The last two days the National A team agreed to scrimmage with us. This was a great experience for the B team athletes. A lot of these players have watched some of the A team play for many years. It was a joy to compete with them. A chance to say you had the opportunity to play against Sarah Pavan, Tammy Mahon and the rest of the team is something a lot of them have wanted to do for a long time.
It also reminded me of a conversation I had a while ago one of my mentors Frank Enns. He told me that teams sometime enter into a competition with an idea that they are either 5-7 points better or worse than the opposition. This is a scary thing because when the match score is 16-15 instead of playing with confidence and having a lead, it actually feels like they are down 20-16. This is one of the biggest challenges for teams. Whenever our university team has the opportunity to compete against college or 18U teams we see this happen. It is a tough mindset to get out of. There is a saying in sport "the team that stays in the moment the best will be the most successful". These matches had both ends of that discussion, with our team coming out tentative at times. Also the A team being up on us and the feeling across the net was they were losing. Sport is interesting and challenging all in the same set.
A flu has also taken ahold of some of the athletes on the B team. Everyone of the players with the flu still played their hearts out and contribute to the success of the team. Some of the best stories are when players are so sick that all they focus on is "please don't let me puke during the match". They just perform on automatic pilot. "Don't think just play Meat" as Kevin Costner said in Bull Durham.
We also wrapped up our final presentation for our group of 17. It is posted above. The video was created by two of the athletes. Marie Sophie and Lisa. Just showing some of the other talents we have on the team. The Audio is taken from a Versus channel add. They have great commercials.
Tomorrow we say good by to the 5 athletes who are not travelling with us. WE will have the flag symbolizing their spirit. We are way better because they were there and help challenge us on a daily basis. It is going to have a weird feeling without them...But we will play harder for them.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Mental side of things
Week four has officially begun. This will probably be the toughest week as a team. It has been a long time since the first week when we have had a chance to fully recover and feel fresh. Our practices started to show it in the first three practices of this week. The positive side of this fatigue is the team keeps battling and working hard. As most elite athletes know, the best way to overcome a slump is with positive work.
In the NHL quite a few teams will look at their schedule and find a time in the season when the travel and practices will become a grind and they will do something special for the team to make it exciting. I believe this is where father son trips started, but only guessing. NHL teams invite the players fathers on a road trip so they can experience their son's life. they also get a chance to meet the other fathers. Since we cannot do something like that for this group, WE keep trying to find new ways to warm-up that will give them some added fun and energy. Today was a fun middle years kickball game with lots of team running. Something most of them have not done for a few years.
On the serious side of coaching, when the team starts to struggle it does give the coaches a chance to work on the mental side of the game. A few years ago when I was coaching at GPRC in the ACAC Leigh Goldie used an acronym with the Wolves to help us with between the rally thinking. The game of volleyball is really circular. So he thought of the game that way. Mentally a bunch of things need to happen. The 4 R's
The first R is react. This is the way the game is played, when the ball is in play the athletes have to react to the situation and play what is in front of them. Yes there is a game plan to follow, but really the game of volleyball is so random that once the ball is in play a person needs to just react.
The second R is respond. Once the ball is dead the athletes need to respond to the situation. If it is a score for your team then you cheer and have a chance to give energy back to the team. A look in someone's eyes and a big fist pump can go along way. If the opposition scores then the athletes have a chance to build confidence back up. Again a look in the eye a bit of advice or a positive comment can be the difference. One of my biggest pet peeves is the tapping of the chest and saying "my bad". No kidding it is your bad, everyone in the gym knows who is responsible for the error. Tell us what you can do to fix it. " I have that seam don't worry". That comment builds trust and keeps the confidence high.
The third R is relax. This is the three seconds where a person takes a deep breath and then centers the body. A chance to get rid of the last error. Some will clap their hands as a physical show of corrections, others will "park" the error by touching the floor or wiping their shoes. These are just physical ways to say, I have moved on.
The fourth R is Refocus. This is usually done by communicating. Getting back into the game, to be totally immersed in the present situation. Reacting to this next rally or winning the next point the only one that matters. If you are on serve reception, then the communication is towards the type of serve the server has or the location that she has been serving so far in this match. It can also be about who has who's seams. When you have the serve, the players usually share the attackers locations, what type of block they will be making against the opposition, is the setter front row or back row and many other points. By saying it verbally to the team it shows everyone that the athlete is ready to go and understands the present situation they are in. One of the biggest struggles for teams is when they get down in the score, they get stuck in the second R and forget about the last two, which are very important.
Another friend of mine from Grande Prairie, Dave Johnson, always used the metal backpack as a way to explain our thoughts during matches. He used this as a way to get out of the second R trap. In life we store our memories in a back pack, and when we get into different situations we reach into the back pack looking for the closest memory to the situation. The memory we choose will help determine our reaction. An example of this could be a situation where someone you know is walking by you in the hall and they walk by without saying hello. There are many ways to interpret this situation. One is that the person is mad at you and you have done something to wrong them. So then you spend the day trying to figure out what was going on. Another way to see the same situation is that something must have went wrong with them and they were so focussed on their own problem they didn't see you. Both could be true or none of them could be. How you deal with that situation is based on your past experiences. Which picture/experience you choose to bring out of the back pack. This holds true in sports. Too often when we get down in a match we fall into our negative thoughts and memories and struggle to get back into the present. A person needs to remember that as humans we gets to choose our thoughts and memories. So if you don't like the picture you pulled out then put it back in the pack and grab another one. I have used that saying a few times in the last few days as we battle through some fatigue and some disappointments.
9 days till we travel...starting to amp it up. Can't wait...
In the NHL quite a few teams will look at their schedule and find a time in the season when the travel and practices will become a grind and they will do something special for the team to make it exciting. I believe this is where father son trips started, but only guessing. NHL teams invite the players fathers on a road trip so they can experience their son's life. they also get a chance to meet the other fathers. Since we cannot do something like that for this group, WE keep trying to find new ways to warm-up that will give them some added fun and energy. Today was a fun middle years kickball game with lots of team running. Something most of them have not done for a few years.
On the serious side of coaching, when the team starts to struggle it does give the coaches a chance to work on the mental side of the game. A few years ago when I was coaching at GPRC in the ACAC Leigh Goldie used an acronym with the Wolves to help us with between the rally thinking. The game of volleyball is really circular. So he thought of the game that way. Mentally a bunch of things need to happen. The 4 R's
The first R is react. This is the way the game is played, when the ball is in play the athletes have to react to the situation and play what is in front of them. Yes there is a game plan to follow, but really the game of volleyball is so random that once the ball is in play a person needs to just react.
The second R is respond. Once the ball is dead the athletes need to respond to the situation. If it is a score for your team then you cheer and have a chance to give energy back to the team. A look in someone's eyes and a big fist pump can go along way. If the opposition scores then the athletes have a chance to build confidence back up. Again a look in the eye a bit of advice or a positive comment can be the difference. One of my biggest pet peeves is the tapping of the chest and saying "my bad". No kidding it is your bad, everyone in the gym knows who is responsible for the error. Tell us what you can do to fix it. " I have that seam don't worry". That comment builds trust and keeps the confidence high.
The third R is relax. This is the three seconds where a person takes a deep breath and then centers the body. A chance to get rid of the last error. Some will clap their hands as a physical show of corrections, others will "park" the error by touching the floor or wiping their shoes. These are just physical ways to say, I have moved on.
The fourth R is Refocus. This is usually done by communicating. Getting back into the game, to be totally immersed in the present situation. Reacting to this next rally or winning the next point the only one that matters. If you are on serve reception, then the communication is towards the type of serve the server has or the location that she has been serving so far in this match. It can also be about who has who's seams. When you have the serve, the players usually share the attackers locations, what type of block they will be making against the opposition, is the setter front row or back row and many other points. By saying it verbally to the team it shows everyone that the athlete is ready to go and understands the present situation they are in. One of the biggest struggles for teams is when they get down in the score, they get stuck in the second R and forget about the last two, which are very important.
Another friend of mine from Grande Prairie, Dave Johnson, always used the metal backpack as a way to explain our thoughts during matches. He used this as a way to get out of the second R trap. In life we store our memories in a back pack, and when we get into different situations we reach into the back pack looking for the closest memory to the situation. The memory we choose will help determine our reaction. An example of this could be a situation where someone you know is walking by you in the hall and they walk by without saying hello. There are many ways to interpret this situation. One is that the person is mad at you and you have done something to wrong them. So then you spend the day trying to figure out what was going on. Another way to see the same situation is that something must have went wrong with them and they were so focussed on their own problem they didn't see you. Both could be true or none of them could be. How you deal with that situation is based on your past experiences. Which picture/experience you choose to bring out of the back pack. This holds true in sports. Too often when we get down in a match we fall into our negative thoughts and memories and struggle to get back into the present. A person needs to remember that as humans we gets to choose our thoughts and memories. So if you don't like the picture you pulled out then put it back in the pack and grab another one. I have used that saying a few times in the last few days as we battle through some fatigue and some disappointments.
9 days till we travel...starting to amp it up. Can't wait...
Friday, July 22, 2011
The good the bad and the ugly.
So this week is almost over and it has been a week filled with some highs and lows. We are starting to get together as a team and have really moved forward in discovering our self. I think this team has all the tools necessary to achieve something special.
The good
The week started with a team meeting and some team building. Fred one of the guest coaches was able to take some great photo's of the team during practice and some different fun situations. So we were able to create a slide show of the team. We used one of Nike's commercials with Michael Jordan. "Look me in the eye" It was perfect because it has been an example of how to portray confidence in each other. In the commercial MJ talks about being afraid of how great we can become.
It was a great starting point for the meeting. If the team gives me permission I might post it at a later date. I really find it coincidental that hollywood creates movies at the time we need something that portrays the message that we want to send. They are better at pep talks than I am. As a coaching staff we were trying to find something that we could use to show positive team self talk. Earlier this year I had DVR many of ESPN's 30 for 30. These are amazing stories about sport. I was watching the one about the Boston Red Sox and their comeback from the Yankees in the playoffs. Down 3-0 in the best of 7 series they never strayed from their message. We were able to show the team how they beat history. No team in the history of baseball had ever come back from down that far. The Sox rally cry became Why not us!!!! It was a perfect message for us to send to our team. The Boston teamed stayed positive in the midst of some amazing diversity. Our team responded well to the movie and even brought it up a couple of times in our individual meetings. Hey Why can't we shock the world. If we train as hard as them and believe in ourself more Why not us.
The Bad
That was the high part of the week, the low part came later in the week. The time in our season had come to select the team. Over my career as a coach this is the time of any team that I dread. This year it was the worst one for me since the Canada Games team I coached back in 2001. Both of these had a large amount of similarities. Usually you have the athletes for a week and then select them. As a coach you really don't have a lot of time to invest in them emotionally. But after 3 weeks we found ourselves emotionally invested into everyone. They all work so hard and train the right way. There wasn't one person who we could say, She has a bad attitude easy choice. I don't know Lupo does it he has athletes for years and then has to tell them it is time to move on. I know he really wants the best for all the athletes he coaches. Same is for us on the FISU team we really want the best for all the athletes.. But unfortunately the rules say only 12 players get to travel to China and we have to break someone's heart. this might be the first time that these athletes have every been cut, and it is a tough time to start. I thought of the movie miracle when Herb Brooks had to cut a player just before the Olympics.
WE met with everyone individually and explained where they fit into our plans. The athletes were very impressive, all of them said they wanted to stay to the end. I have been cut a few times in my life and I understand how difficult it must have been the first practice after. The athletes feel that they can push us to get better and play a small part in achieving our goals. They have bought into the idea of 17 of us will head to China, 12 physically and 5 in spirit.
We borrowed a tradition from hockey and applied it to volleyball. In hockey if one of the players gets injured a lot of teams will hang the injured player's jersey behind the bench. This symbolizes that the player is with them in spirit. We all signed a Canadian flag. This flag is to be put up in the gym at every practice and will be on the bench at every game. It is our symbol for our teammates that we still value their contributions. It is something for us to show each other that we are competing for our country, schools but more importantly for each other.
The Ugly
I really have nothing ugly to point out but it was a catchy title. We are ending our week again with a match, so I guess the Ugly is how bad my team is going to beat up on the other half of the team. It is going to be ugly tomorrow.
The good
The week started with a team meeting and some team building. Fred one of the guest coaches was able to take some great photo's of the team during practice and some different fun situations. So we were able to create a slide show of the team. We used one of Nike's commercials with Michael Jordan. "Look me in the eye" It was perfect because it has been an example of how to portray confidence in each other. In the commercial MJ talks about being afraid of how great we can become.
It was a great starting point for the meeting. If the team gives me permission I might post it at a later date. I really find it coincidental that hollywood creates movies at the time we need something that portrays the message that we want to send. They are better at pep talks than I am. As a coaching staff we were trying to find something that we could use to show positive team self talk. Earlier this year I had DVR many of ESPN's 30 for 30. These are amazing stories about sport. I was watching the one about the Boston Red Sox and their comeback from the Yankees in the playoffs. Down 3-0 in the best of 7 series they never strayed from their message. We were able to show the team how they beat history. No team in the history of baseball had ever come back from down that far. The Sox rally cry became Why not us!!!! It was a perfect message for us to send to our team. The Boston teamed stayed positive in the midst of some amazing diversity. Our team responded well to the movie and even brought it up a couple of times in our individual meetings. Hey Why can't we shock the world. If we train as hard as them and believe in ourself more Why not us.
The Bad
That was the high part of the week, the low part came later in the week. The time in our season had come to select the team. Over my career as a coach this is the time of any team that I dread. This year it was the worst one for me since the Canada Games team I coached back in 2001. Both of these had a large amount of similarities. Usually you have the athletes for a week and then select them. As a coach you really don't have a lot of time to invest in them emotionally. But after 3 weeks we found ourselves emotionally invested into everyone. They all work so hard and train the right way. There wasn't one person who we could say, She has a bad attitude easy choice. I don't know Lupo does it he has athletes for years and then has to tell them it is time to move on. I know he really wants the best for all the athletes he coaches. Same is for us on the FISU team we really want the best for all the athletes.. But unfortunately the rules say only 12 players get to travel to China and we have to break someone's heart. this might be the first time that these athletes have every been cut, and it is a tough time to start. I thought of the movie miracle when Herb Brooks had to cut a player just before the Olympics.
WE met with everyone individually and explained where they fit into our plans. The athletes were very impressive, all of them said they wanted to stay to the end. I have been cut a few times in my life and I understand how difficult it must have been the first practice after. The athletes feel that they can push us to get better and play a small part in achieving our goals. They have bought into the idea of 17 of us will head to China, 12 physically and 5 in spirit.
We borrowed a tradition from hockey and applied it to volleyball. In hockey if one of the players gets injured a lot of teams will hang the injured player's jersey behind the bench. This symbolizes that the player is with them in spirit. We all signed a Canadian flag. This flag is to be put up in the gym at every practice and will be on the bench at every game. It is our symbol for our teammates that we still value their contributions. It is something for us to show each other that we are competing for our country, schools but more importantly for each other.
The Ugly
I really have nothing ugly to point out but it was a catchy title. We are ending our week again with a match, so I guess the Ugly is how bad my team is going to beat up on the other half of the team. It is going to be ugly tomorrow.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Leadership...everywhere.
Leadership is like gravity. You know it's there, you know it exists, but how do you define it?" Former San Francisco 49er Tight End, Dr. Jamie Williams
We had an interesting week that culminated with a discussion about players and leadership. We have the weekend off to rest and recover from the first two weeks of training. While the athletes had to volunteer at Volleyball Canada hugely successful Super Spike event, the coaches took time to review the direction of the team and to talk about the leadership on the team.
Time for my rant... I personally believe that there is too many needs on the team for one or two captains to handle the load. (Especially on a three week trip with a large games at the end of it.) We have seen all kinds of people show different leadership abilities in these two weeks. The interesting thing about leadership is that it needs to be a reflection of our values and culture. As a team we are moving closer towards these values but we are still in a situation where we haven't found our identity yet. I feel that we all are trying to bring our old team's ideals into the FISU team. We have players and coaches from so many different programs that all have their own twist on what the culture of the team should be. As a group we are trying to fit our own ideas into our team instead of allowing this team to have their own identity. Which makes sense because it is comfortable for us and it adds a sense of simplicity, but the question is... Is it the best for this team?
Too often we just select captains and say here you go, good luck and let us know how things are going. I am a firm believer that people are not born with this innate ability to lead, that it is taught. Great leaders usually have the opportunity to be around other leaders and see how they do things, whether it was a family member, coaches, teachers or teammates. I think leadership needs to start with the individual and then manifest itself into the team in general. For this reason I like leadership teams, I think a team needs at least 4 people to help it move through the course of the year.
I think you need your on court leader, formal team captain. This person knows the rules and often is in a position where they can be in contact with everyone. I think it is hard for a middle to be the floor captain when they are off for three rotations. Then you have a lead by example captain, some one you can point too as a person who emulates what you want. In hockey they call them the core value player. This can be any player from any position. In our last practice on friday we titled it the "get through practice" It was a difficult practice where they needed to get through each drill. The length of the drill was determined by the individual group in the drill. An example was the team making 70 serves in a row, and if it wasn't difficult enough we wouldn't count it. To emphasize the purpose of the day at the end of every drill the team was allowed to award points to any players who they felt lived up or went beyond our core values. I privately awarded a point at the end of practice to a player who jumped into a tough defensive drill when another player's hand injury removed her from the drill to get some needed treatment. The athlete didn't hesitate, she jumped right in and the drill didn't lose flow. The next tyoe of leader on a team is the team mom, the organizer, the person who checks in to make sure everyone is fitting in and included in the team concept. We have seen a lot of different people take on this role so far this summer. It is true I am going to see the final Harry Potter! A group of the athletes organized this event. They sent a link to the movie so we could buy our tickets online without really having to think about it. The next leader was one that we discovered a few years ago, the leader of the reserves. A person who can speak on behalf of the bench players in meetings, but more importantly a person who can help keep the bench players focussed on the goal. It is tough sometimes to be a star on your university team and then arrive at the national team and not play very much once the competition rolls around. So this person would help remind players that is an incredible experience and keep them on board. It is more powerful coming from them because they are in the same situation. The Rudy of the team.
The A team players have been great at explaining how things work on the top program in our country and we have adopted some of their own traditions. But each year team needs will change, so with this we need to find our own identity too. Add the pressure of five players who will not make the trip and it leads to some frustration amongst the players. I feel this is because we are all bringing our old teams experiences and assumptions into the team leadership ring. So far everyone on the team has been great with each other, but we need to continue to build on positive and what we have done so far.
I also think that leadership on teams begins with the team self talk. We often teach players individual self talk, you are what you think, but the same can be said for teams. If we spend our days discussing all the flaws in the team we become a flawed team. If we spend our days talking about how great each person is, we become great. This is a big challenge over the course of a university season, everyone is a critic and a coach. Successful teams find ways to limit the negative talk and reframe it to positive talk. This is a skill that needs to be taught.
So the discussion will continue, sooner than later we are required to choose the formal captain to represent us at the games. Tomorrow is the movie then a team meeting that will help set our final two weeks before we leave. I can't wait to see how it ends.
Friday, July 15, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Jumping in sand and game plans
Today marked the half-way point to the second week of training. On Tuesday we experienced the fatigue levels that we expected at the end of the first week. It was interesting to see the group fight the fatigue and try to bring something positive to the gym. Creating positive energy is a strong part of our culture that we are hoping achieve with our team.
When I woke up on Tuesday morning it felt like I was hit by a truck. My body was sore, I hit snooze three times. I thought wow if I am this beat, how do the players do it? We had a great Monday of practices after being off for a day, but fatigue was still lingering in our muscles and brains. When the warm-up ball control started everyone in the gym was a little off. I went around talking to some of the team and they said it felt like they were running and jumping in sand. They were not able to get moving and were jumping lower. We knew once they battled through this everything gets better, this is all part of training your body to expect and sustain the training load. Our athletic therapists and the rest of the medical staff were excellent. They kept the team going, dealing with all their aches and pains and even moved into the role of being a cheerleader for them as they battled the fatigue.
The typical day for these athletes and coaches are 6 hours of practice and weights combined. The athletes who have been around knew that this is a time that trouble can creep in. They were able to identify some of the hotspots that could happen in this situation and have been proactive in making sure these issues don't come up. One example is the setting up and taking down of the nets. The vets made a schedule early. Everyone will have to do their share. Makes it a more positive environment and adds to our culture.
The team chemistry is pretty good, they are all trying to get to know each other. The anglophones are trying to use a few of their french words that they know. One of the Quebec girls was in line for supper in the cafeteria, and a team mate was trying to get her to say a german word for something. She responded that she was trying to learn english, one new language was enough for right now! The team has pulled the tables together in a large group during meal times and really are getting along great. It is a great feeling overall. I know it will be an adjustment when the team goes from 17 to 12. This will be a tough time, excitement that they are going to Thailand and China, but also sadness because our team of 17 needs to split for this event. Our motto from the beginning is that we are a team of 17 and we know that any success we have is because of the help of the 5 who don't travel. As a coaching staff we are still along way from knowing the team, everyone brings something different to the team and they can help us. Plus we are really starting to enjoy all the athletes personalities.
More on the fun side now. WE are having a mini tournament tomorrow, a chance for the athletes to show everyone how they have improved from the start of the training. Also a chance to show the coaches they are ready to compete. At the end of practice today Alain explained the teams and the process. With the A team athletes we are 21 players. So we split into 3 teams and are playing a 3 team round robin. We are playing 4 sets no matter what in order to better control the time. WE are also using this tournament for our plus minus competitive list. If you win the 4 sets out right everyone on that team will get 3 pt, if it is a tie then 1pt each. Then each set is worth 5 points. If the team that wins holds the opposition under 18 they get 5 bonus pts per set. If they hold them under 22 they will get 4 pts and the opposition will get 1 pt. If they win by 3 or less they will get 3 points while the opposition gets 2 points. The idea of this is to keep teams fighting for every point possible. if a team wins the maximum they will get 23 points in that match. OF course I expect my team to win.
The second part of the matches is to get the athletes thinking of game plans and tendencies. I beleive this is one of the weaker things we do as coaches. We need to teach our athletes to look for tendencies more during matches. to remember what has happened before and be proactive to the possibilities. thehe setters needed to come up with a game plan, explain what type/ speed of sets that their attackers like to use. The second was to discuss blocking of their opponents, which blocker they would go after and which one they would avoid. Other questions they needed to answer were; which opposition middle is a read blocker and which middle can you control? Liberos had to talk about the opposition attackers and what are their shot patterns? What do they think would be our best blocking scheme? Who on the opposition is the best server and who is the weaker server? The outside attackers needed to think about serving targets and defensive weakness of the oppositions. They were expected to work together and begin to think about patterns and opposition weakness. All the different groups then were to email their coaches and let them know their ideas. I was really impressed with my teams emails and how thorough they were.
I am excited to watch the teams play. I am coaching team 2, and have begun to trash talk the other coaches and athletes. Hope my team can back up their coaches words. WE will find out tomorrow, tonight we prepare.
When I woke up on Tuesday morning it felt like I was hit by a truck. My body was sore, I hit snooze three times. I thought wow if I am this beat, how do the players do it? We had a great Monday of practices after being off for a day, but fatigue was still lingering in our muscles and brains. When the warm-up ball control started everyone in the gym was a little off. I went around talking to some of the team and they said it felt like they were running and jumping in sand. They were not able to get moving and were jumping lower. We knew once they battled through this everything gets better, this is all part of training your body to expect and sustain the training load. Our athletic therapists and the rest of the medical staff were excellent. They kept the team going, dealing with all their aches and pains and even moved into the role of being a cheerleader for them as they battled the fatigue.
The typical day for these athletes and coaches are 6 hours of practice and weights combined. The athletes who have been around knew that this is a time that trouble can creep in. They were able to identify some of the hotspots that could happen in this situation and have been proactive in making sure these issues don't come up. One example is the setting up and taking down of the nets. The vets made a schedule early. Everyone will have to do their share. Makes it a more positive environment and adds to our culture.
The team chemistry is pretty good, they are all trying to get to know each other. The anglophones are trying to use a few of their french words that they know. One of the Quebec girls was in line for supper in the cafeteria, and a team mate was trying to get her to say a german word for something. She responded that she was trying to learn english, one new language was enough for right now! The team has pulled the tables together in a large group during meal times and really are getting along great. It is a great feeling overall. I know it will be an adjustment when the team goes from 17 to 12. This will be a tough time, excitement that they are going to Thailand and China, but also sadness because our team of 17 needs to split for this event. Our motto from the beginning is that we are a team of 17 and we know that any success we have is because of the help of the 5 who don't travel. As a coaching staff we are still along way from knowing the team, everyone brings something different to the team and they can help us. Plus we are really starting to enjoy all the athletes personalities.
More on the fun side now. WE are having a mini tournament tomorrow, a chance for the athletes to show everyone how they have improved from the start of the training. Also a chance to show the coaches they are ready to compete. At the end of practice today Alain explained the teams and the process. With the A team athletes we are 21 players. So we split into 3 teams and are playing a 3 team round robin. We are playing 4 sets no matter what in order to better control the time. WE are also using this tournament for our plus minus competitive list. If you win the 4 sets out right everyone on that team will get 3 pt, if it is a tie then 1pt each. Then each set is worth 5 points. If the team that wins holds the opposition under 18 they get 5 bonus pts per set. If they hold them under 22 they will get 4 pts and the opposition will get 1 pt. If they win by 3 or less they will get 3 points while the opposition gets 2 points. The idea of this is to keep teams fighting for every point possible. if a team wins the maximum they will get 23 points in that match. OF course I expect my team to win.
The second part of the matches is to get the athletes thinking of game plans and tendencies. I beleive this is one of the weaker things we do as coaches. We need to teach our athletes to look for tendencies more during matches. to remember what has happened before and be proactive to the possibilities. thehe setters needed to come up with a game plan, explain what type/ speed of sets that their attackers like to use. The second was to discuss blocking of their opponents, which blocker they would go after and which one they would avoid. Other questions they needed to answer were; which opposition middle is a read blocker and which middle can you control? Liberos had to talk about the opposition attackers and what are their shot patterns? What do they think would be our best blocking scheme? Who on the opposition is the best server and who is the weaker server? The outside attackers needed to think about serving targets and defensive weakness of the oppositions. They were expected to work together and begin to think about patterns and opposition weakness. All the different groups then were to email their coaches and let them know their ideas. I was really impressed with my teams emails and how thorough they were.
I am excited to watch the teams play. I am coaching team 2, and have begun to trash talk the other coaches and athletes. Hope my team can back up their coaches words. WE will find out tomorrow, tonight we prepare.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
End of week one
Well that is the end of week one. It was a great start to what we are all hoping to be a memorable summer. We had 20 athletes in the gym for the entire time. We have 3 of the A team athletes with us. Tonya, Collette and Julie and they have helped create the culture of hard work and communication. I think in return the have been pretty impressed with the level of play,commitment with the team and fun with the coaches.
From Monday to Saturday we had 27 hours of court time and another 5 hours of foot speed and weight training. So today is a day off and the athletes are in need of a good day of rest. They were very receptive and really pushed through some fatigue. First week is always the hardest.
The main theme for the week was mostly offense. We are trying to have a fairly fast offense, we would like our outside sets to be a second tempo type set. For the non-volleyball people, tempo is basically the speed and timing of the sets. In Canada we teach a three step approach, so when the ball reaches the setters hand how many steps you have left is basically the tempo of the set. A third tempo would mean you would have all three steps left. Second tempo would mean you have only two steps left and all ready into your approach as the ball touches their hands, first tempo means you are just about to jump when the setter gets the ball.
That is the easiest way to explain tempo. So we were trying to get our outside sets to be second tempo when in system and our middles to be zero tempo when in system, they would be in the air before the ball reaches the setter. By the end of the week most of the outside attackers have a good feel for the sets. We are still trying to get the middle shoot to be quicker.
The other offensive idea we are beginning to suggest is the idea of protecting the ball. The game of volleyball has changed some over the past five years. Less and less are the teams trying to score and swing as hard as they can in every situation and see what happens. A couple years ago in Toronto Canada men played Brazil in a world cup match and after the match the two coaches made time for the CIS coaches to ask questions. Bernard Rezende and Glen Hoag both stated that there is a greater emphasis being placed on defence in the sport and that they want their team to make less errors. So deciding when to go after a shot and when to play smart was essential.
For our purpose Alain cam up with the Green, Yellow and Red light idea. Green light we are in system and we have seam, time to swing hard and score. Yellow light we are out of system some, a player needs to decide if they feel they can score, then go after the ball. In the Yellow if they feel the situation is a bit awkard they would protect the ball and try to take out a player or force a bad pass on the other side of the net. By doing this we should get the ball back in a easier situation where it is green light obvious. Brazil did this in the Olympics, the spin serve of the opposition was so tough they only wanted to defend the serve, then they would play intentionally off the block, cover it and hope to be in a better situation. Then they would run fast and go after the ball. Red light means you have no real chance of scoring and you need to be smart with the ball. If the setter is in back row then to make her play the ball so they have to have a second person set the ball. This usually will eliminate a middle attack and give an opportunity to get a solid double or triple block somewhere.
WE worked on these concepts the last few days and I think the athletes are started to understand the different situations. We also continued to work on the culture of communication on our team and set up drills to make this happen. WE keep talking about it every chance we get, we are a self admitted quiet team, but are reaching out of our comfort zone.
The team today is having a great day it is 30 degrees Celsius out and they are outside for sure. Some of them took the opportunity to go to Grand Beach. If you are ever in Manitoba in the summer you need to head there it is an incredible place. Maxim magazine named it one of the top 10 land locked beaches in the world. The rest of the team are having an opportunity to head out to a ranch for a great Manitoba style bbq and a chance to just relax away from sport. Hopefully this will lead to a better understanding of each other and a even more committed group next week. WE hope to make improvements all summer making our last match our best match.
One last note we had our first guest coaches of the summer come out. Sophie and assistant coach from U of Montreal and Fred a high school and club coach from Montreal as well. Both of these coaches have been involved with Alain for a long time and are a great resource for him. It does up the amount of french that I have to talk. I will be close to bilingual by the summer...not! But I will give it an honest try. Now off to get in the sun myself.
From Monday to Saturday we had 27 hours of court time and another 5 hours of foot speed and weight training. So today is a day off and the athletes are in need of a good day of rest. They were very receptive and really pushed through some fatigue. First week is always the hardest.
The main theme for the week was mostly offense. We are trying to have a fairly fast offense, we would like our outside sets to be a second tempo type set. For the non-volleyball people, tempo is basically the speed and timing of the sets. In Canada we teach a three step approach, so when the ball reaches the setters hand how many steps you have left is basically the tempo of the set. A third tempo would mean you would have all three steps left. Second tempo would mean you have only two steps left and all ready into your approach as the ball touches their hands, first tempo means you are just about to jump when the setter gets the ball.
That is the easiest way to explain tempo. So we were trying to get our outside sets to be second tempo when in system and our middles to be zero tempo when in system, they would be in the air before the ball reaches the setter. By the end of the week most of the outside attackers have a good feel for the sets. We are still trying to get the middle shoot to be quicker.
The other offensive idea we are beginning to suggest is the idea of protecting the ball. The game of volleyball has changed some over the past five years. Less and less are the teams trying to score and swing as hard as they can in every situation and see what happens. A couple years ago in Toronto Canada men played Brazil in a world cup match and after the match the two coaches made time for the CIS coaches to ask questions. Bernard Rezende and Glen Hoag both stated that there is a greater emphasis being placed on defence in the sport and that they want their team to make less errors. So deciding when to go after a shot and when to play smart was essential.
For our purpose Alain cam up with the Green, Yellow and Red light idea. Green light we are in system and we have seam, time to swing hard and score. Yellow light we are out of system some, a player needs to decide if they feel they can score, then go after the ball. In the Yellow if they feel the situation is a bit awkard they would protect the ball and try to take out a player or force a bad pass on the other side of the net. By doing this we should get the ball back in a easier situation where it is green light obvious. Brazil did this in the Olympics, the spin serve of the opposition was so tough they only wanted to defend the serve, then they would play intentionally off the block, cover it and hope to be in a better situation. Then they would run fast and go after the ball. Red light means you have no real chance of scoring and you need to be smart with the ball. If the setter is in back row then to make her play the ball so they have to have a second person set the ball. This usually will eliminate a middle attack and give an opportunity to get a solid double or triple block somewhere.
WE worked on these concepts the last few days and I think the athletes are started to understand the different situations. We also continued to work on the culture of communication on our team and set up drills to make this happen. WE keep talking about it every chance we get, we are a self admitted quiet team, but are reaching out of our comfort zone.
The team today is having a great day it is 30 degrees Celsius out and they are outside for sure. Some of them took the opportunity to go to Grand Beach. If you are ever in Manitoba in the summer you need to head there it is an incredible place. Maxim magazine named it one of the top 10 land locked beaches in the world. The rest of the team are having an opportunity to head out to a ranch for a great Manitoba style bbq and a chance to just relax away from sport. Hopefully this will lead to a better understanding of each other and a even more committed group next week. WE hope to make improvements all summer making our last match our best match.
One last note we had our first guest coaches of the summer come out. Sophie and assistant coach from U of Montreal and Fred a high school and club coach from Montreal as well. Both of these coaches have been involved with Alain for a long time and are a great resource for him. It does up the amount of french that I have to talk. I will be close to bilingual by the summer...not! But I will give it an honest try. Now off to get in the sun myself.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Creating Culture
It has been an action pack first four days. It is Thursday already and we have spent a lot of time just getting to know the team and the team to know us. One of the biggest area we have been working on is becoming a great Canadian by overcoming a Canadian.
I know that sounds confusing but for us it is very true. We had an incredible meeting with our sport psychologist, Adrienne Toogood, who did a tremendous job laying a foundation for the team. We had a very emotional and inspirational meeting. In there every player had a chance to talk about how they feel representing their country. All of the athletes are incredibly exited and proud to have this opportunity to represent Canada. They are very respectful of one another and are extremely polite.
Very respectful and extremely polite is what we strive for off the court, now we have to changed that on the court. That is overcoming Canadian. We need to create a culture of competition and challenge. We want our team to fight hard for every point and know they are willing to outwork anyone once the game start. Culture.
Our team is a very quiet team, we have players who come from programs where they are very successful playing this way. In the month we have to train we won't always know what each other is thinking and how they are reacting. Compare this experience to playing along someone for five years, they will know your tendencies and will know what you need for a quick fix if you fall into a bit of a slump.
Another big part of our culture is learning to communicate with each other. One of the players used the term look me in the eyes. Looking in the teammates eyes does so much, and as polite Canadians we are taught to look away when we are in trouble or do something wrong. But a look in the eyes will create confidence in your teammates and will allow teammates to empower you with confidence.
So we set up drills in our warm-ups that create some chaos situations where they need to talk their way out of it. Explain some drills where the answer is figure it out. The more as a group we learn to talk and problem solve the more autonomous we can become. Which would lead us back to the old sit on the bench and let them go.
After our meeting we have a better understanding of each other and that will help people begin to trust each other, which in turns allows people the freedom to communicate freely. The last point on culture that I would like to mention for now is Alain's quote: You are responsible to make this a memorable summer, don't wait for friendships and experience to happen create them! Now for me to take that into my life.
I know that sounds confusing but for us it is very true. We had an incredible meeting with our sport psychologist, Adrienne Toogood, who did a tremendous job laying a foundation for the team. We had a very emotional and inspirational meeting. In there every player had a chance to talk about how they feel representing their country. All of the athletes are incredibly exited and proud to have this opportunity to represent Canada. They are very respectful of one another and are extremely polite.
Very respectful and extremely polite is what we strive for off the court, now we have to changed that on the court. That is overcoming Canadian. We need to create a culture of competition and challenge. We want our team to fight hard for every point and know they are willing to outwork anyone once the game start. Culture.
Our team is a very quiet team, we have players who come from programs where they are very successful playing this way. In the month we have to train we won't always know what each other is thinking and how they are reacting. Compare this experience to playing along someone for five years, they will know your tendencies and will know what you need for a quick fix if you fall into a bit of a slump.
Another big part of our culture is learning to communicate with each other. One of the players used the term look me in the eyes. Looking in the teammates eyes does so much, and as polite Canadians we are taught to look away when we are in trouble or do something wrong. But a look in the eyes will create confidence in your teammates and will allow teammates to empower you with confidence.
So we set up drills in our warm-ups that create some chaos situations where they need to talk their way out of it. Explain some drills where the answer is figure it out. The more as a group we learn to talk and problem solve the more autonomous we can become. Which would lead us back to the old sit on the bench and let them go.
After our meeting we have a better understanding of each other and that will help people begin to trust each other, which in turns allows people the freedom to communicate freely. The last point on culture that I would like to mention for now is Alain's quote: You are responsible to make this a memorable summer, don't wait for friendships and experience to happen create them! Now for me to take that into my life.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Getting Started
So here I go. I wanted to find away to remember this summer. A friend of mine recommended blogging as a way to accomplish this. So again Here I go stepping out of my comfort zone and trying something new. As it turns out I have been selected to coach the Canadian Women's volleyball team in the FISU games. Which is incredible if you know the story of how I got here. I never played the game of volleyball and it wasn't until I started teaching middle years that I became involved. Little did I know then that I would end up with it as a full tiem gig coaching at a University and eventually to coaching the National team in a Major event.
The head coach is Alain Pellettier from Universite Laval, we seem to agree on most things dealing with volleyball. The other assistant is Joely Christian from Queens University. I think/hope we will all get along well and make this summer a great experience.
Today was day 1 of the camp. Earlier in May we had the tryout for this team, it started with 40 players and we are now down to 17. We eventually have to get this group down to 12. It will be a good battle in many different positions. I am extremely excited as we have the making of a strong team. the last FISU games team was raided a bit as more of the players were needed on the Senior team. This year though the Senir team is more experienced and so we get most of the top players available.
The 17 players are made up of athletes from both the NCAA and the CIS leagues. But it a lot harder for the NCAA players to take part because of the time frame of their season. We probably would have had two more players if they would have been eligible. The break down of the team is 9 Canada west players, 3 Quebec players, 1 OUA player and 3 NCAA players. By coaching in the Canada West I a familiar with a lot of the players and some of their tendancies.
It is an interesting concept where my goal this summer is to make my opposition's players better. I take that responsibility seriously. Also with a bit of humour in it as well.
We had a meeting to start off the camp, Alain used this as an opportunity to introduce everyone who is involved in the program, everyone from strength coaches, therapists, sport psych, to the day to day grind of admin. (the Admin for Volleyball Canada often go unnoticed but they do a tremendous job coordinating all the different things that are needed in such a short time). In this meeting we laid out some expectations and had a couple of the athletes talk about what the level is like. We only hav eone player who has played int he FISU games last time around. So we are all going in a bit blind. we hope to be fast learners.
My goal with this blog is to keep myself and anyone who finds it updated on our development as a team and are movement to the eventual game is China.
More to come.
The head coach is Alain Pellettier from Universite Laval, we seem to agree on most things dealing with volleyball. The other assistant is Joely Christian from Queens University. I think/hope we will all get along well and make this summer a great experience.
Today was day 1 of the camp. Earlier in May we had the tryout for this team, it started with 40 players and we are now down to 17. We eventually have to get this group down to 12. It will be a good battle in many different positions. I am extremely excited as we have the making of a strong team. the last FISU games team was raided a bit as more of the players were needed on the Senior team. This year though the Senir team is more experienced and so we get most of the top players available.
The 17 players are made up of athletes from both the NCAA and the CIS leagues. But it a lot harder for the NCAA players to take part because of the time frame of their season. We probably would have had two more players if they would have been eligible. The break down of the team is 9 Canada west players, 3 Quebec players, 1 OUA player and 3 NCAA players. By coaching in the Canada West I a familiar with a lot of the players and some of their tendancies.
It is an interesting concept where my goal this summer is to make my opposition's players better. I take that responsibility seriously. Also with a bit of humour in it as well.
We had a meeting to start off the camp, Alain used this as an opportunity to introduce everyone who is involved in the program, everyone from strength coaches, therapists, sport psych, to the day to day grind of admin. (the Admin for Volleyball Canada often go unnoticed but they do a tremendous job coordinating all the different things that are needed in such a short time). In this meeting we laid out some expectations and had a couple of the athletes talk about what the level is like. We only hav eone player who has played int he FISU games last time around. So we are all going in a bit blind. we hope to be fast learners.
My goal with this blog is to keep myself and anyone who finds it updated on our development as a team and are movement to the eventual game is China.
More to come.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)