"Pop"

“It starts with Peter at the top, where he lets us do our jobs right down to the training room, the scouting area, the management, the whole deal. And everybody knows that, everybody in here knows they have a piece of this thing. But I’ve never been more proud of a team nor have I ever gotten as much satisfaction from a season in all the years I’ve been coaching. To see the fortitude you guys displayed   coming back from that horrific loss last year and getting yourself back in position and doing what you did in the finals, you’re really to be honored for that. I can’t tell you how much it means. Thank you very much for everything you’ve allowed me to do.”

With that, the 2014 NBA Champion San Antonio Spurs and their steadfast coach Gregg Popovich signed off on another Championship, their fifth in the last 17 years. His post game soliloquy wasn’t the stuff of Hemingway or Shakespeare, but it typifies the logic and the ideals of the man, the coach, Pop.

Why is he so successful?

NBA teams usually have two buses per team when going to arenas on the road. The first bus has rookies and bench players, who struggle to find minutes, riding on it 3 hours before the game and the starters and high minute players are on the second bus 2 hours before the game. Pop decided to buck NBA tradition, something he does quite regularly actually. The Spurs have just one bus. It’s how he thinks a team should travel.

A tenet of Spurs basketball is the idea of “Good to Great.” In it, Pop gets players to buy into the idea that great shots are better than good ones and players must train themselves to make the extra pass without any regard for their own statistics, egos, etc. Many a player has come and gone through the Spurs organization that haven’t bought into this premise but his team first mentality is how the Spurs won the NBA title last month.

Players describe him as demanding but fair. He doesn’t treat every player the same but he does treat them fairly. He is without filters and doesn’t warm to a media that trolls the waters of inane questions for the rare controversial sound bite. He is short and curt in many interviews and sometimes comes off on-air as a jerk. Something his wife chides him for but doesn’t seem to faze Pop. He is who he is, genuine, 100% real.

He is great with people. He remembers player’s families and spouses and details of their lives, something that players see and appreciate. Sure, he’ll get on his players at times, but there is never a doubt that Pop cares for his guys or wants what’s best for them, a palpable trust. “Relationships with people are what it's all about.” Pop says. “You have to make players realize you care about them. And they have to care about each other and be interested in each other. Then they start to feel a responsibility toward each other. Then they want to do for each other.”

In an industry of players going to the highest bidders and owners stockpiling talent to bypass the idea of player development, Pop and the Spurs front office have kept three core players together since MTV introduced ‘The Osborne’s’. Adding a smaller piece to that core makes it easier for everyone to adapt, which would explain why San Antonio has been in the playoffs the last 17 years in a row and has won at least 60% of its games every season over that stretch, the best run in professional sports over that time period.

Pop had to compete for playing time at the Air Force Academy and it bolstered his competitiveness and drive.  When he would point out to his college coach how well he had played in that day’s practice, his coach simply told him, over and over, “Shut up and play.”

He has tasted failure and knows what humble means, going 2-22 his first season as a college coach and losing to a team that gained national attention by dropping 310 straight conference games.

He took a sabbatical into his college coaching career to intern with Larry Brown at Kansas. He learned much from his time with Brown and his growth mindset is still a staple of what makes Pop so successful. He listened to his players when they approached him about their being able to fulfill other roles on the team and adapted his team, using those suggestions, to make them better. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t his idea, it just mattered if it worked or not. In his coaching staff, yes men are not welcome and new ideas are encouraged and expected.

Current Golden State Warriors Coach Steve Kerr told about his run in with Pop when he was out of the rotation and sulking. Instead of ignoring Kerr and yelling and screaming, Pop simply said, “Your body language is terrible. I know you're not playing, but you're a pro who's always handled yourself well, and now you're not. It doesn't look right, and I need you on the bench.” Kerr appreciated the honest wake-up call and returned to the bench, gladly.

Pop will also make the culture surrounding his team fun. “One of the ways you do that is let them think you're a little crazy, that you're interested in things outside of basketball.” He says. “Are there weapons of mass destruction? Or aren't there? What, don't you read the papers? You have to give the message that the world is wider than a basketball court."

He’s also an outside the box thinker in a sport where xeroxing the personnel and playbook of the championship flavor of the month is the status quo. The Spurs were the quintessential defensive equivalent of a wall through most of the mid to late 2000’s but a slew of international youth, surrounding his core, gave his team a chance to out run and gun teams the last few years. A bad one minute of basketball in game 6 of the 2013 NBA Championship cost his team a chance to repeat this year. He learned from his mistakes and let his horses run this year, played the bench more but never wavered in his expectations of them and they delivered in the most crucial time of the season. The San Antonio bench outscored Miami’s reserves by 76 points over the 5 game series; Trust and faith.

Why is Pop so successful? Because he is a coach, the kind of coach we should aspire to be with the responsibilities and attributes that the best in our profession hold up for us to follow.

Thanks Pop.

Under the Radar...

Saturday ended the 25^th season of Arizona Region volleyball with the Open Division and the 12’s battling across town from each other.

As a parent or a coach, you will look at this and smile, your team or your daughter (or both!) hopefully enjoying her experience, and you as well.

What you probably didn’t notice this season is what it took to get your daughters registered, insured for practices and matches, giving them venues to play and making sure there was proper supervision at the tournaments including site directors and officials.

You didn’t notice this probably because the three people who are responsible for this monumental task are stealth, flying under the radar at their own behest. The Region doesn’t call attention to itself, it just professionally goes about its business day to day.

Lisa is the Region registrar. She has handled 9,350 registrations this season with one phone, one desk and not a lot of help. She answers Parent questions, takes complaints when coaches and parents don’t read the instructions put before them and makes sure all the teams in the Region: Junior AND Adult teams, are good to go for their National tournament experiences.

Steve is the tournament director. Over the past 5 months, he has gathered gyms, tried to make sure no teams have to drive more than 4 hours in a day, tried to put teams that are hosting tournaments at those sites, updated results every week and posted those tournaments as early on Monday morning as he can. He doesn’t complain when a gym falls through on Monday morning, or when a team calls him Thursday night to say they aren’t playing and he has to reformat that pool, he just does his job. By season’s end, Steve is responsible for 5,797 matches played in our Region just this season. That doesn’t count the side tournaments such as Vulture Peak, Fiesta, Sol Survivor, etc. Oh by the way, Steve also coaches a team.

Becky is the glue that holds it all together. She makes sure everyone, including officials, sites and site directors are paid. She is the conduit between the office, the161 Junior and Adult clubs in the Region and USA Volleyball. She goes to National meetings and is relied on heavily for her organization skills and helps with everything above as well. No doubt you have at one time or another talked or e mailed with Becky. She is quiet, unassuming and keeps the Region moving forward every day.

You would think these folks would take a collective sigh and a week off after the last five months, but next week, USA Volleyball’s Open Nationals are invading downtown Phoenix and the office is responsible to help with much of this 700 team adult tournament. There is no rest for the weary.

Like you, they have good days and bad. They have family issues and crisis arise but they go about their business, their days in the office with professionalism and a smile.

Our apologies if you find this a bit self aggrandizing for the Arizona Region but they are unaware this was being written about them. If the readership of this blog, (numbering in the double digits soon we hope…) now has a clearer understanding of what they do day in and day out, then this blog was successful because you will never hear it from them.

It’s very quiet under the radar.

The Eyes Have It...

As coaches, maybe the first thing we notice about an athlete is their height in relation to their age. We might notice that bang from a fluid canon of an arm sending some poor Molten Pro Touch to its wooden grave. We might even go one step beyond and look at the length of a player’s arms, the size of their hands or the length of their calves which may have direct correlation on their subsequent performance.

Maybe what we should be looking at is their eyes!

Athletic performance and eye sight go hand in hand with sports that require quick movements and reaction time. Between 1993 and 1995, a group of ophthalmologists tested the vision of 387 players in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization. A normal human’s eyesight is considered perfect when it’s 20/20 but the Dodger’s players AVERAGED 20/13 and only a small number of players, usually pitchers, were worse than 20/20. In fact, 2% of those tested leaned against the theoretical threshold for the human eye, (thought to be 20/8 vision) testing in at 20/9! A similar study of U.S. Olympic athletes found elite softball players to average a visual acuity of 20/11!

Darlene Kluka is a preeminent expert of visual acuity in sports at the Barry University School of Human Performance and Leisure Sciences in Miami Shores, Florida. “Vision just may be the most variable and selective of all the senses.” She says. “Attempting to observe fast movements that occur in sport places great demands on human vision.”

She helps break down the process we all take for granted. “The eyes send information to the brain, where it is integrated and interpreted as a three dimensional (3D) phenomenon. The information from both eyes into a 3D image is called fusion. Fusion is needed to accurately locate the ball when it moves in time and space.”

Kluka points out that without a conscious effort to attend to something, the eyes will continuously move throughout the field of vision. “When something gets our visual attention, we may focus both eyes on the object. This pause is called a fixation.” She says.

Now why is it important that we know about fixations you might ask? “Fixations are important because focusing ability is limited to only 3 degrees of visual angle.” Kluka comments. She points out if you hold your thumb straight out in front of you and look at your thumb nail—that is approximately 3 degrees of visual angle! Kluka adds, “It is assumed that when your eyes fixate on something, information is being recorded by your brain to assist in visual perception or the decision making prior to motor program initiation. The rest of what you see is peripheral.”

As you read this blog, (all three of you), your eyes must move so that the 3 degrees of visual angle are used to pick up the words while the peripheral vision provides a view that there are additional words to either side of your focus.

Two athletes that have a lot in common are a hockey goalie and a libero. They are subject to super human reflexes and reactions and their play can dictate their team’s success or failure more often than not so it should be asked, what are these athletes fixating on when playing?

Researchers at the University of Calgary's Faculty of Kinesiology have found that the difference between elite goaltenders is what their fixation is on before they make a save;  the puck. The best goaltenders rest their gaze directly on the puck and the shooter’s stick almost a full second before the shot is released making the save 75% of the time. Graduate student Derek Panchuk says, “Looking at the puck seems fairly obvious until you look at the eye movements of novice goaltenders, who scatter their gaze all over the place and have a much lower save percentage than the elite goalies.” The study also showed the distance of the shot doesn't seem to matter, as long as the goalie concentrated their gaze on the puck and stick in the critical second before it's released.

Two-time United States Olympic libero Nicole Davis shares an interest in these studies. The Women’s USA National team coach Karch Kiraly and Davis were working on this in practice just this week. “I have been working on seeing the line of the serve earlier.” Davis says, who has 20/16 vision. They conducted an experiment where Nicole alternated between focusing on the ball for 8 serves, and then focusing on the server's arm for 8 serves, for several rounds each.  

“With pretty conclusive numbers, when my focus is more on the BALL in serve receive, from toss, through the line to contact, my results were much more consistent in terms of how early I saw the path, how early I got my angle out and also my ability to make last minute adjustments, as well as quality of the pass.” Davis says.  “Obviously, or maybe not, it's a little counter-intuitive to stare at the ball, because the server is the one acting on the ball and giving you the cues as to where the ball might go.  All of that comes into view, in a wider focus (peripheral), as the server is contacting even though the focus is mainly on getting a good look and following the ball.”

The National team also experimented with eye goggles that had a tracking device on them to see what players were watching while playing defense. (You can see a sample of these on this video with soccer star Renaldo ) “One thing that we noticed in common for those of us getting a good ‘read’ on the situation, is that we get our eyes on the next actor of the ball quite early.” Davis observed, adding conversely from serve receive, “Not a lot of time on defense is spent staring at the ball.”  

Unlike serve receive, the trained eye moves past the fixation point and to what will come next. “Once we see the quality of the pass, before it reaches its peak, the eyes immediately shift to the setter's contact point and relation to her body, so often her shoulders and hands.” Davis points out.  “Once the setter releases the ball, the eyes shift immediately to the hitter, and more specifically the hitter's shoulder and elbow.”  

There are lots of clues that setters and hitters give defenders that tell them where they are setting or hitting, but Nicole says the shoulders often are the easiest tell.  “Hitters tend to have a lot of tension in their torso when they are hitting hard, or will kick up their legs and not pull the elbow back as far when hitting off speed or roll shots.  Setters will take the ball at different points, some will pivot and some will square to the set while others might try to disguise it longer.  There is a lot of information to process on defense in a split second, so the earlier you can get on the actor of the ball and pick up the tells, the earlier read you can make.”  

A different set of visual skills seems necessary for serve receive and defense. “My theory as to why the sequence is a little different for serve receive is that the ball has longer to travel and can often change direction, and it's important to follow it from start to finish.” Davis surmises.  

Kluka agrees with Davis. “Focusing visual attention on important cues while visually searching can lead to good decisions in competition. This has been referred to as effective anticipation.” She adds, “Skilled volleyball athletes may not be aware of the important visual cues they are attending to.”

Kluka sums up the role that Coaches can play in the enhancement of a player’s vision. “As coaches develop and use drills, drill objectives are important. Each drill must have multiple objectives that have measureable outcomes, one of which includes visual perception and decision making. By including this objective to each drill, coaches are more likely to find multiple outcomes that are in a more game-like environment.”

California Adventures IV- "It starts with today..."

The American Sports Center is chilly…okay, downright cold. Players walk in from the warm sunshine and put their jackets ON as they enter and head to the training room to get taped.

Week seven of an eight week training block with mostly new faces is what head women’s National Team Coach Karch Kiraly is staring down. Players at this level are early, and ready. With the lights still off, Karch goes to his white board and writes down the day’s practice plan.

As the team filters into the three courts set aside for the National Team, the players make their way to the back of the white boards and grab a pen. At the top of the white board is written, “2 Things I Control completely.” The players have initialed and written the two things they want to control in today’s practice. KR wrote “Hold angles- Flean.” NH jotted down, “See the line early, form angle early, good hold.” SG put in blue, “Square up, quick release.” Every player is now invested in what they want to work on in practice as they jog out to the court.

At 8:10 sharp, tutoring begins. Servers are hammering “flean” serves into the liberos and passers while video cameras tape each pass and are delayed so after a pass, the player can see how her platform was, where she took the ball, etc. Feedback is instantaneous and incontrovertible.

On a side court, Karch is giving instruction to Bailey Webster, a 6-3 opposite from the University of Texas. She is uncomfortable in the back row and Karch is working her passing angles. He gives her help with her arms and keeping her movements efficient and, as he calls it, “quiet,” all the while repeating passing cues to help confirm in her mind what her body is doing. He tosses balls at her from across the net, only commenting on her platform being early: good or bad pass doesn’t matter although he continually points out the good ones and continues to give positive feedback on the bad. He moves Bailey from one side of the court to the other and then places the balls higher over her shoulder in the next round, working on her platform and footwork. It’s a matter of minutes before seemingly Bailey is a better passer. Karch blows the whistle and everyone grabs a drink and heads to the board.

It’s here every practice that Kiraly has a story or a message for the girls. Today, he relates something his assistant coach, Tom Black has sent him from an Australian educator in the field of Growth Mindsets, Lorraine Davies. She and Tom trade e mails regularly and he asked her how to define success. Karch brought this up the group and as is his way, first asked questions. What did the group define success as? He didn’t give the group a chance to be quiet, he called on players individually. After a few answers that he wrote on the board, he read out loud Davies’ list defining success:

1. When you embrace a challenge in spite of fear.
2. When you persist when your mind silently screams for you to give up.
3. When you ask for help when previously it was impossible to do so.
4. When you make a mistake and recognize because of the mistake you learned how to make a better choice or a more effective strategy when once you would have covered it up
5. When you ask a successful other how they achieved a particular personal or professional success where once their success felt like a threat.
6. When you experience failure you recognize failure as a necessary tool for learning what needs to be changed

The team took this in and then Karch said, “Since none of us have ever been able to get this program where we want it, where we think it should be, we all have to work harder. That starts with today and next week and next month.” The players put hands in the middle, yell USA and head to their spots in practice. Even though this group is in week seven of eight, it starts with today…

The warm-up begins with some pepper and works into servers hitting zones to a libero and then attackers off a pass and hitting into a defender. Every drill and contact in the practice is of multiple elements: hitters have to transition AND hit AND block AND then dig a ball. Setters set a ball AND block AND play defense on the same ball.  There is no time to waste and in this gym, contacts are king.

The group works on blocking and hitting against the block in a game like scenario after a quick water break. In between the drill written out on the white board, Karch has written in black, “Focus: find the edge/ outside hand.” His drills have a focus that he articulates before every drill. They go from this more technical drill that is still laden with contacts from several players into a hitting drill that is meant to make the blockers read and think. The focus on the drill is blockers footwork, “Blockers recognize- normal or load?”

Throughout the entire practice, no one yells. In fact the only ones raising their voices are the athletes themselves. Six foot six middle Katie Slay from Penn State in on a bike rehabbing a leg injury. After a good play she will randomly shout out, “I see you Plummy!” speaking to Lauren Plum of the University of Oregon. The coaches will pull aside a player who seems to be struggling with something and on occasion the drill will be stopped for a very short consult with a player.

The feedback from coaches is direct, short and usually starts with a question. At one point, Missouri setter Molly Kreklow comes up to Asst. Coach Black and asks him, “How was that one?” Blacks answer? “How did it feel?” She replies it felt good and he smiles. They both know it was a good set. Questions are the way the staff knows these special athletes aren’t just going through the motions. They are engaged in the process; it is demanded of them.

Thirteen different colleges and one high school are represented in the 19 girl training block. For most of the girls, they know it is a long shot for them to be playing in August in Brazil in two years, but they work hard, pushing themselves because just the thought that they might be invited back is enough. They will all be better players after this training block and one can only hope they realize along the way what an amazing opportunity they are a part of at the moment.

The last 80 minutes of practice involves 6 on 6 waves in which bonus points are awarded for hitters tooling the block and for a defense that covers a block and converts it into a point. Also written on the board under the drill description is, “Flean is on.” Karch has been working hard to get his girls to serve tough. Serving and passing IS the game and every drill, every warm-up has had an element of serving and passing in it. “Flean is Karch’s word for how he wants his jump float serves: Fast and clean = “Flean.”  The waves go on for almost 50 minutes, every player going hard, hoping to stay on and earn points. Karch calls out the serves that aren’t “flean” and the other team receives a point.

The practice ends with serving to the liberos and finally a servers v. passers drill. In this drill, players are expected to get 9 out of 10 serves in for their side. If during the drill 2 serves are missed, they goal is missed and the serving team drops to the ground for two crunches and two push ups, a reminder of mindfulness in what they do.

Exhausted, the team warms down. Surprisingly, the gym is as cold 4 hours later as when everyone arrived. Several of the players haven’t taken their jackets off for the last four hours and some have taken them off and put them back on. Yet no one complains. Most will go to lift and get treatment. The day isn’t over yet for these athletes.

Karch and his coaches gather and talk about the day. They are happy. Both Black and the other Assistant Coach Jamie Morrison told the team it was the best they had seen of this group. No dropped balls, better communication, more of a flow. The whole process will start again tomorrow at 8:10, but for today, smiles abound.

It starts with today, and next week, and next month.

California Adventures III- The Pier

“History doesn’t repeat itself but it does rhyme.” Mark Twain.

 

My friend Don has had some health issues the last few months. When I went to see him in the hospital our conversations usually turned, at some point, to volleyball; beach was and still is his preference. He likes to talk about the former beach players who he knew and watched as he grew up in California. He talked about the better players he has seen in Phoenix and his partners on his adult teams.

 

When you talk to people like Don, you get a sense of what we are missing in our game and people like Don are the antidote.

 

Ask your team, your daughter, your son who Karch Kiraly is and you might get a response like, “He played a long time ago… I think.” Ask them to name a player on the national team and usually Kerri and/ or Misty’s name will be offered. Maybe a Todd or a Phil…last names not that important.  After that, the results are pretty slim.

 

Ask your daughter or son if they know who Babe Ruth is, or Michael Jordan or Joe Montana? All of these athletes are well out of their generational wheel house but these sports do a much better job with the history of their game then we do.

 

We need to do better. We owe it to Don.

 

The Manhattan Beach Open was and still is the most prestigious beach tournament in the United States. Since the 1960’s it has given our best beach players a chance to show their wares and talents in a perfect setting of sea and sky. Legend has it that the names of all the winners are on the pier but in looking, it’s not easy to find. The hot dog stand at the end of the pier had heard of them but didn’t know where they were. Local merchants said the same thing. Even a post man and a police officer had no idea. The search finally took on a political air as the glass double doors of City Hall were entered and the staircase was climbed and the receptionist in the Parks and Rec department was asked.

 

Turns out history is under our feet!

 

The plaques are embedded in the actual pier with the winners ascending by year toward the ocean.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ftZ4rgvXBQ

The names are what would make Don smile. He may not have seen some of the players from the 1960’s but those that know the history of our game, like Don, know the names; Mike Bright and Mike O’Hara who won the first five Manhattan Beach Open’s starting in 1960. Ron Van Hagen was a 5 time winner, names from Olympics past like Chris Marlowe. Six time champions Sinjin Smith and Mike Dodd.  How about Karch who won the Manhattan Beach Open 7 times with 4 different partners over a 16 year period and not to be outdone by Kathy Gregory and Nina Matthies who won the Open Women’s title 7 times each with each other AND different partners from 1972 through 1986.

 

This generation will recognize Todd and Phil’s names on the pier 3 times and Kerri and Misty who are emblazoned with 5 plaques but volleyball historians, or those old enough to remember when the Brady Bunch wasn’t a rerun, know these names from the past, as several are successful coaches now in the college and pro ranks and many are still involved in the sport one way or another.

 

While the plaques are a historical record of Beach Volleyball’s Grand daddy event, the stories that fans like Don can tell you are what brings the color to the page. Last year, for example, saw one of the most unexpected finishes in the Open’s celebrated history when 38 year old Casey Jennings and 39 year old Matt Fuerbringer, who hadn’t played together since 2009 and with Fuerbringer coming out of retirement upset the #1 seed in three sets and will soon have their names emblazoned on the pier. This is the stuff that volleyball legends are made of and fans like Don tell their friends, kids and grandchildren.

 

As coaches and Parents, we need to celebrate the history of our game. More and more footage is available on YouTube of old matches, both indoor and beach. As a coach, with 3 hours to kill in an airport, come up with 12 names in volleyball history and have the team pull up info on their iPhones and give impromptu research papers to the group. Parents who fall for the sport will appreciate the history and share these great people and stories with other parents in between matches.

 

For players and coaches and fans like Don, these are moments that make him smile and fondly remember and share the stories and players of an era gone by, but never forgotten.

California Adventures II- Marv

The walls of the Firestone Field house on the campus of Pepperdine University are cream colored, unassuming, humble. The staircase that leads to the coach’s office is the same color and his office is fronted by a large desk and two staffers. He is already working. He made good on his promise from years ago and welcomes any coach to come watch him practice. He is congenial but in a most genuine way but the first thing you notice, or remember, is the voice. It is a peace time weapon; the potentiality of booming but relaxed and assured, as if there is nothing it can’t handle. The depth is at once friendly and commanding of respect.

It’s Marv’s voice, THE coach’s voice.

Marv Dunphy is in his 31^st year as the Men’s volleyball coach at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. His accomplishments include four national championships, a gold medal as the head coach of the USA Men’s Olympic team, a member of the Volleyball Hall of Fame and he continues to help both the Men’s and Women’s Olympic programs train and compete in the Olympics. His litany of players he has influenced and coached is a Hall of Fame unto itself and one of his prized pupils, Karch Kiraly now coaches the Women’s National team.

Yet all that is wiped away when you step into the 15x15 office with Pepperdine blue blinds on a large window that overlooks the Pacific Ocean. Marv is at work, breaking down by rotation what his opponent tomorrow, UCLA is doing lately. Pepperdine has already swept them early in the season but an injury to one of his better players has seen the team scramble a bit. “With this guy, we can play big-boy volleyball,” he says smiling. Rotation by rotation and Marv’s comments are much like the feedback he gives his athletes: concise and spot on. “Look at this guy,” he says of UCLA’s Argentinean Gonzolo Quiroga. “He’s not big but he sees really well.” Sure enough, the video shows Gonzolo coming in the middle or a bic and then hitting it wrist away around the block and past the libero for a kill. “Whew,” Marv says, half nervous but half in awe. Someone who is as much a part of the history of his sport as Marv is can play on both sides of that fence.

After watching film and breaking down rotations, it’s time for the coaches meeting to discuss practice. Usually practice is done the day before but with a short schedule this week, (Pepperdine lost to Stanford 3-1 on Friday and swept UOP on Saturday) and a short serve and pass yesterday, the week has caught up with them. Assistant coaches David Hunt, Jonathan Winder and Rich Barraza crowd into Marv’s office. It’s a very subdued meeting; one that is at the end of a long emotional weekend or maybe they all just agree. Serve receive is going to need to be worked as is blocking, but there are other considerations bantered around; namely that the guys are tired and some players, because of injury or how much they are going to be worked on Tuesday, need to be dialed down a bit today. Ideas are thrown out and Winder writes down the drills in order, and the player’s numbers which he will soon transfer to the white board in the gym. Within a half an hour, practice is set.

The Waves of Pepperdine are 2/3 through their season and if you don’t know much about men’s college volleyball, here’s what you need to know. The MPSF is perhaps (Marv’s opinion) the most competitive league in all of NCAA sports. “You have 24 conference matches and they all mean something.” He laments how in the NBA or other sports, there are throw away games and players don’t always go hard. You don’t get that luxury in the MPSF. In this week’s poll, 9 of the top 11 teams are from the MPSF. Marv doesn’t know what Pepperdine is ranked (fifth) nor does he seem to care. He says later, “We just have to look to the next serve, the next match.” He doesn’t look ahead.

Marv comes out and begins to set up for practice. No doubt  there are plenty of people to help but Marv, who wrote a dissertation on John Wooden while in college at UCLA has taken a note from (Who he fondly calls) “Coach’s” book where Wooden never felt it beneath himself to sweep his own court before practice. Marv gathers the balls into carts, pulls out the scoreboards and helps unhook and push back a collapsed backboard used by the basketball team.

The team trickles in 30 minutes before practice. Marv makes it a point to shake hands with each player, asking them how they are doing, getting personal with some with regard to family and school.  A game of off hand, half court basketball shooting with volleyballs erupts on the far side of the gym and Marv smiles. He seems at home with his family at the moment.

At 10 sharp, the team is herded into a tiny office where the UCLA servers are shown one at a time. Winder goes over their tendencies and what to look for. Marv, when the players have seen enough of a particular server, will just say, “Okay” and the next server is shown. There is no time to waste. Both Hunt and Winder talk to the team about the blocking it will take to stop the UCLA attack tomorrow night. The hitters are shown in a match v. Stanford and players are instructed to ‘start inside’ or ‘front him.’ The players, each with a notebook of tendencies of league teams, pay rapt attention.

“Any questions?” Marv asks after the 20 minute film session. “Okay, let’s go.” The team hustles out the court.

They warm up with some pepper, moving each other around the court. There are 18 rostered players and two others in the gym so three courts are swarmed fast. The other thing you need to know about Men’s collegiate volleyball is there are 4 scholarships per team. That is not a typo, FOUR! Pepperdine is roughly $62,000 per year to attend which makes Marv’s first question in the recruiting process, “What do your Parents do for a living?’ he says. Doing the math, 80% of the men in this gym are here for the love of the game, to be a part of something special or to be coached by Marv, OR all three.

One of the things Marv is known for is his penchant for details, (like Wooden) and his belief in what is to be done in practice transfers to the game. Because of that, music is played while the players warm up, just like in a match. He also carries around a hand held whistle which he presses for each server to serve. Game like isn’t an option in Marv’s gym.

Serve receive is worked on first. A machine is pulled across the court to missile balls at the libero in between the players serving and after spraying a few, he begins to get a rhythm. Reps are key in Marv’s practices and this machine which spits balls out at 70+ MPH can serve three balls in between two players’ serves.

Then the three courts condense to two. On one court, servers v. passers play a drill called USA 50. The servers get 50 serves to try and make the passers pass below a 3.0 on a 4 point scale but all the while, keeping their error rate at 16% or below. Marv only stops the drill a couple of times and his feedback is words, not sentences. He doesn’t give speeches, he just fixes. In the end, the passers notch a 3.1 which they celebrate with high fives all around. The servers came in at 18% error rate. They will live to serve another day.

On the other court, the antennas are affixed to recreate a hitting window for UCLA’s favorite hitting positions on the pins. The 2 ½ foot window is further complicated by a string tied to the antennas two feet or so above the net. The players reach into this rabbit hole and push into the coach’s attack, sliding from one end of the court to the other. It goes quick and it is intense.  If a player overruns the box or doesn’t press through, they go again. In the end, the players seem to be reaching and stuffing the swing.

Finally, a drill of serve and bounce where a team will get a bonus point for a quick or bic attack that is successful. The drill starts at 5-5 and off they go. After the first point of the drill, Marv stops it and addresses one side about their lack of transition. “You can’t just stand there.” He says. “You have to go.” Everyone has eyes on the Coach when he speaks. Gold medals make for legit street cred. The drill is rough and ragged in the first game and both Hunt and Winder talk about maybe sitting a player out but Marv just moves him to the other side of the net. The player had his girl friend and family in the whole weekend. When the Assistant coaches wonder if he’ll be ready for UCLA, Marv just nods. “He’ll be ready.”

After two games in which the two teams split, the equipment is put away. It should be noted that anyone that comes into Marv’s gym is greeted by every member of his program throughout the practice. It’s not just a quick handshake, it’s a genuine, and “Where are you from? What do you do there? Do you know…?” They have learned something from Marv just in this regard.

On the white board in Coach Dunphy’s office, at the very top in blue, is the phrase, “If it’s important, do it every day.” It’s the only thing written on the board at the moment. This would explain why the practice the day before UCLA there was much serve receive work done, and a focus on blocking reps and moves. It would explain why, within almost every drill Marv does there is an element of serving and serve receiving. It would also explain why he is so meticulous in the transfer from practice to game including music and whistles for serves. “If it’s important, do it every day.”

You will never hear anyone speak badly of Marv. He is always extending a hand, opening his doors, sharing ideas and thoughts about his favorite hobby…coaching. (Although he admits gardening is a close second) The way he treats his athletes reflects on the way they treat people that come into the gym. The world of social media would be turned on its ear with this hands-on, look you in the eye, real person to real person contact. There is nothing about Marv that is hidden and the way he treats everyone around him is an extension of that openness. He shares of himself with his staff, his athletes, his family and friends and even visiting coaches and admirers.

“If it’s important, do it every day.”

Epilogue: Pepperdine 3, UCLA 1

California Adventures- Riding the Wave

It’s a tent, a big tent, big enough to hold three volleyball courts under its vinyl walls and pipe masts. It’s a white ship off the distance from the I-805 tucked inside tall trees and tennis courts. It’s the kind of structure that Revival meetings would be envious of.

Tonight, it is the home to the USA Women’s National Training team. The Wave Volleyball club, wanting to show it’s younger athletes a few of their alma mater with white names on the back of navy and red USA jerseys, set up this scrimmage and what started out as a trickle became a packed tent within the hour. They love their volleyball in Southern California.

Head USA Coach Karch Kiraly held a mini coach’s clinic before the festivities began. He was deliberate in his speech and presentation and thoughtful in making sure he answered everyone’s questions, which ranged from how to address confidence issues on the National Team to what to do when your 14-4’s team is having a rough serving day. He spun a small white board around and at once he started to coach. Written at the top, numbered 1 was:

Job One- Growth Mindset
     Athletes and Coaches
          Be Examples
          Foster in Gym
          Mistakes…Ugly….

He started here. He referenced Carol Dweck’s amazing book “Mindset” and told the coaches and now several parents about the difference of a growth and fixed mindset. He said he was careful of making sure the girl’s coming into the USA gym knew and understood this. “If a player isn't a lot better in 8 weeks they won't be coming back.” He said matter of factly. He tells the players, “What got you here isn’t going to keep you here.” And he talked about how he and his coaching staff have to embrace and be the best examples of this growth mindset as they are setting up practices to make sure the players are constantly growing.

Assistant Coach Jamie Morrison took the reins for a minute. “We design our practices to look ugly and make them less ugly. Our mentality is make a mistake and fix it.” The word ugly was sprayed around a lot for the next few minutes, much to the discomfort of many a coach in the room. “Many of us think this ugly is a reflection of us as coaches, but it’s okay to train ugly.” Morrison said smiling.

He then continued into the second item on the white board:

Science of Motor Learning
     Transfer- maximize

Morrison talked about the three things they focus on in their practices: Quality contacts, a learning environment and a transfer of skill. He used the phrase “the efficiency of learning” which he described as getting the coach out of the drill. “We have to stop stealing contacts from our athletes” he pleaded, telling coaches to stop serving to start drills, let the athletes serve, or pass or enter a ball with a first contact.

Karch came back and spoke of the third item on the board:

Reading- Most important skill
     Teaching- promoting

Karch is the best example of this in the history of our game. This is not hyperbole, this is a fact. From playing on sand courts as a pre teen he learned and watched and recognized and has said many times he knew what was going to happen before it happened. He lamented how college players, who are in need of more reps and get limited training time due to NCAA rules constraints and so how as coaches do they get those athletes to read better? Karch smiled and said, his rule for reading was simple, “Don’t guess.” He used the phrase “Assess and act” and talked about teaching our players to get their eyes on the next action. This isn’t done by tossing one ball on the side of the net to one athlete at a time…play!

Well Rounded players
     All Skills
     We owe it to them, they deserve it

After finishing up a tryout a few weeks ago at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Karch and staff invited a few athletes from this tryout to come train for this 8 week block. He talked though how some of these athletes had never stepped foot in the back row. “As coaches, we owe it to them. They deserve it.” He said more than once. Six rotation players are what’s needed in his USA gym these days.

His last entry on the board was simple if not cryptic:

Just Good, not great
     What does that look like?
          (Pass…set…)

Athletes and coaches alike, Karch has set standards. It’s not necessary to be the greatest setter in the world, but you have to be good, really good to get invited back into the Coach’s gym harkening back to the phrase, “growth mindset” yet again.

He talked about how he wants all of his athletes jump serving. “A good jump float has two characteristics; flat and no spin or clean. We call it a ‘fleen’ serve.” The Crowd giggled. Passing should be a quiet activity with the least amount of movement, simple. So I want passing to be ‘quimple.’ He talked about how hard it is for athletes to change. “Risk is scary, but in our gym it’s okay to risk it. We want them to risk it.”

He added that for him, skills need to be mechanically efficient and with as little stress on the joints as possible. He demonstrated this by showing a baseball pitching motion in which the pitchers arm comes all the way through the pitch and one where he stops it after the balls release, putting the point across that the latter is an injury waiting to happen.

In wrapping up, Karch said, “We embrace adversity.” He talked about how it might be smart to duck the Brazilians until the 2016 games but he has scheduled a 5 match competition with the defending two time gold medalists in July. “We’ll see what we’re made of.” He said smiling.

An hour later, he was watching a “rough” scrimmage of new players, some playing out of position, some only playing back row, and at times…ugly.

Karch never wavered in his demeanor the entire 6 sets, each to 15. He coached, never yelling, instructed without demeaning, and smiled.

It’s okay to train ugly.