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USA Volleyball Education is focused on improving developmental and educational opportunities across the sport of volleyball from grassroots to the national team level. Our goal is to provide the opportunity to access, complete and apply high-quality information and methods in the technical, tactical, physical and emotional aspects of the game for athletes and coaches while providing training, support and resources for other key stakeholders including officials, parents and clubs.
For years, the focus of volleyball in many areas and across various levels shifted to a mindset of winning at all costs.
What we now know is that the most successful teams in the world have developed a model of training and a culture that supports a holistic approach to athlete development which not only sets them up for competitive success on the court, but values and emphasizes the important of athlete health, well-being and long-term involvement in the sport.
The USA Volleyball Development Model was created based on the idea that volleyball in the U.S. could be taught differently, resulting in long-lasting positive outcomes across all measures of performance while keeping kids involved and loving the game longer.
The five pillars of the USA Volleyball Development model provide the basis for a holistic approach to the core elements that are vital to supporting development at every level and across age groups.
USA Volleyball Education is committed to providing support for the volleyball community with a role-based approach to education and training. Whether you’re planning practices, cheering from the stands or making the right call, we provide the tools and resources to help you succeed.
USA Volleyball partner Sports Imports has provided USA Volleyball coaches with drills for use with their Trainer+ and The Vertec.
I oft speak of the impact a Discover magazine article long ago had on me, on how we are fooled by randomness, in helping me be a better parent and coach.
The dawn drive to the Santo Domingo airport to begin my all day journey home to Colorado, goes mostly along the coast of ragged lava rocks - no beaches on this stretch, but lots of palm trees.
I have been reflecting on the lack of specificity in most coaches’ teaching, as well as the choice of words we often make by habit.
The concept of 7-speeds is based on the work of soccer researcher and author Jurgen Weineck.
What a great IMPACT webinar last week, with Andy Pai answering the 200 coaches’ written questions that poured in, while Phil Shoemaker, head coach at University of Alaska Fairbanks, and I shared about 100 total years of collective insights for these new coaches to learn from.
A personal list of movies, in no particular order, that might be great for team bonding and inspiration.
OK coach, hopefully this title has made you click through to this blog to see what the heck I could be thinking here.
Over 20 years ago I was working with the University of Colorado program, working with several club teams to merge them into a single varsity program.
Originally published in 2009 About the Author: Rick Swan is the head women’s volleyball coach at Colorado College. He is a CAP Level II coach in USA Volleyball’s Coach Education Program. Game-like training is a simple idea. It is the notion that athletes will learn to play the game of volleyball better by practicing the...
Tryouts can bring out our deep fears, as the talent pyramid begins its inexorable narrowing. From six elementary schools teams, to a couple or so junior high 7th grade teams.
My son Cody is a senior at the oldest high school here in Colorado Springs. We decided together to start a volleyball club at his school this year, to help grow the boy's high school club program.
I was fortunate in my beginning stages of coaching in the early 1970s to cross paths with Stew McDole of Graceland College (now University), where I was mentored by Stew and coaches like Chris McLaughlin and Carl McGown.
Each fall for high school, then later when junior volleyball clubs begin, training takes place that shows that the science of our sport has not impacted the cultural traditions of this same sport.
I have come back to the place that my coaching of coach's journey really began, to a land where nighthawks cry at dusk.
This is one of my favorite "words" ever, and given the economic situation impacting us all, leads us into the reason for this grow the game set of options - for I see things as now here, never nowhere.
I have come back to where my grandfather, father and a guy named James Michener once travelled and worked.
I got a new Orvis Helios 3wt recently. Made from the same carbon fiber they use on the Apache helicopters, it is feather light at 1.75 ounces total, and strong as heck, for casting into the afternoon winds along my favorite little streams.
My father was my role model in countless ways, and I have done my best raising my kids as a single dad to follow in his World War II veteran footsteps.
Warming up on the beach with your partner has two very powerful messages that indoor players and coaches need to listen to so that more kids find success earlier in the challenges of our sport.
Sorry for the long break in postings - with two kids in teen sports (volleyball and lacrosse) both in state playoffs and finals almost upon us...
