Hello, everyone! As I write this, I’m hooked on the Ryder Cup competition taking place at Bethpage Black Golf Course in Long Island. The Europeans hold a lead going into the final round today. Even with the team score being one-sided, the individual matches, combined with the crowd involvement, create a very intense atmosphere. Things…
The high school and collegiate seasons will get underway soon. I wish all coaches great seasons. Coaching, regardless of the level, can present mental challenges. Coaches must be cognizant of how they evaluate their performance. One of the pitfalls that is always lurking is “recency bias.” We need to avoid the human tendency to evaluate…
I received a suggestion from a reader to dig into how the professional leagues, along with the changes in the collegiate environment (NIL and Transfer Portal), will impact high school and club volleyball athletes. Great suggestion! I’m going to go to work and generate a blog on this in the upcoming weeks. It will require some thought. Suffice to say, there will be changes in recruiting. No longer will high school athletes ask college coaches if they will start their freshman year. Every year, someone might transfer in to take your spot. There will be no guarantees for any player in this environment of player movement.
One more fond recollection of my Ohio State days. As practices began in 1994, the weather was insufferably hot. I was sitting next to the late Mike Bordner, who was the veteran athletic trainer for all the teams that worked out of St. John. Even though the OSU team would make it to the NCAA National Semi-Finals that year, as the team was warming up for practice, I was fussing to Mike about some aspect of our practice progress. Mike looked at me and said, “Coach, teams like this come along once or twice a career. Enjoy every day because it won’t get any better than this.” Mike was so right! So, that’s my message to coaches. Enjoy the players you’re working with; you’ll never have them again.
To improve attack efficiency, players often don’t need to make more good attack choices; they need to make fewer bad ones. I tend to script a priority list of decisions that good attackers employ to increase their effectiveness. I constantly encourage players to make quality attacking choices based on the situation.
Let’s be honest—coaching isn’t easy. But that challenge is part of what draws us in. Every day, we step into the gym with the goal of helping our players develop personally, improve their skills, and reach their potential, both individually and collectively. There’s real fulfillment in pushing them to be better, constantly evaluating our methods, and upholding a standard of professionalism.
Quote for the Week: “The fundamentals: Something many people know, but few people practice.” ~James Clear, author
With increased reliance on AI to do the heavy lifting, is there collateral damage in terms of the students’ ability to think critically, perform a thorough analysis of the information, generate their ideas, and develop the capacity to solve problems and accept challenges?
Three Ideas for This Week
1. Meaningful statistics for early season practices.
2. Ideas for the first days of practice.
3. What your eyes focus on when blocking.
Enjoy!
Team bonding and team building differ significantly in their objectives and design. Most of what I see are team bonding activities, where the focus is on having fun and building relationships. There is certainly nothing wrong with those things! When I think about team building, I see it as being more focused on how my team can best accomplish shared objectives.