PLAY! Developing an Olympian

In the final entry into our blog series on specialization, USA Women's National Team Trainer Jill Wosmek offered up her own blog to touch on the subject. Thank You Jill.

Hello Athletes, Parents and Coaches!

If you are not checking out the USA Volleyball Facebook page regularly…I urge you to!  Recently, one of our sponsors did a great piece titled “Stay in Love with Sports; Play OtherSports”.   

The objective of the article was to demonstrate that as athletes we may develop a strong passion for one sport, but we should not specialize at such a young age.  Many of the GREAT athletes from the London Olympics were multi-sport athletes growing up.  This got me thinking…earlier in February I presented at the USAV HP Coaches Clinic and one of the topics was concerning injury prevention with young athletes all the way to the elder Olympians I get the pleasure to work with. 

Did you know…starting middle hitter Foluke Akinradewo didn’t start playing volleyball until her sophomore year in high school?!  During her high school career she was an All-American in basketball and track as well as volleyball.  Working with Foluke the past 4-years in preparation to the London Olympics…I watched an athlete in her 20's continue to LEARN the great sport of volleyball as well as tap into athleticism and movement efficiencies she has been excelling at for years! 

I have great respect for Foluke as both an athlete and a person.  I think Foluke’s successes as one of the top middle blockers in the WORLD is great props to her movement patterns learned and mastered in other sports.  For example…as a middle blocker you need to be fast laterally – both for blocking and running the slide.  Foluke’s speed and mechanics is something she learned in the track world.  Her speed seems effortless at times.  I think this ingrained pattern allows her brain to process the game a bit…heck she usually is up in the air long enoughJ  

Oh yeah…the faster you move…the greater force you can create into your VERTICAL!  Also another great athletic move we see in both track and basketball athletes.  OK – I think you get it.  Foluke is an awesome athlete!  Last comment…Foluke is only 25 years old.  Hopefully there are quite a few more years of playing ahead of her.  It is my job to make sure she stays healthy and continues to enhance her overall performance. 

In the USA gym we “train” the athlete as a WHOLE with respect to all movements.  If all we did was play volleyball for endless hours…we would see a lot of overuse injuries!  There needs to be a detailed training plan to both enhance her performance and continue to fine-tune movement patterns and to address as deficiencies or compensations that we see on and off the court.

I want to be clear…VOLLEYBALL is a great sport and I am an advocate for GROWING THE GAME!   As a sports medicine professional [and an athlete myself] I have great respect for the sport…and many others!  I think the youth will become even better volleyball ATHLETES by exposing themselves to many different sports.  I think this creates a DIVERSE athleticism as well as “PROTECT” are young athletes from overuse injuries, stressors of specialization, burn-out, etc.

A couple GREAT references to check out:

·         Responsible Sports: http://www.responsiblesports.com/

·         STOP Sports Injuries: http://www.stopsportsinjuries.org/

Have FUN…play SAFE…and strive to be your BEST!!

The Risks of Specialization.

In this second blog on specialization, we will touch on some of the outside opinions shaping the argument against it. Watch in the coming days for the final blog from the USA Women’s National Team trainer Jill Wosmek about specialization.

            The question is a simple one. Should your son or daughter focus on just one sport during their elementary, middle and high school years?

            More and more, the research is pointing to no.

            Specialization in youth sports has become the norm instead of the rare instance. Volleyball players are asked to play club from November till May or even into June and July if playing in summer tournaments and qualifiers. July is spent at summer camps and clinics and lo and behold, August rolls around and the high school/ middle school seasons are upon us and the whole thing fires up for another year.

            Is this such a bad thing?

•             Youth are participating in fewer sports, being trained more intensely and starting at earlier ages. Often times, these athletes are not given a chance to look into other sports, sports they may be better suited to or enjoy more than the one they are involved in
•             Playing the same sport year round taxes the same muscles, ligaments and tendons causing overuse injuries. NEARLY 50% OF ALL INJURIES SUSTAINED BY MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL AGED ATHLETES DURING SPORTS ARE OVERUSE INJURIES. 
•             According to the website, the Educated Sports Parent, “If your child participates in sports at a high level, and especially if he or she specializes in one sport, he or she might be at risk of burning out.”  

            What’s even more amazing is in recent years, even those in positions of importance with their sports are urging athletes to play other sports and get out of the specialization spiral. Brent Sutter, former NHL great and coach of Canadian youth hockey lends his voice to the argument in this article that playing hockey year round doesn't create better hockey players, it causes burnout.

            In this article 82% of the top players from all the major sports leagues are seen as NON specialized in their youth sports years. This is hardly a coincidence according to Elisabeth Vaino, the author.

           

            Even USA Volleyball is on board with not having their athletes specialize. CEO Doug Beal has commented in the past that we should encourage out athletes to play other sports because, “We want athletes!” John Kessel, Director of Sports Development wrote a terrific blog on the subject titled, Specialization if for Insects. 

            In the end, the phrase “what’s best for the kids,” is often a hollow gesture or a recruiting poster slogan. Do we, as Parents and Club Directors and Coaches really do what’s best for our kids?  If specialization is part of that, the answer seems obvious.

"What's best for who?"

The coming weeks will feature both the Coaching and the Parent blogs mirroring the same subject and material: specialization. It’s become such an important topic that we feel both Parents and Coaches should have a chance to give us feedback.

            For the purposes of this blog, she calls herself by her tongue-in-cheek track pseudonym, “Jaxon Flash” but she is a good runner:  her long legs covering much ground with every stride. As a freshman she impressed the track coaches at her high school so much that she was asked to run Varsity.

            “Jaxon” tired quickly of the boring practices but hung with it. She ran despite sore knees and shin splints. She ran in the rain and the cold. She didn't want to let her team or her coaches down. At her first official meet, she took a first and a second. She then went up to Coach V. and asked if she could leave a little early. Her events were done and she wanted to get to her volleyball team’s practice, knowing she was already late.

            Coach V. told her in no uncertain terms if she left, she was off the team.

            His threat went unheeded and “Jaxon Flash” went to volleyball practice.

            She went back to track practice the next day but was ignored by her coaches. She knew then that her track career was over at her high school.

            Coach V. lost a potential rock star for his track team, “Jaxon” lost an opportunity to become a more rounded athlete, and for what?

            Take two: a successful high school basketball program saw two of its players venture over to play sand volleyball for their high school. The duo quickly established themselves as a force and moved up the rankings pretty quickly. After two weeks of practice, their basketball coach pulled them into a quick meeting before their sand practice. When they came out, they informed the sand coach that they had to leave the team; they didn’t have time to play sand anymore and club basketball was more important.

            Two basketball players had a chance to become more rounded and better athletes and a sand coach lost two players that could have helped her team immensely, and for what?

            Coaching egos, the Us v. Them mentality, the thinking that the ONLY sport that matters is the one they coach: these prima donna attitudes are an impediment to the phrase so often tossed around but rarely lived up to: “it’s all about the kids.”

            Although the two examples above saw volleyball taking a hit, volleyball can be just as irresponsible.

            Coach L. was a prized 6-2 middle going into her senior year of high school. She picks up the story from here.

            “I remember exactly when I was being recruited by my first big club.  We were at the Greenway tourney and we were outside on the grass and my mom and I told the coach that I am a big part of the basketball program at my high school and that I wanted to do both. He said that it would not be any problem if I did both he actually said that he encouraged me to play basketball to help keep me in shape.

           
            During season when I was late to volleyball practice because of my high school basketball practices I would have to run extra and then jump into practice. When we would play matches I would ALWAYS sit the bench. Whenever there was an opportunity to call me out or to make me look stupid the coaches seemed to take special pleasure in doing it. I expect that the coach did not say very positive things about me when I was there because the team did not seem to respect me. They would always call me out and intentionally make me look stupid.

            One time I had a college come out to see me at practice and our setter intentionally set me bad so that I didn't look good to the coach. The coach left the gym because I started crying in the middle of our hitting lines and I never heard back from him again... one of the worst days of my life. I came to find out my coach was telling all these college coaches that I was not dedicated to volleyball because I played basketball as well as volleyball. So instead of the D1 school’s offers from those that I visited I ended up at a local Community College which was the best path for me in the end.

            Before that season I was really excited to be able to play both sports. I really enjoyed both and really was successful at both as well. During season I would have to take heat from both coaches. I would have to lie and make things up to leave a practice or to be late to the other. One time I had to tell my basketball coach that my great grandma had a heart attack and I had to go visit her so I could go to a club practice with the hopes to play that weekend. To no avail... I didn't play again... 

            I learned a lot from that experience, what to do, what not to do. Being a high school and club coach I know NOT to EVER put my athletes in the position that I was in. If they want to play another sport, I WANT to share because in the end it will make them a better player. Every sport needs athletes. Being active helps develop those athletes and in turn will make them better. I think some times coaches forget that their team should be made up of athletes who want to be there and to get better. We should not force or belittle or demean a CHILD to be or stay on a team for more checks in the win column.”

            “What’s best for the kids.” It shouldn't be the closer of a club sales pitch and it shouldn't be the wavering mantra until choices have to be made. It should BE what youth sports are about.

            We will talk more about specialization in the coming weeks in the Az. Region blogs. Please share your experiences or comments with us at Outreach@azregionvolleyball.org.

The Mirror Looking Back....

           As coaches we spend our time giving our athletes feedback, skills and tools to improve and grow as players, people and athletes. We help them with communication and put them in uncomfortable positions to teach them more about grit and perseverance and competitiveness.

            So what if we turn the tables a bit?

            Tis the middle of the season and with a few tournaments under your belt and a few more to go, maybe it’s a good time to  take YOUR coaching temperature and survey your parents and athletes about the job you are doing.

            Before you click away from here, take this into account; how did you get better at your job? Most of you have reviews or evaluations you have to go through to earn upward movement in your company. If you can last 60 days with a good review, you might get a raise. Do extremely well and maybe they’ll make you a manager.

If you are a student, what are grades? They are an evaluation of your knowledge of that subject. A low grade and you will probably have to put in some more work and studying on that subject. We’ve all been in these situations that measure you with reviews and evaluations. Why should we hold our profession to any less of a standard?

            College coaches are given reviews of their performances. Some don’t last that review and are cut loose. Some gain more insight on what the job needs are and work harder to make gains on what is needed to become a better coach and administrator of their program.

            Are you ready to have the mirror look back at you?

            There are very few coaching assessments on the web to choose from. Sit down with your club director and invent what you want to know. Some things to think about might include:

• Should athletes be the only ones given these surveys or should parents be included?
• Should the surveys be anonymous or should you know who they are from?
• Should they include character based questions or just volleyball based questions?

           

            Athletes should be the focus of your surveys as that is who you are targeting but it’s  safe to say you won’t get much feedback from a 12 or 14 year old without some parental influence so it’s probably okay to include the parents OR put together a survey just for the parents.

            Making the survey anonymous is a hold ‘em and fold ‘em proposition. It’s good not to tie someone to a survey if it is not very complimentary of your coaching as that could spill over into a different demeanor from the coach to that player; despite the consensus, coaches ARE human! However if there IS some specific issues to be addressed by a certain player, it’s good to know who’s issues they are.

            Finally, as coaches, we are judged on several criteria: winning or losing, educating, being a positive role model, communication, character, etc. Why as a coach wouldn’t you want to know if you were perceived to be excelling in these areas, considered average or needing improvement?

            There is, of course, a risk to an athlete or parent survey. You may, and most probably will hear things you don’t want to hear. As we expect from our athletes, you need to take the good feedback with the constructive. Reading feedback you don’t want to might make you angry, defensive and change your tenor at practices. You must resist that urge and remember you are trying to become a better coach. Criticism and feedback are part of that process. If you don’t think you can look at a survey in that light, you may think again about giving them out. 

            As coaches, we are expected to know all the answers; we don’t. We have to work at our craft to get better at it, the same thing we tell our athletes. We need feedback from those we train with, just like our athletes and we should know how we are perceived from those that observe us, just like our athletes.     

            Embrace the opportunity to work on your shortcomings but more importantly shore up your strengths going forward. Athletes and parents will appreciate a voice in their season and you, as their coach, will learn from them, as they have learned from you, and continue the growth process.  

Coaching Philosophy 101...

            One coach got a text from a parent this past weekend asking if he was going run the same line ups as the day before. When he replied yes, she simply texted back, “We won’t be there.” 

            The half way point of a season tends to be where patience wears thin: for coaches, athletes and especially parents. Why aren’t we winning more? Why isn’t my daughter playing more?

            What tools do you have to keep this “schizo midterm” from derailing the rest of your season?

            As was written in this blog some weeks ago, ASU head coach Jason Watson saw his team win 13 of their first 16 matches but then saw the wheels come off, losing 7 of his next 8 matches. That could have been the downward spiral of the season.  But as Watson said, they stuck with their coaching philosophy and got through the rough patch and on into the NCAA tournament for the first time in 6 years.

            When was the last time you looked at your coaching philosophy? Better still, did you ever have one?

            Every IMPACT clinic, time is spent writing up a quick philosophy. New coaches struggle with this task as they don’t know what to write, they don’t know what is ahead of them. Experienced coaches have shaped and altered theirs to the experiences they have had to overcome and navigate.

            Newly hired Arizona Cardinals Head Coach Bruce Arians spoke publicly about his road through pro football and cataloged what he liked and just as importantly, what he didn't like through his 32 year career. “Treating people with disrespect, that a coach was more important than a player and lying to a player to try to fool him into believing something, things that I had seen,” Arians said. “I knew that wasn't the way to do it.”  

            Arians philosophy of trust, loyalty and respect permeated his season last year in Indianapolis and will be prevalent in Cardinal red going forward. “Those are things you build on,” he said.

            The Phoenix Suns recently hired Lindsay Hunter in his first head coaching job ever. A 17-year veteran in the NBA, Hunter has gathered many an idea from his past coaches and teammates. “ I've always taken something from the guys I've played for,” Hunter said. “I share a lot of their philosophies and beliefs, and they've all been influential to me.”  His biggest influence was his former coach Larry Brown. Hunter has taken the essence of Brown’s teachings and morphed it into his philosophy. 

            “With as many players as there are, everybody can’t be happy,” Hunter said. “But if you’re honest with them and you just tell them the truth, I think that goes a long way.” This also was driven by Brown’s insistence on coaching everyone on the team.  “I loved that about him and I think guys respected that about him.” Hunter remembered. “That’s one thing that I always said that I would do. I would coach everybody.”

            A philosophy is born.

            New coaches might need help. Getting started, the A.V.C.A. has a power point you can watch by Don Burroughs entitled “Developing a Functional Coaching Philosophy.” 

            You can also check out Athlete's Assessments for a FREE workbook on developing a Coaching Philosophy. (You will have to get through a mid-document infomercial, but it is free) 

            Ask other coaches what their philosophies are and maybe how they got them.

            In the end, this should be a blue print of why you do what you do, how you treat your athletes and a compass for when your calm seas become white capped. It’s only as important as you make it! 

The Best Part of Coaching.....

Welcome to the ‘Welcome Diner.’

It’s located in downtown Phoenix at 10^th Street and Roosevelt. No, this hasn’t’ become a restaurant review blog although the food is legit!

This is a story of the best part of coaching.

You see, Jenn is a former players. She played on a couple of club teams growing up, won a State title at her high school and after deciding to leave volleyball behind,  spent the next few years going through a rigorous college career that took her through such rib ticklers as  ‘organic chemistry’ and ‘sustainability.’ She worked this past summer in Santa Cruz measuring and sampling water in the lakes and streams and ocean.

Now, she’s a restaurant entrepreneur.

As coaches, you hear the phrase random often when it comes to our game, but it’s even more true of our athletes. Coach long enough and ‘what goes around, comes around.’ Some go on to play in college, some decide to head to school and some have their future decided for them through economic hardships or amazing opportunities too good to pass up.

And sometimes the random takes over.

Lisa played four years of college ball and along the way,  got bitten by the travel bug. To date, she has traveled to and stayed for week long stints (or longer) in Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Belize and Guatemala. She has sampled their foods, stayed in hostels and met other young travelers writing their own adventures. She is readying a trip to the Far East in the coming months.

Mindy and Jenny are immersed in their nursing careers. Michelle is a dental hygienist. Trisha is a softball coach at GCC and strength and conditioning coach. Sarah is getting her graduate degree, Lindsay works with hazardous biochemical’s that require an FBI background check and arriving in the mail this week, an announcement that Tracey tied the knot with her beau of a year in her Parents backyard in an impromptu occasion.

All this from just one team. Oh, and by the way, almost all of them are coaching in the Region this season!

It’s comforting to think that some of the skills these girls learned over their careers have helped them become the young women they are today. 

Watching Jenn navigate the brunch rush at the ‘Welcome Diner’ she was communicative, making sure those in the kitchen (that is half the size of a walk in closet), knew when she was behind them.  She was all about the team, helping where she could, jumping in to help cook and serve and/or take out the trash when needed. She worked harder in that hour than most will work in a day and she made sure everyone who came and went knew who she was and invited them back. As a libero, she needed all those skills and maybe, just maybe we’re seeing the fruits of her labor all those years playing volleyball.

This isn't a food blog, it’s just a quick nod to those amazing young women who don our uniforms, make the best of themselves and through the good times and bad, make us proud.

The best part of coaching!

Feedback Checklist....

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary’s definition of Feedback: the transmission of evaluative or corrective information about an action, event, or process to the original or controlling source.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary ALSO defines Feedback as:  a rumbling, whining, or whistling sound resulting from an amplified or broadcast signal (as music or speech) that has been returned as input and retransmitted.

Dear Coach, which one are you?

Walk around a practice or a tournament and you’ll hear coaches talking, shouting, cheering, moaning and giving feedback even when they don’t mean to. Watch a coach’s reaction to a missed serve late in a game; feedback. Watch a coach’s reaction to a call that goes their way at a pivotal match point; feedback.  

The question is whether or not your feedback adds value to your athletes, to the culture of your gym, to the process and training you provide.

USA Volleyball’s Coaching Education department urges coaches to give “Less feedback and more “Feed-FORWARD.” It instructs coaches when giving feedback (forward) to use the following guidelines: Better vs. more, be specific, Positive wording, one key at a time, Provide less info when intensity increases and to coach & comment on the averages.

That’s a lot to remember, especially for newer coaches. Many will spout a continual fountain of things they heard as players, the first thing that pops into their head or even worse, verbal darts they may think are funny but can be sarcastic and damaging to their athletes.

So let’s try a simple checklist this time. Three things to filter before your feedback leaves your lips.

1. Is it obvious?
2. Is it positive?
3. Does it help this person become a better volleyball player?

Obvious is a coaches goal line fumble and yet the one feedback miscue that happens more than any other. Listen at your tournament this weekend and see if any of these sound familiar: “Ladies, let’s get our serves in.” “Let’s get our passes up.” “Stay out of the net.” “Get the ball in!”

You’ll hear those hundreds of times this weekend and surprisingly, Coaches have already taught our athletes these things. Being obvious translates to ‘white noise’ and gives our athlete’s a reason not to tune their coach in; “a rumbling, whining, or whistling sound resulting from an amplified or broadcast signal…”

Positive can be a more difficult filter, especially when a team is playing badly. If you are a coach long enough, the phrase, ‘the wheels came off’ will at some point fall off your tongue; it’s volleyball, it’s random, it happens. Trying to find the positive is what a good coach does, and on occasion can sometimes turn the tide of a bad stretch.

The unfortunate flip side of that is what is heard too often. “Don’t miss your serve” for example. What’s the first thing the server is now thinking about? You guessed it! “Just get the ball in!” It’s not heard by the hitter as be crafty and make a shot, it’s heard as, “I have no faith in your swing so just don’t make a mistake.” “Can we just get a pass?” “Stop getting tooled!” “Who’s going to get that ball?” These are all going to be overheard at this weekend’s tournament, and next weekend’s and the next and the next. But being positive going forward, coaches have the ability to change!

How often do YOU, as a coach, get positive feedback? How does it feel? Your boss tells you that you did a great job this week. Your husband tells you dinner was amazing tonight. A parent comes out of the stands and tells you how much they appreciate their daughter’s improvement so far this season and thank you. It makes us feel GREAT. Why are we so slow to understand that and more importantly, why are we so slow to utilize the same with our athletes?

Finally, the one question that should be paramount; does it help this person become a better volleyball player? Looking at the feedback above, can you honestly say any of that will lead toward that goal? A good coach will forego the obvious; Instead of “get your serve in” they would say, “toss a little higher next serve.” “Give me a pass,” might become, “get your platform out sooner.”  “Someone get that ball” becomes “you are the outside passer so you get the split on that serve.”

The list of great coaches just in our sport, have exceptional feedback as a common ground: Hugh McCutcheon, Carl McGown, John Speraw and maybe the best of them all, Marv Dunphy. It’s not a coincidence.

A small checklist can yield big results with your athletes and your team’s culture and training.