The Art of Coaching Volleyball

When selecting your assistant coaching staff, find people you like working with. You will be spending a lot of time with these people and in very stressful situations, so making sure you enjoy your working environment with them. Allow your assistant coaches to challenge your knowledge of the game and disrupt the "all-knowing" position of […] The post Expectations of an assistant coach appeared first on The Art of Coaching Volleyball.

  Clinician: Jim Stone, head coach of the US girls' youth national team Purpose: To challenge the first string players to put the ball away quickly and efficiently. By allowing the second string of players more opportunities to create points, the need for two equally-matched teams is eliminated. How it Works: Have your first string […] The post First team challenge drill appeared first on The Art of Coaching Volleyball.

Body language during practices and matches matters more than most people think, and Diane Flick Williams of Western Washington University has a fun and inventive way to encourage body language communication. Get in groups of 4. One person is the observer, and the other three people are the "actors." One person starts a scenario. The […] The post Body language reverse charades to work on team communication appeared first on The Art of Coaching Volleyball.

Clinician: Terry Liskevych The post Coaches can’t see everything appeared first on The Art of Coaching Volleyball.

Mike Sealy of UCLA talk about how he approaches reaching out to and recruiting players. Sealy admits that not every player he emails he is serious about recruiting. When recruiting, he has a list of 10-15 people who are on his top priority of recruits and who he actively and personally pursues. Then there is […] The post The recruiting process: Receiving a mass email from college coaches appeared first on The Art of Coaching Volleyball.

Differences between indoor and beach: Court size Moving on the court vs on the sand Strategy Contact time on the ball Placement of passes/sets on the court Factors The post Beach volleyball training: The differences appeared first on The Art of Coaching Volleyball.

In this video, Zach Dechant, Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach at TCU, walks players through ways to improve overhead range of motion using 3 different strength and conditioning exercises: T-Spine Smash with a peanut Lavator Smash with a lacrosse ball Lat Smash with a foam roller The post 3 ways to improve overhead range of motion appeared first on The Art of Coaching Volleyball.

Where do you play your libero? Traditionally, left back makes the most sense because most balls are set to the left side and then hitters trying to avoid the block will funnel the ball to left-back. At higher levels, hitters are better at attacking all over the net and so putting your libero in the […] The post Traits of a good libero: Defensive position appeared first on The Art of Coaching Volleyball.

Concentration is often a misunderstood factor in athletic success. Typically, people think of concentration as the ability to focus on one thing for a long period of time. It is much more complex. To understand concentration one must understand the "attentional field". This field includes everything within and without a person they could focus on […] The post Using keywords to remind players what to focus on appeared first on The Art of Coaching Volleyball.

Russ Rose of Penn State University knows that the little things matter in volleyball, including who you choose to pepper with prior to matches and practices. Rose says players should match up with a partner that doesn’t know their tendencies, or knows them but challenges them. Sometimes this means not pairing up with your best […] The post Why choosing a pepper partner is so important appeared first on The Art of Coaching Volleyball.

John Dunning has seen a lot of volleyball players, and knows how to correct bad hitting form. One-foot landings make players injury-prone and is a common bad habit in outside hitters, especially when they tend to lean out to catch balls in the middle of their shoulder. How Dunning fixes it: Angle your approach so […] The post Why players land on one foot and how to un-train it appeared first on The Art of Coaching Volleyball.

The following details the best methods to handle the pressure of Game 7 situations in baseball. It has some excellent applications for coaches of all sports facing a “winner takes all” final game situation. 1) Save the Speech. Before Game 7 of the 2001 World Series, Diamondbacks manager Bob Brenly was to deliver one of […] The post 7 keys to big game success appeared first on The Art of Coaching Volleyball.

Clinicians: Mark Barnard of Oregon State University and Diane Flick-Williams of Western Washington University share their strategies for a rotation involving a front row setter. Strategy #1: Stack the middle hitter that can hit slides by your front-row setter. When receiving, stack all your front row players (Including the setter) in the front left corner […] The post Offensive & defensive strategies for rotation 4 (with front row setter) appeared first on The Art of Coaching Volleyball.

Purpose: Players must block one on one and diggers must defend around having a hole in the sparse block. How it Works: 5 players are on each side of the court, each team missing a middle blocker. Two coaches initiate balls from either side of the court. After a ball is initiated the teams play […] The post 5 vs. 5 drill to work on defending a hole in the block appeared first on The Art of Coaching Volleyball.

Diane Flick-Williams, Head Coach at Western Washington University, demonstrates a building block for beginning defense: a powerful first step. Especially with younger players, practicing the defensive first step is critical. The forward step must be towards the ball, whether laterally or back to forward. A simple drill progression to teach the step: Have defenders dig […] The post Defense for beginners: Focus on the first step appeared first on The Art of Coaching Volleyball.