Get out of the way!

The paper is entitled, "Decline in Independent Activity as a Cause of Decline in Children's Metal Wellbeing: Summary of the Evidence." From February, 2023 and compiled by PHD's  Peter Gray, David Lancy and David Bjorklund, the paper spells out two main areas of concern.

First, "Although most current discussions of the decline in youth mental health emphasize that which has occurred over the past ten to fifteen years, research indicates that the decline has been continuous over at least the last five or six decades."

And the cause of this decline? According to the authors, "Our thesis is that a primary cause of the rise in mental disorders is a decline over decades in opportunities for children and teens to play, roam and engage in other activities independent of direct oversight and control by adults."

Free play and autonomy...

The other paper to look at is entitled, "Starting and Specialisation Ages of Elite Athletes across Olympic Sports: An International Cross-sectional Study." by Veerle De Bosscher, Kari Descheemaeker, and Simon Shibli published in September of 2023.

In this research, the authors studied 2,838 world class athletes to assess when they began their sport journey and when they specialized in the sport they now excel in.

This chart shows the time when an athlete begins their sport (in the gray) and the time they choose that sport as the one they will specialize in, (In the black)

Sports that favor small frames and younger participants, like gymnastics and swimming are very short durations from beginning to  specialization. And sports that many folks pick up later in life or become second sports, like archery and bobsledding have much later specialization ages.

Volleyball is listed as 6 years in the making, from an 11 year old trying the game out to a 17 year old deciding they want to further their  career in college or professionally. This study highlights that there is a 6 year window between a beginning level and a level of expertise that would give an athlete the confidence to want to play on at the highest levels.

These two studies, within a 8 months of each other, go hand in hand.

What the latter study doesn't include is the athletes that quit the sport. The average age of volleyball players quitting the sport is 13!

THIRTEEN!

There is a level of focus, engagement, learning and performance that these young 11 year olds need to become world class in our sport. But sadly, most will never get that chance. They are discouraged from free play with their friends; just grabbing a beach volleyball and having fun with some school mates or neighborhood buddies.

As important as we think we, as coaches and parents, think we are, we need to check ourselves. If a young athlete can explore, solve problems and most of all have fun and stay engaged, they will learn oodles more than any private lesson or libero camp.

A wonderful coach once said, the best thing coaches and parents can do for their athletes is to just get out of the way!

Not every sport interaction for your child or player has to be organized, commoditized, specialized or privatized. We don't need camps, clinics, clubs, academies, privates, leagues and tournaments if the player is overcoached, over scheduled and overwhelmed.

How about just asking them? What do they want to do?

Once in a while, just let them play. 

Get out of the way.

Preparing Children for the Path...

On January 22nd of this year, the Phoenix Suns were playing the Chicago Bulls. With the game tied, the Suns Kevin Durant made this shot to with the game for the team:

But look a little closer...

First recorded in 1605, the Latin word was adaptāre: to fit or adjust. We know it today at adaptation.

Durant sees the defender out of the corner of his eye coming behind him to block the shot and a defender in front he has to shoot over. He adjusts the shot in midair, pulling it just a bit forward to avoid the block from behind and moving it to the left a bit to avoid the defender in front.

Adaptation.

Durant is a perennial NBA All-Star and has been in this situation before. It would be hard to imagine a coach one day in practice saying to him, "Let's move your shot around a bit while you are in the air shooting." Durant adapted, most probably because at some point in his career he was blocked from behind, or maybe knew the defenders and what they were capable of. Durant's experience lead him to adapting his shot to the moment and a win for the Suns.

How important is adaptation? To be succinct, if not adaptable, we as a human race wouldn't be here. All living things on the planet have had to adapt to their surroundings, predators, geography and environments. It is as much a part of life as your DNA and 

In your practice this week, did your athletes work on adaptation? Did you put them in situations that were uncomfortable for them to figure out. Did they resist so much that you relented and just went back to their comfort zones? 

Or did you force them into doing skills and movements that they were unaccustomed to? Did you make them adapt to situations in the middle of a point or a set? Did they have to adapt what they did based on their environment?

The greatest athletes in the world have faced challenges and obstacles that have forced them to adapt. As a coach, are your athletes getting the same opportunities to learn this dyer skill in your practices this season? 

Misty May Treanor was recruited as an outside hitter to Long Beach State but moved to setter where she won a National Championship and Player of the Year. Arizona's own Betsi Flint was an outside hitter in high school and club and became one of the best liberos in the West Coast Conference while at LMU then later transitioned into professional beach where she is one of the top players in the world. Another Arizona player, Sarah Sponcil was a club
setter that played outside hitter at LMU and then went back to setting her senior season at UCLA and after she finished playing collegiately, jumped into the beach game and earned a trip to the 2020 Olympics. Without the ability to adapt, none of these players would have found success or been the best version of themselves. 

Adapting is one of the traits we expect in athletes but often don't train. Adapt YOUR practice plans and coaching style. How can you learn to adapt better to things? How can you transfer that to your athletes?

"We must prepare children for the path, instead of the path for children.”- Tim Elmore

First Tournament Eyes...

This is the first club tournament for most all of you. So, we want to give you some insight into what we are all in for on Saturday....

We will miss hundreds of our serves.

We will miss hundreds of their serves.

We will let the ball drop often while we figure out this team sport.

 

We will be in the wrong place a lot.

 

We will lose focus because we are so young.

We will become impatient and cranky at times.

We will struggle often but have highlights as well.

 

We will be squirrely and be difficult to herd when needed.

 

We might cry because we care so much and we don’t want to let anyone down.

 

We will be anxious and nervous and scared and it will show at times.

 

We will be incredibly overwhelmed mentally putting everything we are learning into practice.

 

We will forget all day that we are LEARNING this incredibly hard game in a very difficult environment.

 

We will talk to ourselves in a negative way often, not seeing that we are getting better with each serve and pass.

 

We will work to encourage and to be good teammates and root for each other in a world that values individualism.

 

We will unfortunately, at first, see winning as THE defining achievement and losing as THE end of the world.

 

We, by definition, cannot see the big picture yet and it will show.

 

While it may not look like it at times, WE ARE DOING THE BEST THAT WE CAN.

 

We may hear people in the stands shout things to us that they would never say to a 12-year-old in a mall or a carwash.

 

We might see our own parents lower their head into their hands, shake their head, and seem disappointed in us.

 

We will see and play against others that are bigger, stronger and faster and compare ourselves to them.

 

We are NOT making mistakes on purpose even though some people watching might think so.

 

We will grow weary playing 3 matches in six hours and our normal practice is 90 minutes twice a week.

We will have to officiate and score keep even when we are tired and struggling to stay focused.

 

We are starting where EVERY Olympic player started their journey.

 

We are the product of our parents and we will be directly affected by their emotion and demeanor.

 

We are young. 

"Banter..."

Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors is having a rough season. With the NBA grind a third of the way done, listen to him describe the conversation he had with head coach Steve Kerr.

Ask yourself this question. Would you, as a coach, be able to tell your star player the things Kerr told Thompson, especially the part about how his negative energy was affecting the rest of the team? 

Listen to how Arkansas outside hitter, Jill Gillen, talks about her relationship with her head coach, Jason Watson. Gillen was a 5-7 outside who despite a stellar juniors career, received only one college offer; from Arkansas. This year the team, riding on her shoulders most of the season, the Razorbacks got to the elite 8 before losing to eventual finalist Nebraska.

Relationships with athletes like this are pure gold for both coaches and players. They are transformational. And Watson's faith in Gillen was a foundation for the team's success this season, their best finish in school history.

Finally, Kansas State University basketball coach Jerome Tang, who has a winning percentage of over .700 in his first two years at the school, understands that his team's performance begins and ends with the man in the mirror. 

"They don't go out there on purpose and make mistakes!" Tang reiterates the idea that blame, if any, falls on him. And as he says, he looks for ways to get better.

Would you be able to have the kind of heart to heart with your star player like Steve Kerr did with Klay Thompson? Are you the kind of coach that your players will love and appreciate so much they are brought to tears talking about all you have done and sacrificed for them? Are you able to stop blaming your players, understanding that they aren't out there making mistakes on purpose just to make you look bad, and realize that the man in the mirror is where the blame begins and ends, if any is warranted.

These three exceptional coaches show us honesty, vulnerability and humility; all traits great coaches exhibit.

Guiding Coaching Discovery

Courtney Thompson is one of our national volleyball treasures. She is skilled, knowledgeable, feisty and a great communicator and these qualities make her a very good coach.

In early December, she was joined by 150 coaches in Scottsdale, Arizona at a Gold Medal Squared Coaching clinic. In the clinic, she gave the coaches a 90 minute master class on one of her specialties: setting.

Look at these videos to see some of the tools she uses to get the coach/athletes to become better setters right before your eyes!

In this clip, she asks a player/coach a question. She doesn't tell the player what they should be doing, she asks a question and then another so he will understand, make the changes and learn. This tool, called "guided discovery" makes the athlete part of the solution and gives them a better understanding of the expectations they face.

In this clip, Courtney was focusing on footwork. You'll notice that there might have been other things for her to 'fix' on this athlete, she stays disciplined and focused as a coach and just comments on the footwork. Often times, coaches will point out everything wrong with a rep which is 'information overload,' especially for younger athletes. Courtney shows us that keeping her focus on one thing can yield strong results.

In this final clip, Courtney shows us some great coaching. First, she sets the expectations and the 'why' she wants the setters hands in this position. Then, she as she corrects one of the coach/athletes, she gives her a compliment first- creating an environment of safety for the athletes. As the coach/athlete completes the rep, she comments on what she likes but again, doesn't tell her what to do, but asks her a question- more guided discovery. When she sees what she is saying isn't connecting with that athlete, Courtney steps in to demonstrate the expectation of that skill. 

You can also notice that no interaction with a coach/athlete is lasting longer than 10-15 seconds. The practice isn't bogged down with too much talk. The flow of the training is palpable.

If you watch all three of these clips, you can almost feel the positivity in the gym. There was not a negative word or thought spoken, it was just all about teaching and learning.

Being a former USA National Team setter and an NCAA Champion at Washington, Courtney certainly has a trove of street cred but her approach was of humility. Often she was funny in a self deprecating way and throughout the entire clinic, she was herself. You would imagine her to be the same person coaching this group as she would be hanging out with her friends on a Saturday night.

Go watch good coaches. We lose this training tool because YouTube is at our finger tips but seeing a great coach work, feeling the vibe in a gym, seeing the relationship and reactions from a coaches athletes, this feedback is both undeniable and most valuable.

Emotional Involvment and Commitment

 engagement

noun
en·​gage·​ment in-ˈgāj-mənt

the act of engaging : the state of being engaged

emotional involvement or commitment

Webster's dictionary gives us the destination. Now to find the roadmap.

What gets YOUR attention? A loud noise, a pleasant smell, a song that brings back memories? Maybe it's your boss yelling at you or a person on the road that cuts off your car in traffic. Attention getters can be many things to many people, depending upon your mood, your location, your moment in time. Positive and negative stimulus, near or far, recognized or unrecognized.

The next question takes this a step further: what KEEPS your attention? A chat with your significant other? Watching or playing with your kids? Watching or being in a sporting event or playing music in front of a crowd where the wrong note will bring you ridicule and scorn? Maybe it's eating a delicious meal or a movie. Or maybe it's coming across the scene of a car accident or watching two people argue in public. Positive and negative stimulus, near or far, recognized or unrecognized.

Chances are great you have looked at social media today. Odds are also high that you subscribe to one if not a few "socials" as the kids refer to them. There is something here that grabs and holds our attention. There IS an emotional involvement and commitment to this medium. Why?

Charles Albrighton's June article, "Social Media and the Affect on our Attention Span" from Medium.com states, "Social media’s natural ability to provide quick gratification and never-ending stimulation is one of its key characteristics. The addictive qualities of these platforms are reinforced by the dopamine-inducing rewards provided by likes, comments, and notifications. We are so accustomed to the instant sensations of gratification and stimulation that anything that doesn't stimulate us quickly is considered less desirable and boring. We constantly crave novelty and develop the struggle of sustained focus in offline settings."

You, as the subscriber, which in itself is inclusive and safe, can choose the site you want, can post or not post on that site, can elicit feedback from others with those posts and all of this is controlled by the swipe of your finger- pure autonomy. YOU are in control of what you see, how long you see it and if you will respond to it. 

What about video games? How is it that an imaginary scenario presented to us on a screen can keep kids and adults enraptured for hours as a time while most of you reading this blog after just a few minutes are ready to pack up and head to the nearest 'anyplace but here' cafe.

In a Carnegie Mellon study entitled "A Quick Look at Game Engagement Theories" by authors Ren and Silpasuwanchai, they conclude the following:  "In design, one can consider how to design games based on these theories. There are four design considerations—autonomy (need satisfaction), competence (need satisfaction, cognition), relatedness (need satisfaction, relationship), and emotional arousals (emotion, aesthetics)."

What does any of this have to do with coaching volleyball, or any other sport? Look up again to Mr. Webster's definition of engagement: emotional involvement or commitment. And how do we get athletes and more importantly KEEP our athletes engaged? We can take lessons from two of societies biggest attention grabs.

Social Media uses safety, connection and autonomy. Video games use autonomy, competence, relatedness and emotional arousals. 

Do your practices feel safe for your athletes? Do they have any autonomy? Do you allow them competent moments while pushing them to be better? Do they feel connected and relatable to their team and coaches? Do they feel the highs and learn from the lows of the randomness of sport?

Engagement IS the golden ticket. If your athletes aren't engaged, they aren't learning and if they aren't learning you aren't teaching and if you aren't teaching, you aren't coaching and thus your practice has become the following:

If you see your athletes bored, standing in lines too much, not being engaged in time outs and not listening to your coaching, it's not their fault. ENGAGE them. for two hours a night twice a week, be their social media. Be their video game!

Ditch the lines, keep every player involved in every drill, keep it fun, keep score, keep things game like, don't talk too much, let the athletes have some say in things and find their competence level and work to push them beyond it each and every practice. These are ingredients in a recipe for engagement in a practice. 

Take a few minutes before your next practice and ask this question: if YOU were an athlete in your practice, would YOU be engaged? Would your own child? If you aren't sure, there is tweaking ahead.

Be the coach that teaches, not just the yelling drill sergeant. Engage!

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.