Many parents breathe a sigh of relief at this time of year because the most stressful part of the club volleyball season has passed – summer open gyms and tryouts. For the next two months their daughters will play on their junior high or high school teams and wait for the club season to begin in November.
Because the sport has enjoyed rapid growth over the past ten years, the quality of programs varies greatly between clubs and within clubs. The following list is a summary of the qualities of strong volleyball programs based on comments from conversations with parents. A similar post will provide the reasons young athletes decide to play other sports.
• The best coaches are the ones who have a purpose for everything they do and say – from the drills in practice to substitutions in competition. Not only are they organized, they communicate their purpose with the athletes and the parents.
• It is like going to a BOGO free sale when coaches teach on-court skills that have lifetime applications, such as learning to deal with success and adversity.
• The best coaches provide cues to players that help them improve their skills. It is helpful to hear a coach enthusiastically say, “You’ll get the next ball” or “Good footwork” or “Where would you hit that shot next time?” It doesn’t help when a coach says “good shot” in a monotone on every ball.
• It is great to see practices where kids are constantly engaged in meaningful activity and not standing in line.
• My daughter enjoys going to practice because she likes most of the kids she plays with and she respects the coach.
• It is important to have coaches who can communicate. Coaches who yell at their players or make them run laps do so because they don’t know how to convey their expectations to the athletes. These coaches are only capable of identifying an error, but not correcting it.
• Kids must be taught how to communicate with their teammates on and off the court. This is a skill that has to be taught and practiced.
• Athletes learn best when coaches create an environment where kids aren’t afraid to try new things and make mistakes.
• Athletes have to be taught mental toughness skills. Then they have to practice them.
• Coaches should give the kids a chance to touch the ball and play the sport. They don’t learn by watching the coach get a good workout.
• Kids like it when coaches call them by their first name.
• Performance trumps outcome. It is more important to teach players to give 100% in practice and competition than it is to focus on winning. When you give 100% all the time, the winning usually takes care of itself.
• Coaches must learn to have a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset, as defined by Carol Dweck in her book Mindset. In a growth mindset, players will view practices and competition as opportunities to learn.
• It is great to see coaches teach their players how to set goals based on performance and help the athletes work towards achieving those goals.
• The top club directors will honestly provide their players with the criteria for making the team in a tryout.
• Great coaches value the benchwarmers as much as the starters – and they let the benchwarmers know what they can do to become starters.
• Parents can be a pain in the butt; however, they are an important part of the process in making a program successful. They also pay the bill.
• My kid has a volleyball at home, but when she joined the team they gave her a new ball with the message that she needed to practice on her own. Not only that, they taught her how to practice on her own.
• It is great to be in a program where kids, coaches, and parents work together on a community project. Typically these projects are local, but some clubs will give their athletes a chance to travel outside their hometown to a foreign country.
There is nothing on this list that is rocket science. Strong volleyball programs are built around club directors and coaches who excel in all aspects of coaching and programming. Strong volleyball programs have coaches and players make the learning process look very easy.