FIve Years...Part III

It started off as a question in a coaches gaggle but with thought has now become a third entry into this Coaches blog. It would have been easy to take bits and pieces but we asked this question of coaches from all over the country, from all different levels. Their responses, which we will post in a few blogs going forward, are honest and an insight into where our game is going.

How do you Coach differently today than you did five years ago?

Russ Rose- Penn State University

“Players have changed and I have tried to remain consistent.”

Melissa Wolter- University of West Florida

“My coaching style has changed in a couple of ways over the last few years. First off, I've made a much bigger effort to spend timing training leadership, working on team chemistry and cohesion and recruiting into all of the above. I have determined that great teams don't happen on accident. They are molded into great teams. Some of this has to do with who is on the team, but a lot has to do with how you get those people to work together. The little things matter. Who you have your athletes room with on road trips, who they partner with in, on and off court activities and how you motivate them and how you get them to motivate one another.”

“I have also changed how I recruit. Not so much the style of athlete we go after, but the kind of person. We particularly look for good people first, great athlete and/or player second. We want athletes from families where they learned work ethic, respect, integrity and responsibility. Most of the girls on our team come from big families including brothers, have worked on a farm of have dealt with some kind of adversity in their lives. In my experience, some semblance of those characteristics are very helpful in having athletes that can easily get on the same page.”

David Rubio- University of Arizona

“I haven’t changed my coaching style.”

Patrick Hiltz- University of Louisiana- Monroe

"This question got me thinking. Often, changes that occur in us as individuals and human beings we don't really notice until someone points them out or forces us to think about them. This is the case with this question you have posed."

"Mainly I would say my coaching has changed as a necessity due to an ever changing environment in the world of volleyball. We had a team open discussion today where the question was posed if we thought players in college volleyball were better today than they were 15 years ago. There was some great discussion. For me, my coaching style has
adapted over the last 5 years mainly due to a change in the level that I am coaching. Five years ago I was coaching a 15 and under club team and I was assisting at the junior college level. Now, I am preparing for my 5th season as a Division 1 coach, 4th as a head coach, and there are obvious required differences between the two."

"For the most part I have tried to stay true to myself and my beliefs but there are some areas that I have made changes not only to how I do things but to my general philosophy as well."

"First, volleyball is now a job. A business if you will. I don't like to say that but it's the truth of what I do now. I depend upon volleyball to support myself and my family. Wins are no longer a want, they are a need. Because of this, the pressure to be great at what I do is one heck of a lot higher than it was when I was coaching club and junior college, even high school. This leads to the next part of what is different: the players. I have found recently that I spend more time coaching players how to be an athlete at this level than I ever thought I would. How to pass, footwork on an approach, hand position on blocking, etc. are not nearly as important as teaching kids how to be a good teammate. How to manage their time between classes, practice, brutal travel schedules, the list is endless. I quickly realized that it didn't matter what I taught the girls from an x's and o's standpoint if they were tired and stressed about a test coming up and the fact that their boyfriend didn't call like he said he would."

"I would also venture to say that the majority of kids in the club systems across the country could not tell you who won the NCAA National Championship with conviction let alone give us the name of their MVP player that led them there. This is sad. I get hundreds of emails a
week. Many of them say the same thing:  'I love the game of volleyball'. How can we have a love of something we don't follow on facebook, read about, go and watch regularly, or know anything about? Perhaps that's for another blog."

"More specific to coaching, 5 years ago I was a stat person. However, I was an everyday stat person that looked at stats the same way someone in the media looks at them. Or a parent. Individual numbers were fun and cool and worthy of being talked about. I was great at motivating individuals through my coaching and use of stats was a great tool. Now, I only talk about TEAM numbers. And even then, we go beyond what is read about or heard in the papers after the game. We keep our own numbers that are specific to team goals and focus. For example, rather than worrying about my team's ACE/Miss ratio, we focus on how many
times we got the other team out of system compared to how often they were In system. To us, this is a better indication of how tough we are serving. Kevin Hambly at Illinois deserves some credit here as it was his clinic at AVCA Convention a couple of years ago that got me to examine what I was really using stats for and why. It has been a valuable change to me as a coach and to our team."

"This also led to a change in practices: jump monitoring. We put a jump count on my middles, similar to a pitch count in baseball, to try and extend the life of already worn out knees. Kids are playing at such an early age that they break down by the time they get to college. Because they are no good to me injured, I have learned to place an emphasis on health before repetitions when required."

"My transition from club/high school coaching has been eye opening to say the least. I can offer this advice to the club and high school coaches out there:

1) Speed the game up as often as possible for the kids.

2) Teach your best players how to make their teammates appreciate them: not because they are a great volleyball player, but because they care about making their teammates better. This is a delicate process, tread carefully.

3) Give the kids enough of an understanding of the game that they can think and create strategy on their own. Then, give them the freedom to do it. Allow them to be wrong, even if it costs the team a point, a set, or even a match."

This has turned out to be a pretty popular question and we will continue this thread as we get coaches submissions. If you would like to hear from a specific coach, let us know at outreach@azregionvolleyball.org.