The coach yelled at the girls, “How many times have I told you to get low when you dig a volleyball? Why don’t you listen to me when I tell you to get your feet positioned properly and your toss in the right spot when you serve? And when you hit a spike, you are supposed to move your feet left-right-left and reach for the ball. Why don’t you girls get it? If you want to win you have to do the things I tell you. Since you are so slow on the take, you can run five sets of wind sprints. Maybe in the future you will learn to pay attention to what your coaches are saying.”
A timid girl in the back of the huddle walked over to the bench where the coach’s clipboard was sitting. She calmly took the outline for the practice out of the clipboard, ripped it in half, wadded it in a ball, dropped in on the floor and stepped on it. She then picked it up and laid it on top of the clipboard.
The stunned coach didn’t know what to do. Her response was a reflex action, “What do you think you are doing? That is my practice outline. Now I can’t read it. You’re going to be running sprints for the rest of practice!”
The girl bravely said, “When you give us unclear instructions and become impatient because we don’t get it right – you tear our spirit apart, just like your practice outline is torn in half.”
The girl then picked up the crumpled outline, unfolded it, and asked the coach, “Can you see all the wrinkles in the paper. They are ugly. That is the way we feel when you belittle us and put us down. It is okay to challenge us, but you are destroying us. You are putting wrinkles in our confidence, just like the wrinkles in the paper with your practice outline on it. No matter what you do, you can’t get the wrinkles out. ”
The player continued, “Coach, we are humans just like you are. We are trying to get better and you aren’t helping us. We feel just like that piece of paper that has been torn in half, crumpled up, and stepped on. Every practice we leave as damaged goods rather than athletes inspired to become better volleyball players.”
The girl paused and before the coach could start yelling at her and her teammates again and asked one final question, “Coach, have you thought about teaching piano instead of trying to be a volleyball coach?” With that the girl put her warm-ups on, called her parents on her cell phone to have them pick her up, and never played volleyball again.
Are you a volleyball coach or should you think about teaching piano?