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Girls celebrating winUSA 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.


USA Volleyball Development Model

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.

USA Volleyball Development Model

Know Better, Do Better

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.

  • Craft: Mastering the skills and strategies of our game
  • Heart: Becoming your best self through connection, gratitude and emotional well-being
  • Mind: Training our minds to maximize performance
  • Body: Developing the physical capacity to train and compete at the highest level
  • Team: Building a culture of excellence that honors ourselves, our team, our game and our country

Role-Based Education

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.

Coach Education

Athlete Education

Parent Education

Officials Education

Club Director Education

Drills for Sports Imports Volleyball Trainer+ and The Vertec

USA Volleyball partner Sports Imports has provided USA Volleyball coaches with drills for use with their Trainer+ and The Vertec.

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Sports Imports

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March 1, 2014

Why my Mom would have been a GREAT Volleyball Coach

For over 30 years, my mom taught first grade. I would visit her many times at school while she taught over the decades, starting from about the same height as the kids in her class, to being over six feet tall and towering over the kids, my mom, and their little chairs. What I remember from her teaching has colored my coaching, in the principles I learned from her, which would apply to coaching any sport well.

February 28, 2014

They Learn by DOING

One of the core concepts of motor learning is to increase the opportunities to respond. In our USA Volleyball IMPACT course, we call this increasing the contacts per hour.

February 19, 2014

Learning vs. Teaching

The two most important skills in our sport are reading (as in anticipation, not hunkering down with a great book, though that skill is VERY important in life) and learning.

February 14, 2014

Coach Albert Einstein’s Best Quotes

I love to read and learn from people much smarter than me. Dr. Daniel Kahnemann, Jon Brockman (visit the www.edge.org often and you will be thankful even if your head spins at times), John Wooden, and Albert Einstein are examples.

February 5, 2014

My Top Things I Must Have as a Coach

Three Outlet Adapter – This leads my list because of the technology that we all use to be better teachers. Carrying a one to three adapter makes you a savior to one other fellow traveler, as you ask permission to change one outlet to three, one for the lucky first arriver, one for you, and one for that other fellow coach or traveler desperately needing a power source.

Growing the Game blog

January 22, 2014

Change Your Words, Change Your Gym

I recently was at the NCAA Finals for Women’s D1 and four words jumped out at me that I have always found of importance, but which were being repeated in session after session. To hear others using these four words in genuine ways, makes me think we have turned a corner in volleyball.

December 12, 2012

It’s Not Where You Are, It’s Who You Are

The article summarizes what kids should be learning from fun on the court or field, in practices and games. Some thoughts are volleyball specific, but the majority relate to all sports.

October 8, 2012

STOP Teaching Running

This blog in the STOP series is a plea for coaches to please understand one of the most important principles in the science of motor learning – that of specificity – as it particularly applies to conditioning/running...

August 23, 2012

STOP Teaching FREE Balls

Yes we are back with perhaps one of the most important “STOP” lessons of all – the need for coaches to stop teaching “Free” balls, especially the way the vast majority of coaches around the world teach it, and start teaching “Mean” balls.

July 20, 2012

STOP Teaching Hitting

Ah yes, we are back with another request – in this case to train gamelike and create hitters with volleyball IQ, and not create one dimensional players who are good at spiking into the net

April 25, 2012

Blog: Coaching by Fear

There is a famous segment in one of my favorite movies of all time – Monty Python and the Holy Grail – where the “team” of knights, led by Coach, I mean, King Arthur encounter a little white rabbit. They had been expecting a horrible beast by all accounts, and yet all they saw was this cute bunny. They gained confidence for a moment, only to be ravaged in seconds by a vicious, throat tearing flying terror – the rabbit – and then the team responded…RUN AWAY!......

April 24, 2012

We Hire the WORST Coaches

No matter where a parent looks, every club program will state something to the effect of “We have the BEST coaches…” They then usually add next a list how a coach “played at college” - D1/2/3/NAIA/JC …it does not matter, they were a COLLEGE player for gosh sakes. The list then mentions that the coach coached at school levels - mostly junior high or high school – and sometimes even college, and, in time, they also, or only coached club.. My question is – what certifies that they are “the best?” In this ever expanding world of marketing and hype, do you think any program would proclaim “We have just average coaches!” …or “Our coaches are learning how to coach by trial and error on your child, please come join us!” ...or "We hire whoever will apply even if we really don't know them".... or the title of this blog, "we hire the worst coaches!" Do you think that the fact that the program has a winning record, means that the coaches are skilled? More likely in club volleyball, the record is due to the recruiting work of the club, taking the best players from the smaller clubs, with promises of superior training, and even the magic word…”scholarships.”

April 12, 2012

Perpetually Dissatisfied

I was looking back as my previous blog posts and comments, as our website is soon to be moving to a new provider and taking on a new look, while wondering if the comments would be lost. One comment caught my eye, that brought this blog to life – related to the Olympic motto of Citius, Altius, Fortius. Here is part of the exchange, found under the blog about changing from club to beach/high school volleyball seasons “A Change of Seasons.”

February 29, 2012

The Evolution of Pepper

This second in a series of sharing the evolution of popular drills – into grills or even games, takes on perhaps the most hallowed of traditions… “pepper.

February 26, 2012

Jim Coleman Impact & Immediate Feedback Video System

On October 22, 2012, Jim Coleman would be turning 80 years old. His passing a over a decade ago, in August of 2001, meant heaven picked up one of the best volleyball minds in the world to ever walk into a gym. At our USA Volleyball offices, all our historical material is in a large library area

February 15, 2012

Specialization is for Insects

A long talk last week with a writer from Volleyball Magazine, got me contemplating some principles that are important on the topic of “specialization.”

February 6, 2012

The Evolution of the Butterfly Drill

Been thinking about one of the drills that most volleyball coaches and players, with a little bit of experience, known around the world – “Butterfly.”

February 3, 2012

What Can a Player Control?

his week my son Cody is playing in his first ever college matches for Princeton.

February 1, 2012

The Randomness of the Bigger Game

This guest blog is by Eric Hodgson, chair of the USA Volleyball's Grassroot's Commission and full time Director of Outreach for the Arizona Region of USA Volleyball.

January 20, 2012

Coaching the Human Animal

An advance heads up to start this blog, it is going to cost you the price of buying a movie, which you likely have not seen and which has become one of my favorite movies ever – documentary really – as it teaches huge lessons to all those wanting to be a better coach, teacher, or…

January 15, 2012

Cameras, Athletes and Role Modeling

Some of you may know that during my time at Colorado College and after, I worked as a summer hiking guide, did winter ascents, and Outward Bound courses, river rafting thru the Gates of the Ladore.