Losing sight of the shore.......

Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore. - Andre Gide

 Change: some people welcome it, most are annoyed or terrified by it. In a player’s parlance, being taken out of our comfort zones. We’ll ask a player to change their footwork or hold their hands differently in serve receive but do we ask the same of ourselves as coaches?

 If you have taken and IMPACT or a CAP class in the last few years, you know that USA Volleyball’s stance on stretching before practice is DON’T! It’s a waste of valuable court time and according to over 300+ studies, could actually impair performance of your athletes. This isn’t because USAV doesn’t like stretching nor had a bad experience in a yoga class; it’s based on scientific data and analysis.  Yet go into a gym and watch a practice and more times than not, what will you see?

 As coaches, we need to embrace change. Sometimes we will change a drill, a way to practice, or a player in a different position and sometimes it works and of course, sometimes it doesn’t. But the question is, are you willing to try?

 Michael Andrew is a 14 year old swimming sensation who stands at 6-4 and 178 pounds. He has broken 32 national age group records and is working toward an Olympic berth in the coming years with his father as his coach. That in itself can sometimes be a difference maker but Andrew has been training using a new theory of training called Ultra Short Raced Paced Training (USRPT) developed by Dr. Brent Rushall at San Diego State.

 In his training, he says goodbye to traditional USA Swimming practice lore of massive yardage and uses shorter training sessions of sprints, usually none more than 50 meters at an intense pace. The theory is that the method produces far less lactic acid that makes muscles ache and shut down allowing more intense short training bursts.

 Two words often slapped together are Science and Fiction but as sports goes further into how to make athletes better, stronger and faster, and the better ways to coach these athletes, the fiction becomes less so. Many coaches are looking to find an edge over their competition by looking toward science through research papers and utilizing their physiology and kinesiology departments at their schools.

 Aaron Nelson is going into his 21^st with the Phoenix Suns and the last 13 as their head trainer. He has used individual approaches with athletes and cutting edge science to help make the Suns athletic staff one of if not the most recognized in the NBA.

 Nelson has implemented a glassed in room full of cardio machines that simulates 10,000 feet above sea level. He has also used and gotten results from an anti gravity treadmill, which allows players to rehabilitate from injury or surgery with 80% of their body weight removed.

He also now uses an on-site cryosauna which uses blasts of nitrogen gas every 30 seconds for 2 and a half minutes to bring the temperature down to 300 degrees below zero which promotes healing and improves energy. “The science is bio-mechanical.” Nelson said recently in the spring 2013 edition of Thrive magazine. “At 180 degrees below zero, the body changes from frostbit to survival mode- the brain thinks the body is going to die, so it sends all the blood back to the core where the vital organs are in an effort to keep the body functioning. You get a huge amount of oxygenated blood in the core and once you get out of the cryosauna, it goes back out into the peripheral limbs so it’s a flushing of the system.” Not the standard ice bags and cold plunge for the Suns with Nelson at the helm.

 Atul  Gawande in his amazing book about the medical field called ‘Better’ talks about the importance of change. “Look for the opportunity to change.” He says. I am not saying you should embrace every new trend that comes along. But be willing to recognize the inadequacies in what you do and seek out the solutions. As successful as medicine is, it remains replete with uncertainties and failure. This is what makes it human, at times painful and also so worthwhile.”

 As coaches, we live in that world: sometimes painful but hopefully worthwhile. Continue looking to other coaches, books and writings and conversations with athletes and staff that are NOT volleyball coaches.

 Changing the way coaches think about change….we can all do better.

 

 

Jess

Jessica is 16 years old. In many ways she is a lot like other 16 year old girls. She likes country music, talks a lot with her friends and she loves playing volleyball.

Jess is an outside hitter for her high school team set a small rural community in south eastern Washington. Her family owns orchards; thousands of cherry trees….thousands! Jess is one of 11 children and her summer days are spent playing and practicing one of her sports; softball, basketball and volleyball, then configuring rides and schedules of friends and families to make getting through the day most efficiently.

With a strawberry blonde pony tail that sways behind her every step, Jess is relaxed and comfortable on the court. At 5-9, she isn’t overly imposing and her build does suggest someone who plays several sports but she has the ability to put a ball down. In one drill, she passes 5 perfect 3’s in serve receive. When the coach calls the team’s attention to the accomplishment after the drill, Jess is visibly embarrassed. She is humility defined.

Jess is 16 years old and has a checking account. She has had to pay for the volleyball camp she is attending. She has to pay for the college camp she wants to go to in a few weeks. She earns her money working for her family in the orchards. Camp ends at 2 p.m. on a Thursday and Jess will go back to her family orchards and begin to pick sweet cherries, by hand, off the trees until her basketball game at 7 that night. She will get up early Friday and spend the day and the weekend picking fruit and plotting her schedule for the upcoming slate of games ahead.

Jess’s high school team just won the Washington State High School 1A softball championship. At a party celebrating this fete, she and her team mates are choosing championship rings. Jess’s ring is modest because if she wants it, she will pay for it herself and also because Jess herself is modest in her abilities and accomplishments.

As humble in life as Jess is, she is relentless on the court. Quiet but focused and coachable; she wants to get better for her team. She is usually on the outside, but the coach also throws her into the back row, and then on the right side. Jess nods and goes, gives it everything she has and plays at 100% the entire time. At the end of camp, she is soaked in sweat and tired.

Jessica talks to her teammates in the hallway at lunch. She never has a bad thing to say about anyone and never complains about anything. She appreciates the help she receives from her friends and family and her teams and is always first with a please and a thank you.

Jessica has a new coach this season. Her coach is someone she has known for a long time; the upshot of a small town existence. Jess listens to her coach’s feedback and makes changes, keeping her mind open. She wants to get better for her team.

Jess is 16 years old. She has just finished a drill where she hit 11 balls from the outside, 6 of which were for kills and no errors. She had the highest hitting percentage of any of the hitters in the drill yet she seems uncomfortable. After the final few hitters finish, she walks up to the coach and tells her she missed a hitting error. She wasn’t perfect, her hitting percentage in the drill needed to be adjusted lower.

The coach, knowing that it was important to Jess, made the adjustment on the white board in front of the team.

Jess almost seemed relieved. She finished practice with the same intensity and fire as when she first stepped on the court. She takes off her shoes after practice, shoes she paid for herself, and gathers the three team mates she will give rides home to. Then she gets home, changes and heads out into the trees. She’ll help her family in their business, help her checking account along the way and further solidify a work ethic that makes coaches hearts race.

Jess is 16 years old. She wants to get better for her teammates.

Athletes aren’t always able to be picked out of a crowd but you sure know them when you meet them.

Coaching Your Own: Blurring the Lines

It was loud and venomous.

The gym was silent and you could hear the coach unleashing his anger, his disappointment, his sense of being betrayed by one of his own on his 18 year old opposite. The rest of the team stood huddled together, far away while he railed on his right side, the one who had just missed her blocking assignment after just being reminded about it moments before.

Her father sat in the stands, dying inside: dying because he wanted to be there for his daughter, to help her. He wanted to stop this coach from making his daughter feel badly, from making her feel worse.

But he didn’t. He knew. He was a coach; a coach and a father, THE father. He knew from experience, from seeing other parents first hand, that she had to fail once in a while, he had to let her fail and with failing comes the consequences. It was part of being an athlete, part of being a grown up. It was also part of being a parent.

So he said nothing, did nothing, dying inside.

After the match, he hugged her. They had spent a tumultuous half season together the winter before…together, on the same club team.

He questioned himself often coaching his own flesh and blood: was he too hard on her because she was his daughter? Too lenient? After a few months, it was obvious to both of them that he couldn’t find the right balance and after she accepted a scholarship to a local college, they both sat down and agreed that the best thing for her was to go work out with her college team the rest of the season. It was hard for the coach; he hadn’t been able to find the right mixture of coach and dad.

But he knew it was what was best for her, and as a father, he was more than okay with that.

The blurred lines of coaching your own child come with a price. Sometimes it’s a broken relationship, sometimes it’s a sport a parent holds so dear to them that they eventually force their kids away from it Either way, it’s a delicate balance that can be a great experience, a nightmare but usually something in between.

Barry Goldberg is the head coach for American University in Washington D.C. He has been at the helm of the program for a quarter century. Barry is also a club director and has seen the best and worst of parents but knows when it comes to your own kids, it’s a different ball game.

“My kid plays lacrosse” Goldberg muses. ”He sits the bench half the time and I’m thinking, about the coach: are you crazy? The kid is the best player on the field.” Goldberg chuckles. “It’s not like I don’t get it, I just have to make sure that my facts are correct. Now it’s completely my opinion that he’s the best player on the field, it’s not my fact. It’s the coach’s opinion too and that’s what counts.”

The USAV Director of Sport Development, John Kessel has played and coached the game of volleyball at every level. He also has a son playing volleyball at Princeton and a daughter playing at Bowdoin College in Maine. He has raised both as a single Dad and has coached both of them at one point or another in their careers.

“In high school, I coached Cody. Now that he’s in college, I just talk to his coach about things in general. The same is true for Mac. In high school, I would just talk in general. I did not really think that the coach was making bad decisions, as I don't train them 5 days a week, he did.”

Kessel wrote a terrific blog on this exact subject which you are encouraged to read.

http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Volleyball/Features/2011/September/30/To-My-Amazing-Daughter-Performance-IS-Variable.aspx

Club Director Goldberg understands parental frustration because he, like so many other coaches, has it with his own children. So he understands what drives Parents to their behavior at times.

“Two days ago I had a parent in my office saying she has invested all this money into getting her daughter a scholarship.  Well, there’s no way this kid is going to get a scholarship. She’s a little club player and if she makes her high school team we’re going to be really happy. I told this mother she was playing for the wrong reason; that we are here to really just educate your daughter in the sport and if she gets something, great. I told her, ‘Your daughter might struggle to get something; I can see the level of where she’s at right now; it’s going to be difficult for her. You should be preparing to cover her schooling. If something comes up, tremendous! Don’t invest in this to get your kid a scholarship and don’t put pressure on your kid who’s thinking I’ve got to save the family by getting a scholarship. She’s going to pull her hair out, she’ll go crazy.’ She walked out of here angry with me, I’m sure.”

“It’s parents, it’s kids. I’m blind with my kid” Barry confesses. ”I’m blind with my wife, I’m blind with the things so, so important to me. It’s hard, for all of us.”

“Parenting, coaching, and teaching  others, but perhaps most importantly, yourself, sometimes known as learning,  all follow the same principles” Kessel contends.” Since I love to compete, on the court when things are in my control, I know what I can control in learning, but that learning includes a lot of errors along the way. When I take it to the other roles off the court, the principles don't change, just the methods. I teach still, or just celebrate watching, as I love to watch people I care about, play this wonderful, lifetime, team game.”

First Year Coaches: "The Friction between us...."

In our series of blogs from first year coaches, here is the narrative of a coach who struggled with the delicate synergy of head and assistant coaches. In this case, it affected both the coaches, the team and the season. 

At the beginning of my club season our director thought, since it was my first year coaching club, it would be a great idea to have me co-coach with a young 19 year old female who was an assistant last year. I thought to myself I am open to anything since I really didn’t know what to expect. On the other hand I have been coaching sports for over 20 years but not club volleyball. Needless to say the beginning was great and we got along really well. The parents got together and decided to go to the Festival Fiesta in February and that is when things started to go downhill. The first day of the tournament our director had to put a head coach in the sign ups so he put her in. Well it was unfortunate this went straight to her head and from that point on she was the “head coach”. 

During Festival my logic was very simple. All the kids should play equally since the tournament did not affect our region tournaments. She had different ideas such as taking into account the flow of the team and didn’t want the girls to get confused. As the games went on I grew more agitated and it showed on the court. She started arguments in front of the kids and would just try to take over the whole team. I did not want to argue in front of the kids so I really didn’t say much until after the tournament. I did say something but she insisted everything was great. As practices and region tournaments went on we, as a team, went downhill. We started to lose and some practices were a nightmare. She would tattle on me to the assistant director about complaints from parents that she was getting. In turn the assistant director would tell the director who would then tell me so I was hearing everything last.

The worst part of this was she was telling me on the court that I was teaching them wrong when I was instructing their form and this was in front of the kids. I took her aside and asked if she would stop. Well it did not stop. I thought I could take care of the situation myself but the practices became worse and games got worse. The friction between us was obviously affecting the kids’ play during games. Practices were unorganized as were rotations.

At the beginning of the season I took the advice of a friend who said white boards are great. So I would write down everything we would do during the practice with a few words of encouragement as well. After the Festival Fiesta Tournament she did not like this idea as she felt I was trying to take over the team. I would call other clubs wanting to scrimmage and set those up however she wanted me to call her to ask her before I set up any scrimmages.

We finally had a meeting with our director. I never once threw her under the bus as I am not that type of person and never will be. I only told my director that she has great potential and gets along with the girls. As far as our season goes, I thought we did o.k. but should have done much better. The friction between us caused our team to slip and our girls never meshed as a team.

Coaching indoor volleyball has been a challenge since I am a beach player. After learning by taking classes, watching other coaches, researching online, the game became easier and it flowed better for me. The best part of this experience was to coach and teach these young ladies the fundamentals of the game. Since most of the girls already knew the basic skills it was easier to teach more complicated skills. Teaching girls to jump serve that they’ve never tried before and to watch them succeed at it made me feel that I accomplished what I set to do. My daughter was also on this team which made it fun and challenging at the same time. I felt I was hard on her the most but warned her at the beginning of the season what was expected.

I felt so attached to the girls and actually tried to stay away from the parents as much as I could. I would speak to my girls individually and get there feedback as to what their goals are. I thought getting to know them on a personal level is important such as what there favorite animal or food is. They would always have fun even though some practices were tough and long. I really liked their honesty with me and they trusted me to help them reach those goals they set.

First Year Coaches; "Of course I can't say that!"

As the Arizona Region season has ended, we asked a few first year coaches to give us their best and worst of their first seasons. This first entry is from a coach of a 14's team. There is equal value for both coaches and parents in this and we will post it on both blogs for this reason. Thank you to this coach for sharing with the Region.

As a new coach I was of course very stoked about finally getting to coach and a bit nervous as well. I have been through many seasons with my daughter, but as a parent. So I was not really sure what to expect being on the coaching end of it.

When everything started, it was a bit slow, trying to figure out who is who and where they would play but that worked itself out and things started rolling more smoothly. But of course when the tournaments started and some girls weren't getting equal playing time, the emails from the parents started coming in. I addressed them, being professional of course and told them it is still early and I was still in the experimenting process.

As time went on and the parents began to see I did know what I was doing and I wasn’t some guy off of the street, the emails became fewer but there is always that one parent it seems. She always had to question my methods or ask why her daughter was getting subbed out and other girls weren’t. This particular girl was a decent player but not always consistent. The girl behind her was really improving so I started playing her a bit more. Well of course this Mother didn’t understand this. I just finally explained to her in a nice way that everything I do is for the team. If someone is doing better at a certain time she will be playing. But I really wanted to tell her to please shooosh and that this other girl was really improving and deserved to play over her daughter. Of course I cant say that.

I did speak with this player about her playing time and what she needed to do to improve. So the emails seemed to stop but there were still some here and there asking about playing time and issues with other players. I was at a loss because I didn’t really know what to tell her without her wanting to strangle me. So I did get some advice from a coach who had been around the rodeo a few times and he just asked me, “Are your girls having fun and improving?”  I said yes. He said, “That's all you can do.”

That really helped me with coaching because when you hear so much white noise going on around you, you can become distracted and then you can start second guessing yourself. That is death for a coach. So that advice truly helped me to stop hearing all of the negative and just to concentrate on my team. The director was very supportive of me as well. 

The thing I most enjoyed this season was watching the girls bond, new friends made, and their volleyball game improve. As an older male coach with a daughter of my own, sometimes I find myself being Dad because I really started to care about these girls. They were all really great kids! Sure there were times when they messed around or some drama would happen, but overall they were an awesome group of girls! 

 The season is long and I can definitely say coaching club isn’t for everyone. It can really be draining physically, mentally and emotionally but I can honesty say I loved every minute of it, good or bad, and I am looking forward to next season. I am already thinking of things I can improve on and what I can do to make myself a better coach. I love this sport and hope to be coaching for a very long time.

To Sports Leaders, Administrators, Coaches, Parents, Participants and Media:from the NACWAA

Arizona Sidelines felt strongly enough about this open letter to those involved in youth sports from the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators that we are copying their letter verbatim in this blog. Please be advised, there is strong content in the letter below and it may not be suitable for younger readers.


Take Responsibility to End the Degradation of Women

April 12, 2013

An Open Letter to Sports Leaders, Administrators, Coaches, Parents, Participants and Media:

Lost in the public outrage surrounding former Rutgers University Men’s Basketball Coach Mike Rice’s appalling mistreatment of student-athletes and the media’s broad coverage of this story is a critical issue that has received almost no attention or discussion: how society at large, particularly in sports, views and characterizes
women.

Rice’s abusive language, recently exposed by the media, is obviously unacceptable, homophobic, belittling, and offensive. As an organization that advocates for and empowers women not only in intercollegiate athletics, but in all fields of work, NACWAA would like to address an important issue that has been missed—
Rice’s harmful use of anti-female slurs. Among the rounds of physical attacks and homophobic slurs, an ESPN.com article references Rice using the c-word, b-word and p-word at student-athletes when they did not perform to his satisfaction. This language is particularly abhorrent when used by someone who is charged with teaching and acting in a position of power and authority to student-athletes during their still formative years. His
words convey to his team that women are second class citizens.

This is not the first time that sexist language has been used to motivate young men in sports at all levels. It also is a reflection of society at a larger level. As Kate Fagan said in a recent espnW article, “the fact remains that the quickest way to cut a man down in sports is to call him a woman… some people might shrug and say this type of gender-bashing is bound to happen in a male-dominated environment. But, of course, we know there's
more to it than that: it's a microcosm of how women are too often disregarded across society.”

As Kim Polese states in Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead: “views like these are all too commonplace and part of a pervasive pattern that belittles, demeans and marginalizes women.” As activist, feminist and NFL Hall of Famer Don McPherson has pointed out, our society does not so much focus on “raising boys to be men,” but “raising them not to be women.” Despite the progress that women have made in
society on many levels, misogynistic slurs and attitudes have persisted and become part of American culture, particularly in sport.

Some people may believe that the language surrounding sports culture is unlikely to change. We believe that for every person who makes a sexist remark, there are many more within earshot who have the capacity to stand up and send the message that those words will not be tolerated. In order to change the way people speak, we must change the way they think. And the only way to do that is for individuals to take personal responsibility in keeping this kind of language off the courts, away from the fields, and even out of the stands. Women and men alike must not remain silent as 51 percent of the population is degraded and marginalized.

Please join us in promoting respect for women, especially in sport.

Pearls Made of Cotton.....

The dining room at the ‘Italian Restaurant’ (yes, that’s the name!) is empty except for master chef Chris Bianco and his business manager, Seth Sulka. Bianco has three other restaurants  in Phoenix and his empire is growing by the day. Sulka is writing checks but was brought into this blog because of his unique relationship with one of the great coaches Arizona has ever seen.

Former Phoenix Suns Coach Lowell“Cotton” Fitzsimmons.

Bianco leaps into the conversation telling his favorite Cotton story. “It was the ’95 NBA draft and the scouts are all going back and forth on this kid from Boston College and Cotton’s not saying a word. ‘This guy can’t play, small hands, he can’t jump, he can’t do this, he’s undersized, he’s a tweener…’  Finally Cotton who’s been listening the whole time and is just steaming, rocking back and forth says, ‘I’m the coach. You tell me what he CAN do, don’t tell me what he CAN’T do. I’ll put four guys around him that can make him better, just tell me what he CAN do!”

Bianco said that lesson, one of the many Cotton doled out daily, was a big help for him when It came to people. “I try to find things they can do because if I can put them in a place where they can do things, I don’t ever have to worry about things they can’t do.”

Sulka pipes up at this moment remembering the flip side to Cotton’s gem. “If you’re wondering, for example, why the kid you drafted isn’t hitting three pointers, and that’s what you got him to do, you don’t judge him on a task he shouldn’t be doing. Then it becomes your fault.”

Bianco, his gravelly Italian rising in volume said, “That was a really good example of who Cotton was for me: tell me the positive and we can go forward.”

Sulka recalled how Cotton would talk about building a team. “Cotton would say the lesson is at the NBA draft, for example, you can’t fall in love with all these studs because if it didn’t build your team the way you needed it to function, what’s the point? You can’t have 10 Michael Jordan’s. Cotton, even as a coach, was always looking to build the team the right way.” 

The conversation bounced back and forth when Bianco confirmed the most telling gift Cotton had. “He would find the language to communicate as well as anyone I have ever been around. He would remember people’s names and it was never about him. He would make each conversation very personal.”

Sulka echoed Bianco’s sentiment. “He really was special in his recognition of knowing everyone. I think that did have an impact for him as a coach. It made him a great person that everybody loved. He really did talk to the security guards! I was a lowly P.R. intern and he would call me into his office. He didn’t have to choose to mentor me. He always cared!”

Sulka started with the Suns as a ball boy and worked his way up the organizational ranks until he was named the Phoenix Mercury’s General Manager and two years after that, their President. Cotton continued to mentor him throughout his journey.

“Cotton was great at that dynamic of roles on the team.” Sulka remembers. “The equipment manager, trainer, assistant trainer, everyone he treated well and cared about. And all it made you want to do was play and work harder for the guy. They want to work harder for you, they want to show up, and they don’t want to let you down. Being liked and being respected are two different things. People respected Cotton AND liked him; that wasn’t’ from age or position; that was born from his approach toward people.”

Bianco raced off to an appointment and Sulka talked about Cotton’s ability to always see the positive in situations, in people and his love of teaching the game. “He was pretty animated. The whole practice, he was involved, doing something. It was constant feedback. He was teaching the whole practice, the whole two hours. Now you are seeing more of the college philosophy of, ‘I’ve got 9 assistants and they’re all specialized, I’m more of a producer, not a director.’ Cotton had that affiliation with ‘every man” and he engaged everybody, talked to everybody the same way and asked and remembered.  Cotton wasn’t afraid to sweep the floor, or get on the court to show a low post move. That was just Cotton’s approach to coaching.”

Sulka reminisced about how Cotton would teach all the time, that he always had something to offer his teams. As Sulka got into the upper management of running a team, Cotton’s advice became more managerial but no less relevant.

“He would tell me that I need to let my coaches coach.” Sulka recalled. “He said you can fire them but let them coach. He also said though; don’t assume you can’t coach your coaches. He would ask, what resources do you have, or can I spend an afternoon with your coach to help? I think that speaks to the bigger world that coaches need to be going through development too. Just because you are head coach, you need to be going to clinics, studying, reading, continually evolving. We know everyone steals everyone’s drills, but Cotton said it was more than that.”

Sulka talked a bit more about how all of these pearls of wisdom were born from Cotton’s gift of communication but one that stuck with Seth was ‘you’re not doing anyone any justice if you don’t let them know something when you know it.’ “His point really was, when you know, let them know. Don’t let players be in the dark.  He hated the coach getting high fives and praised all season and then at the end of the season hearing the owner say, coach we have to make a change!  When you know, let them know.”

Sulka talked fondly for a while longer about his mentor, a father figure and most of all a friend. Cotton’s advice and wisdom has stayed with Sulka, and so many other people that Cotton touched his entire life and made better coaches of so many.  His last coaching gig was with the Phoenix Suns in 1996 but the tenets of his coaching philosophy are unbreakable, even for coaches in a new era.

Thank you Chris and Seth, and thank you Cotton.