Frank Solomona | huttrapids.wordpress.com |
Frank makes a good point. The games within the game are definitely what makes volleyball interesting, since a team doesn’t necessarily have to do any skill better than the other team to win. For example, a team doesn’t need to hit better than the other team to win; they just need to hit better than the other team blocks and covers. The hitting warmup is never a conclusive indicator of who is a better team, and as coach’s we’ve all lost to scrappier teams.
As a coach I take great delight in seeing my team “beat the odds” by winning the improbable duels – like winning a rally after conceding a free ball. Sometimes I’ve had to explain to players how they’ve turned the tables in a rally and tell then to celebrate it. At the School’s Cup this year, one of the setters in our yr 8 U14 div 1 girls team blocked out a spiker who was hitting an overpass. It’s hard to win a duel like that with the ball coming from behind you, and she wasn’t aware that she had won a point that was practically lost. Maybe it’s better not to tell them. As the Tao says, that which is perfect is not aware it is.
I try to spend at least 1/3 of training on exercises that improve my team’s percentages in any dueling situation. I think I got that proportion from Eldo when he took me for my Level 1 coaching course and it’s always stuck. Wash drills are most commonly used for this, where exercises are used to address a specific game situation and the team is required to make a specific execution to score a point – just getting the outcome is not good enough and usually results in a “wash”, where neither point is lost nor won. When I played state U21s, we must have spent hours playing these tedious backrow hitting games. You could only win with a clean kill that didn’t clip the net. It made ball control a lot better. If anyone knows any other good wash drills let me know, because the standard set can be a bit boring.
The more specific the criteria of execution the better. They have to win the exercise, not merely “not lose” it. Eldo also says the drills should be set so they can complete it 40-70% of the time. I like to force my team to take risks in my drills. Penalties exist if they fail, and penalties exist if they play like chicken shit. I want them to want to take risks in games even though they know there are consequences.
Truncating the game through these sorts of exercises are far more effective than playing games. The players get more repetition and you can really zone in on their weaknesses. They’ll always prefer to have games, but I’ve often ditched the usual scratch match at the end of the training to accommodate more practice in these areas. A scratch match is a reward, not a means to improvement. I remember there were a few years when Brighton teams were lamentably bad, and the students who also played for Henley said all they did in their “lessons” was play scratch matches and king of the court.
I’m anal about execution. I just like it when things “work” the way they ought to. It’s not just about winning the rally, but how you win it. What can I say, i like Plato’s ideas about Ideal Forms and think it extends to everything (Plato’s ideas in The Republic are a bit Confucian actually). My players rarely my level of enthusiasm for this. Heathfield teams always have the best execution in just about every area.
