Big Rocks...

He is the face of USA Volleyball, whether he wants that mantle and all that comes with it, or not.

He is considered by many to be the greatest player in USA history and now just three years into his taking the helm of the USA Women’s National team after being an assistant for the 2012 London quad, he has shown the USA they have the chops to win their first Olympic gold by taking the top of the podium at the FIVB World Cup.

He is gracious and knowledgeable and is deliberate in thought and practice and in our exclusive interview with him, he is humble and very appreciative to be doing what he is doing. As he said after the interview, “The best part of my job is working with so many quality people dedicated to becoming masters of their craft.”

To the left of Karch Kiraly’s desk in his office in the American Sports Center in Anaheim, Ca. is a white board. At the top is the heading, :”Big Rocks.” It is the blueprint of where he and his staff think the chosen athletes that will compete for 2016 Rio Olympic roster spots will have to work on and get better at. Serving, serve receive, defense, blocking: they are all listed with goals under each that will need to met in order for the USA to stand on the world’s most prestigious volleyball podium.

This is Karch’s next 15 months.

He talks about his recent favorite book that he shared with the High Performance Coaches in Colorado Springs in February, Josh Waitzkin’s “The Art of Learning.”

He offers up a couple of others he is reading in a text after the interview: “I'm reading 'Boundaries for Leaders', by H. Cloud, and 'Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom', by E. Greitens. Some great lines about resilience by Greitens.” He adds.

He talks about what he learned from his coaches at the high school, college and national team levels. He takes away from them all this idea to “Infect them (his athletes) with poise and calm and a fierce determination to compete really hard.”

He talks about the qualities he needs to see in the USA gym to get there AND to stay, and the qualities he’d like to see more in coaches.

He spends some time pondering how the infrastructure of USA Volleyball at the Region level could be more helpful to him and his program and while he has specific ideas on how it could get better, he’s also quick to point out how grateful he is and how jealous the rest of the world is at the pool of players the United States gives opportunities to.

After 35 minutes, he has to jump on a conference call with his coaching staff. He apologizes but knows that early May is just around the corner, and he and his staff have much work to do to ready themselves for this pre-Olympic training block.

Big rocks!

Click here for the interview.