Three Ideas Newsletter 4.22.25
Three Ideas Newsletter
A Newsletter by Jim Stone
4/22/25
Hello, everyone! I hope you had a wonderful Easter. Springtime in the Rockies! You never know what you’re going to get. On Saturday, we received a couple of inches of snow. Today (Monday) it’s 75 degrees. I’ve learned to pack for all situations. There’s some interesting stuff in this newsletter. There are great ball control videos. I’m biased, but a thought-provoking blog on coach development, and a different perspective on planning club tryouts.
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: “The difficulty lies not in the new ideas, but in escaping the old ones.” ~John Maynard Keynes
Three Ideas
Idea #1 – When receiving a deep serve, face the ball as long as possible. In this video, we see Elaina Oglivie, former libero at Stanford, move to pass a deep serve. What Elaina does exceptionally well is maintain posture, keep her head level, and incorporate the shuffle step, which allows her to face the ball. Often, when receiving a deep serve, the first move for players is to stand up and swing their platform wildly at the ball. VIDEO
Idea #2 – Ball Control Drills, Italian Style – As the Italian U-18 head coach, Marco Mencarelli and I had great competitive battles at the FIVB World Championships. The Italian and USA teams met twice for the gold medal, with each team winning once. I spent a week in Milan with Marco as he worked with his team. In this video, he took players through a ball control and blocking sequence that you will find informative. Thanks to Tim Kelly and Bring It Promotions for the interpreting duties. VIDEO
Idea #3 – Use the Feynman Technique in Summer Camps – It isn’t unusual for your high school or club athletes to teach younger players at summer camps. This is awesome, as studies have demonstrated that teachers’ skills improve when they teach a skill to another student. So, if you want one of your players to improve their serve receive, have them teach serve receive this summer. Also, instead of sending them out to instruct without a plan, have them use the Feynman Technique. Richard Feynman was a Nobel laureate in Physics. The Feynman Technique is a teaching method to simplify complex subject matter. Feynman felt that if your explanation of a subject was beyond the grasp of a 12-year-old, then you don’t have a sufficient understanding of the subject. Feynman Technique has four steps: 1) Identify the topic, 2) Explain it to a sixth-grader, 3) Identify areas of improvement in your explanation, 4) Improve your explanation, 5) Repeat until you’ve mastered the information. Additional Information
Video of the Week: This week’s video focuses on the defensive skills taught at the KIVA volleyball club in Louisville, KY. The focus is on expanding the defensive range of the players and the keys to good ball control. VIDEO
Archive Blog Posting— A sign that club volleyball is out of control, tryouts for next club season are being scheduled before the current club season is finished. The general format involves assigning a player to a team and position after a 90-minute session. Generally, these decisions are made based on the player’s current skill level and height. In this archive post, I propose a new paradigm for club volleyball. ARCHIVE POST
Current Blog Post – You Need More Than Facts to Change My Mind! – In this post, I explore why coaches hesitate to try new concepts that might positively impact their coaching. Change is hard, but here are a few ideas to try (one of them is to embrace failure!). READ MORE
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
