Are we raising a generation of Liberos or a generation of volleyball players? The results are pretty clear when you look at the results at the numbers. 46 million Americans play volleyball. 432,000 high school volleyball players. Countless volleyball clubs with their own dedicated facilities dotting the country. Yet, USA women's volleyball has won zero gold medals in the Olympics. In the US, we have the notion of specializing our players and doing it from a young age. "I am a middle hitter" or "I am a Libero" is a phrase commonly spoken at gyms across the country. This is a result of coaches labelling kids and putting them into a box expecting them to only learn the skills associated with a specific position. A kid is a middle hitter because that we what we made them or allowed them to do. As kids grow and develop, they will mature at different speeds. As kids move from one team to the next, the roster changes and the needs of each team changes. Players cannot guarantee that they will be the #1 libero on their next team. If we have specialized a player, they could reach a dead end in their career if they are no longer #1 at their position. We need to develop volleyball players, not liberos. We need to get our middle hitters to the Libero training. We need to teach our shorter players how to hit middle. These players are going to move on to become coaches, rec players, beach players. The more well rounded they are, the longer they will play and the more they will be able to put back into the sport as coaches or administrators. One of my favorite stories: This is the progression of one young lady:
Players: take every opportunity to learn every position. Attend specialized camps where you are weakest (setting, libero...) Parents: find a club that doesn't start specializing until kids are Sophomores. Make sure your players learns all skills. This will ensure you kid keeps making teams. Coaches: train all players in all skills and in all positions. Specialize for matches. Image courtesy of Gold Crown Foundation
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I was watching a viral YouTube video of a baby learning to walk. The baby would stand, wobble and fall. If you are considering the end goal being walking, this baby failed. They tried repeatedly and failed each time and each time the baby's parents cheered and clapped. The important part was not that the baby fell, nor was it that it didn't succeed walking. It was that the baby was constantly improving. Each time the baby fell, they stood up and tried again. Each time they were standing longer or taking more steps before falling. What a smashing success! Before long, they were walking. As parents and coaches, we need to have the same mentality when it comes to kids sports.
Fear of failure will hold us back. Its why we don't apply for a VP level position. Its why we don't karaoke. Its why parents are considered boring to their kids! In the history of the world, there is not one successful person who didn't fail multiple times. What really matters is having determination to improve. So, the next time you have a kid that messes up at game point, think twice about your response. That mistake was a stepping stone to not being afraid to make a big play at game point in the future. Tryouts are typically one-sided. Players go and show off what they can do. They hope to get an offer to play for the club. If they are lucky, they get to meet their coach. However, most don't get to see their coach actually coach and show off their coaching skills or personality. If you are lucky to get a contract offer to play with the club, you don't know who is on the team and what your chances are to garner playing time. Then, if you sign the contract, you are committing to paying for the entire season, including your share of all the travel trips, regardless of whether move, get injured, dislike your team or coach. (Note, some regions allow players to opt-out of their contract up until a certain date without penalty). A fair tryout would be an interactive training session where the coach gets to see the players perform and where the players can see if they like the coach and their coaching style. Then, get a workout with all the girls the team wants to sign so kids can see how good or how weak a team may be, as well as their standing on the team. For example, one player spent a great deal of time and money getting training to be a setter, but the team she played on wanted to use her for a libero. When you get to tryouts, you need to realize that most players in that club are returning from the previous year and already have a position on the team. It is likely that you are competing for one of maybe two or three positions. [Recently, there were 51 middle blockers who tried out for a large club. What they didn't know was that there were only 2 open middle blocker positions in that club at that age group. The club didn't tell kids what was available. They just took their $50 tryout fee, let them play a little, then cut them.] Tell the club you won't sign a contract until you get to see your team and your coach perform together and see what happens. If you start your 'research' early in the late spring/early summer, you can gather the info you need to make a good decision. Don't wait for tryouts because most roster spots are filled by returning players (most are already promised positions before tryouts even begin). Tryouts are meant to be high pressure, like a car sales process, where you have a small amount of time to make a decision and a fear of having your spot given to someone else: Sign now or get left out. Last night a parent shared this story with me. Last fall, he searched around for a club volleyball program for his daughter. He met with a representative from a certain club and was told all the great things about the club. They had their own facility: Beautiful courts, workout equipment, specialized volleyball training equipment, and more.
The cost was $2000 for coaching, $600 for uniforms and more for each tournament they played. 3 hours of practice a week. It seemed like a solid deal. Then, on the first day of practice, this parent took his daughter to the facility. They put 10 teams on 4 courts. The girls weren't allowed to hit the ball over the net. When he approached the person he talked to about the club, she reminded him that he signed a contract. Throughout the course of the year, his daughter sat on the bench keeping stats at every tournament. She never received training from a head coach. Instead, it was some sort of an intern or associate coach. She was young and inexperienced. The setter is the single most important player on any team. They touch 1/3 of every ball that comes over the net. They make every hitter a better player and the personality of the team will adopt the personality of the setter. Picking the right person to be your setter is critical. The perfect setter, in my mind, is:
Height should never factor into the decision. I have seen so many coaches take their best hitter or tallest players and make them hitters. Then, the shortest player gets assigned to be a setter. Rarely do they take into account the keys listed above. The results are predictable. Mediocre setters = mediocre teams. Strong setters help develop strong teams. If you watch any tournament, you will notice how strong the setters are that make it close to the championship games. This isn't by chance. This year, I am coaching a team that costs $1800 per player, plus any extra tournaments we want to attend. We attended Colorado Crossroads, which increased our cost by almost $200 per player. Two girls who were on my team last year decided to jump to one of the area's prestigious volleyball clubs, where they pay $3700 + travel (which comes to about $6000 per player for the season). It may be safe to assume that the extra fees would result in better training, faster improvement, and greater skills (assuming the level of athleticism is equal).
It just so happened that my team and the "prestigious club team" were in the same 15 USA division at Crossroads. The difference is that their team practices an extra 2 hours a week, plus a conditioning session and specialty training. The other difference is that their entire team was 9th graders, while half of my team is in 8th grade (and one 7th grader) and our standard lineup includes two 8th graders and a 7th grader. So, you would probably guess that the extra $4000 would have bought a higher finish in the tournament. Nope, we finished tied for the same position. So, why does the other club cost $4000 more? It surely doesn't benefit the players or else they would be better than they are. It goes into the club's pockets. It goes to pay for the directors of the club to travel. Plus, it supports the allure of being in one those "expensive clubs." Spend your money as you see fit, but don't assume that you get what you pay for. If you want a good deal, you have to research it. Coaches who use the same lineup every game will cost your team some wins. In a 25 point game, most teams (Note: this varies slightly at each age group, so you must track it for your team) will go through two and a half full rotations (rotating for serve about 15 times). In a deciding match, where the game goes to 15, your team will go through one and a half rotations (rotating for serve about 9 times).
For the sake of illustration, let's assume you have 6 players and you have one strong, dominant middle hitter (most coaches put the tall girls in the middle, which is a bad move, but that can be explained another day). In a typical lineup, most coaches will start that MB in the middle front. Now, based on the number of rotations, let's calculate where the player will finish the game: Game to 25 = Finish in the back row Game to 15 = Finish in the back row Do you really want to have your dominant player to finish the game in the back row? Maybe there is a reason you do. But, when you think about how many close sets you play, can you afford to have your best hitter in the back row at the end of the game? This year, I observed a 7th grade team that had one tall, dominant hitter (which they played in the middle) and the other middle was a great defensive player in the back row. The coach started the big MB in the right front rotation on every match. This ensured that the girl would finish in the back row in every set they played. In the deciding sets, their best hitter had one pass through the front row, while the weaker middle had two passes through the front row. I won't get into it here, but altering your lineup to get better matchups will pay off with a few extra wins. That article is for another day. Cheers! I was watching a 7th grade volleyball game last week. Both teams used a serve receive where the left back and right back players are about 20' off the net, but the middle back player is about 4' from the baseline. The girls on the other team could barely serve the ball to the baseline, so they kept getting ace after ace whenever the ball was served to the middle of the court. I thought the coach would make an adjustment, but she insisted with sticking to her old-school serve receive. The coach should have plotted where the serves were hit and the outcome. Had she done this, she would have noticed a disturbing pattern.
The fact is, most serves can be received with all three back row players standing around the 22' line...in a straight line. The overhand receive makes those deep serve-receive positions obsolete. The same is true for defense. Most kills occur in the middle of the court, not the perimeter. So, why is there so much effort defending the perimeter of the court. Plot the hits and kills in your next match and you will see where to play defense. Remember, coach smart, not coach tradition. Every year there is a descent player on your team who has poor hitting technique. After the first several weeks, it is clear that the muscle memory is too engrained in this player and they are not willing to change their technique. You know that the poor technique will lead to shoulder problems later in their careers, but the player is better than most of the kids on the team.
When parents and coaches are faced with this situation, you will quickly find out what they value most. Any coach who is in it for the kids will find a way to get the technique corrected without letting the player continuing to put stress on the shoulder, even if that means not playing her until she has corrected the technique. This is a difficult decision, but it is one that must be made. A few years ago, I saw a player with a hitting technique issue where her armswing put all the pressure on her shoulder socket and tendons, instead of dispersing the strain with proper shoulder rotation. Despite repeated efforts to talk her parents and coaches into making changes, she continued to play and have fun as a starter. Toward the end of the season, she felt a pop and experienced severe pain. Her volleyball career was done as a Freshman in high school. Now, this is an extreme case. Most players merely experience nagging shoulder problems through high school, which typically haunt them later in life. The bottom line is, winning is not worth it. Life is too short to play for today at the expense of suffering tomorrow. It takes guts as a coach and for parents, it means to swallow your pride. 2 months of dedicated effort will provide years of joy playing the sport. You need to focus your skills on those that will be used most often and have the greatest impact on the game. Some coaches think this is the attack with a forceful kill, which is never the right answer. Think about your team and see what you use most.
I have seen a young (Jr High) team lose consistently. In practice, they worked on footwork, hitting, defense, hitting in the middle and outside, serving. When you look closer, the other team served most of the balls in the match, which means they were in serve-receive frequently. They could not pass well enough to ever hit in the middle. Most attacks were freeballs or something other than a front row attack. This team needed to develop serve receive passing. If you can't pass, you can't hit. In girl's volleyball, these are typically the most important skills that affect the outcome of the game: 1. Serve Receive 2. Serve 3. Dig 4. Transition attack (not serve receive attack) |
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