Simplified Youth Rules
Ideas for youth play for 3-11 year old athletes, who should be playing in teams of two or four.
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User: Coaches
Names for Games and Grills
This is not a comprehensive collection, but serves as food for thought for naming a GAME better. Rather than a “drill.”
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.
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
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!……
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.”
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.”
USA Volleyball Skills Contest
The YMCA of the USA updated this skills contest with USA Volleyball staff help for use during their volleyball centennial celebrations.
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.
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.”