How Do You Teach What You Do Not Know?

How Do You Teach What You Do Not Know?
by Julie South (Carolina Storm Volleyball Club, Carolina Region, CAP II Certified)

I have always been blessed, or cursed depending on how you look at it, with being tall. For the longest time I was always taller than the boys in my class and about four inches taller than the girls. When I started playing volleyball, of course the tradition was that the natural position for me to play was middle. For every team that I played for, I played middle and usually did not get to play back row.

When I started coaching, I was nervous about being able to coach volleyball. I played my whole volleyball career playing middle and a little right side attacker. I had never been trained to play back row, to be a setter or play on the left side of the court. I now have a group of 14-year-old girls and this is their first time they have played club volleyball. Many of the girls had played volleyball in middle school. I was now in a position where I was going to have to teach all of the girls all of the different positions. It was a lot more than I was prepared for.

I quickly remembered that what my girls were being taught in middle school was very different from how I had played club volleyball. Most of my players were playing volleyball where they would rotate around to each position and not play any certain position. It was almost more like a tennis match than a volleyball match.

I started with what I knew the best - hitting and blocking. If my team was going to learn how to do something well this season it was to hit and block. I went over with my girls the footwork for hitting. We practiced left, right, left. I showed them what a full approach looks like at a quicker pace. I had the girls practice slowly with their getting the correct footwork along with the correct arm movements. They did their footwork and I tossed a ball for them to hit. We then went over blocking. I taught the girls to use their shoulders to press against the ball. We worked on timing when some was hitting when to jump to block against them.

Not many 14-year-old girls are tall enough to reach above the net and just a couple of them could jump and get their hands over the net. I knew that I needed to face my fear of teaching passing. Volleyball does start with serving and passing. There was no way around not teaching it.

I was a little nervous about having to teach the girls how to pass and set. I knew that I could not just have a two-hour practice on hitting and blocking. I began to explain correct body posture for passing. I knew that soon I would have to model correct passing form. With my feet shoulder width apart and one foot slightly in front of the other, my body towards target, knees bent and arms out in front of me I had one of girls toss me a ball and I modeled passing. To my surprise I passed a perfect pass. I could not remember the last time I had done that. Now with a little more confidence in my own passing I helped my girls improve their passing. While my girls were practicing their passing I was practicing mine as well.

I had explained passing to my team and so now it was onto setting. I felt a little more comfortable with setting from my little time I had played on the right side of the court. I could explain how to use your hands when the ball was high or coming at your face. However, I had not had any training in being the setter for a team and being able to explain how to set a ball for a hitter was a little different. I did know how to hit a ball that was set. I used that knowledge to help me explain setting a “hittable” ball to my setters. We went over having your hips square to the target and to use your arms to extend and your legs to push the ball to where you want it to go.

I had made it through my first practice. The girls were picking up the skills quickly. The next couple of practices I did what I knew. I had my girls doing the same drills that I had participated in while I was playing. I could see that the girls were getting used to the routine and I was tired of seeing the same drills happening at each practice. I started to talk to other coaches and watch other practices to get ideas. I also went to a couple of coaching clinics where I was able to participate in the drills. Every week at practice I tried to introduce a new drill or game. I like the idea of having more games to help the girls learn the game of volleyball a little quicker. The more you play the more you learn.

That first year coaching I spent practice time explaining skills to my team and actually practicing for myself what I was teaching. I was very upfront with them and told them from the beginning that I was a front row player and I rarely played on the back row. The group of girls that I worked with in my first year of coaching were just willing to learn. It did not bother them that I was not perfect with everything. I learned that year that I did not need to be perfect to be a coach, but that I just needed to have a passion for what I was doing.