The In Between...

In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the U.S. Men’s team, on their way to the Gold Medal played 1,446 points in 33 sets in 8 matches. In John Kessel’s blog called No More Drills, Feedback or Technical Training he gives us this incredible statistic: “Most coaches do not know the average contact periods per skill - so I will share those now - .10 sec for setting; .05 for passing; .01 seconds for hitting and .03 for blocking. So using an average contact time of .05 seconds - the average total time of CONTACT by a player through the entire Olympic Games was - 27.4 seconds.”

So what the heck did those players do the rest of their time on the court?

As coaches, we should always be thinking about the “in between.” In matches, in training and in our seasons, those times get lost but are as or in some cases, MORE valuable than the actual time we count as productive training and playing time.

Often we pass through these “in between” times of our lives and don’t even realize it. In the book, “What are Comics” the author writes: “Each panel is separated by the others by a blank space called the gutter. The gutter is a very important element since it is the space containing all that happens between the panels. This means that the reader has to guess the missing elements in order to reconstruct the flow of the story.” In other words, the “in between” of a comic strip is nothing, but your mind is filling in the blanks.

When training our athletes we have to ask, how do THEY fill in the blanks? How can we as coaches help them?

In training, what is done before practice? What is done during drink breaks and how long do they take? Most importantly, what happens after a player executes a rep of a skill? At a May clinic at the Hopi Jr/Sr High school, they were given video feedback for the first time in their careers on every pass they executed. They got to watch themselves and learn from each rep. The passing began to improve just from this one added feedback loop.

As has become more evidence driven in recent years, too much feedback in between reps can be as stunting to an athlete’s growth as none at all, but those times “in between” reps can be used in other ways. How about peer to peer feedback, which many psychologists are telling us is more valued than feedback from a coach; players can receive it from another teammate or even better, give it? Is there another skill that can be “tagged along” with the skill just completed? Or maybe borrowing from Socrates, is this a good time or a question; asking the player what they saw, asking them about smaller details perhaps to help guide their next opportunity.

What about in between games or matches? The inevitable pre-game/ post-game chats which can cause more angst for players then losing their cell phones. Are your observations proactive? Are you positive and focused what they did well or do your chats become a tirade of things that were done wrong and efforts to go back in time to get them to do it right?

Now that the Club seasons are winding down or over, what about this big block of “in between” time? Are they filled with camps and clinics and private lessons that are the DNA of over training injuries and burnout? 

How about your athletes try another sport or play sand volleyball. Better yet, how about they don’t play for a month and get rested and healthy and get their mind clear before the High School camps and clinics begin. This is a big “in between” but what’s best for the physical and mental training of your athletes should always be your paramount goal as a coach. 

The “in between” in often times overlooked as coaches and players and parents but it’s valuable and can be used effectively and proactively to help our athletes achieve their success.