Volleyball Coaching Info

What are You Watching in Practice?

Your abilities as a coach are limited to how well you observe in practice. Good observation allows you to analyze, and therefore reinforce or correct, your players. Where is your focus when you look at the activities of your practice? How well do you pay attention to detail? Are you able to take in the big picture?

Your job, as a coach, is to be able to see the little adjustments of an individual, while also observing the team work as a unit. However, all coaches are only human, and cannot be both in narrow (individual details) and broad (team) focus simultaneously. Let us first address being focused on the details of the game, as it pertains to individual players.

When observing individuals, it is important to not just watch one person at a time, but to focus in on one part of the skill being executed. When watching a skill, such as blocking, there are many fine points to observe, such as feet, hips, arms, hands, and eyes.

Starting from the foundation of the feet, a coach can observe a lot concerning how efficient a player is at moving her body. Working our way up to the hips, are they square and directed into the court? The hips are close to the player’s center of gravity and should be directed to where the ball is desired to go (for most skills).

Next, the shoulders need to be observed, as they are the foundation of the arms. During blocking, are they extended and directed into the court? The arms and hands are the final touch for blocking. Both should be fully extended with the hands facing down, into the court.

Finally, coaches should watch the player’s eyes. You can decipher a great deal from what the player is actually focusing on (this is true for all skills). During blocking, is the player watching, the setter, the hitter, or the ball? The cues I like to use for blocking are “ball-setter-ball-hitter.” The blocker must first see the trajectory of the ball as it comes from the first contact. Will the pass allow the setter all 3 options, or can the blocker release

for the predictable outside set? Next, the blocker must see the setter set the ball. All setters, no matter how good, give their set away, and the middle blocker must learn that setter’s cues. After the blocker sees the trajectory and speed of the set, she must move to the appropriate location for the block, then her focus moves to the attacker. Blockers must realize that they block the attacker, not the ball. The approach line and armswing dictate the trajectory of the attacked ball. This is what the blocker must finally focus on.

Observing a person in a blocking drill is only one example of how to apply narrowly focused observation. In observing other skills, such as setting, feet, hips, shoulders, hands, and eyes are all important. If you are observing a drill where players are moving through the drill one at a time, focus on one part of the body for every player, then move on to another part when you are satisfied that everyone is performing that portion correctly. Be a stickler for detail, demanding perfection in the mechanics. It is only when players can move their bodies correctly, that they can make the ball go where it is supposed to.

Obviously, in order to be able to focus so narrowly, you must have an assistant or players running the drill. This is not always possible, but most drills should be designed so that at least one coach can be freed to observe how they wish.