Alexis Lebedew on Skill Models

More great thoughts on skill model from Alexis Lebedew. He’s definitely right that the way elite players do things is irrelevant to how to teach a beginner the same skills. There’s an inevitability that the players you coach at a developing level will go through technical reinventions as they move on. The authorship of a player is clearly a malleable concept.

I agree with the skill issues in development. I think part of the issue is what we hope to get from Skill Models.

Most (if not all) literature about skill learning/teaching talks about making any Keys/Cues simple, and making as few of them as possible. Both to cut down on overcoaching and also make it easier for the athlete to remember. I’ve seen some success using the idea of: What can you absolutely NOT do as a developing athlete if you want to be sucessful at the elite level (without taking 2-8 years to change a technique). Once you look at things from this perspective some things become clearer.

For example with blocking – I’ve seen some coaches of developing athletes use only 2 cues: get your hands over the net as far as you can and as early as you can, and land where you took off from. Now, do the best blockers in the world do this? Sometimes, somewhat. But what the best in the world do is often irrelevant for developing players (and coaches). On the other hand, if a player can do those two things before going to the ‘next level’, then they can progress quickly. For Setting I’ve seen the following cues work effectively: follow through in the direction you want the ball to do, and see the ball through your hands as it comes down.

Remember – skill models are not what are used to master skills. They are to learn and teach skills.

Luke Campbell on skill models and player development

More on skill models, this time from (presumably) Luke Campbell. Looks like Platform is king. anyone got some good platform exercises?

Agree with Mark for sure, there is not only 1 way to do something, and absolutely no doubt the platform is the biggest thing in reception, and they spend hours on it with the younger players in every league i’ve played in. From what i saw at nationals and school cup our (Australia) biggest skill problem is the setting technique. I was stunned at schools cup the amount of setter that were no doubt catching the ball, it was sickening. If there are coaches around like Huy says Simon is, then they should be used and abused by other coaches, in the end we should all be working togeather to produce better players

Mark Lebedew on Skill Models

Some good insight from former Australian Men’s  coach Mark Lebedew. I had the pleasure of listening to Mark speak about training and cue recognition when he was in Adelaide last year. It has certainly improved my trainings since. He also has a great deadpan sense of humour. I do recommend watching the technical videos on the fivb site of the 2007 men’s world cup. Will be even better when they start posting more stuff on it.

You’re right about the weird relationships between volleyball and ’skill models’, but I happen to think this is a particularly Australian idea.  The idea of the ’skill model’ is that there is one right way of doing something.  This is, of course, completely wrong.  And the biggest mistake that people make is confusing technique (which is a functional method of performing a task) and aesthetics (how it looks).  Volleyball is not an aesthetic sport.

To the specific examples, none of these things are new.  I know I’ve been talking about using the arms in passing for 15 years and Velasco for longer than that.  But in Australia people spend too much time thinking about legs and arms and not nearly enough time about the platform.  Italian junior coaches spend hours teaching the platform.  Watching 100’s of kids at Junior Nationals trying to pass without a platform is much worse to me than fingernails on 100 blackboards and not because it is not aesthetically pleasing but because it is functionally not effective.

I could talk about coach education for hours, but the coach has a responsibility to his/her players to a) study the game, b) look beyond aesthetics and c) not allow that near enough is good enough.

As for videos on the internet, there are plenty of links to volleyball videos on Devo, but specific technical videos are on www.fivb.org

SASI Wirreanda – Australia’s next top skill model

Is there any other sport that has such a weird relationship with skill model?

You know you’re a real tragic when you spend your spare time (not working and coaching) turning up to other people’s training sessions to “borrow” their ideas. Which is exactly what i did last night. About a year ago, SASI began a basic satellite programme in the Fleurieu (South) to promote volleyball to high school kids in the area. I noticed a remarkable improvement in the WIllunga kids i coached that went. The sessions are great. They’re run by former Australian player Simon Phillips and a lot of fun. They’re relaxed but productive, and highly engaging and interactive. Simon just also happens to be great at teaching and you can see the immediate results.

These sessions are that good that it’s bit of a bummer more kids don’t take up the opportunity. Only about 13 kids turned up last night (12 willunga, 1 victor harbor), which is a good number to work with. There are longer term plans to extend this out into other areas like the north.

Most interestingly, Simon has the finger on the pulse of the current skill models being taught and used at the AIS, so it’s like getting a software update into the system – whether you like it or not! I liked a lot of the techniques i saw and will no doubt “adopt” them, but I can’t say I’m overly fond of everything i saw:

• Forearm passing with upright position and swinging arms – there is a skill model which is beginning to spread of passing without much use of the legs, but swinging the arms from low to about 90 degrees to the body. apparently espoused by Hugh McCutcheon.
• Highball sets using stiff fingers – there’s also a skill model of stiffening the fingers and “stabbing” at the ball to give it extra height if you have to set it a long and high distance. It gives off a sound that would make any purist vomit and there’s slight spin. given the current interpretation of what is a “double-touch”, it’s admittedly effective. I started seeing this technique two days before at my club training when i saw one of the advanced SASI players do it. it’s less puzzling now why a well drilled player would set like that.

Skill models change like fashions. The Olympics serve as the catwalk for all to see. But like all fashions, some looks never really go out of style on certain people. I’m skeptical that we’ll ever see a lot of liberos at an olympics pass without their legs, although the outside hitters might. I’m skeptical that we’d ever see a lot of setters set high balls with stiff fingers, although someone else on the team might if the setter can’t get to the ball. Even with the rule changes that you can finger pass the serve, a lot of serves are still passed on the forearms.

But my personal taste isn’t really the issue here. I might not like retrospective releases of old sneakers, but if I sell shoes for a living and they were a hit at Fashion Week, I better start stocking re-issued onitsuka tigers and nike air force 1’s if i want to stay in business. As a coach, being stubborn with skill model can cost your players further opportunities. It might not, but say there’s a squad or team being selected and there are two players on the fringe. one player has the skill model the coach/selector likes, the other will have to be “re-invented” to their preference. who’s going to get in? (of course this is more applicable at the fringes of selection than at the top. people tend to have more patience with these players).

And that may sound ridiculous but how often do you hear selectors and coaches say “The clubs/schools just aren’t teaching their players right”. It’s all relative because what’s “right” changes every 4 years or so (it wasn’t so long ago that people were being taught to pass with rigid arms straight out with high shoulders).

Even for my open mind, i’ll find it difficulto make skill models i don’t like into gospel. But at least i owe it to my players to try them out, understand how they work and make them aware of it. they don’t deserve to miss out on playing State volleyball just because i think another coach’s ideas are retarded. I should at least tell them something along the lines of “i don’t like ___ style of ___ and i don’t think it works in ____ situations, but ____, who is selecting the ____ team will probably prefer it, so appreciate that if you’re going to try out there are different expectations and you might have to make it work. up to you”. As coaches, we have to stop saying “I’m right, and everyone else is wrong” and instead explain things in their context. And at the risk of asking too much, instill in them the sort of attitude and wisdom it takes to adapt and exercise good judgement. is it information overloading? maybe. but we’re dealing with a pretty intelligent and well educated (perhaps even over educated) generation. At worst it can only make them better people.

We are seeing increasing gulfs between coaches. devo reported something like 600 coaches in Victora with only 150 of them registered – that’s at least 450 of them out of the loop. But the solution isn’t to say what’s right or wrong, but understand all the perspectives and educate the players. you owe them that much instead of bagging other people’s ideas as trite. your coaches shouldn’t be bagging one another and their views. for players it can be like having parents who fight a lot. i’m not perfect at this, but trying to get better. i can’t expect every other coach to try to be as open minded, but i can at least make the start.

it just means spending some of your free nights driving 40 minutes to the middle of nowhere to see what other people are doing. Watching guys like Simon work, it’s not always such a bad chore.

Mildura cancelled.

but thank god for tournaments

At AVSC last year, someone slipped a photocopy of a handwritten flyer to my club’s junior coordinator. It was like something you used to get pre-word-processing days and refershingly low-fi. The flyer was for a new tournament in mildura for junior aged kids (U13, U15, U17).

Both the club (henley hawks) and school (willunga) i coached for started organising teams. Without much time between the start of school and the tournament, we couldn’t get the numbers to send over a team from willunga. Unfortunately, Willunga’s problems weren’t unique and the tournament has been cancelled. It probably didn’t help it being scheduled on the same weekend as Warrnambool.

* * *

I’m not sure what it’s like in the other states, but there were more forfeits in junior and state league competitions in SA last year than possibly ever. VollyballSA sent out questionnaires to see how it could be better this year. I think there was a strong sentiment that this may be a generational thing. why don’t our current generation of players (gen y) want to play junior and state league?

Well, my theory is the concept of league, like scheduled television programming and movie sessions is becoming outdated. recently, i watched a documentary on Soccer, and a point was made that the growth of League football came from the industrial revolution when people started getting the weekends off and wanted something to do. Regular gate receipts from spectators helped football clubs and league grow. And it worked around the industrial routine – 9-to-5, monday-to-friday.

We’re not in the industrial age anymore.  And the modern consumer wants things delivered different. gen y’s want things “on-demand”. i had a player who had started the season late who was disappointed it ended so abruptly!

They also want meaningful experiences. the week-in-week-out grind of league competition tedium just doesn’t cut it anymore. in terms of extra currcular activities and volunteering, research has shown that boomers like “regular” commitments, X’ers like “projects” and Y’s like “one-offs”

Which is where tournaments come in. The AVSC will only keep growing. It’s a bunch of Gen Y’s loving the one-off festival, being coached by Gen X-ers who treat it like a project. and country tournaments end up being pleasant weekends away. who can resist that?

* * *

After the Willunga U15 Honours Girls took the bronze last year i was asked by the programme’s head coach “how can we keep enjoying watching these girls play at this level over the next few years”. I didn’t have an answer he’d like. U15 honours is their best window. after that they’re up against kids that play club and state, and unless they keep up, the playing field becomes less even. a couple of the kids might make state teams but the rest wouldn’t get the practice they needed to keep up. being so far away from the city and with the expense of indoor volleyball made it hard enough.

And then there was netball. i tried for years to woo kids over to volleyball from footy and netball but have given up. it’s a battle you just can’t win in the country. And it can work. after all, a large part of our girls success came from the fact that about 7 of them were also the state netball champions. i’ve probably never had a better team of athletes to train.

When i got the flyer for mildura i had a perfect solution. let them get fit playing netball in the winter and have them play a tournament every three months (including state school’s cup). in essence they’d give up only 2 weekends and get about the same amount of quality match practice, and you would get to monitor the progress of your training. there might be hope yet!

Mildura might be moved to October now. Pity because a junior march tournament sounded good. still, there’s always warrnambool, and it’s bloody nice there in march!

Eldo not coaching U16s

While asking for info on state trials this year i received the lamentable news that Eldo has declined to coach the U16 State Schoolgirls team this year.

Of course, life goes on, and I’m sure his successor will do a sterling job, but it’s always sad when a familiar institution ends. To tell you the truth I don’t even know if he’s taking a year off or passing the torch indefinitely. In either case, it was a good opportunity for a bunch of kids at the club and schools i coached to get taught by one of the best.

Eldo took over the programme from another legend – Sue Dansie. In his tenure, some fanstastic players and athletes went through the programme – Raelee Vick, Jessica Peacock, Anna & Renee Maycock, Fleur & Victoria Holmes, Bea Daly, Mel Hopkins just to name a few. There are decidedly big shoes to fill and an opportunity for the next coach to add themselves to a list of legends.

The U16 programme is still in my opinion an excellent programme – the kids get more time in preparation and training, and more attention at the tournament (one team per state, one age group).

If last year was indeed Eldo’s last, then i consider myself extremely fortunate to have had a chance to watch how we worked and help out. It certainly made me a better coach, and it was well worth getting up early every sunday and missing out on some sleep. One of my favourite anecdotes was when the team discussed which movie they should go watch together in their time off during the tournament. Eldo recalled taking one of his first state teams to see Pretty Woman. For the players listening to the story – made up of kids born no earlier than 1994 – it may as well have been Gone with the Wind. Time flies huh?

Is the NFL 16% racist?

OK, this isn’t volleyball, but I think Ben Graham’s participation in the Superbowl was of good general sporting interest…

Unfortunately, Graham’s Arizona Cardinals lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the last minute or so. bummer. On googling the Steelers, they’ve been owned by the Rooney family since they started in 1933. Their current owner, Dan Rooney, who is also chair of the NFL’s diversity committee, introduced “The Rooney Rule” in 2006, which required all teams interviewing a head coach position to interview a “minority” candidate.

As a result, within a year, African American head coaches went from representing 6% of head coaches to 22%. In real terms, the 32 team NFL went from having 2 African American head coaches to 7 (including the Steelers’ current coach who led them to the superbowl). The Rooney Rule didn’t require any of these “minority” coaches to be hired, just interviewed, so it’s not really affirmative action. But without the rule, would they have been interviewed at all?And if they got rid of the rule, would it go back to the way it was.

In either case, The Rooney Rule seems to be a good alternative to systemic discrimation and retarded reactionary affirtmative action policy (yeah as a “minority” i’m not a fan of affirmative action). 16% progress i suppose.

Alexis Lebedew on the sanctity of the coach (or, why we shouldn’t have to do duty for our kids)

Alexis makes the point that coaches should just do what they do best – coach and get kids into the sport!

Great wrapup Huy. Made me feel like i was there!

One thought about your comments about refereeing though.

I strongly disagree with the idea of coaches refereeing. The system is far from perfect but coaches have enough to do already. Most are in charge of minors 24 hours per day 7 days per week, which is challenging enough as it is!

For years there has been talk about how at National Juniors half (or a significant proportion) of the overall budget is spent on referees. I have a huge problem with this. I don’t say don’t pay the referees, i say pay the coaches the same – which will result in a proportional decrease in referee costs.

It is arguable that you can’t play the game without a referee. However it is far clearer the coaches contribute exponentially more to the development of the sport. They are the ones who spend hours each week, 12 months of the year, working for free (except for the lucky ones). Referees contribute and some regularly participate in the sport, but they get paid for it.

The future of this sport in Australia relies on participation and coaches do more to encourage participation than any other group of people involved in the sport. They actively inspire young players to have a lifelong commitment to the sport. Out of the various achievements I’ve had over my years of coaching, it is having achieved this with some individuals that gives me the most satisfaction.

The week that was – AVSC December 8 – 12

It was a huge week. As Willunga’s “floating coach” (a role that i am grossly underqualified for) i ended up getting up at 6am every morning and coming back to the accommodation by 11pm each night.  I really felt that willunga’s programme made a huge leap forward. For me, the highlight was seeing our U15 Girls Honours team take the bronze medal. After 7 years of trying to get a team into honours I can’t describe how it felt to see them make it into the semi’s and medal. But more on that later. We also won a bronze in Girls Open div 2, and we outscored last year’s cup points, edging closer to breaking 400.  So let’s look at how our teams went:

Open Boys div 1

Finished: 7th (64 cup points)
Win-loss: 6-3
Rallies: 835

It was really hard to tell where these boys would finish. On one hand they only had 7 players, with a knee injury to star player Chris Little. They didn’t have a coach with Chris and ex-student Jake Stangawitz sharing the role. But they did have a gun player in german exchange student, Ben Wedel, who had played in Germany’s national youth team. They got off to a good start winning 5 of their 6 first games. They lost the must win game on the Thursday and were immediately knocked out. In the end 7th was an improvement on their 10th place finish last year. Will be sad to see the curtain close on most of these kids’ playing days

Open Girls div 2

Finished: 3rd (52 cup points)
Win Loss: 7-2
Rallies: 767

Princi’s girls made it to their 3rd AVSC medal by slumming it in div 2. They didn’t drop a set for 3 days (first 5 games) and losing two games on the Thursday (including the semi) relegated them top playing off for 3rd. The final against Unley was a nail-biter.

U17 Girls div 1

Finished: 10th (59 cup points)
Win Loss: 4-5
Rallies: 881

Jacquesy’s girls AKA “the Phoenix” couldn’t quite rise from the ashes. Losing 3 out of their 5 pool games knocked them out by Thursday. In the end a niggling ankle injury meant National Junior Women’s rep Sarah Gould was a late inclusion and an early finisher. Middle Blocker Steph Collins did a good job holding them together playing all over the court but unfortunately 10th was the best they could finish. It is sad to say goodbye to Steph who is moving on to Brighton. After all, it is unlikely fort her to have a team next year and she’d still like to play on and get a crack at honours. I wish her all the best and know she’ll have friends there who will look out for her.

U16 Boys div 1

Finished: 8th (62 cup points)
Win Loss: 4-6
Rallies: 1001

Moon’s boys weren’t able to get one better than last year. Playing up in div 1 this year, the boys lost 3 of their 6 pool games to barely qualify in the top 8. Even with Josh Proctor firing, they lost a crucial cross-over game and didn’t make the semi’s. Chris Little spent a lot of time helping out these boys over the week yielding some big improvements. Hopefully these boys will be fired up to push for an honours spot. We have 9 months to get there!

U16 Girls div 1

Finished: 11th (58 cup points)
Win Loss: 4-4
Rallies: 812

It really broke my heart to see these girls who worked so hard all year not do a bit better. A throat-related illness left the girls with 6 players on the Monday who valiantly salvaged the day with a win and a loss, including a fantastic thriller against Wonthaggi. The girls lost their third pool game, partly due to some dubious refereeing and were out of medal contention by Tuesday night. Wonthaggi had gotten through on percentage and ended up taking the bronze. A similar thing happened to our U16 div 1 girls team 2 years ago, so I think we may have a “Wonthaggi Curse” upon us. Despite some disappointments, the core of the team is positive about next year. We’ll get there next year

U15 Girls Honours

Finished: 3rd (92 cup points)
Win Loss: 5-4
Rallies: 1647

I spent the most time with Willunga’s first ever honours, team helping out their match-coach Shantel. Although the hours I had put into training and preparing them might have helped get them through to the top half. It was really the team that took themselves into the semi’s as they blossomed into an even stronger team than I imagined. The girls lost only 1 pool game to Brighton in 5 sets but still managed to finish top in their pool. They were also lucky to make it through to the semi’s after losing both their crossover games. They had the highest points percentage out of 3 teams that were all on 1 win and went through. After losing the semi, the girls made it to the Bronze medal game – not bad considering they had lost 4 games on the way. The game against Upwey went to 5 sets on the showcourt and I couldn’t help but feel a sense of déjà vu. Nearly 4 years ago I had been the assistant in Henley’s 5 set win over Upwey at the U15 national championships in Albury Wodonga.

It had taken me 7 years to get a team into honours and for them to make a medal match was amazing. I told them as much before the game and that it didn’t matter to me what the result was. Needless to say I got a bit emotional.

Possibly one of the great stories of their tournament was one of the year 8 starters on the team, Morgan Hill who badly sprained her thumbs defending a ball on the Thursday. She had been winning a lot of points with her serving and hitting and we had presumed we couldn’t play her for the rest of the week. We gave her a chance to warm up in the bronze game, and after getting thumped in the 1st set we put her on and shuffled the lineup. I think she made a real impact and helping us get over the line.

The support from the rest of the squad who had flocked out to the showcourt to cheer on the girls was great. My long running obsession with getting a team into honours and medalling was finally over. Afterwards, it was nice that some of my favourite coaches came up to congratulate me and the team. Sue Dansie came up to the team to give them some nice words which was cool.

What I liked most about this team was their ability to stay upbeat whenever things were down. In timeouts whenever things got tense, Shantel would start getting them to sing and dance to KC and the Sunshine Band’s “Get Down Tonight”. Although I might have helped them tactically, technically and strategically, this is something only Shantel could have really done. I think more than anything else you need high emotional intelligence to be a successful game-coach. It was often a colourful contrast in timeouts with one camp looking rather intense while the other just sung and danced.

According to an uncle of mine the toughest guys in the Vietnam war were actually the Koreans. He lived on a Korean army based that got attacked one night by enemy soldiers and while these guys were suffering heavy casualties they never flinched and just kept on singing together, I’ve always been a firm believer that the team that sings together wins together.

Other good things

Loxton winning the Gold medal in U17 boys honours. If it was an impressive feat for our first honours team ever to win a bronze medal, then Loxton winning U17 boys honours is just amazing. At that level with so many kids playing higher level volleyball in state teams, development squads and clubs, for an isolated community to pull that off is quite the achievement. Sure the had a couple of state players, but it takes more than that to win an U17 honours title!

Loxton also did quite well in some div 1 competitions, reclaiming from Willunga it’s title of 3rd best SA school. To top it off they beat town rivals Renmark in 2 of their 3 playoffs on the Friday (how on earth there were so many Renmark/loxton playoffs is just weird). Renmark used to be a real powerhouse, but I think they’ve been in decline since the Scotts left. Loxton used to be the poorer cousin and it was even slightly funny that a loud boo came on during the opening ceremony from the Renmark contingent when the Loxton banner came out. I think it was pretty innocent and parochially funny. Still the days when Renmark outperformed Loxton may be over!

The Purple Orchid. I was fortunate for my good friend (and National Junior Women’s Assistant) Chau Le to take me out to dinner one night at the Purple Orchid in Springvale – Carl and Chris Lim’s family’s Cambodian restaurant. Definitely try the clams if you’re ever there. Or the beef cubes. Was also cool to have a chat to Carl and Chris who were both there. As it turns out, our families probably both shared Christmas together in Villawood nearly 25 years ago to the day!

Willunga Posse takes one for the big team. After 4 gruelling games and 2 5-set matches, the U15 girls had an 8am duty followed by an 11am game. I suggested to Shantel that Leith (the team’s manager) and I take the duty with some of the girls and let the rest sleep in. We couldn’t work out who to rest as even the girls who had not been on as much were carrying injuries and ailments. In the end, we managed to get another 6 people to help us out – other team managers, coaches and players with late games. A particular shout out to Schubert and Jake from the open boys who helped out.

Their effort meant the girls got to sleep in a couple of extra hours which I think helped them out. It was probably the biggest shift I’d seen in culture at Willunga, going from disparate teams which only picked players who were in the same classes to a “big team” culture where people just did what they could to help out the whole. I think they definitely contributed to that bronze medal!

Player demands officials let him ref a medal game. Now this i weird. As it turns out our gun german exchange studnet playing in our div 1 boys team is also a regional standard ref – just 1 below international standard. He enjoys doing it too. usually for good money. However in this case, he simply demanded that being such a good referee that the officials give him a “big game” to referee on the last day. He got the Open honours bronze medal game which went to 5 sets [27-29, 27-25, 25-15, 22-25, 18-16]. I’ve never seen a player ask to duty a gam, let alone a game their team isn’t scheduled to do, let alone an important game that directly determines a medal winner. I really don’t know what to make of it. Is it attention-seeking behaviour? or is it a commitment to craft and officiate at the highest level? you decide. It is an improvement. since the last time i remembered one of my open boys refereeing a match, it all ended in a fistfight.

This time Ben did a great job. When offered an official’s shirt to wear in the game he demanded he wear his willunga top to represent the school. our officiating dignity was restored!

[German Exchange Student and regional standard referee Ben Wedel top ref-ing the Mazenod/Monbulk Open honours boys bronze medal game. HE VOLUNTEERED FOR IT!]

Ditching the “idol contest”. As much as I am a fan of singing, the idol contest sucked. The Canberra tournament used to be all about the volleyball, and the singing contest was a sideshow we really didn’t need. It’s the Australian Volleyball School’s Cup, not Johnny Young’s Talent Time. Happy to see it go

Shorter Opening ceremony. Glad they moved it to a place where there was seating and made the thing shorter. Still, staging it in a giant, bare Olympic pool made me feel I was watching some weird event in North Korea. Keeping it short was great

Tin Can Bay wins 3 gold medals. This P-10 school has got to have the highest medal per capita record in the history of this event. All three of their teams won gold at AVSC. Sure 2 of them were in div 2, but still it’s pretty good. I remember their only team medalling in 2005. Good on em.

Not so good things.

Losing one of our best players to Brighton. I know Steph will be likelier to reach her full potential moving over to a Special Interest Volleyball school but it still sucks. It’s unlikely she’d have a team here next year let alone in honours. She also came out to help me coach every week for 2 hours, so i couldn’t have trained as many people to a decent standard without her. Good luck steph and I’ll definitely see you round state league and the like.

Incidents. Speaking to one of the officials, there seems to have been more problems for the red coats in the past. Why can’t people just be nice to each other? If anything, as coaches can’t we at least show our players how to solve problems without having to drag over an official. Are we in the business of teaching winning or whinging? I’m pretty sure that most problems can be solved by playing better volleyball. Whether the other team is getting away with bad volleyball, or there’s a scoring problem, or some trash talking, the easiest way to make it all better is ignore it and just get on with playing better volleyball.

Anyway, this brilliant and committed volunteer said she was considering not coming again after 3 or 4 years. That’s just bullshit and we have got to treat our volunteers a lot better

Low standard of refereeing. I don’t complain about referees during games, and I still haven’t because of my principles and philosophies, but there are some “accredited” officials out there that really suck arse. They changed the accreditation system this year, which I think just passed the buck to someone else. I think coaches or managers should do more of the refereeing. Perhaps a quota, where adults and players take a 50/50 split of going up on the stand. At Willunga I get stiffed with pretty much every BrightField game. For the record, the standard of refereeing in the honours event our U15s were in was pretty good. U16 div 1 was pretty bad. In all honsesty though i think it all gets easier if you get to  know the teams and their coaches in your pool. After all, they do the duties for your game. And if you respect each other than there seems to be less percieved refereeing problems. So i highly recommend having a yak with the other coaches and their players. tell them what you like about their teams. Once you all see that you’re all there for the same reasons (besides winning a medal) everyone gets along a lot easier. It’s not that the refereeing gets better, you just don’t think it’s worse when you like the people. it sounds retarded, but people are highly emotional beings. So find something nice to say to the other coaches when you see them. Find out where they’re from and tell them what you like about their teams. and if you can’t think of anything, then you’re a deluded misanthrope who should find something else to do with their spare time.

Scoring system? Why on earth are they choosing to go with Points percentage before set percentage. Apparently this is what the FIVB is doing and we’re following suit. I still reckon it’s harder to win a set, and there’s an economic beauty in the team that wins more sets with less points. Still it means every rally counts so no tanking.

What on earth was that Craigslea guy on about? I went to the coaches’ “technical meeting” for the first time. The AVF’s CEO was there which I thought was weird. Surely this would be a bit below her pay grade. There was also an election for a school rep on the organising committee between David Eldridge and the Craigslea guy. I really have no idea what the Craigslea guy was on about or what his platform was. Not that I got to cast Willunga’s vote, but I suspect it went to Eldo anyway.

No closing ceremony. It did suck that the honours court went over time and we couldn’t have a proper closing ceremony. After years of dreaming of being up on the podium in front of many people I’ve had the chance to work with who have put up with my incessant fixation on winning a medal in honours, I saw my team get their medals in the foyer. I think it sucks more for the kids. After all, I’m a confirmed tragic who will be going to this event for years. They might not ever get to go up and accept a medal again.

Gastro. Again. The note saying shaking of hands was to be replaced by “acknowledging the other team” was definitely a downer. I remember some friends of mine telling me about the Gastro outbreak at AVSC in 98 I think it was. It’s a pity cos you want to see the teams at their best going against each other at the business end of the week.

Rostrevor not so strong. It was a sad day to see no Rostrevor teams in honours divisions. Their open team finished even lower than ours. In Div 1. Speaking to Urbani he’s going to ramp it up again. Let’s hope we see them there agin next year

Gerfloor Cup still a two-horse race. For all the hype about Girton bringing over one of the best squads it’s ever had, it was still between BrightField. They really should ask at the organising committee if the Gerfloor cup for campion school should just be renamed the “Heathfield/Brighton Shield” for whoever wins. Most of the players at this year’s AVSC weren’t even born the last time that someone other than BrightField won it. The numbers game says it’s a tough ask.

The cup is judged on your best 6 results. Since you get so much more points for honours, only schools with teams in at least 6 honours events can really have a crack at it. This year there was only 2 – Monbulk and Rossmoyne. BrightField had teams in every honours event (Brighton had second teams in two honours divisions) letting them choose their best 6 results from.

So long as BrightField finish in the top 8 in 6 of their honours divisions no one else has a shot at the cup, since you get the same score for 1st in div 1 as you do for 9th in honours. Only 1 BrightField team finished out of the 8 (Heathfield Open Boys). But that was ok, because they didn’t have to count that one in their top 6 results.

Special commendation must go to Heathfield, who in 2002 won 5 of the (then) 6 honours events. They lost the 6th event 15-13 in the 5th set of the medal game and nearly had the perfect score by a margin of two points. With the “modern landscape” of school volleyball this feat is unlikely to ever be repeated.

Men’s AVL

Hooray! Men’s AVL is finally back on and coming to town this weekend. They’ll be playing up at Mt Lofty from tonight, with the first match between Mt. Lofty and UTSSU at 7pm. unfortunately i won’t be able to watch this as i’m coaching summer junior league out at Unley [however one could argue that for the young kids i'm coaching, this would be invaluable to their education!]. Luckily, there are 4 games on the saturday and sunday each and i’ll be out on the saturday.

The highlight of this round is I’ve heard ex Korean international player Shin Jin-Sik will be playing [below] for UTSSU. For those of you who don’t know, Shin was a standout star of the 2000 Olympics where he carried his team, dominating the hitting stats. i remember crazy stats like 25 kills a game. Not a big guy, he’s only about 6′2 and has a highly unorthodox windmill spiking action. I remember in one game at the 2000 olympics, a Shin-led Korea took eventual silver medallists Russia to 5 sets. They had 3 match points in the 5th. Russia won when a pressure play found it’s way to Shin and he was roofed out by the 217cm Alexei Kazakov. I’ve got 95 mins of that game on DVD (As another sympton of being a tragic, i spent the earlier part of this year transferring all my volleyball matches to DVD for posterity) and it’s definitely one of the prized matches i have in my collection (If anyone wants a copy drop me a line).

The other highlight will be watching some kids i coached (a looooooong time ago) play for the AIS team. There’s passing impressario Michael McEwen, who to be fair I never really coached but was just fortunate to have on a couple of teams I coached. There’s also Chris Little from Willunga and Hawks. I’m really happy to see him get a guernsey and it’s a great wrap for his school and the club. There are also a couple of scholarship holders from SA in Harry Peacock and Brendan Clewes, so it promises to be a pretty good weekend.

So i’ll be getting up early saturday to pick up a couple of the kids from the club for a road trip up to watch all the saturday games. It’s worth the drive and spending at least a whole day up there. The reduced number of teams will hopefully mean the standard will be really high. And after all, we’re lucky if it comes once a year.

If you’re free tonight, get out there and watch the opener. Watching our local boys take on Shin Jin-Sik, what more could a tragic want?