This was an article I wrote last spring.  I was honored when it was published on the national volleyball website prepvolleyball.com in March of 2008

Over the past several years in our area the popularity of private volleyball lessons has really taken off.  While I am a huge proponent of private lessons I have been seeing a massive increase in what I have come to term “private lesson syndrome” or PLS for short.   I wanted to write this article to address some of the pitfalls of private training and encourage both coaches and players to re-evaluate how they train during their one-on-one sessions.  If you would like to share any more treatments for PLS, I would welcome the comments!

Private lessons are perhaps the fastest way to develop individual ball skills, as the player taking the lesson receives a huge number of touches on the ball and constant feedback during the time spent on the court with a coach.  I also believe that private lessons pay huge dividends in terms of confidence, especially in younger players.  You can really see a difference in how younger players, who have done lessons, are more aggressive and are surer of themselves on the court.  Finally, developing a relationship with an encouraging coach can have great benefits throughout the player’s career.

Diagnosis – Indentifying PLS

So with all these wonderful benefits of lessons, what is “private lesson syndrome” and why is it a problem?  PLS is any combination of deficiencies stemming from too much training by yourself, and in controlled environments.  Some common symptoms include:

- Being able to hit great in warm up hitting lines, but not very well in the game
- Being able to only hit perfect sets
- Perfect form digging, but not much ability to anticipate or read.
- Being able to set perfect passes or only certain types of passes and not much else.
- Hitting and serving skills way beyond passing and ball control skills.- Constant questioning of the current team coach.

I’m sure after reading this list, many of you are smiling to yourself and diagnosing several players with private lesson syndrome.  However, identifying PLS is only half the battle.  Once the diagnosis is made, we must choose a course of treatment!

Preventative Care – What the Private Lesson Coach Can Do

As a coach who does private lessons, I have several responsibilities beyond just teaching a skill to a player.  If you want to help the player avoid private lesson syndrome, there are several things you can do. 

Randomizing:  First off, make sure you are randomizing your lesson training.  Don’t just toss balls from the perfect setting spot to the outside.  Toss from the 10 foot line, or some other random areas so that the player learns to understand approach angles.  Also, mix up your tosses.  Toss some too short, too long, too tight, or too far off.  Not all passes are perfect in a game and not all sets are in the same spot.  Good hitters know how to adjust and this can be taught during lessons!   Randomizing your reps applies to all skills that can be taught in a lesson.  As a coach you might have to work a bit harder and get a bit creative, but that’s why we make the big bucks right? J

Not Just The Fun:  From a philosophical standpoint it’s very easy to fall into the trap of just doing the fun stuff in a lesson because you want the player to have fun and be happy.  Too often they just want to hit so that’s all we do.  Often times for the younger players, they just want to serve so they can win more points and look good in the server’s war that is lower level volleyball.  If you are really trying to develop the player don’t skimp on the ball control!  Seek out ways to make it fun and hold yourself to a certain amount of time each lesson for passing and ball control.

Don’t be a Usurper:  While you may or may not agree with their current team coach on certain things, don’t compete with that coach for their loyalty.  It’s not good for the younger, developing player to constantly hear conflicting messages, not to mention that taken to extremes the player can develop a lack of respect for you or the other coach.  If I’m doing lessons with a player, I try to stay in contact with her current team coach and discuss how she is being trained so that we can work together for the benefit of the player.  Last but not least, never bad mouth another coach or what they teach.  There’s nothing wrong with explaining differences in style, but make sure you are also explaining that different doesn’t have to mean wrong. 

Treatment for Existing Cases – What The Current Team Coach Can Do

So you are the team coach and you have a player with private lesson syndrome.  Don’t fear; there are treatments for this as well! 

Welcome the Assistance: First off appreciate the fact that you have players dedicated enough to do the extra work of lessons.  Don’t be threatened by it, embrace it.  If you know what you are doing and you have confidence in your abilities as a coach, you should welcome the help!  Talk to the coach who is doing the lessons and tell them what you are seeing and discuss training techniques that they can work on outside of your practice.  Coaches love to talk coaching. Be open, put the ego aside and try to work together for the benefit of the player!

Out of System Reps:  Make sure you are randomizing your practices so that your players are getting enough live game type reps.  Make up drills that end with a swing off of a live setter so they get the out of system reps that come with playing out points.   Don’t be afraid to pull players to another court or have them come in early by position to work on playing the ball in different situations not just the same old controlled ones.

Transition!!!:  Nearly all of your hitting drills with your team should involve some kind of transition.  Not often in a game does a hitter get to stand and wait for her set, nor does a setter get to park herself in the target area all game long.  Getting the maximum number of touches on the ball is important, but game-like quality touches are should be the focus.   

Teach Them To Think:  As for decision making, ask questions!  Have your setters explain why they made the choice they made.  Ask your hitters what kind of defense is being played and if they hit the right shot on a given set.  Don’t answer for them, lead them to think about it so they can learn and become better decisions makers.  That way when they come back with perfect form from all the lessons, they can add some court sense to it!

Buddy Up:  Try to limit your individual passing and defense drills.  When you work on passing and defense, make sure they always have to share space and make a decision as to whose ball it is.  For example if it is a digging drill from left back, put a middle back and a left front out there too.  The key is getting your players comfortable playing in traffic and learning how to go all out within the structure of team defense.

In closing let me say again that I am a huge supporter of private lessons.  I recommend them all the time to players and parents and I am a private lesson coach myself.  We just need to recognize the potential risks of private lesson syndrome.

Awareness, prevention, and early treatment are the keys to winning this battle.  If we all communicate and work together I believe we can end PLS in our lifetime.    

This article was my first writing to be published on the national website Prepvolleyball.com!  It was released in November on 2007.  Since then I have had 2 more published and am looking forward to writing more! Hope you enjoy….. 

Perhaps 13 years of coaching doesn’t fully qualify me as an expert on this topic, but after training several first time assistants in club ball and going through multiple freshmen and JV coaches in my program, I have come up with several observations that you may find interesting. While I have coached boys and girls volleyball, this article focuses more on the girls’ game and philosophies rather than actual techniques and systems. I always welcome questions and comments as I’m sure differing experiences could lead to some different observations from the coaching world.

1. It’s been said a million times, but one more won’t hurt; Girls don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.  It sounds cliché but this simple truth can explain so many breakdowns in communication, expectations, and even performance.  A passionate caring coach will almost always draw more from his players than a technical genius who seems cold and results driven.

2. Coach to correct the problem, not the symptoms of the problem.   Why did Suzie just hit that ball off the back wall?  There are a lot of coaches out there who would stand on the sideline with their hand over their head like a swan screaming, “SNAP Suzie, SNAP!”  Sorry coach, no amount of wrist snapping is going to fix the fact that Suzie was way under the ball because of bad footwork.  Perhaps it even started from Suzie not transitioning to the proper place to begin her footwork!  Look for the start of the problem, not the necessarily the end result.

3. Have Confidence.  I see a lot of young coaches with so much to offer that are completely unsure of themselves.  I’ve got news for you: players see through that immediately!  When you don’t believe in yourself how can you expect your players to believe in you and give their all?  They may like you, but if there is no confidence in you, performance, effort and improvement will lack.  You are coaching for a reason: you have more knowledge and experience than your players and they want to learn, step up and teach them!

4. Be Credible.  Jeff Jansen in his book, “The 7 Secrets of Successful Coaches,” cites credibility as the single most important factor for coaching success.  I would highly recommend this book for any coach both experienced and just starting.  Credibility goes hand in hand with confidence as a coach.  It’s okay not to know everything, but it should probably bother you when you don’t!  If you are consistently stumped and not finding the answers, your players can lose respect for you and not believe you when you really do know what you are talking about. 

5. Work as hard as you expect your players to work.  “Come with” inspires much better than “go do.”  If they see you well prepared, energetic and passionate, your players are much more likely to display those same qualities. 

6. Get better.  Making players better is the goal right?  Then we should have the same goals for ourselves as coaches.  I hate being asked a question that I can’t answer about this game.  I feel like I owe it to my players to be the best I can be.  Therefore I constantly observe other coaches, watch matches, read articles and attend clinics.  Don’t limit who you think you can learn from either.  I’ve learned some great things from coaches not as experienced as I am.  Even learning how to present the same thing in a different way can be immensely useful.

7. Work to Create Constant Improvers.  Do your players get better when you aren’t coaching them?  If you’ve equipped them with the self analysis tools and led them to the right technical discoveries, the answer should be a huge “yes.”  On the other hand if you constantly tell them what they are doing wrong and lecture about every little thing they do, many players become dependant on the coach for feedback and have no idea how to correct their own problems.  Try asking more questions to lead your players to figure out their own solutions. This type of guided discovery creates players who constantly improve whether you are there or not.

8. Have a Plan.  Most people who fail don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan.  After coaching for 13 years and having hundreds of drills in my arsenal, I still find myself at a loss when I don’t have a practice plan.  Practice planning can be as simple as having a goal, and writing up enough things to do to fill the time that will work towards that goal.  As you gain experience and expertise, other factors will be added to your planning including balancing conditioning, team building, skills work and strategy work.

9. Are you training to play or playing to train?  This is a huge philosophical debate in coaching circles.  Do you run controlled technique drills until perfection is reached or do you play out points to get the random training and teach flow of the game?  Arguments can be made on both sides but the key is that you understand the arguments and have a philosophy of your own.  A team that focuses on skills and drills will play great technical volleyball but may struggle out of system.  A team that focuses on scrimmaging and playing points out in practice may win more and be more comfortable in random situations, but might not improve technically as much as the team that has drilled continuously.  

10. What works now versus future development.  One of the most difficult coaching decisions somewhat unique to volleyball, especially when coaching younger players, is the debate between doing what works to win now and training for future success.  In most other sports doing things the right way directly correlates to winning.  This isn’t necessarily the case in early stage volleyball.  For example a 12 year old team that serves well, drops all of its players off the net, and doesn’t risk three hits or big swings all the time will probably win more games than a team that is trying to learn transition, blocking, and pass-set-hit volleyball.  Is winning now important?  Sure it is, but how much development and proper training time are you sacrificing to win a few more matches?  Finding a balance is the key and articulating your philosophy early on can help you make decisions and help parents understand why less talented teams might beat your properly trained team.