Drinking from the Fire Hose
Drinking from the Fire Hose
By Kelly Kavanaugh (Alaska Ice Volleyball/Alaska Region)
CAP Level II Coach
I recently had the opportunity to attend the annual USA Volleyball High Performance Coaches' Clinic and Coaching Accreditation Program (CAP) Level II course at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. This three-day Clinic - plus-CAP event - attended by some of the best minds in volleyball, provided classroom sessions, panel discussions, on-court session and coaching certification courses - an opportunity to be completely immersed in volleyball.
From a beginning coach’s perspective, it was more like “drinking from a fire hose,” as one coaching educator put it. I learned more over five days than I have in five years, and I pride myself in doing my homework. Presenters didn’t simply give information or an impression that “this is how things are done”. Rather, they shared experiences and guided participants through a process of thinking and questioning “why we do what we do as coaches."
After our final session, I had the opportunity to debrief with another coach. We discussed planning for the next days of practice back home, and how we were going to incorporate things we learned during the clinic and coaching certification training. We joked that we were going to “do it all,” at this week’s practices. Right!
As I planned practice on the long flight home, I thought about how to drink from a fire hose and make it work. The first thing that came to mind was the “Guiding Principles” exercise and discussion from CAP II training. I reflected on incorporating these Guiding Principles into my next practices:
- The game teaches the game
- Developing players as generalized specialists
- Keep it simple
And also focusing on the questions many coaches hear at practice – “When can we scrimmage?” and “When can we hit?”
I began to plan practice with these guiding principles in mind, focusing on the things that would have the most immediate impact on our team success, commitment and love of the game.
It was time to consider other options for starting practice. Our usual routine consisted of a dynamic warm-up, with up-and-back movements to the net. We often followed this with an over-the-net, arm warm-up progression that includes work on the off-hand, and then we move on to some ball control. The plan for next practice is to start by playing the game – the first of the Guiding Principles on my list!
We started with a 3-on-3, split court warm-up, where players were required to rotate each time the ball was sent over the net. Teams worked cooperatively to complete five cycles (of three contacts) of a specific type of contact. We progressed through cycles of passing only, then overhead passing only, progressing to pass – set – downball cycles and finally to pass – set – jumping downballs. Our typical ball control warm-up was transformed into a game-like situation with serving, passing, setting, tipping, hitting, transitions, communication, hustle and intensity. Players were working at becoming generalized specialists (Guiding Principle #2), competing and having fun!
After warming up, we shifted our focus to serving. We emphasized “keeping it simple,” (Guiding Principle #3) demonstrated the importance of torque, and practiced accelerating the hand to generate a low, deep, hard-driven serves. Each player had their own little extra movement built into their serving style, and as we began to focus on keeping it simple, players gradually began to develop consistent, tough serves. Many experienced the ability to drive the ball harder and deeper into the court than they thought possible.
It wasn’t long before a player asked, “When can we hit?” I was looking forward to the question so I could share what I learned about hitting at the HP Coaches' Clinic and CAP Course. In answer to my question to them, players shared their thoughts on the single most important factor in determining a player’s ability to consistently attack the ball. They listed many hitting cues and misconceptions, including some that I have reinforced over the last six years. All agreed that the “snap on the ball” was a key component of an effective attack. They were just as amazed as I was to learn that we don’t actually snap the wrist on contact to impart power to the attack. I pointed out that the real key is the position of the ball in relation to the hitter’s body at the point of contact.
Following this discussion, we focused on contacting the ball high (with arm extended) and out in front of the hitting shoulder, and we shifted from the old continuous-toss or coach-toss-to-the-setter hitting lines, to a more random situation. We moved our hitting lines to the last three meters of the court and all hitters passed the ball to the setter before transitioning to attack. The result was a much more game-like situation that required communication, reading, timing, anticipation and judgment, as well as the need for hitters to always make themselves available to the setter.
Involving hitters in passing reinforced the importance of “keeping it simple” and developing players as “generalize specialists.” We focused on taking as much variance out of passing as possible thus creating greater “repeatability”. Players seemed to get it when we related repeatability to variables and results in scientific experiments. They recognized that more variables in their movements meant that it is less likely that results can be repeated. We continued to emphasize learning angles and simplifying movements, as all players worked on becoming consistent passers.
As we moved toward developing generalized specialists, we emphasized the need for all players to be able to consistently take the ball with their hands. Setting on the wall at each practice has been a new experience for many, but they see the value as they experience greater comfort levels and success in overhead passing in out-of-system situations.
Thus far we have incorporated only a “sip” of the guiding principles and practices shared at the HP Coaches' Clinic and CAP Course, and already we are seeing players develop into more confident, generalized specialists, who can successfully handle a variety of game situations.
At the time this article was written, we were half way through our club season with two tournaments remaining. We had improved our standing in our last tournament, and we plan to continue to build on our successes and keep it fun!
Sound guiding principles will allow us to evaluate our decisions, effectively develop well rounded versatile players, and help grow the game. After attempting to “drink from a fire hose” I found that just a few sips could take us a long way, but that my continuing thirst to improve will lead us back to the well.
