at a faster pace. The three lines has the advantage that play- ers get to hit from all positions on the court, but the coach tossing the balls and keeping the drill running at a high contact rate per hour was really not able to give the players any feedback. As I had ex-
RESULTS: CONTACTS PER HOUR PER PLAYER OTHER
DRILL
QUEEN OF THE COURT SPEEDBALL
MODIFIED BUTTERFLY
PASSES 14 20 34
HITTING LINES-2 SIDES — HITTING LINES-3 LINES — SIX VS. SIX
—
pected, 6 vs. 6 had a high number of contacts per hour and even higher than Queen of the Court and Speedball. In some ways, 6 vs. 6 is as game-like as possible, so the fact that this drill turned out to also be high contact is encouraging. The downside with this drill is that it does not incorporate serving or passing, which are two of the most, if not the two most important aspects of the game at every level. If I were to do another study like this I would want to count the contacts per hour in a 6 vs. 6 drill that incorporated serving and passing, as well as count for a regular match or regular scrimmage in practice. I would expect the amount of contacts per hour to drop some as it takes some time for the players to get a ball
SERVES 23 24 35 — — —
HITS 18 20 — 61 50 35
SETS DIGS 27 25 — 63 53 39
14 9
— — — 10
and go back to serve, but to see how much the number dropped would be interesting. While some of the numbers I found do not seem that significant, over the course of the season they add up. Conservatively, suppose your club team practices twice a week for two hours for a five month season. I would expect that most club teams would practice at least this much. Many practice significantly more. Five months of practice twice a week would add up to about 44 practices, and at two hours each would mean 88 practice hours. Suppose you can increase the contacts per hour by just five more contacts per player per hour. This would equate to 440 more touches per player over the course of the club season. I would like to do a more in-depth study
TOTAL
TOUCHES CONTACTS 16 9
— — — 34
112 107 69
124 103 118
at some point with multiple teams from different age groups. Experiments and analyses like these could be done to a much more detailed degree. I feel that I have only barely scratched the surface.
What I learned from my small ex- periment, and what I
think is important for all coaches to recognize, is that different drills and activities you do in practice have advantages and disadvantages. Increasing contacts per hour is a great goal but the numbers are not everything. It is important to have goals for what you want to accomplish each practice, which, in turn, help you prog- ress towards your goals for the season. Coaches should understand what certain drills accomplish and deliberately choose drills that suit their team’s needs. All practices are going to be composed of several different drills and activities, and the best drills for your practices are ones that are a combination of being game-like, providing high contacts per hour and suiting the needs of your team.
RESPECTING YOUR OPPONENT
Good sportsmanship starts with respecting your opponents. Remember: without opponents, there would be no game at all! The idea that we should respect our opponents is one of the life lessons we hope our kids gain from playing youth sports. Liberty Mutual Insurance Play Positive™ presents its series on Respecting Your Opponent. Get helpful tips to start the conversation with your kids about respecting their opponents. See the top 10 actions you and your youth athlete can do before, during and after a game. Take the Poll on what you think is the most important lesson for kids to learn. Watch top athletes as they talk about respecting opponents in our exclusive videos.
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