in a rule that you can’t score points on an error by the opponent. You only score points on “earned” points (kill, ace, stuff block). Or, the same concept but with a different scoring method: unforced errors are worth 2 points for the opponent. These types of activities encourage the aggressive play necessary to win, but also emphasize the importance of low-error execution at the end of the set.
Idea #2 – Pawel Zatorski, Libero-Poland – Pawel Zatorski is one of the top liberos in the world. In this video, the focus is on how he gets his feet moving in advance of executing the skill. It’s always easier to move if you’re already moving. Too many passers are stationary and erect before receiving the serve. When they receive a high-velocity serve, they waste valuable time getting their feet moving. In this video, notice how he takes a few very small steps as the ball is being served to prepare his feet and body to move to the ball. VIDEO
Idea #3 – Keys to Running an Effective Slide Attack – One key to running an effective offense is having attackers at both antennas. These attackers can come from the front or back row. In either case, attacks at the antennas keep the block spread. If the setter is in the front row, having the slide attack as a viable option allows them to attack the right antenna against a left-front blocker, which is often the weakest of the three blockers. In this video, we examine the various options for running a slide, along with the key components of this attack. VIDEO
Video of the Week: This week’s video features former England National Team coach Steve Colpus demonstrating a competitive serve-pass activity suitable for two teams sharing a court. VIDEO
Archive Blog Posting— Much of my practice content is based on the learning concept of “chunking.” I try to organize activities where I’m limiting the amount of information the player is focusing on. It is very challenging for the athlete to focus on more than 3-5 items at a single time. Drills are organized where their focus is on a few components of a skill or team activity and I try to focus my feedback on those specific areas. ARCHIVE POST
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). I hope those in the Rocky Mountain area can attend.
Thanks for reading. Have a great week!
To join the newsletter mailing list, go to the Jim Stone Consulting Homepage (link below).
~Jim
