Question about coaching youth volleyball

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JohnB

Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 11:41 am

Guest

Hi all.

I'm relatively new to this.
I've pretty much got a handle on everything except how to coach 2nd,
3rd, and 4th graders how to know which ball is theirs as it comes over
the net.
The first league my daughter was in, I was asst. coach.
The head coach said that they were to believe that EVERY ball was
theirs.
I understand that this will take the guesswork out of it and remove
some hesitation that they might have.
However, last season, my first head coaching experience, I had some
slightly more talented girls who saw the ball sooner than less
experienced girls and kind of got in their space to get the ball.
The result was better volleyball play and more points but the less
experienced girls were hacked that the other girls were getting into
their space.
I suppose that I should restrict each player's roaming ability to a
set cushion and help them understand that this is a learning
experience for all and it's not all about winning.

Perhaps I just answered my own question.

Any thoughts?

Butch

Todd Haverkos

Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 11:15 pm

Guest

JohnB <butchusenet807@totc.biz> writes:

Quote:

A good instructional tack because by and large in that age group, the
common thing one sees is the ball falling between two of them looking
at each other.

Quote:

I understand that this will take the guesswork out of it and remove
some hesitation that they might have.
However, last season, my first head coaching experience, I had some
slightly more talented girls who saw the ball sooner than less
experienced girls and kind of got in their space to get the ball.
The result was better volleyball play and more points but the less
experienced girls were hacked that the other girls were getting into
their space.

I'd say the less experienced girls only get a chance to be hacked if
a) they called the ball before another player, and the other
player took it anyway
and/or
b) the player that took the ball passed it poorly

and even then, teamwork principles bear some underscoring to all
parties.

So if they grouse, I'd answer either "did you call the ball before she
did? It's okay, let's work together." or "Britney, nice pass, way to
be aggressive. Jennifer, don't be afraid to call that ball earlier as
that was one you could've passed more easily. Britney, don't be
afraid maybe to pause a little and Jennifer, speak up and call it
early."

If this continues to be a problem, maybe change the serve receive
pattern. Maybe you have a team that's ready to graduate on from the
dreaded god-awful W serve receive early. This is a good thing! Smile

Personally I can't stand a 5 person serve receive, but if you wander
into a lower level open gym guess what ya see?

At that level, havingmultiple people fighting over the serve receive,
though, is what I'd call a good problem to have.

Best Regards,
--
Todd Haverkos tdh@vbref.org
http://www.vbref.org/

sdstuckinca

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 4:11 am

Guest

Quote:

I'm relatively new to this.
I've pretty much got a handle on everything except how to coach 2nd,
3rd, and 4th graders how to know which ball is theirs as it comes over
the net.

Congratulations and Thanks for getting into coaching youth
volleyball. You have some of the most wonderful and most frustrating
experiences of your life ahead of you. Enjoy them!

First off, follow Todd's advice. Continue to praise any player who
calls and gets to a ball and makes a pass. Secondly, explain to
players who don't like a teammate encroaching on their "territory"
that the solution is for them to call that ball and then make the play
themselves. Just be aware that for many young girls those
instructions are just going to be words. It may take months, or even
years for them to truly understand what you are saying. Just don't
give up on them.

Secondly get half or more of those girls off the court. Play 2 on 2
or 3 on 3. Reduce the size of the court at the beginning if you have
to. I coach middle school and I spend at least 25% of my practices
with a reduced number of girls on the court. Play Queen of the
Court. I have never met a volleyball player yet who doesn't love that
game. As a coach I love it also. It forces all your players to move
and to play the ball on the move.

I add a conditioning element to my Queens drill once the players get
comfortable with the game. I explain to my players that we will be
doing a certain amount of conditioning exercises each practice. With
beginners the conditioning may be as simple as doing 'killer
rabbits' (player squats down to touch the floor, then jumps as high as
they can while clapping their hands together over their heads) So for
the first few practices we will take a couple sessions of conditioning
drills during practice. Example after serving practice we stop and do
10-15 killer rabbits, then on to passing, then we do some crunches,
etc. We end every practice playing queen on the court. Then after a
couple practices I give them the choice, we will cancel the scheduled
conditioning sessions, but add the exercises into the Queens drill.
They all mistakening think that they will do less conditioning if we
spread it out during the queens game. They are wrong.

If playing 2 on 2 queens I divide the team into 4 or 5 teams depending
on how many girls you have. Each time a pair leaves the court they
have to do three things 1) shag the ball, 2) do 1 or 2 killer rabbits
3) be ready to get back on the court when it is their turn again. I
heavily stress that the killer rabbits are not a punishment for losing
that rally, it is their conditioning exercises but we just spread them
out during the drill. Since 20 minutes of queens with 5 teams will
have most players doing significantly more than 10 -15 killer rabbits
I usually change in the middle and let them do a few crunches
instead. As they get older and strong you can add pushups. My U14s
team has also run suicides. This has turned out to be a win for both
the players and me. They love the game which teaches them how to
anticipate and react to a ball and I get them to do more conditioning
than I ever could during a normal practice without a lot of whining.

But the main thing is to get them moving and passing on the court.
With 6 players on the court it is way to easy to think that the ball
is someone else's responsibility. With only two players out there
neither of them can afford to not go after the ball. There is no
other options.

Bruno Wolff III

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 3:28 pm

Guest

On 2008-04-16, sdstuckinca <dmcordes@yahoo.com> wrote:

Quote:

First off, follow Todd's advice. Continue to praise any player who
calls and gets to a ball and makes a pass. Secondly, explain to
players who don't like a teammate encroaching on their "territory"
that the solution is for them to call that ball and then make the play
themselves. Just be aware that for many young girls those
instructions are just going to be words. It may take months, or even
years for them to truly understand what you are saying. Just don't
give up on them.

Another thing you might try to do is introduce some thought process when
more than one person can easily play the ball. People shouldn't be defending
territory, they should be having the player play who will be best to play it,
for the team. While this could include obvious things as having the better
player pass it, you might also not want to have a hitter pass the ball so
that they can move to their approach area immediately while a nonhitter
passes the ball.

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