Club Volleyball Offensive System Choice for Setter

My daughter is currently a junior in High School and feels like she has a difficult choice to make between clubs. One of the clubs wants her to set and hit in a 6-2 while the other club will have her set in a 5-1. She has become a very good setter, however, even though she is only 5'9" she has hops and can be an effective hitter and is a good defensive player.

From a recruiting standpoint is it better to hi-light her all-around game in a 6-2 or show her setting skills in a 5-1? Do college recruiters view setters who hit/set in a 6-2 differently than they do setters that play in a 5-1? K. Fan

As a Junior in high school, your daughter would most likely play in the 17's age division of club volleyball (provided she started school at the traditional age). Even with the accelerated time frame of college volleyball recruiting, the 17's age group is still the most important segment. To this end, Prospective Student Athletes (PSA's) need to be clear about their college playing goals.

It sounds as if your daughter has been blessed with athleticism, in addition to setting skills. Being able to set and hit effectively is a wonderful spot to be in as a high school player, but the college game, even more so than club volleyball, is one of specialization. I cannot remember the last time that I saw a Division I women's volleyball team running a traditional 6-2 offense with the setters attacking. 6-2 offenses in college today are front/back substitution systems with a setter-opposite player.

By the last part of your question, I would anticipate that your daughter is looking to set in college. Since colleges don't have setters attacking, then your daughter should be in a 5-1 system as a 17's player. The 17's age group is when college coaches are taking the hard look at players to determine ability and potential. We really don't care about setter's all around game, as much as we care about seeing a setter run an offense. With rally score volleyball, sideing out is the most important part of the game and having a setter who understands how to run an offense (not just set the offense), who has the technical setting skills to stay fundamentally sound during pressure situations, to lead and manage hitters, are all very impactive for a college volleyball team's success.

At the 17's age group, seeing a setter in a 6-2 offense is not a negative situation, because we can still view her skills/abilities. But, it is not as positive as seeing a setter in a 5-1, just because of the translation into college volleyball. Yet, college coaches understand when a club team would need an athletic setter hitting to ensure a successful tournament or season.

It would be incorrect to make this choice into one of huge ramifications because this is not the case. A talented player will be seen and college coaches make their living by bringing talented PSA's to their programs. My concern would be to present your daughter in the best possible light and to allow her the experience of running a 5-1 offense over the course of a couple of club seasons in preparation for her collegiate future.

Good luck!

Random Reflections on Women's College Volleyball

Volleyball Random Thoughts - Either freshly minted or just regurgitated from my past by a deja-vu moment.

- Winning the Serve-Pass battle is still central to winning the match.

- Hitting the ball in the court is a good thing.

- The antennae and the net are always in the same spot in every match.

- Officials are becoming worse than the line judges.

- Even in the current economy, the gap between the volleyball haves and have nots is only growing.

- I am gravitating towards watching professional football and basketball because they don't carry a nice frosty layer of hypocrisy with each serving.

- I still don't like the multi colored ball; wish we would go back to the all white ball. If anything it would reduce the pressure on officials to make calls, since the ball spin is not as visible.

- Defense is becoming a lost art among the land of the giant volleyball players; between the libero, 340 substitutions and rally score it is hard to see consistently good defense by taller kids.

- Airline travel is just a nightmare; how much do we have to pay to get our Trainer kit checked in?

- I don't understand how come it takes almost 2 hours to get a dinner at a Chili's, Applebee's, Olive Garden, etc. for a volleyball team. Catering or finding a restaurant which delivers is looking rather appealing at this point. Delivery or Salad Bar places are my new mantra.

- HBO must have the monopoly on hotel movie channels. I can't remember the last time I saw something other than HBO at a hotel; some of them even have a few different HBO channels.

- Speaking of hotels, it is a wonderful surprise to find a good movie on after a tough loss. Can't go to sleep anyways, so being able to mentally decompress while watching something entertaining is a joy. Wasn't there a Springsteen song which said, "57 channels and nothing on"? I think this is the volleyball gods being mean at night!

- Speaking of hotels, part II - When the room smells a little 'off', break out the coffee! Almost all hotel rooms have those 4 cup coffee makers, so I will take one of the coffee packets, tear it open and sprinkle in the corners of the room. If you don't mind the smell of coffee, it really helps with not good smelling rooms - and, housekeeping will just vacuum it up anyways, so hopefully no damage done!

- The line tool shot is the great equalizer for any small Outside Hitter - It is really a thing of beauty.

- How come the volleyball always seems to find its way through the small triangle formed between the outside and middle blocker's arms? I swear this triangle is so small you could not get a tennis ball through it, but by some TLC street magic act, the volleyball comes thru untouched!

- I am not ready to even think about going out recruiting. When I was a younger coach, I voted against any Dead/Quiet Periods, now being more 'seasoned', I am always for making the Dead/Quiet Periods even longer.

Have a good Monday.

Coach

Volleyball Outside Hitters - Attacking Advice

First of all, if you are a current Division I college volleyball coach (or for that matter, a current Division I volleyball player), do not read this post!

For everyone else, here is some advice on improving your hitting percentages as an outside hitter - Hit smooth line and power everywhere else. For this post, we will ignore the need to tip; maybe a future post on how, when and where to tip should be upcoming?

On non-combination plays (traditionally known as a right side and or left side "X" or crossing play) or solo inside sets (where the outside hitter attacks a ball 2 to 8 feet from the sideline), the outside hitter will attack the ball near the antennae. Because offenses wish to "spread" out the block and because of transition attacks, the majority of outside hitters attack the ball on the perimeter of the court.

When an attacker takes a swing on the edge of the court, there are four issues they may well need to deal with; 1) the antennae, 2) the right or left side blocker, 3) the middle blocker and, 4) the net. Each of these four instances are a challenge to a successful attack of an outside and two of these items are static (the antennae and the net will ALWAYS be in the same spot no matter where and when you play).

I ask my outside hitters to attack for zeros and kills, and to avoid negatives. Remember that a negative is an attack which is hit out of bounds, in the net or stuff blocked; a zero is an attack which is dug by the other team or blocked and covered by the hitter's team; a kill is a ball which an attack results in a point for the hitter's team by either being blocked out of bounds, attacked cleanly to the floor or a ball which is dug by the other team but ultimately cannot be played over by the opponents (i.e. dug way deep, opposing team chases it down, but cannot get the ball back over the net). I rarely get upset with my hitters when they are blocked, because I view it as the responsibility of the rest of the team to cover the hitter; about the only time I would be critical of a hitter after being blocked, is if the hitter attacked the ball directly into the blocker and the ball was right on the net, thus the blocker has an easy time of it.

In this vein of trying to achieve positive and zero attacks from the outside hitters, while trying to avoid negative results, and in consideration of the four challenges facing the hitters on outside sets, I suggest that outside hitters attack line smooth and all other attacks with power.

Smooth line - The reason that I use the word smooth, is because it conveys a better mental image of what the actual swing of an outside hitter should look like when attempting a line attack. Smooth is not weak, or easy; it is not a roll shot.

Power - Just as it sounds, all non-line attacks need to be hit with power. Not crazy, try and bounce the ball or take some opponent's head off brute force, but rather to hit the ball with substantial strength.

Take a moment to consider the line attack, believing that the set is in the perfect position (hitter is not forced into an angle shot because the set is outside the antenna). Blockers rarely take the entire line and by that, I mean the blocker does not have their outside hand a millimeter from the antennae. Rather, the outside blocker usually leaves a bit of space on the line (or a lot of space if the scout report says to concentrate on blocking angle or the defense is in a rotation), and then most outside blockers make an unconscious angle/seam movement when blocking, thus opening up more of the line to attack.

Hitting line represents a smaller target area, both in terms of getting the ball past the net/blocker and in the court with the sideline being so relevant to the attack. On average, the harder you hit the ball, the less control you have and conversely the easier you hit the ball, the more control you have. But, hitting easy in NCAA volleyball usually is not a good thing, which is why I encourage our hitters to attack Smooth line. Smooth is at about 80% of a power hit, allowing the hitter to extend their elbow and attack at the top of their swing (creating a better attack angle), encourages control at the point of contact, yet the attack has enough force behind it to twist the hands of the blocker (remember the side line is the friend of the hitter when manipulating the line blocker) and the ball gets on the line defender quickly, while not being as easy to control.

I don't encourage a power hit on line attacks because power swings have a lower contact point (hitters use their pectoral muscles more when generating power, thus the contact point drops to allow more use of the pectoral) which brings the net more into play, power swings have less control which makes the antennae and side line a threat to a successful attack, since the hitter is attempting to achieve a kill or zero within a rather narrow physical area.

Conversely, I want my outsides to hit all other attacks with power. As an outside hitter moves their attack focus away from the line, they eliminate one of the challenges to success, the antenna, and they create a larger playing area to attack into. Of course, they also bring into consideration the middle blocker, which is not a concern when hitting line, yet they now have much more net and court real estate to work with. While there is more square footage to manipulate, there are also more defenders waiting. To achieve kills and zero attacks, we want the outside hitter to attack with power - Again, not crazy hit the paint off the ball power, but rather an attack which is hard for the defense to control the force behind the ball.

The harder a ball is hit, the harder it is for the defense to control, either by the block or by the diggers. If a ball is hard to dig, then the odds of a good dig are reduced, which translates into a less than optimal transition attack; literally having to set outside versus having the middle hitters as a transition attack threat. In terms of the block, a power hit creates challenges especially if it is attacked high on the block (hands can easily be twisted on a high hard attack, while forearms tend to be solid) - How many times have all of us seen hard attacks blocked deep out of bounds on the attacker's side, ricochet to the sidelines, touched and land 20 feet behind the defense? Many good things can happen when the ball is hit with power.

Too many times, I see outsides (unfortunately on my team!) not attack the ball with power because they are trying to keep it in (which is a good idea) or are hesitant to really bang the ball. This leads to controlled digs and effective transition attacks. There are good zero attacks and bad zero attacks - Yes, we anal coaches can break down anything into wonderful minutia! A good zero attack is when the other team cannot set the front row, or the setter has to dig the ball, or the left front hitter is removed from the transition attack. A bad zero attack is when the middle back defender digs the ball, allowing the blockers an extra bit of time to transition into their attack footwork and the setter is able to see everything set up, or the ball is hit with such a lack of power anywhere that it is easily dug into the setting area.

Practicing hitting with power is relatively easy and not too much time should be spent upon this skill, yet hitting smooth line is much more difficult to master but well worth the effort. When you, as an outside hitter, are in hitting lines or attack drills, do not just hit the ball into the middle of the court with a relaxed swing. Focus on hitting line with a smooth swing - Outside hitters need to get a "feel" for where the antennae is in relation to each outside set since outside sets are never exactly the same. It is OK to clip the antennae in practice when you hit, because this gives instant feedback about the line attack.

Also, the outside hitter needs to practice hitting the ball so it lands just a foot or two inside the sideline. Outside attacks should not land on the sideline, this creates too much margin for error (just think of all the less than perfect line judges), but rather the ball should land inside the sideline. Outside hitters need to understand how the angle or trajectory of the ball changes based on what their hand does at contact and/or how using their off arm affects the flight of the ball and/or how the management of their torso affects the flight of the ball post contact. These are all feedback opportunities which must be understood while practicing.

Thus endeth the lesson for today.

Volleyball Recruiting Time Frame Question

Thank you for your wonderful site and helpful information. It has been very useful during my daughter's recruiting process. She is a junior in high school. I especially like your year-by-year recruiting plan. However, our experience has been a little different regarding timing and I'm hoping you can comment.

My daughter has gotten interest from various top-20 D1 programs and has been fortunate enough to have multiple scholarship offers on the table. A nice problem to have, but most of them seem to want responses NOW (early fall). I would like my daughter to have a little more maturity and luxury of time to analyze her choices. Is this the new reality for recruiting at this level of play? Is there any leeway to negotiate more time? Also, how does one get "intelligence" on the coaches to ascertain that it's the right match for my daughter? Vanessa

Vanessa, your daughter is in a unique position in relation to the majority of Prospective Student Athletes (PSA's). While everyone hears about players receiving scholarship offers early in their Junior year, and indeed for a number this may be late in their sophomore year, this tends to be the large exception, not the rule.

Yet, the questions and concerns which you have expressed, are applicable to everyone going through the recruiting process. The biggest point which I can make, is that the time frame should be dictated by the PSA and family, not by the college coaches.

A recent example of this time frame being determined by the PSA is Alex Klineman, now at Stanford. I can remember the zaniness when she was considered the number one recruit in her class, but she did not commit until very late in the process. Some folks said she would lose offers, others said she was making her last year in high school unnecessarily complicated, some thought she was just being a bit selfish with the attention, but the reality is she made her decision about her future on her time table. While your daughter may or may not be the top recruit in her class, she has the right to make her decision based on what is most comfortable for her.

In the recruiting process, all things being equal, it is the PSA who has the power of choice. When I say all things being equal, it is important to understand that each PSA and each school usually find their equilibrium with each other. This is why a mid-major school usually commits PSA's with mid-major abilities. This is why the elite level PSA's end up at elite level programs. Of course there is always the case of parents/players saying "I can't believe Mary got a scholarship to Elite State University" or coaches saying "I can't believe Elite State University gave a scholarship to Mary" - Again, most PSA's end up playing at the level which is best suited to their abilities.

To answer you questions (with comments of course):

1. New Reality - Yes, this is the reality for PSA's at your daughter's ability level, but it is not new. Elite level programs are very good about staying elite and to do this, they must consistently recruit elite level talent. Top 20 schools have top resources (full coaching staff, director of operations, full time secretary, graduate assistants, plenty of budget for recruiting, etc.), which creates for them the opportunity to see more athletes, more often, in more places. In a situation like your daughter's, these programs understand her type are key to their continued success and to this end, the elite programs will offer a scholarship early and press for acceptance to secure the never ending next wave a great players.

2. Leeway for Time - Absolutely yes. It is not really a negotiation, it is more a statement, "My daughter is not ready to make a commitment at this time. We don't anticipate making a decision until later in the winter/spring/summer." Again, the ability to set the time frame is your choosing. It may cost you an exclusive offer (i.e. a program may simultaneously offer a scholarship to another elite player), but I doubt schools will pull offers completely. And, if they do, were they really so high on your daughter? This is a game that programs play with PSA's and families - "If you don't commit by such and such a date, this unreal great scholarship to our unreal great school is going to be offered to this other unreal great player, who we have been stalling out because we really, really want you on our team and you know, if we offer our unreal great scholarship to this other unreal great player, she is for sure going to take the offer and you are going to feel terrible because you just lost the opportunity to play for our unreal great school, program, coach, assistant coach, manager, trainer, SID, bus driver, etc."

This is too big of decision to make when not comfortable and not having done extensive research about all topics involved. I would suggest this accelerated time frame and college program/club peer pressure to commit yesterday has led to the drastic increase in Student-Athletes requesting releases to transfer and programs not renewing scholarships.

3. Researching college coaches - Well, rather soon I think there will be an app from the Apple website on this! The answer to your question is the question itself - You go get the intelligence by doing research. It is not very hard to do; but I suggest you stay off the message boards because too much of what I read is just silliness with regards to opinions on coaches. Talk to club coaches in your region which may have had players play for that coach, talk to parents in your region which have had players play for that coach, talk to current/former players who played against that coach. Try to find other families who went through the process with this program or coach. It is important to use the history, information and connections of your club program to put you into contact with those having this "intelligence".

Also, be smart on your campus visits. On your unofficial visit, ask questions of the staff and current players. This can be done subtlety and the key is to listen between the lines. For instance, if you casually ask a current player (away from the coach) about playing for them, listen for the reply. If the player says, he/she is pretty intense, but it is OK because it makes us stronger (red flags should be waving in your head) or if the player says, she/he is a good coach who they really like playing for (then this should be a positive). Also, ask the coach their style - They should provide an answer which is simple and clear. If they preface or cage their reply in certain ways, then this should be cause for concern ("...you gotta be tough to play for me").

Another way to evaluate a program is to watch a team practice. In practice you will learn much more about a coach than any game. The game is the end result, not the process. A PSA will spend much more time in the process with a coach than the end result. There are only 32 dates of competition (per NCAA rules and including the spring season), but there are also 132 days of the Traditional (Fall) and Non-Traditional (Spring) season and this does not include the 8 hour weeks of training between the Fall and Spring season!

Coaches are human, sometimes all too human, so making an evaluation on a match or two is not really the best indicator of a coach or program. There are days when a coach is feeling great or in a bad mood, days when they slept well on the road and days when they just did not get a good night's rest, some matches have a lot of mental/historical baggage because of things the players may not know, while other matches are just straight forward competitions - each of these things can alter a coach's behavior to certain degrees during the heat of competition.

One thing which I believe a lot of folks forget, is coaches don't have the physical release during matches like players do. It is so much easier being a player because of this physical release. Coaches are dealing with the same adrenaline, competitive fire, energy and desire to win as the athletes, but we don't get the release via physical competition. This is one reason I sleep like a baby when we win and I have long nights of running through the cable channels when we lose.

During practices, a PSA is better able to see the true and consistent personality of a coach. Is the coach a teacher, a drill sergeant, negative, positive, engaged, reserved, do they interact with the players or just dictate, do they smile or frown, do they positively challenge or just go through the motions? Check out how the current players behave around the coach - Is their body language positive, do they make eye contact with the coach, do they acknowledge coaching? These are small ques about the temperament of a coach, along with a better overall picture of their actual coaching abilities.

To finish up this rather not short post - Vanessa, you set the time frame you feel is best for your daughter. The programs that stay current with her are the ones which are truly interested in her.

Don't Call It A Comeback!

My daughter, a Junior, is a left-handed right-side hitter. For 14's and 15's club seasons she played on a top 5 team in a very competitive region. During her 15's club season she received several letters of interest from DI schools. Last fall, as a Sophomore, she made the Varsity team for her 5-A high school, racking up the 2nd highest kill ratio of the Varsity hitters. Then in November we were surprised when she did not make the 16's team for the same club (she didn't have a back-up plan for such a scenario; messages from the coach were that she was "part of the core team") . She was offered a position on the club's 2nd team and was assured by the coaches that her visibility to college recruiters would be the same ("recruiters don't care, or even know, if it's the 1st or 2nd team"). She ultimately chose to stay with the club she'd been with with specific goals in mind: 1) get lots of playing time, 2) still have the visibility and recruiting resources from the club, 3) hope to make a top team for 17's when it really matters.

But 2nd teams play in Club division (not Open). Knowing she would not be on a court that would attract recruiters, she proactively sent out letters to schools she has interest in, included her schedule and invited them to come watch her play. Unfortunately, at Denver Crossroads, 16's Club played the weekend before 16's Open (no visibility there; coaches aren't going to travel two weekends in a row). Even more unfortunately, a week later she suffered a grade 3 sprain playing during school off-season. So for Lone Star she sat on the bench with a boot on. I noticed a few recruiters make the long trek up the stairs and peek onto her court, but not many. Her 3rd qualifier was to be in Minneapolis but still injured, she did not make that trip. No visibility for the entire club season.

I'd sure like to hear your thoughts on how best to market a player not on an Open court (from what I could tell, her invitations didn't prompt recruiters to leave the crowded Open courts). And would also appreciate advice on how to recover from playing Club level ball (other than managing the tryout process better; we've learned that lesson!). Thanks! Christine

I would hazard a guess that the situation which Christine is trying to manage could/would occur to a number of other families. Whether it is a result of injury, club philosophy, new players coming onto a team, current players not progressing along a certain line skill wise, economics, random acts of bad luck; sometimes things just do not go a certain way during a club season. The key is to take an honest look at what happened, ascertain exactly where a Prospective Student Athlete (PSA) stands in the framework of recruiting, and then move forward in the most positive and productive way possible.

To this end - What Happened? Club level 16's team limited exposure to college coaches and injury resulted in zero exposure later in season.

It is just a matter of fact that Club level PSA's (versus Open level PSA's) do not receive the amount of 'coverage' from college programs. Part of it is too many teams to see within a short duration of time (specific to the National Qualifiers or really big tournaments - Remember Open is a small group and Club is huge), the NQ layouts can be very large and even with those handy dandy palm devices, trying to get from one side to the other of a convention center (while doing the river dance past grandma, getting stopped by so and so to chat, bumping into someone else you have not seen in two years, coffee smells good, etc.) is not easy or quick, limited staff (not all programs have two coaches on site and a third who is helping coach the 17's purple team, and thus can be walking around also), many NQ's have the Club level playing p.m. on Day One and a.m. on Day Two, which translates into coaches getting Gym Head late on Day One (this is a condition where all players start to blend into one, like some bad Star Trek episode) and too many coaches, especially single assistant coaches, having Hangover Head on Day Two - Getting to the gym early to scout the Club wave on Day Two seldom overwhelms the need for Advil and more sleep.

The situation where NQ's are splitting same age groups into two separate weekends just does not make sense and is a disservice to the families paying a lot of money. I would avoid such instances at all costs, especially at the 16's level.

As for the occurrence of an injury, this type of bad luck scenario happens and affects many players. There really is nothing anyone can do other than focus on rehabilitation, do not come back too soon (it may be better to sit an extra week or two, rather than come back too early and present a visual to a college coach which is not your best abilities), then when healthy, game plan about how to re-capture those exposure moments which have passed.

Current status in the the crazy world of Recruiting? Overall, I would say not bad. I know it is not great, but it could be worse.

Since the PSA was receiving introductory letters from Division I programs as a 15's player, this is a positive situation - It is no guarantee of great things, because too many DI coaches swing through the 15's waves and just tag any and all players which look to have a glimmer of potential - For many programs it is better to be safe and mark too many, than be 'late' on a PSA by not writing them as soon as possible. But, it does reflect the general idea that she has attractive skill levels or potential to college coaches.

If a college program keeps detailed notes in their recruiting database, the PSA's entry would read something along the lines of "saw at Northern Lights as a 15, severe ankle sprain mid 16 season, need to see again....". Injuries happen and with the sports medicine being very good these days, not being able to see PSA's during a certain stretch of the club season happens, but coaches tend not to worry too much because we can see them later or early next club season.

How to move forward? First of all, I would suggest you search through the site for the Recruiting Plan label where I detail out a year by year plan of attack for the traditional college volleyball PSA. By traditional, I mean the PSA's that are not among the Top 20 in the country and enjoy overt attention from college coaches and more scholarship offers than pizza coupons.

Second, I would generate a good skills tape from the high school season (either splicing skills together or having a filming day or two to capture the skills) and load this up into YouTube or another video hosting service, then send out an e-mail to any and all programs of interest (be open to travelling and different conferences) with your bio attached and the link to your video. At this stage, you are just trying to get back to current in the recruiting databases of the college programs before they engage in their 17's age group efforts. Don't worry, even if there are stories of so many kids committing fall of their Junior year, there are PLENTY of scholarships left with any number of quality programs. Right now you are literally trying to bait the college coaches (I like this analogy since we all swim around these Qualifiers like schools of mullet) to come see you play in the upcoming club season. Do not worry about sending out too many e-mails or update or videos - too much is better than not enough.

Third, decide the 17's level which is most appropriate. I phrase it this way because last club season was a wash, so it is important to be exact in what you need from this club season. For instance, while the natural urge is to jump on with an Open level team, getting on the court to demonstrate your abilities is the most important factor. If a PSA is on an Open level team, but only gets seen in warm-ups or precious few matches, this may not be the best level. It would be better to be on a Club level team, play all the time and trust your marketing/communication skills to get your information out to college coaches. Some Juniors teams are very democratic about playing time, while others are purely about garnering wins by playing the top seven players for almost all matches during NQ's (receiving significant playing time at some small regional tourney, where there are just a couple of coaches does not really count).

Fourth, be patient. I know this must be hard to read/hear, but there is lots of time left in this process. In a perfect world, the PSA would have been seen early and often, and not have suffered a severe ankle sprain. But there are so many positive instances still ahead of you - the 17's year of club is still the most important year for recruiting; college coaches understand the physical and skill differences between the 16's and 17's age groups are huge, thus many college coaches (myself included) want to see how a player progresses during this critical 12 to 15 month time frame. There are many great tourneys and matches still ahead, and many great programs will see her play!

Honestly, if you had to burn a year of club, then the 16's year is probably the one to adios. Earlier years are so important for skill development and physical coordination, while the 17's and 18's years are critical for the next level of abilities in terms of physical maturation and preparing for college level athletics!

Good luck and please, please, please enjoy this time in your daughter's (and family's) life - College volleyball is not worth the stress of what you folks have probably gone through. My experience is that PSA's usually end up playing where they should, no matter the path which takes them to their future home.

Getting Defensive!

The First Question of The Return of the collegevolleyballcoach.com - Just so happens to be a situation that I am also dealing with in regards to my college team!

This is my 4th year of coaching high school volleyball but my first year coaching at the 5A (biggest classification of school) level in TX. I have some pretty talented kids but we are in basketball country and my kids are WAY behind on skills. At this level obviously you have to have both talented kids and a high degree of skill to be successful.

So here is my question. I tend to be more of an authoritarian style of coach, although I've loosend up quite a bit in the last couple of years. I'm trying to implement my system of play but feel like I'm struggling getting them to both learn new skills and develop confidence. Our program has never had tradition of winning in volleyball both because most of the talented kids gravitate towards basketball and to be honest with you judging from the skills of my kids, have never had a coach that's taught them the appropriate skills. I'm riding them very hard because I want them to develop a killer instinct, especially on defense. However, lately I feel that being so assertive (on my part) has contributed to their lack of confidence and motivation to "go for every ball". For example, how do I get my kids to "drive through the ball" on extension digs instead of being on their heels? I've given them the "coil" or "split step" footwork and done numerous drills to teach them correct body posture on defense. But I can't seem to get them to be aggressive. I'm asking this question because I feel that a team's defensive intensity shows a lot about their mentality and in our case...our program's mentality. I so desperately want to instill in them a killer instinct but feel as though I'm just spinning my wheels.

Do you have any suggestions?

A. S. in TX.

You have presented a situation that many college coaches struggle with every season and, as I noted above, we are currently trying to work through our own defensive intensity issues.

I absolutely agree with you that Defensive Intensity reveals much about a team's personality and desire to be successful. The willingness to hit the floor, to go after that ball which just seems out of reach, to not give up when your initial read was incorrect; these traits all reflect a player's and a team's willingness to do the tough things.

One program for which I have always had a jealous admiration of their defensive abilities is the University of Hawaii. Coach Shoji presents a rather calm demeanor on the court, yet the only time I have seen him forcefully express himself during a match was on the rare occasions in which his players were not going after balls defensively. I think this defensive mentality shows the team determination which has propelled a non-power conference program into NCAA championships, not too distant Final Fours and the Elite 8 last year (I think?).

Easy enough to observe, just watch a game on TV (ironically funny since we completely changed our sport for TV, but it is still hard to find college volleyball on TV) between a couple of top 10 programs and you will see the defense so many coaches are trying desperately to find. But, how to go about creating it?

It has been my experience that you have to create an expectation level which is straight forward and not reinforced by fear. As you observed within your own program, your assertiveness can actually work against your goals. With regards to my team, I found myself going down this same assertiveness path and noticed that my team is more hesitant, almost frozen because they are feeling my aggressive posture to perform at a high level on defense. I was reinforcing my defensive goals with fear - players were playing defense based on their fear of my reaction to their performance (or lack of). When I finally stepped out the box for a moment, I swiftly rebalanced myself knowing that this is not how I want to run my program in any area - Fear is a bad emotion and only negative things can come of its use.

My work in progress solution has been two fold, 1) To continue the defensive drills which reflect the defensive techniques that I feel are important to our success, 2) To highlight and praise those instances where our defensive abilities/intensity produced positive and game changing results.

A few notes on 1) and 2):

- Defense is not a mentality or physically easy thing to do, especially when you are learning these skills late in high school.

- Unless you can play on a Sport Court, learning correct sprawl and roll defensive movements is at the minimum physically uncomfortable and many times painful - Hips, shoulders, butt, wrists, palms all get bruised and scraped.

- I suggest using floor mats initially to make things less painful to practice defensive sprawling and rolling. Once they get the physical movements down on the floor mats, then when the same movements are done on the normal surface, the physical movements will be more comfortable than before.

- There is also the mental hurdle of looking silly, while rolling/flopping around on the floor. Nobody likes to look silly or awkward and I think this feeling is exponentially more for high school females. If you think about it, not too many sports are played on the ground so often as ours (most sports come to a screeching halt when anyone goes to the ground).

- Making the defensive expectations routine and accountable (without it being a fear situation) is important. One time I was watching Penn State practice a number of years ago, when they were in another championship run, and one of their All-American Outside Hitters did not dive and roll for a ball in a simple defensive drill. Even though she was an All-American OH, and it was a simple game day one hour light practice, and Penn State would easily beat the upcoming opponent in three games, the assistant coach without hesitation or malice, simply said "five rolls off" and the All-American OH immediately did five dive and rolls on the side of the court and returned into the drill. This Penn State example made an immediate and lasting impression upon me.

- This always accountable defensive mentality can be easily applied to the simplest drills. For instance, when your players are peppering in the early part of practice, just stand off to the side where you can observe the pairs and when you notice any time a player lets the ball hit the floor without going after it (no matter how bad the hit), just blow your whistle and say the penalty which the whole team must do - It can be sit-ups, or push-ups or a certain number of dive a rolls. Making the whole team do it is a quick way of adding player/team accountability to any drill.

- Since you cannot recruit like college coaches, reach down into the Junior High schools which feed your program to make sure they are at least learning the basic skill sets. I know this is not a fun thing to do, and your time is beyond limited, but I absolutely promise you that the dividends in 3 years will be huge. Needless to say, this developmental philosophy should extend to your freshman/JV teams, but taking time to teach some basic ball control and defensive techniques to the younger kids will make them much more comfortable with your expectations when they arrive to high school.

- By praising positive outcomes instead of harping on negative instances is much like the old saying that you will attract more flies with sugar than vinegar. My hope for my team is that the sugar of praise will attract more players into the defensive philosophy which I really, really, really (and one more, really) need my team to have for us to be successful this season and beyond.

- Another opportunity to demonstrate the importance of defense, is that those players who illustrate the intensity you are desiring get to play. Playing time is the most important currency a coach at any competitive level has. There is a John Wooden quote along the lines of "the bench is my best teacher"; doing things correctly and according to the program philosophy will result in the honor of playing the game, doing things incorrectly results in sitting on the bench. It can be a tough thing to do when you sit a talented hitter or setter and may well result in a loss, but the long term pay off in program success dwarfs any short term negative.

I would say the most important part of your e-mail is you have made the self-observation that your current way of going about achieving your defensive goals is not working and actually being counter productive. As new wave as it may sound, this is a huge coaching step by you.

Just keep working on it, keep positive (I have gotten very good at shouting out 100 curse words all in my head!) and stay consistent in your actions and reactions.