Following our scrimmage this past weekend we knew we had a lot of work to do! Most of the work however was system work. While we are really still mainly in the skills & technique work period we have really only been doing 20 mins to a half hour of system work at each practice. We are planning to stick to this period plan through the end of March but we are shifting just a bit this week to make sure we are ready for our first tourney this coming weekend!
On Monday we did a lot of skill work focusing especially hard on defensive digging technique. Breaking it down even farther we focused on the body position and “pre-dig” technique of read-step-hop. This technique helps the defender get into the right defensive position of balance so that they can react quickly in all directions. It’s an easy techniques physically, but figuring out the time of when to do it in relation to the hitter’s swing and the focus to make it a habit are very challenging.
From there we worked a bit more on our defensive positioning by have three hitters hit off of my sets while the other six played defense and finished out the point if they got the attack up. Coach Dave sure can roll shot from anywhere to anywhere. That’s a coaching skill I’m still working on…but my setting hands still produce nothing but butter! 
Tuesday I think we had a real breakthrough. Not in technique or system, but in energy and communication. We started with an under the net digging drill. At the end of the drill I was upset but it had nothing to do with swings or digs. It had everything to do with how sheepish our girls were about communicating. If their ball was shanked they were supposed to yell to me for a new ball so that we could keep the drill fast. I was very disturbed that even yelling to coach for a new ball seemed too much to ask for most of our quiet players. We had a very serious talk about showing some personality and opening up with your team and your coaches. I was very blunt that if they didn’t start being more aggressive with their communication I would question if they had the personality to be an athlete. I think that really caught some of them off guard. Sports aren’t just about pushing yourself physically…
After a couple other drills we did a free ball drill to work on transition from defense to offense. It started off kind of slow and there was so little communication that coach Dave and I got fed up and started being flat out mean about it. For every person we didn’t think shouted out “free ball”, ”mine”, or “cover” the entire team had to dopush-ups. After four stoppages in a row some of the girls started getting on each other about speaking up. Nothing inspires change in 14 year old girls like a little bit of peer pressure and fear of more push ups! from that point on our communication was outstanding and almost like clockwork our performance got better. It was so good in fact that we let the girl decide what they wanted to do for the last 10 minutes of practice.
After a shot debate it was decided that they would scrimmage 4 on 4. Coach Dave was the ref and scorekeeper. After a couple of points I decided to see if this communication thing could be taken to the next level. I put in our cheer rule. The cheer rule is quite simple; when you win a point you don’t get the point unless every member of your team comes together and cheers. Coach Dave only had to reverse to point for “illegal non cheering.”
By the end the girls were laughing and cheering after every point…I hope they have turned a corner on opening up and understanding that having a personality on the court is as important as being a good athlete!
Viva!
Tags: Practice, Practices, Session Notes, Session Updates, Sessions, toledo, Toledo Revolution, Toledo Revolution Volleyball, Toledo Volleyball, TR Volleyball
Tags: Practice, Practices, Session Notes, Session Updates, Sessions, toledo, Toledo Revolution, Toledo Revolution Volleyball, Toledo Volleyball, TR Volleyball