A Quick Note: These newsletters have been written around volleyball, but the concepts discussed apply to any sport. Feel free to substitute the word “volleyball” with “basketball”, “field hockey”, “curling” or any other sport of your choosing.
This newsletter is Part 1 of a four part series. The goal of this series is to help our players, parents and coaching staff maximize their club volleyball experience and build a better understanding of the game.
In Part 1:
- Players will be exploring the way our mind works and how we can use science to help us get better at volleyball.
- Parents will learn the best ways to interact with competitive athletes who also happen to be their children.
- Coaches will develop feedback tools to help them connect with their players and speed up improvement on the court.
Each section is accompanied by videos or articles that expand on the concepts presented. You should definitely read the section targeted to your group, but I encourage players, parents and coaches to read all of the articles (together if possible)!
These newsletters will help us create a great experience for our athletes, families and our coaching staff while providing a framework for our discussions throughout the year.
There have been several updates to the newsletter for the current season.
Let’s get to it!
PLAYER PERFORMANCE
Part 1: How to Learn
All of our athletes have goals:
- Making the High School Team
- Starting Varsity
- Being Selected for the All Conference Team
- Playing College Volleyball
The list goes on. But all of these goals boil down to one thing: our athletes want to get better at volleyball.
Presumably, you have chosen our club because you think our coaching methods can help you get better FASTER than the players outside of our program. If you understand the way your brain works, specifically in regard to the way you learn, you can accelerate your improvement even more!
As it turns out, there has been a ton of research on human development and learning. So we can use SCIENCE to help us get better FASTER. In fact, our practices are already structured around the principles you will learn about below.
GROWTH MINDSET
The concept of Growth Mindset was made popular by Dr. Carol Dweck, a professor at Stanford University. Dr. Dweck was interested in why some students respond well to failure while others get discouraged and give up after small setbacks.
Research has shown that athletes face the same challenges as students in the classroom. Ultimately, their development comes down to their beliefs about learning and ability (aka, their “mindset”).
Players who believe they have the ability to learn new skills (Growth Mindset) will work harder than players who think that they were born with a fixed set of skills and that they can’t learn and grow (Fixed Mindset). Players with a Growth Mindset embrace challenges and mistakes because they use them to learn and improve. Players with a Fixed Mindset avoid challenges because they don’t want to make mistakes or look bad.
Unsurprisingly, players who adopt a Growth Mindset are more successful in the long run with better performance on the volleyball court and in the classroom.
SKILL DEVELOPMENT & RANDOM PRACTICE
Now that we have established a Growth Mindset, we are ready to practice. But HOW should we practice?
The first thing we want to do is make sure that our practices look like the game. In volleyball, that means we want to focus on making three contacts every time (Pass-Set-Hit) after receiving a ball coming from over the net, preferably a serve or attack.
Then, we want to make sure that practice is difficult. Training the brain is very similar to training in the weight room. If the workout is too easy, then your muscles will not grow. If a drill is too easy, you won’t learn and get better on the volleyball court.
Without effort, the brain and body do not get stronger. That means it is important to have challenging practices so we can improve as players.
Check out the videos below where our friends at Train Ugly take you through the core concepts of Growth Mindset, Skill Development and Random Practice so you can maximize your training this year. These three videos will change the way you think about practice and personal development well beyond the scope of volleyball:
Growth Mindset: Believing you can learn is the most important part of learning (8m Video)
Jungle Tiger: To get better, you have to struggle, so embrace the tough stuff (5m Video)
Random vs Blocked Training: Why our coaches don’t toss balls to players (16m Video)
PARENT CORNER
Part 1: I Love Watching You Play
You’ve taken your child to countless practices and waited in the car when things ran late. You’ve spent Saturdays sitting on uncomfortable bleachers, shuttling your daughter to open gym sessions and attending club tryouts. After tryouts, you chose to invest more of your time and money when your daughter joined a club team.
As a parent, you have likely done everything you can to encourage your daughter’s love of volleyball…NOW WHAT?
Parents and Coaches both commit a ton of their free time to help our players improve as athletes. We want all of that time and hard work to “pay off” in the form of wins, awards and recognition because they make US feel good.
Let’s be serious, there is a little bit of ego in this for all of us. And our ego is reflected in the way we interact with our players before, during and after matches.
We tell our players what they need to do to be successful, we shout instructions because we feel helpless in the stands and we praise achievement instead of effort when the match is over.
So we know what we want from our children: “SUCCESS.” We recognize success in the form of achievements & awards that validate the time, energy & money we spend on youth sports.
But there is a question we seldom ask, which is the most important one: “What does your child want from you?”
Here is what they don’t want: They don’t want you to be their coach. They don’t want to feel bad if they come up short in a match. They really don’t want to recap their mistakes on the car ride home.
As it turns out, they want you to love & support them…unconditionally. How can you show unconditional love and support to your daughter? By memorizing one simple phrase:
“I LOVE TO WATCH YOU PLAY”
Don’t just take it from me, this is what two-time Olympic gold-medal soccer superstar Abby Wambach, says to her daughter after every soccer game:
- It was so fun to watch you play!
- How do you feel about the game?
The bottom line is this: most of our players will not be professional athletes. Many of them will choose not to play past high school. But if we focus on the things that truly matter, maybe they can all be great teammates in the gym and great people outside of it.
Nothing makes me happier than when I talk to our seniors and EVERY SINGLE PLAYER is a team captain for their respective high schools. That’s when I know our parents and coaches are doing it RIGHT.
Love and support your child unconditionally and you are setting yourself up for a great experience. You will build a relationship with your daughter that will last long after sports are over. You will develop players who love the game, support their teammates and find a lifelong passion in sports.
When that happens, real “success” is sure to follow.
The Truth About Sports Parents: How your kids really feel about your behavior (4m Video)
Coaching From the Stands: Real talk with Coach Frank Martin (4m Video)
What if You DON’T (Always) Love to Watch Them Play: When things go poorly… (3m Article)
Helping Your Child Achieve in Sport: 50 Things You Can Do (5m Article)
COACHES CLASSROOM
Part 1: How to Give Better Feedback
The role of a coach is to serve as a teacher. A coach will guide each player on her volleyball journey and try to help her improve at the fastest rate possible. To aid this improvement, coaches need to provide shortcuts help foster skill acquisition.
That is where “feedback” comes in. Feedback is a coaching tool that is used to improve learning. If given correctly, feedback helps players recognize areas of improvement, maintain motivation, improve retention and achieve goals faster.
Remember, not all feedback needs to be negative. Some of the best teaching moments come when a coach can “Catch them doing it RIGHT.”
THE SOCRATIC METHOD
On the court, USA Volleyball’s John Kessel strongly recommends the “Socratic Method of Coaching” over the traditional model of:
Coach Instructs >>> Player Acts
The Socratic Method places more emphasis on questioning & exploring. Questions allow players to engage more actively in the practice. They also help coaches to check for understanding and identify breakdowns in the skill acquisition process.
So arm yourself with the most effective words in the coaching arsenal…HOW, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, & WHY!
- How did that rep feel?
- What key are you working on?
- When did you start your hitting approach?
- Where did your hand contact the ball?
- Why did you make that decision?
RADICAL CANDOR
Off the court, we advocate the use of “Radical Candor” which was developed by Kim Scott and applied in the corporate world to enhance feedback in the workplace. The premise is simple, to give great feedback, you need to both Care Personally & Challenge Directly.
What does this mean? You must be completely honest with your players while making it abundantly clear that you care about them as human beings. Don’t be harsh, but don’t sugarcoat things either.
Difficult? Yes. Awkward? Potentially. But everyone benefits in the end.
Asking Questions: Tom Black on Effective Feedback (5m Video)
Radical Candor: How to Approach People With Feedback (3m Video)
THANKS FOR READING!
I hope you enjoyed this newsletter!
If you have any feedback, please send me an email or grab me after a practice or game. Which article or video is your favorite? What do you want more or less of? Have a better name for this newsletter?
Other suggestions? Let me know! (Just make sure they are Radically Candid…)
See you on the court!
Coach Scott