Sunlight or Shadow Coach?

At the 2014 Sitting World Championships in Poland in June, I watched a wide variety of coaching styles and while there are over 20 nations and their cultures competing here, the styles fall into basically two different camps…

Please Know What Marfan Syndrome Is…

If you come to visit us at USA Volleyball’s offices in Colorado Springs (please do!), and I am in town I will take you on a tour. One of the first stops, after the “Gold Room” where all staff meetings are held surrounded by pictures of all the US Olympic gold medal teams to date, beach and indoor, is this corner by CEO Doug Beal’s office. It is one of several statues commissioned in honor of 1984 Olympic silver medalist Flo Hyman.

There is NO Magic

There is only hard work, the science and randomness of our sport. At the start of my coaching, I was looking for “the answer” or the “drills” that would make me a winning coach. When I discovered the science of motor learning, I also learned that there is no magic, thanks to the knowledge of a coach that has been my mentor for nearly 40 years.

LIMIT Your Coaching…

As I have found, some of the coaches most needing to read the science and ideas in this blog are simply not reading the ideas in their entirety.

Give the Boys a Chance

I simply would like to ask everyone reading this blog to share, as I am about to, their best practices, other sport successes and brainstorming thoughts on how to give boys 5-18 years old a chance to make volleyball their sport for a lifetime.

Creating a Low Cost Volleyball

OK Volleyball Thinkers. I need some help in creating a ball for young kids. About 20 years ago I created a “balloon ball”

Leave a Ball Behind II

Over a decade ago, I created a program with USA Volleyball, our regions and our amazing clubs to donate just one of their used volleyballs at the end of their seasons, to give away to other programs around the world that are less fortunate.

STOP Teaching Technique

… and start working much more on improving what you can control as a coach to increase your players learning of volleyball skills.

Five Keys to Better Serving

Players and coaches share their serving secrets.

STOP Doing Drills

Okay, this version of my STOP series is likely to be a tough one for many coaches, but its truth is well founded in science, just not implemented well in our teaching practices. I just watched perhaps my 2,000th “drill” on YouTube, as I seek to find any new ideas that others have created to help us grow and develop our sport.