It started with this...
By just attending this online clinic, you could "become a better CLUB coach in one day!"
Hmmmm...
We all know we live in an insta world. Waiting in line for groceries, school clothes or a Frappuccino has become to much for our insta world. With our hand held computers a buzz, we can manage almost anything from paying our car insurance to making an appointment for an upcoming surgery.
These modern day conveniences often go unnoticed and under appreciated because they have become a synthetic fabric of American life.
But we have to be smart enough to know that you aren't going to become a better CLUB coach in one day, don't we?
Let's take a morning stroll through the namesake, Instagram and see how Parents and Coaches can help their athletes improve...(Please grab a towel as that statement and all below are dripping with sarcasm...)
Here we are teaching the vaunted golden trope of "wrist snap" to an unsuspecting athlete who will learn, IF she stays with the sport, just how worthless this whole exercise is. (BTW, if you are still trumpeting the value of wrist snap to your athletes, you have not studied the science of attacking and are perpetuating the biggest myth in volleyball...)
With this one 7 second, in depth coaching video, you can fix your serve receive. Thank goodness says every coach and parent.
With this drill, your athlete can become a better hitter. She just has to transfer jumping on a box in the middle of her approach into jumping without a box into her game.
Towels are always an excellent substitution for volleyballs being they are the same weight, make up and shape. If you can swing a towel at a high rate of speed, you will instantly become a better hitter.
As every coach knows the one key of "pinching shoulders" automatically leads to passing dimes.
Every coach and parents dream: their athlete harnessed up, on their knees and replicating a volleyball swing. This will SURELY take them to the next level of attacking.
The idea of "pressing" will make you a better blocker!
And after this strenuous practice, let's use the greatest volleyball drill of all time to help with the transfer of all the skills we have learned today.
With tongue FIRMLY in cheek, it's important that as a coach or a parent, you see through these online offerings. Like all of social media, ANYONE can present ANYTHING with the idea of likes, hearts and followers.
But if you are a serious coach, we hope you noticed some of these in the videos:
- How many drills were from the SAME side of the net?
- How many drills were initiated by the Coach?
- How many of the drills gave just ONE thing to get better at the skill showed?
- How many of the drills are using the science of motor learning?
- How many of these drills LOOKED like the actual game of volleyball?
The answers above should be your warning signs going forward. We have no beef with any of these Instagrammers nor do we follow or have any interaction with them. The only part they play is they were lucky enough to come up in the 15 minutes spent on Instagram looking for volleyball content.
(In fairness, there was one video left off which was a science based snippet on what to look for when blocking. While only 15 or 20 seconds, it did bring the science of the skill to the viewer but again, a blocker isn't going to get better in 15-20 seconds.)
We bring this to your attention for two reasons; first, many, many coaches use social media to find drills and learn skill training. A higher number in fact then attend coaching clinics, work with coaching mentors or read books and science journals. One-click coaching is taking over our sport to the detriment of our athletes and parents.
Second, parents look at these videos and are sucked into sending their kids to the camps and clinics associated with this nonsense. Most parents are uninformed about how learning is done, how skill is developed. Their default is often more, more, more at the expense of the quality of what is being taught and who is teaching it.
Coaching AND playing volleyball do not happen in one day. Not in one drill, not in one focus of that drill. Coaches and volleyball players get better by doing; by playing and coaching. Hits and misses, mistakes and successes, triumph and failure. But an insta society doesn't have time for that- we want it NOW. We need it NOW!
Coach, you aren't going to become a better coach in one day. Dad, your son isn't going to become a better blocker in 7seconds. Mom, your daughter isn't going to excel at serve receive because she watched a video on pinching shoulders.
Patience is the hostage of our insta world. But it's the currency of development.
For a change, stand in line for your caramel macchiato this week...
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