Volleyball Coaching Corner: How to create a team full of empowerment, bravery, joy and purpose.
We are coming up to the end of club volleyball season and the beginning of high school volleyball season. This time of year had me thinking about all of the things I wasn’t aware of as a younger coach - most of my coaching was very self-centered as I was still focused on my own game and the things that I was passionate about as I tried to get my players to play the specific type of volleyball I wanted from them. As a younger coach, I wish I had known how much more FUN both coaches and players can have when their teams are empowered. One of the most common mistakes I see coaches make (that I made myself) is to try to force what THEY want onto THEIR players. The key to a successful team? Let the team lead and let the coach guide. Here are some tips as to how to do this:
Empowerment and expectations are key.
The quickest way to conflict is unsaid and unmet expectations. Pile on top of that a group of players feeling trapped, not good enough, or lonely, and your team’s season will be off to a rough start. On some teams, the stars will align and everyone will magically be on the same page - but in the grand scheme of sports, this is rare. So, how do you prevent this from happening?
Empower players to choose their own definition of success. Sit everyone down and have players anonymously write down what their definition of success as a team and individually looks like. Questions like:
What kind of growth do you want to see in our team this year?
What does success mean as a program?
What does success mean for you as an individual?
What ways do you want to grow as an individual that you are looking for guidance on?
What ways do you want to grow as a team player?
What does commitment to this team look like to you?
Empower players to choose their own accountability. Accountability looks different for everyone. Some players will respond well to direct and immediate critique. Some players will crumble under that. Some players will respond well to support and self-exploration. Some players will get lost when allowed space to explore on their own. Want to get the most out of your team? Let them lead you with what they know about themselves best. Use questions like:
What do you know about yourself that will help me coach you?
What are some things that you’ve struggled with when you’ve had coaches/mentors/teachers in the past?
What are some things that you know work really well for you that coaches/mentors/teachers have done for you in the past?
What things make you feel really confident?
How can I support you when you aren’t feeling confident?
How do you need to be supported by your teammates?
Don’t expect players to just KNOW. If you haven’t taught them something YOURSELF, assume that they don’t know. This goes for big and small things. One primary example - knowing how to train. How to run a drill efficiently - if you see a ball roll on, what do you do? If you notice you’re standing around, what do you do? How do you prepare to rotate efficiently? This is not something we are innately born with. I see SO MANY coaches get frustrated and yell at players for not running drills smoothly. Have you taught them how? What if no one has ever explained how to do this in a way that makes sense for them? I can guarantee that no player will learn while being both confused about what’s going on and stressed that they’re getting yelled at and don’t know why or what to do about it. I can also guarantee that the players want to learn. Give them the benefit of the doubt - that they don’t know, and they will need time, examples, and repetition to get better at it. Things your players might not truly understand, no matter what level, that you should take the time to teach them:
How to run efficient and focused practices.
Why it’s important to warm up your mind and body.
Growth mindset - how to fail forward.
Biomechanics.
How to communicate with their teammates or coaches in a positive and productive way.
What it means and how to be a good teammate.
Set clear expectations and empower your players to choose the consequences. I bet all of us know of an example of a player being late and having to either watch their team condition or condition themselves as punishment. There is loads of research on the effects of punishment-based learning (hint: it doesn’t work!). Guide and empower your team to choose their own definition of successful expectations. As the coach, brainstorm with the team by offering examples of options. It feels pretty different to show up late and be surprised by running vs choosing to run/do make-up practice/etc because you were late and you agreed to it. Ideas of different expectations that need clarity:
How do you expect them to communicate with you?
What does time management look like?
What kind of commitment do you expect?
How do you expect them to respond to failure?
How do you expect them to support each other?
How do you expect them to take water breaks?
When should we arrive for practice?
How should we respond to lack of focus, lack of discipline, or distractions that happen throughout the season?
How should we prepare ourselves mentally and physically?
How to structure practices to empower your players by using clarity and patience to win trust.
Set up practices like games. Prepare how you will compete! This builds trust because players who feel prepared will feel confident in themselves and in your leadership. This means a few things:
Arrive mentally and physically prepared like you would for a game (coaches and players).
Fuel like you would for a game.
Coach like you would in a game. Set up your drills to encourage problem-solving, responding to challenges with resiliency, and put a score on drills that make sense for the situation.
Train time-outs. Expectations here - if you’ve never trained your players how to use time-outs to reset themselves mentally and physically, assume that they don’t know how. The best and most successful teams could call time-outs for themselves and in the beach game, players will need to know how to do this themselves. Train them in practice like this:
Give the team 2 time-outs per practice.
At the beginning of the season explain what to look for. What kinds of things would be happening that would be a sign that we need to take a time out? Hint - we are unfocused, undisciplined, not communicating, etc?
Start by taking the time-outs for and with your team, with the goal of leading the team into the ability to call their own time-outs and problem solve without you.
After the time-out, you should be able to SEE and HEAR a difference on the court. What does that look like? Get clear every time out what this is going to look like.
Be clear on the definition of success in each drill. I see so many coaches get mad without clarifying what the goal is that they expect their players to just ‘know.’ Save yourself and your players some grief and get clear with yourself and with them what the definition of success is in each drill. Players will trust you more when they understand your why, your goals, and your direction. They want to be a part of the process too - they deserve to know why! There can be multiple definitions of success, however, we as humans can only think about so many things at one time - kids even less than adults. Be clear about what success means. Different definitions for success look like this:
Techincal success. If the goal is passing technique, harping on your players for also not executing the location of their passes can be confusing. Try starting small - only technical focus, and build up to adding location as a secondary focus as they improve.
Game understanding success. The game teaches the game - but if players are so stuck focusing on their technique, they might not be able to learn about how the game works. Experiment with different mini-games and allow the focus of success of your games to be to WIN and learn how to score with creativity.
Movement without the ball success. In volleyball, players need to understand how and where to move, and when. For example, in indoor, rotational defense and perimeter defense and free ball positioning and offensive transition and serve receive base…all of these things are things your players need to know (and don’t assume they already do!). It will be very difficult to teach players this part of the game if you distract them by also expecting things like great technique and great communication at the same time.
Communication/mental success. Is communication the focus of your drill? Anticipation? Try training one at a time and see what happens.
Understand that learning takes time. Give your players time and opportunities to repeat, repeat, repeat.
Train decision-making. Your players will feel a million times more confident when they’ve had repetition at making split-second decisions. Put them in situations where they will have to decide to risk or not risk - hitters, setters, and servers. Out of system - train their decisions to swing. In-system plays - what are their go-to options? This will give your players so much more confidence on the court.
Hold yourself accountable for the bravery and joy of your team.
Good winning teams love what they’re doing. Good winning teams are brave enough to go for it on match point. Good winning teams know how to bounce back. Great coaches understand that these things are trainable skills.
If the players are not having fun, it’s your fault as a coach. Yep, I said it. 99% of players wouldn’t be playing if they didn’t find some joy in the game. Don’t be the coach that shows them how not-fun sports can be. Here’s how to make sure your players always have fun:
Give them growth. Getting better at something is FUN. Progress your practices in a smart and meaningful way that allows them to build something every practice and track their own growth.
Give them freedom. Create drills/warmups/downtime at tournaments where the objective of the activity is creativity, silliness, and freedom. Even if it means you’re not always touching the ball (but it’s even cooler if you can make it game-related).
Speak their language, not yours. Find a way to get on their level. Sometimes that means eye-level for the younger kids, sometimes that means being relatable to their generation, and sometimes that means being able to laugh at yourself for how much you don’t relate to their generation!
Never underestimate the power of a high five. Physical touch and words of affirmation all wrapped up in one - high fives are the number one love language of sports and are woefully under-utilized by coaches. Every single practice (at least), find a reason to high-five every single one of your players and tell them WHY. It’s a lot different to hear someone say ‘I love you’ than it is to hear someone say ‘I love you, because you took the time to acknowledge that I am a hard worker.’ Giving your players high-fives plus the reasoning why you’re doing it is a powerful way to build trust and culture in a team.
It’s your job to meet every player where they are at - not their job to adapt to your coaching style. You’re the leader. It’s your job to adapt your approach to meet your players’ needs. If the way you are coaching a player is not causing growth, it’s time to look in the mirror! If players are not following directions, if they don’t feel free to fail - they are either scared, don’t understand why, or don’t understand how. It’s your job to find out what is holding them back and create a safe environment for them to grow.
Reward them for being brave. The ability to rip a jump serve on match point for the other team is not a character trait for only some people. It’s a trainable skill. Create drills in your practices to train bravery. Use live tournaments to practice bravery. If your goal is say, the State Championship - use tournaments that are local and ‘don’t matter’ to practice this in real game situations. Can you imagine how fun it would be to coach a group of players who are not afraid to rip it on match point?? Train it!!
Want more tips on coaching, mindset, and volleyball? Stay tuned to my social media and check out the rest of my coaching programs.
