Meaningful touches make a difference in the rate at which players and teams improve.
The number of touches may be determined by the time spent on non-volleyball activities (setup, warm-up, discussions, dealing with injured players, cool-downs). As well, teams may spend time in strategy talks, working on mental toughness, or reviewing videos of match play. All of these activities can play an important role in the learning process even if no meaningful touches are associated with them.
In addition, the number of touches may vary as a result of the skill level of the athletes, number of courts, equipment and training aids, amount of practice time, coaching philosophy, and the drills selected.
While the number of touches matters, coaches should optimize, rather than maximize, the number of touches based on the needs of the team.
Consider the following two scenarios:
- A player on a team that averages 1.0 meaningful touch every minute, or 120 touches every practice. This player will get 8,640 touches during the season.
- On the other hand a player that averages 2.0 meaningful touches every minute, or 240 touches every practice, will get 17,280 touches during the season.
Both scenarios are highlighted in the table below.
The difference between these two scenarios is 8,640 touches over the course of the season.
17,280 touches (scenario 2) minus 8,640 touches (scenario 1) = 8,640 touches.
That number of touches is equivalent to 36 practice sessions. In other words, the team with 2.0 meaningful player touches per minute is theoretically half a season ahead of the team that gets 1.0 meaningful player touches per minute by the end of the season.
Meaningful touches matter! It is essential for coaches to optimize the number of touches in their practices.