A dozen in the Rear View

Saw things

Clearer
Clearer once you, were in my rearviewmirror- Pearl Jam

While some teams might still be playing, these insights are from coaches who's seasons have ended and we asked them a simple question; "What was your biggest coaching takeaway from this past season?"

The answers are not edited or summarized, they are boys and girls high school and college coaches, in their own words, giving advice and mentorship to other coaches: Volleysherpa moments, if you will.

Enjoy, empathize and experience their responses. 

Intangibles matter more than we give them credit for at times. We had the most talent on our team than we have ever had but struggled to translate that into wins. We had the best culture and team experience that we have ever had but that didn't translate into confidence in the court. We had over half of our athletes on the team come in this year as either freshman/transfer and I believe that it manifested a team experience of anxiety or lack of confidence. Everybody liked each other and worked hard but everyone felt like they had to prove themselves. We had lots of great stats lines joining our program but the correlation isn't automatic joining the new program.

Every team has newcomer athletes who are working through the process of building their identity with a team and I think this season made me acutely aware of that experience. Unfortunately we had a corporate experience of this but thankfully I don't think the difficult experience was wasted. This was a season of sowing by building individual identity within the team. One thing we would have done differently would have created more team processing moments into our practice after a weekend of matches to get down to more of the emotional level of our experience.

I did a better job of dealing with things I couldn't control by focusing on the things I could control.

My takeaway... close games are won in practice. Creating scoring situations in drills at practice eliminates the stress and mental errors in games. You have to teach your players to compete.

I immediately jump to kids don't need to win to enjoy playing the game...but I don't know if that's what you're looking for... That was my biggest take away...not that I didn't know that but my current group of kids just bounces back so fast and moves on with their lives...as a coach, I still way overthink wins and losses.

I think trusting myself and my coaching abilities and then in turn trusting my players to perform what I've taught them in practice.

I'm driving my AD nuts because when we are behind I don't rush to change up my lineup I ride it out because I trust and believe in my players.

As a coach, there have been times where I've talked to my players about how "short" these tournament journeys can be. In hindsight, I had to remind myself despite the outcome we didn't want, I'm glad we competed playing fearless with no regrets.

As a newer High school coach, I wish I would have had a better system in place at the beginning of the season to fix bad habits.

How much kids struggle with staying "present." Attention span and focus.

It's almost all about building a culture

Coaching take-away's from this HS season:

1) Respect and Relationships matter. Player’s learn, relate with each other, and perform better when they are in an environment that is edifying, but not “easy” or lax. 

2) High expectations, clearly and respectfully communicated; hard work emphasized and encouraged, with opportunities provided for each team member to work hard and apply what is being taught....These things give the team the best opportunity to thrive — as a unit and as individuals. 

3) The goal is to have impact and team success TODAY, that will carry with each athlete a longer-lasting benefit for TOMORROW and beyond. 

We tried very hard to word things slightly different or approach technique teaching in different ways or with different feedback if kids were having a hard time mastering something. By doing that we were able to see improvements or have breakthroughs with kids even in the last week of practice.

Sometimes a picture says more than words. The shiny things are nice, but the LOVE, trust, joy we have for each other is ever lasting. Showing up every day and giving our best for each other with each other in the good and the hard is what makes this team great!

Thanks to these coaches for taking the time to share with us their vulnerability and insights. Being a lifelong learner is part of the recipe of coaching greatness. Learn from these high school and college coaches' journey and maybe pick up a thing or two with your team for this or next season.

We are in this together: Volleysherpas helping the path of each other to the mountain top.