Tag: Coaching

Relentless Competitors

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Are you looking for a way to motivate your athletes to be more competitive?

Jeff Janssen has written a series of books about leadership, team building, coaching, and competitiveness. His book Develop Relentless Competitors Drillbook provides coaches with drills, concepts, activities, and stories to help them raise their athletes’ levels of competitiveness. Examples are provided in the following paragraphs. Relentless Competitors

Concepts

Carolina Basketball’s Awards Board

In a nutshell Coach Roy Williams tracks statistics in 37 categories such as charges taken, box outs, and deflections. The categories also include turnovers, the quality of the screens, and the passes that would have been assists if the shot had not been missed. Ratios are established to measure the relationship between positive and negative plays.

These statistics did not focus on winning; rather they focused on the process of winning. Data was published shortly after each game which allowed played to have immediate feedback. As well, this allowed the coaches to recognize the players on a regular basis for their accomplishments in each of these key categories.

One of the important benefits of the awards board was that it helped players see the broader scope of the game. As well, the data provided athletes with the ability to objectively see what they needed to do to improve. The data was particularly helpful in determining the players who started and sat on the bench.

Activities

Competitiveness Continuum Discussion

Janssen has developed a continuum where players can rate themselves on the following scale of competitiveness:
• Scared
• Wimpy
• Passive
• Indifferent
• Assertive
• Aggressive
• Fierce
After rating themselves players can learn steps they can take to transition from being a scared competitor to a fierce competitor.

In addition, Janssen takes it a step further and suggests that coaches have their players evaluate their teammates on this continuum as a tool for helping them bring out the competitiveness in their teammates. Most likely, that exercise should be implemented with discretion.

Stories

The Bike Story

Stories are a great tool for helping people learn lessons they can apply to sports and life.

A young boy in Kentucky wanted a bike, but he realized his parents couldn’t afford to buy him one. He found a job at a local grocery store to earn money to buy a second-hand used bike.  The boy rode it from dawn to dusk, but it was stolen after he had owned it for only a week. A few years later this young boy got involved in the sport of boxing. As a form of self-motivation, he would look at his opponent and imagine that his opponent was the person who stole his bike. This tactic seemed to work. As it turned out, Cassius Clay (Muhammed Ali), became one of the best heavyweight boxers of all-time.

Drills

You the Man

This drill is an effective way to help volleyball players learn to focus on passing and terminating the ball. The coach designates a terminator for both teams. The only time they earn a point is when that person ends the point. Each team must focus on getting good passes so their setter can effectively set the designated terminator. Teams are trying to make it difficult for their opponents to get good passes. As well, they may utilize special defenses, such as double or triple blocks, to prevent the opponents from terminating. Varying scoring systems can be used.

Even though coaches and players have a variety of tools and techniques for encouraging their teammates to get fired up, they will find Janssen’s book to be a quick read that may provide them with some new ideas for becoming relentless competitors.

A Talkative or Disorganized Coach Prevents Kids from Getting Sufficient Meaningful Touches in Practice

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Gym time is an expensive and precious commodity. It must be used wisely. Coaches must be punctual in starting practice and the activities within the practice must be planned and executed precisely to optimize the number of meaningful touches for their players.

Consider the example of a coach who spends an average of 20% of the practice time in activities where balls are not being touched (court setup, warm-ups, discussions, lectures, water breaks, dealing with injured players, and cool-downs.) That would mean that 24 minutes of each practice were allocated to those activities and 96 minutes were spent in activities that might directly improve a player’s skills (drills and playing).

If a player had 2.5 touches per minute of touch time that would mean she would get 240 touches during a single practice. That would be 17,280 touches during a season (17,280= 240 times 72 practices; 72 practices = 3 times per week for 24 weeks). This is highlighted in the table on the right.

If, on average, 30% of the practice time was spent in non-volleyball related activities then the player would get 210 touches per practice or 15,120 touches for the season. This is also highlighted in the table on the right.

The difference between these two scenarios is 2,160 touches over the course of the season.

17,280 touches minus 15,120 touches = 2,160 touches.

At a rate of 240 player touches per practice, that number of touches is equivalent to 9 practice sessions.

As can be seen, an extra 5 to 10 minutes adds up over the course of a season.

 

Percent of Time in Discussions

Practice Minutes

Drill Time

Less Discussions

Player Touches Per Minute Touch Time

Player Touches Per Practice Touch Time

Player Touches per Season        72 Practices

10%

120

108

2.5

270

19,440

15%

120

102

2.5

255

18,360

20%

120

96

2.5

240

17,280

25%

120

90

2.5

225

16,200

30%

120

84

2.5

210

15,120

35%

120

78

2.5

195

14,040

40%

120

72

2.5

180

12,960

 

Responsiblesports.com – Parents and Coaches Not Always on Same Page

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Results for a survey conducted by responsiblesports.com showed that parents and coaches sometimes have different priorities about competitiveness, parent behavior, concussions, and parent involvement.

What are parents looking for in a coach?

  • 77% of parents place high importance on their child’s coach being a caring person.
  • 59% of parents place high importance on their child’s coach being skilled in that sport.

How important is the scoreboard?

  • Three of four parents say a primary reason they placed their in youth sports was fun.
  • About 36% of coaches say they have dealt with parents who had unreasonable expectations about winning.

How much emphasis should be placed on competitiveness? Responsiblesports.com gives tips that keep players, parents, and coaches from getting yellow cards.

Elementary school kids

  • 58% parents
  • 76% coaches

Middle school kids

  • 78% parents
  • 86% coaches

High school kids

  • 88% parents
  • 91% coaches

Coaches place a slightly greater emphasis on competitiveness.

How do parents behave in the stands?

  • 40% of coaches say they have experienced parents yelling negatively at other kids.
  • 44% of coaches say they have experienced parents yelling negatively at officials.
  • 55% of coaches say they have experienced parents yelling negatively at their own kids.
  • 39% of coaches say they have experienced parents yelling at them.

How do parents and youth athletes feel about concussions?

  • 82% of parents say they are concerned about the risk of concussions as a result of sports.
  • 47% of parents say concussions factored into the decision over which sport their child would play.
  • 35% of youth athletes are likely to raise a concern about concussions with their coach.
  • 12% of youth athletes are likely to raise a concern about concussions with their parents.

How involved are parents?

  • Nine of 10 parents claim to be involved by attending practices and games.
  • 46% of coaches say they experience problems with parents’ lack of involvement.

The responsiblesports.com website is sponsored by Liberty Mutual and it educates parents and coaches about key concepts for instructing young athletes. This information will help parents and coaches better manage their expectations and ensure that the athletes have a more productive learning experience.

Note: the information from the responsiblesports.com website remains relevant, but  the website is no longer active (2015).

Are Your Kids in a Responsible Sports Program?

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Are you a parent looking for a program that has the right coach for your son or daughter? Are you a parent thinking about coaching your kid’s sports team and you want to be a better coach? Are you a parent looking for tips about how to maximize your children’s sports experience?

The website responsiblesports.com was developed to provide parents and coaches with information about how kids can learn valuable life lessons from sports when they are in an environment that promotes and displays responsibility.

The website provides tips for both parents and coaches about:

  • Goal setting
  • Sports safety
  • How to talk to athletes about their performance
  • ELM (Effort, Learning, Mistakes)
  • Managing emotions
  • Honoring the game
  • Teaching kids how to work with coaches
  • The coach and parent relationship
  • The coach and athlete relationship.

The website is sponsored by Liberty Mutual and features resources such as videos, articles, and podcasts on a variety of sports related topics. In addition, parents and coaches have an opportunity to take a quiz that tests their knowledge of these essential topics.

Any parent who has children in sports programs will find information on the website that can make their children’s sports experience even more valuable.

Note: The information from responsiblesports.com remains relevant; however the website is no longer active  (2015).

Does Your Kid Have an Opportunistic Coach – opportunityisnowhere?

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All parents want their kids to play on sports teams where the coach takes advantage of opportunities to make the players better.

Does the coach teach kids proper techniques, tactics, and mental toughness and then catch them doing things right. Or does the coach focus only on the things the players do wrong? 

When the team loses, does the coach find ways to use the loss to make the team better? Or does the coach become frustrated and take it out on the kids?

When the best player on the team is injured, does the coach view it as a chance to allow other players to step up and contribute to the team? Or does the coach act as though the team doesn’t have a chance because their best player has been sidelined?

When the referee makes a bad call (referees are human), does the coach accept the call and challenge the players to find a way to offset the error? Or does the coach holler at the officials and accuse them of trying to make the team lose?

When the team’s best player has a chance to win the game with two seconds on the clock and misses an open shot, does the coach celebrate the fact that the player accepted a leadership role and had the courage to take the last shot? Or does the coach become angry and bench the player in the next game?

Does the coach read the letters “opportunityisnowhere” and say “opportunity is now here”?  Or does the coach read them and say, “opportunity is nowhere” (this is how the Microsoft spellchecker reads the letters).

Perception is everything.  Good coaches find ways to create opportunities in every situation!

Title IX – Opportunities for Men and Women Tennis Coaches

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The adoption of Title IX in 1972 created opportunities for women athletes and coaches.

Currently, 8 of the 11 head coaches in the PAC 12 women’s’ tennis programs are female. The USC, Oregon, and Utah programs have male head coaches and Oregon State is the lone school without a tennis program.

Four of the 10 assistant coaches are female and 2 of the 6 volunteer coaches are female. Overall 14 of the 27 coaches for women’s’ teams are female.

It is a much different story with the men. There are 8 schools with programs (OSU, WSU, CU, and ASU do not have men’s programs.)  All 23 coaches (head, assistant, and volunteer) are males.  This is a bit surprising, given there are qualified women who are capable of coaching men.

Given there are differences in coaching men and women, it makes sense that a majority of the head coaches are female. The fact that a majority of the assistant and volunteer coaches are male is an indication that men have learned the subtleties of coaching women.  It is also an indication that

there is a larger labor pool of male coaches and teaching professionals than women. Finally, many head coaches, including women head coaches, prefer to have men on their staffs because they can hit the ball harder in workouts with the women players.

Overall, the PAC 12 ratio of male to female coaches is 72% men/28% women. This is not significantly different from the male/female ratio of the teaching/coaching profession. The good news is that because of Title IX, more qualified women coaches are working in coaching positions and more men have become qualified to coach women.

2012 RJ Reilly Platform Tennis Camps – Serves, Volleys, and More

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This year marks the 20th year of RJR Platform Tennis Camps. A lot has changed in the way the sport is taught since Dick Reilly first rolled out his camps two decades ago.

Prior to 1990, there was limited platform tennis instruction. Over the years, the RJR camps demonstrated the value of concentrated high caliber instruction. Just over ten years ago, the USA PPTA was a offshoot of RJR programs. As a result, more than 230 platform tennis professionals have been certified and there are a variety of camps and “traveling” camps that provide instruction. It has become fashionable for players to improve their game through professional instruction. As a result, more players have an expanded knowledge about how to play the sport and most are enjoying their time on the court.

There is a core set of knowledge taught in each session of the RJR camps; however, it is customized to meet the needs of the players in each group. The core knowledge for the October, 5th-9th 2012 session is provided below.

Session I – Serve and Volley and Positioning
o Technical focus
o Hitting serves with spin. (Note: the serve and first volley are taught as a unit.)
o Fundamentals of volley.
o Tactical discussion
o Placement of the serve and first volley.
o Discussion about how service placement may dictate strategy and positioning for the remainder
of the point.
o Volley placement (deep and down the middle or to backhand side of ad court player).

Session II – Serve and Volley and Lobs
o Technical focus
o Hitting serves with spin. (Note: emphasis is on the role of spin on the serve and potentially the
overhead.)
o Fundamentals of volley.
o Lob.
 Off the deck (off a volley).
 Block (guarding the corner).
o Tactical discussion
o Placement of the serve and first volley.
o Discussion about how service placement may dictate strategy and positioning for the remainder of
the point.
o Volley placement (deep – middle of the backcourt or backhand side of ad court player).
o Lob height (As high as lights or in the sun).
o Lob placement (middle of the backcourt, make them move two directions to hit overhead).

Session III – Service Returns and Controlled Drives
o Technical Focus
o Shorter backswing.
 Increased control.
 Improved positioning for next shot.
o Modest pace.
o Balanced position when hitting the ball.
o Focus on placement.
o Tactical discussion
o Consistent drives.
o Drive placement.
 Consistency – high percentage of returns.
 Return short balls to outside of court at net player (or cross court).
 Return short balls to inside of court at seam, server, or player off the net.
o Help players better understand how to move drives to take opponents out of position.
o Keep pressure on opponents with a series of drives.

Session IV – Wires
o Technical focus
o Proper positioning.
 Back screen shots.
 Side screen shots.
 Side back shots.
 Back side shots.
 Crease shots.
o Center of the swing is at front of body – must be further back for backhand.
o How to lob down the line, cross court, and to the middle of the court.
o Tactical discussion
o Mix up placement of lobs.
o Mix up lobs and drives.

Session V – Tactics in the Wires
o Technical focus
o Proper positioning for greater consistency.
o Balanced when hitting shot.
o Tactical discussion
o When to lob.
o When to drive.
o Shot selection to set up player in deuce court.
o Shot selection to set up player in ad court.
o Review of Rules.
o Most common questions that professionals deal with.
o Questions from players.

Session VI – Controlling the Net
oTechnical focus.
o Proper positioning.
 Deuce court.
 Ad Court.
 Playing with a left-handed player.
o Stance at net
 Feet parallel to net.
 Feet in line perpendicular to net.
o Types of overheads
 Hit with pace (two wires)
 Spin
 Swinging volley
 Push/Pillow
 Waterfall
 Slash
 Roll
oTactical discussion
o Placement of overheads.
o Placement of volleys.
o Communications
o On-court during point.
o On-court between points.
o Off-court to improve on court performance.
o Playing with left-handed players.
o Determine which drives and lobs are going out.

Session VII – Competitive Play
o Men’s round robin.
o Women’s round robin.

Session VIII – Review of Techniques, Tactics, and Specialty Shots
o Review of spin on serve as it relates to placement.
o Controlling the net with proper positioning.
o Deeper serves as a way of improving first volley.
o Consistency in the wires.
o Review of differences between tennis and platform tennis and the subtleties of the sport.
o Maintaining balance on service returns.
o Maintaining balance on short balls and flick shots.
o Team instruction (for players whose partner was present).

In line with the philosophy, “The game teaches the game,” each session included match play to incorporate the topics focused on in the instructional sessions.

A sampling of comments from the participants shows the value of instruction in a camp setting:
o I came away with  a game-changing serve.
o I now feel confident in the ad wires.
o And I feel unstoppable in the deuce wires.
o We learned the importance of having the ability to be a Steady Eddy on the court.
o I learn to like drills and compete in them, just as if they were a match.
o My volleys have never been so good.
o I found that the wires are much easier by knowing where the ball is going.

Whether your sport is platform tennis, tennis, volleyball, or skiing, most players find that they enjoy it more if they learn to improve their skills and tactics through quality instruction.

 

Do Your Kids Receive Specific Instructions from Their Coaches?

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With the fall sports season in full swing, parents have an opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of their children’s coaches. Specifically, do the coaches give succinct directions?

The following examples differentiate between instructions that are not specific and those that are.

Example 1: Volleyball passes that are too low and off target.

The non-specific coach: “Come on girls, get those passes higher and to the setter!”
Result: The players shanked the next six passes before going back to their old pattern of off-target passes.

The specific coach: “Girls let’s hit 20-10 sets to the middle? Do you understand what I mean when I say 20-10?”
Result: The back row players answered, “No.” The coach said, “Make your passes 20 feet high or about 2-3 times the height of the net. They should land on the 10 foot line in the middle of the court so the setter can get to them easily. The specific instructions helped the players improve the direction, depth, and height of their passes.”

Example 2: Erratic passes (volleyball) caused by players being too upright

The non-specific coach: “Come on girls, get lower to return those serves!”
Result: Minimal long-term change in the quality of service returns.

The specific coach: “By being balanced and getting lower you will be in position to make better passes. There are two visuals that may help illustrate how low a player may need to be when returning serve. First, bend your knees much like you do when you are sitting on the edge of a bench. Another way to think of getting low is to bend your knees so that you see all of your opponent’s court while looking under the net.”
Result: These guidelines provide checkpoints for the players that will ensure more consistent passing.

Example 3: Hit tennis lobs that keep the opponents off balance

The non-specific coach: “Okay guys, mix up your lobs.”
Result: Players have mixed results as they experiment with “mixing up their lobs”.

The specific coach: “There are several ways to make it more difficult for opponents to hit effective overheads. One way is to hit lobs so the opponent has to move in two directions to hit the ball. More specifically, make them move both backwards and at least two steps to either their forehand or backhand sides. An even simpler way to look at it is to lob over your opponents’ backhand side.
Result: By having a purpose for each lob, the backcourt player hits a higher percentage of effective lobs.”

Example 4: Serve to one of three locations to develop a more effective tennis serve
The non-specific coach: “Okay guys, keep your opponents off balance with your serve.”
Result: Players may try a number of ways to keep their opponents off balance such as changing technique or altering pace and spin.

The specific coach: “Hit your serve to one of three zones: the outside corner, at the server’s body, or to the inside corner to keep your opponent off balance. For example, taller players may be able to reach balls hit to the outside corners, while they may have difficulty returning balls hit at their body. You may need to practice to do this effectively in both the deuce and ad court.”
Results: In this case, specific instructions provide the server with target areas for service practice. As well, the directions provide tactical guidelines for match play.

Do your kids’ receive specific directions from their coaches?

If you aren’t sure, ask your kids the following questions:
• Does your coach communicate in a way that helps you understand exactly what to do in drills, practices sessions, or game situations?
• Does your coach provide you with specific instructions for improving?
• If not, do you ask questions about what the coach means specific to your abilities? For example, specifically what does the coach mean when he/she says, “mix up your serve?”
• Does the coach use keys, single words, or short phrases to concisely convey a key message? Keys for the above examples might include:
o 10-20 pass
o Get low and look under the net
o Lob over the backhand
o Inside corner, body, or outside corner
If you don’t have keys, ask your coach to help you develop keys.
• Do you let your coaches know when their concise instructions help you understand a concept, technique, tactic, or how to correct a mistake? For example, the player might say, “By following your advice, I won three points in the first set by lobbing over the backhand side”.
• Do you ask your coach for clarification when specific directions are not given?

Quality coaching requires a coach who provides specific directions and players who communicate about the effectiveness of those directions. Top notch players and coaches are first-rate communicators.

 

Wanted: Best Coaches in the Country to Coach Bad Players

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As the fall sports season rolls around, parents have to deal with the issue of who is going to coach their kids’ (fill in the sport) team. Will the coach know how to deal with young kids? Can they teach skills? Will the kids get to play a fair amount of the time? And God forbid, will the coach be a pedophile?

There is an axiom in individual college sports such as golf, tennis, skiing, track and field, “Players with A-level talent always beat players with B-level talent. It is not possible to coach B-talent to beat A-talent”. Right or wrong, some coaches believe that rule holds true in youth sports also.

In other words, many winning college programs have coaches whose primary strengths are recruiting, motivating, and organizing. They have winning records because they recruit more players with A-level talent than other coaches and they do a better job motivating them and keeping them happy.

John Calipari recently addressed this axiom as it relates to team sports. He was asked whether it’s difficult to get young blue-chip talent to jell as a team. In other words, how difficult is it to coach a group of A-level talent players?

The $5.2-million-dollar-a-year coach responded, “I’ll tell you what’s hard – coaching bad players.”

If it is really difficult to coach bad players and A-talent always beats B-talent, then why bother coaching bad players or players with B-talent? The answer is simple. All superstars begin their careers as bad players, even if they have A-talent. And the number of athletes with B-talent, or less, far outnumbers the elite players who play in the Olympics or major championships.

Hats off to Calipari for being able to recruit and manage elite athletes. He is a successful coach based on the number of games his teams have won.

Kudos also go to the coaches who like to work with bad players and those with “B” talent or less. In fact, a case can be made that this group of coaches should occassionally grace the cover of Sports Illustrated.

In other words, we need to have the absolute best coaches at the entry level, not on prime time television. Having the top coaches mentor young athletes when they start playing a sport will keep kids in sports and motivate them to be active for life. That will solve a lot of the problems facing our society.

 

Thoughts from an Olympian about Athletic Excellence

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As the Olympics wind down and the U.S. had mixed results in the volleyball, it seems timely to reflect on a webinar hosted by USA Volleyball several months ago featuring Tom Hoff and John Kessel. Hoff was a 6′ 8″ middle blocker for the 2008 USA Olympic team and Kessel oversees grassroots development and disabled volleyball for USAV.

Key points from the 1 1/2 hour discussion follow:

Coaches
• A good coach does more than call balls in and out.
• Good coaches set their players up to be successful over a long period of time.
• A good coach will empower players on the court.  Good players will take the coach’s lead and own what they do on the court.

Playing
• Many people want to be the best player on the court. I always wanted to be the worst player. When I first started playing that was often the case. I always liked being challenged to improve.
• I was only 6’8″ and could touch 11’9″. At the top level that meant I had average talent. To counter that, I studied the statistics of rotations. It helped me be successful as a player and develop my IQ as a player.

Skills
• At the top level the best players are those who eliminate errors. They are the players who passed the ball the best. They are very selective in choosing when to take chances.
• Watch what the ball is doing on the other side of the net – track the ball.
• Great players have great court awareness.

Goal Setting
• The way to accomplish goals is to successfully execute simple actions more often than the opponent.
• The pursuit of goals may seem maniacal. Players who remain focused and determined in the pursuit of a goal will find the journey of pursuit rewarding enough.

Mental toughness
• The toughest hitters are the ones who want the ball on big points and take tactful swings on tough balls.
• Great players will showcase the areas where they can eliminate errors. They will walk the walk.
• Great players play in the moment. They don’t get flustered. They focus on the task at hand and aren’t worried about what has happened in the past or what might happen in the future.

Practice
• Never say “No” to a setter who wants to practice. Hitting will get to practice hitting and timing and improve their ball-handling skills.
• During season we practice 20-32 hours a week, volleyball specific. We spent 6-10 hours a week in strength and conditioning. We spent several hours a week watching video. The most underrated aspect of a training schedule is rest and recovery.
• It is imperative to train at full speed.

Stretching
• The Center for Disease Control has done over 300 studies on stretching. Not one of them shows that stretching prevents injuries.

Cross Training
• If younger players are going to play other sports, soccer is a good complementary sport. Soccer players must be good at tracking the ball. That is a skill essential to volleyball.

Sports Career
• Time works against you as an athlete. Use your time efficiently.
• Everyone wants to be successful, but many people are not willing to do what is necessary to achieve the desired results.
• Focus on the journey, not the end results.

Blocking
• Blocking is the toughest skill.
• In theory a middle blocker has to be at the opponents’ point of attack on every ball.
• The purpose of blocking is to lower the kill efficiency/percentage of the other team.

Time Spent Hitting the Ball
• In 2008 the Olympic team spent about three weeks in China practicing and playing matches. Even though they hit thousands of balls during this period, on average, the players actually spent a total of about 27.4 seconds hitting (contacting) the ball for that entire period.