Meaningful Touches Archives - On One Hand Business... On the Other Hand Sports

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.

Meaningful touches make a difference in the rate at which players and teams improve.

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.

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

Tag: Meaningful Touches

Meaningful Touches in a Volleyball Practice Matter!

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