Better Preparation Leads to Success How prepared are you for the playoffs? Coaches spend plenty of time thinking about the playoffs. Planning on how to get your team to peak at the right time. Checking the season’s stats for strengths and weaknesses. Collecting information about potential opponents. And now, your team has either had a playoff match or will soon be starting playoffs. To be properly prepared as a coach and have your team ready to compete, here are a number of keys that I found helped my teams compete for a state championship. Coach Make sure that you have considered and planned ..read more

Serving Overview for teaching the fundamentals of the volleyball serve along with thoughts for Varsity level serving practice With every high school program, the start of the season brings the challenge of teaching volleyball skills to players with a wide variety of abilities. Typically, practices are designed based on the team’s level (Varsity, JV, Frosh). But even within a team, you will encounter a wide-range of aptitude. So, how should you push your advanced players while providing fundamental training to the others? This post will begin with a focus on fundamental serve training to help ..read more

Serve Receive Ideas for teaching ball control along with serve receive drills Coaching volleyball provides a number of challenges. This is a fast-paced game played in a confined area and it requires the players to master a number of skills. Though a coach has to allocate practice time to all of these skills, one quickly learns that a team’s ability to serve receive successfully has a direct connection to the team’s probability of winning a match. For today’s post, I have gathered a collection of videos that focus on serve receive passing and attacking. These drills are designed so that a coa ..read more

How Do Your Behaviors Impact the Team? Your behavior as a coach will obviously have an impact on your team. Decisions you make, how you respond to a given situation on or off the court, the actions you model to your players, your attitude in the gym, how you deal with stress, and your response after a win or a loss, are all significant behaviors that we know help formulate the culture of the team or program. The past couple of weeks I have encouraged you to take advantage of various clinics and learning opportunities to provide a chance for you to grow as a coach. I would also like to add the ..read more

The Swing Block System: Understanding, Implementation, and Training Mini-Clinic Focus The mini-clinic series will take an in-depth look at a variety of training topics. It will provide thoughts on training the skill supported with links to key articles and videos. I recommend you take the time to read/watch all of the links so that you get a complete understanding of the system and then have the necessary information to make an informed decision. The Swing Block Clinic The swing block is a dynamic skill that provides a number of benefits for the defense. As a high school coach, I made the ..read more

How are you training your player’s vision? Vision in volleyball When we consider vision in our sport, we are focused on our player’s eyes and what they are watching. Typically, coaches do not spend enough time on drills that specifically train eye work. Also, coaches may not place themselves in a position to provide feedback on this aspect of our sport. This post will review key elements of vision training and provide links to information that will explore vision training. Vision training is designed to train a player’s eyes, what they watch and when, and what they do with that information. Ex ..read more

This is a great time to look ahead for coaching clinics! Now is the time Mid-season is the perfect time to consider your strengths and weaknesses as a coach. What areas would you like to study, talk with other coaches about, and learn new approaches? Though you may feel swamped, I strongly suggest you look at the links below and consider which clinics might help you grow as a coach and elevate your program. Personally, I felt that attending a number of different clinics not only helped me improve my knowledge, but it forced me to consider various ways to teach a skill. This approach helped me ..read more

How should drills be designed to provide the maximum benefit? Basic Drill Design Theory As you search through Volleyball Wisdom, you will find the majority of drills in the Nuggets of Wisdom have a suggested drill design. Before implementing the drill, be sure to consider your team, their ability level, and your available equipment/space. Each of these factors may negatively impact the drill as suggested if your situation is different from what you see in the video. If you see differences, make adjustments as to how the drill flows. Examples: If you have a significantly different number of p ..read more

Reflections on designing an efficient practice Practice Practice design, like lesson planning, should have daily objectives. What do you need to accomplish in this practice? How much time do you have for practice? Your previous match statistics and your observations from those matches will help set the priorities for the next few practices. Once you decide on those focus areas, allocate appropriate time for each drill you select. At Volleyball Wisdom, the Nuggets of Wisdom section provides a variety of drills based on skill type and level. This will help you find drills that will address you ..read more

The serve and pass aspects of the game are critical to success New Videos Before diving into Serve and Pass - please note two interesting additions to our Nuggets of Wisdom: Blocking: Planning and Reading with Hugh McCutcheon (from Coaches Insider). This is a compelling video as Hugh discusses a number of key factors in blocking. He reviews planning (scouting the opponent’s hitting tendencies) so your blockers have this knowledge prior to the match. Next, a review of reading and vision during a play, and he concludes with the various swing block footwork options given the type of hitter yo ..read more