It’s that time of year again, we’re all back in the gym, administrative stuff is going crazy, we are frantically trying to build or predict how we fill 38 million different teams for the National League between adults, youth, and the rest; and I just can’t wait for the first session back in the hall.
A quick ad: if you’re a coach on a budget who’s looking to add stats to your programme, whether it’s in training or in matches, you might check out Volleyball Stats 9000, the app I wrote for myself. It runs on iPads and is designed to be pretty easy to use to capture the key stats you might be interested in.
This year Volleyball Ireland are splitting the youth league into U18s and U16s. For the girls, the U18 age group is split into a Premier league and a Division one league. It’ll be interesting to see how our small group of players — very motivated players — will be able to fit in all these different matches and training sessions. And how on earth we dig up coaches and hall times that suit everybody…
We’ve held nearly all the tryouts, at this stage, and so the next big step is one of…
Communication
One of my last efforts as Pathways Manager for Volleyball Ireland was to try and get a Selection Policy across the line for National Teams. One massive issue, with any team1, is how to communicate what those who made the team did to get there and what those who didn’t *didn’t* do or have.
I’m not the most brilliant communicator in the best of times, so this is something I’m working on getting better at.
Especially for the large number of youth who tried out for our adult teams, some may not place exactly where they would have hoped to. We had 10 U18s of the 40 players trying out for a spot on one of our Div 1, Div2, or new Div 3 teams.
For Division 1 they needed to be comfortable playing in an offense of some kind; we’re very lucky to have a great crop of players this year with a lot of experience. They’ll also have a good idea of how to play positions, because we’re on the lookout for specific players to set for us, outsides who can pass, middles who can hit quick and move well. Players need to serve well and with a bit of intent if we expect to do anything in the league. In Div 1 in Ireland, I expect players to be able to hit down and the block becomes more of an issue… we need to be able to kill the ball and also put up a decent block to make life manageable for our defense. At the moment, if everyone comes through, we have 4-5 middles, 2 setters, 5 outsides, an opposite, and a libero. Even within the team there will be pretty fierce competition for different slots.
On the Division 2 front we’re similarly stocked… plenty of middles (3-5), outsides (5-6), liberos (1-2), opposites, and a couple of setters. These players are on the pathway to mastering aspects of their position… in Div 2, at least last year, serving in is a big part of the game, and if you can extend rallies you stand a chance of winning some matches. You don’t need to hit down, necessarily, all the time, but the better teams will, so we need to start to get disciplined at the net. Unfortunately this means height does start to become more of a factor.
And Division 3 I really like, because it’s a chance for young players and not so young to learn the game, to develop a bit and also get a peek in at the other teams, to see what the level looks like.
But we’ll have the same tiers with the youth and all those U18 Premier, U18 Div 1, U16s…
So one thing I would encourage coaches to do, is something along the lines of this, which is roughly what’s in the selection policy:
Within 48 hours of selection the coaches will contact any player, or any player who would reasonably expect to have a good chance of selection, that the player has NOT been selected for an upcoming squad and the reason for the decision of the selectors.
When I write these type of notes I tend to include two sections:
Factors that Go into the Decision
These are things like:
the position for which they’re trying out has a lot of talent ahead of them
their skills for a particular position were lacking (and hopefully we’ve given them feedback in the tryout or the contact to help them understand how to improve)
their experience wasn’t quite where it should be (and, again, steps to try and acquire experience, including playing on a lower level team for a time)
The Pathway Back
I’ll often also let them know if there *is* a spot or position at which they *should* be trying out, instead, due to either skills they have or a lack in the position we have.
My favorite players are the ones who are willing to pitch in wherever they can help. Obviously many of them will have longer term goals and positions they *want* to play and roles they want to fill, so I also try and get a sense of their goals at the start of each season, with little checkpoints mid-way through and at the end. Otherwise I think it would be pretty easy to burn those players out by always chucking them into the breach to fill gaps.
There are so many resources available to players to help them get better, from high level volleyball match broadcasts to how to videos and techniques or workouts to try, if a player asks, I’m always more than happy to provide the ones I think would best help them get better and make that team or traveling squad the next time.
Of course, this is all with the caveat that the things I see (or don’t see) in players aren’t the end all be all. I make mistakes (in communication, in player selection, in training, and tactics) all the time.
Division 1 Women
This year I’m going to be taking the Division I women’s team and have already specced out a plan for the season. This comes from Terry Liskevych’s vast array of resources (https://www.theartofcoachingvolleyball.com/author/tliskevych/). This yearly planner is something I use for the national team I coach and my competitive teams.
The big rocks I want to focus on this year, across all my teams, are:
Better serve receive (and at the same time better serving)
A better, more aggressive out of system attack
Develop our setters vision and decision-making
So the plan is roughed out to make sure I keep the focus as we go and try to anticipate where we might be, what we should be ready for in the gym, come certain times of the year…
Things may change as the season wears on or the players hit the gym, but it’s always to go in with a plan and have that big view of what happens when in the season.
Stats-Keeping
This season I have a new version of the Volleyball Stats 9000 app, which I plan on using in training sessions as well as matches to help determine if our big rocks are being taken care of, get it now: https://apple.co/4dFVIXG
Now, I know a lot of coaches who believe in ‘feel,’ and may be skeptical of the power of stats. And I agree, that they can sometimes blind you to obvious things you should be able to see with your eyes, but I try to use them as a supplement , rather than the One True Word. Hence why I made an app that is easier to use and you can capture as much or as little as you like.
My app was really useful being able to analyze matches after the fact over the summer so that we were able to roll into our next match in the tournament with minor tactical adjustments in certain rotations. And of course, I use video and Balltime (https://www.balltime.com) a lot to be able to review things that I may not have seen in the heat of the moment. And Balltime has been improving constantly, I’m excited to see what insights it will give me, and, more importantly, the players who can watch back the video and analyze their own performance.
The way I look at stats is that they’re another tool in my coaching toolbox. We have an ability to capture some data about our performance, so why wouldn’t I take advantage of that? These stats can also help me when I do have to communicate with someone in one of those tough conversations about playing time or traveling squads — especially if we can find a few key metrics that will contribute to our overall goals for the season.
At least the teams I’ve coached where people have aspired to be on them and there’s bitter disappointment if they’re *not* on the team or if there’s confusion about who made what team with what role.