Often I open coaching courses, at any level, with the following “test” Fill in the blanks — The game teaches ____ ________. I get all sorts of interesting answers like “good sportsmanship,” and “team work” – but the “correct” answer I am seeking is in the title above…”the game.” I know this because of the time I spend working in beach volleyball, which has gone in my lifetime from a sport where the top
players would win dinner for two at the Charthouse and bragging rights for the that week in the area, to Olympic gold medals, millions in endorsements and prize monies, and bragging rights for the world. All along the way to dozens of medals by the USA in the World Tour, including medals in the last two Olympics, the interesting point then can be asked – “How many beach volleyball coaches do you know?” The answer is invariably….none. Yet the sporting industry states that nearly 10 million Americans play the game of doubles, on sand or grass. Who develops and coaches them? The players themselves. Meanwhile, everyone loves to say they have “the way…” from infomercials on how to create great abs, thru radio spots for stock market secrets, over why you need to buy pain relieving ointment like Blue Emu oil, to countless fat burning capsules, - there are so many secrets that you need to get that come from these experts. Every good coach wants to get better, yet those attending educational clinics are sadly the exception, rather than the rule in the sport of volleyball. The rest of the coaches to often learn by trial and error, with their teams each year being their learning experiments.

 

So what is most important in coaching? Here is my short list and why:

1. You are a teacher first, and need to follow the laws of learning.

2. If most of volleyball is mental, then your coaching needs to reflect that

3. There are only four ways to get a lead in rally scoring, and one way to protect that lead.

4. Always focus on what to do, not what not to do.

5. Game like training is best – at game speed and with scoring.

6. Success is a journey, not a destination.

 

 

When working with kids, - parenting at home, teaching in the classroom, or coaching in the gym, we are all doing the same thing – teaching. It is not how much you know, it is totally about how much you can get your student to absorb and understand. You must be consistent, and you must be specific in your words. Long ago, I realized that kids do not care how much you know, until you know how much you care. This goes for anything I teach, sport, how to read, whatever. It is this trust of your caring for them, their development on and off the court, that is most sacrosanct. In our sport, coaches spend large amounts of time training – doing drills and teaching “technique,” and ironically touching so many balls that the coaches, not the players, get the largest number of contacts in a training. Let the kids run the drills, so you can coach, and they can get better at these skills. And also, that which you teach, you learn, so let the kids coach others, so they can better coach themselves and understand the game.

 

The volleyball serve is the first form of attack. It’s the first attempt you have to make a Direct point against the opposite team. By breaking up the serving volleyball skill by body part you will learn how to effectively put the opposite team in difficulty.

 

You will learn quickly that what you do with your feet and lower body determines how well you will perform all volleyball fundamentals. That’s why a lot of my advice and tips focus on the correct positioning of your feet and lower body.

 

Feet In order to begin the serve we first start with your feet positioning. Right handers place your right foot behind your left foot so your Right foot is perpendicular to your Left. Your left foot should be pointed Exactly in the direction of where you want to serve. If you want to serve down the line then your Left foot ,hips and upper body should be pointed straight ahead. When serving cross court your left foot , hips and upper body should be turned and facing cross court. All your body weight should be on your back (right foot. The only lower body movement needed when you serve will be a shift in weight from your back (Right) foot to the front (Left) foot. Upper Body - Left Arm Extend your Left arm straight out in front of your palm facing up. Place ball in the palm of this hand.

 

- The toss is one of the most important elements of the serve. Make sure the starting position for your Left arm is straight out in front of you - not down by your waist. With a straight Left arm Toss the ball no more than 2 feet in the air. For practice, while learning, let the ball fall to the ground. A correctly tossed ball will land about 10-12 inches - Every Time. Your toss should be the same EVERY TIME. Two feet up in the air and 10 inches in front of your LEFT foot. If you Toss to the left or right of your front foot

 

1. You will be forced off balance.

 

2. You will be forced to chase your toss - which will force you Not to serve in the direction you want to. Believe it or not the TOSS is where many serving errors start. RIGHT ARM Right arm is fully extended with fingertips and palm facing downward lightly covering the top of the ball. After the toss - you step forward shifting your body weight from back foot to front foot to meet the ball. At this moment you begin your arm swing. Start your RIGHT arm swing by pulling your arm straight back - palm facing outward - keep elbow high your elbow should pass Over the level of your ear - in slow motion you should be able to turn your head slightly to look underneath your elbow as you pull your arm back - use the same movement you would use to pull a bow and arrow. Once you’ve pulled the arrow (your elbow) as far back as it will go, keeping the elbow as high as possible -raise the forearm above your head - palm facing the sky - bring arm forward to make contact with the ball. Contact should be made squarely in the center of the ball with the flat upper palm portion of your hand.

 

Establish a Serving Rhythm

1. Assume the Start Position with your feet in the “2 o’clock” position - your weight on the back foot, prepare to toss with the Left hand.

2. Take a step shifting your weight from your back (Right) foot to the front (Left) foot towards the ball.

 

1. Start arm swing (just like pulling the bow of an arrow) as you step forward (shift weight) to go contact the tossed ball.

2. Contact the ball squarely in the middle of it - with the upper part of the palm of your hand. Don’t “Shot Put” Your Serve. Shot putting occurs when your elbow is too low during your arm swing. When your elbow is low the server is forced to try and lift the ball over the net just by using the force of an open palm which doesn’t produce enough force or momentum to get the ball over the net. Don’t Disguise Your Serve Let everyone in the gym know where you are going to serve - especially whoever you are serving to. This often puts pressure on the passer. With practice and repetition you will be able to serve tough enough so that your target will have difficulty passing your serve.

Also, when you try to show that you are serving in one direction then serve in another direction- it usually forces you to add more movement than necessary in your serving technique. When this happens more often than not you will

 

1. Miss the timing of your toss, or

2. Contact the ball on its side or

3. Be forced off balance which all contributes to a possible missed serve.

So Remember you want to …

0. Face your target

1. Aim

2. Toss

3. Shift your weight

4. Step to the Toss

5. Contact the ball squarely

6. Serve Tough.

7. Become a Fabulous Serving Sensation!

 

I think it was Yogi Berra who said that…Here is your next self test –What percentage of volleyball is mental? Most coaches say that it is about 75-90% mental. OK then, now how much are you teaching the mental side of the game in practice, how much are you training mentally? Do you ask them questions in the best “tradition” of Socrates, or do you simply tell them what you want, what they must do. Do you know what regression to the mean is, and the impact it has on human reasoning? Pick up your IMPACT manual, and see what you missed the first time in getting your players to be passionate about and good thinkers in volleyball.

Teach them leadership skills and how to lead. Build into them confidence, in self and in team. Anson Dorrance states that “we value people for their humanity…quality humans are what create the most essential element of any team: great chemistry. We look for positive, hardworking players – the kind you don’t hear whine and complain. To make our team, the only requirement is character. You don’t have to be a great player, you just have to be a great person. In fact, being great in a sport is totally meaningless
unless it has impacted on other aspects of your being.”

 

#1 – Opponent error. While this is somewhat out of your direct control, the mental side of the game here does come into play, by always exuding confidence, and never being out hustled, so that you frustrate and demoralize the opponent. Equally key here, as the most important thing at any level and something that goes hand in glove with the most important part of protecting your lead is to reduce your errors.

Here, as any 12 and under coach can tell you, putting away the ball served at you matters most.

 

#2 – Transition Kill – When I ask what the four ways you score in volleyball, most coaches say “Kill!”

What they do not realize is that it is really Serve, pass, set, spike, dig, set, KILL! Since our opponents have given us the chance, by not finishing off point #1 by killing the ball, and it has gotten past our block, we now get the most important way to get a LEAD…to dig it, set it, then kill it, no matter where the heck the dig and set went on the court. This is mostly done out of system of course, and to help with the idea of controlling the ball so they pay, we work on making the positive error first of digging the ball UP first, over the center of the court. American coaches do too many digging drills, and not enough dig/set/kill. We pepper, we do coach on one, hit at them and they “dig to a target.” Stop artificially terminating things and play it out.

 

#3 – Service Ace – Get great at serving.

As a players serving skills (a closed motor program), will advance at the lower level faster than serve reception capabilities (an open motor program), serving can often rise to #1 in importance over first ball passing/setting/spiking at the beginner level, regardless of age. For years I have been getting letters from young players telling me in endearing fashion, that “I am only 5 foot, but I have a killer serve and last week served 15-0, so can I come be a member of the Olympic team now? I even get some now, though clearly fewer, with the advent of rally scoring saying “ I served one game 25-0.”

 

#4 – Stuff Block – and if it gets past your block – that may not exist if you are short – then see rule #2.

So if blocking is one of the top four ways to win – by getting a lead, ask yourself this question. How many times in a game, does my spiker hit against no block? Now ask that same question in practice. Around the world, the answers for a level where the blockers can block and the spikers deserve to be block, are usually – 5%, and “too often.” The reason it is “too often” is because a spiker needs to practice in game like situation against a blocker (first ball kill and transition kills, points #1 and 2), and of great importance due to this point #4, a blocker needs to block a game like spiker, reading and moving to be in the right place at the right time.

 

The biggest mistake I see in developing this point is that too many coaches practice perfection, by tossing the ball to the setter, and not doing pass-set-kill. Kids warm up indoors by tossing the ball perfectly to the setter then hitting it. Beach players warm up by passing or digging the ball to the setter (often resulting in an out of system setting situation) and then killing it. In beach, we know from the game teaching the game, that the team that wins can pass/dig – set – kill, mostly out of “system” better than anyone and can serve tough — in any condition. USA Women’s coaches just estimated that currently they are running out of system 50 percent of their game play…and at the level of most of us reading this, that percentage is much higher, as should your training.

 

One of the unique things of our game is that at the least experienced level, the worst team WINS. This is simply because of the tactic that exploits the experience weakness seen in the four points above. If you just bash the serve back over the net on your first contact, eliminating the need to have setting and attacking. Once you advance beyond this challenge, by having a modicum of ball control, you will never lose to those teams. Yet these four “secrets” of scoring, they remain consistent from kids volleyball to the Olympics– both indoor and beach, and in the Paralympics.

 

The concept of ball control, along with technique is oft spoken. How’s this for a sentence that would make my English teacher cringe from her grave -the best teams do the better job of bettering the ball. Also, they make positive errors. Are you training this in your kids? Do they hit over a net, learning to hit up with an error, or do they stand on the ground or pass/spike against a wall, and learn to make negative errors. Do they know how important it is to dig up, not over, to serve long, rather than into the net, to set off the net (by starting every practice with 3 meter line hits) rather than too tight. How about this – do they face the target – setter for passing or center of court for digging, or do they face the attacker/server? One makes balls go to teammates more often, the other out of bounds. Positive errors go to teammates, negative ones to the bench….Toshi Yoshida, Women’s National Team coach trains our top players this same mental way, using the terms “Good miss, Bad miss…” Make sure your players focus on good.

“Mentally” do they know that once said, words cannot be taken back in, so it is likely better to say nothing if you are in doubt…Remember the concepts from IMPACT of summary feedback, and catching your kids doing it right, rather than turning on your radar and zeroing in on the errors they make. Chart things from a positive perspective, and work to make those numbers grow, including the number of positive mistakes over negative ones.

 

Re-read chapters three and four in your IMPACT manual, for the secrets are all hiding in there. Since we are playing a GAME, it should be, well, FUN! You will revisit how important it is to be competitive in your practice, creating what Anson Dorrance coined, “the competitive cauldron.” Since the scoreboard is always counting every point, you likely need to score more in your drills and come up with fun ways to score. If every point starts with a serve, then so should more of your drills and games. What game/drill do kids always moan about when you stop it? Monarch of the court! - so play that wonderful game maybe even a third of your practice, teaching the life lesson of winners stay on, and all the other fun reading and anticipation things that come from extending your area on a full court. Is there a whistle in a game? Well then, there should be one in practice at the appropriate times. Is there a net in the game? Well then, use it for every single precious minute of practice, for the players will do plenty of non-game like, no-net drills when they are out of the gym.

Game speed, is too often only learned in the match itself, not in most drills. It is fun to see how much kids “learn” in a single tournament, even though the numbers from a 4 team pool, add up to something like a total of 3-4 hours of “training”…why don’t you see the same quantum jumps in improvement and understanding in practice? Usually because it is not game like enough.

I also find it important to note how speed needs to be a priority in player development. Motor skill research shows that speed should be developed first ahead of “accuracy.” Tiger Woods and Jack Nickalaus both noted how they “hit the ball as hard as I could, and I found the fairway later.” Andre Agassi tells how he would “hit the ball as hard as I can, and found the court later.” In a related way, note the “Little Sister” effect seen all through our sport, such as Olympians Elaine Youngs and Leanne Sato, each with older brothers –.More in your control, there is the “playing up/against men “effects. Rod Wilde, one of the greatest diggers ever in the USA, started playing at the age of 10 on a men’s AA team. Karch Kiraly started playing men’s beach at the age of eight with his father. Misty May, N, Karch vs men, not age group competition.

Wonderfully, America’s National High School Federation voted to change to rally scoring, so we now have consistency in scoring. The most significant part of rally is simple - the game is now shorter. So there will be more upsets. And, the sooner you get to the final point, the more likely you will win. Now
there is a novel concept…

 

Your players will remember the experiences and the lessons, not the games won or lost. They will remember the way you dealt with them, not what was their technique error. They will hear the tone of your voice, not the words you said. They can see what your body says, even if your words are saying something else. There are millions of athletes walking around 20 years after the fact, who can tell you of a hurtful remark or a negative moment that their coach inflicted on them. Be aware of your power to hurt or heal, to build up, or tear them down.

 

I wish to close here with a quote from one of my favorite coaches, from his recent book Visions of a Champion. “One of the themes that I tried to drive home was to create environments in practice that would psychologically harden the athletes and make them relentless. These sessions were designed to
develop the muscle in the middle of your chest: your heart. Your heart doesn’t understand systems or shape or tactics, but it bleeds an indefatigable spirit and, if it’s strong, it ‘grinds’ away in our game for 90 minutes, or sometimes 150 if necessary. This spirit goes beyond sport. It is the athletic experience at its best, and becomes a statement of your strength of character and who and what you are…the athletic experience only has meaning if we can draw something from it beyond the game. I say this so much our players think it is a cliché ‘Athletics doesn’t develop character, but it certainly exposes it,’ and it’s true.
There is a range of experience in sports that truly tests the human spirit: yes, it can be euphoric, but some of it is not; in fact, at times it is devastating. Your reaction to this range will demonstrate the depth of your character.”