CAP II CLIPBOARD Missed opportunities By Sara Lippitt
am a big fan of running my practices as game-like as possible. From the warmup to the way my drills are run, my practices are centered on that mindset. So many times we are cheating our players on numerous opportunities to become bet- ter by failing to do this. These opportuni- ties exist from the very minute practice starts until the cool down stretches are completed. To quote the USA Volleyball IMPACT 2009 Manual, “most athletes can improve their reading and anticipation skills by having a coach who provides them with game-like practice activities that require players to make the same sort of deci- sions they will be required to make in a competitive match.”
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I will be highlighting those mo- ments that present the greatest chance for coaches to improve their team’s preparation for game scenarios. They are, warm-up practices, partner passing, serve receive, serving, setting drills and fi nally, scrimmages.
One opportunity often missed can be found before most teams even touch the ball. Commonly coaches begin practices by having the players run several laps and then stretch. That’s several laps of opportunities to warm up with ball contact.
Instead of having my team run laps, we do a three-player full court shuttle drill. Players are forced to sprint to the other side of the net to keep the drill going. Having them sprint in 50-foot bursts for 10 minutes is much more preparatory for in-game skills than having them running in circles for fi ve minutes. As an added bonus, the included ball control and technique improvement repetitions further bolster the players’ skill set.
Far too often, we do too much partner passing work, or “ball control” as we like to call it. At a Seattle AVCA CAP II course, John Kessel showed a video of what he thought best encapsulated the ridiculousness of ball control – a montage of a group of ball juggling acrobats performing circus stunts. If you stop to think about it – it is ridiculous! Obviously we want to teach the correct mechanics, espe- cially at the beginner’s level. However, how many times in the game do we receive an easy ball below the top of the tape and pass the ball straight ahead? Never!
Instead of stagnating at the fundamentals, we need to progress into preparing our players for situations they might actually encounter during competition.
from both sides of the net in a free for all. A common theme is to “serve every zone once,” and instead of having play- ers on the opposite side of the net receiv- ing those tough serves, we are just letting them serve.
I contend that practices can be made far more realistic by simply doing a butterfl y drill, where the ball is initiated as a serve or down ball.
This improves players’ game application of skills by having passers actually serve and then pass the ball to a target who receives the ball in a setting position. The downside is that this drill limits the number of contacts com- pared to those that are inherent in a partner drill, but I would rather do a situational drill that involves something they would encounter in a game than waste time with partner drills. The Achilles heel of most volleyball programs is serve-receive. This is evidenced by every team I have coached and every coach I’ve spoken with. Usually, players stand at the net and toss a lollypop ball to their partner – straight ahead. Then the partner passes an easy ball to the tosser – straight in front of them, often this process is repeated for 15 to 20 minutes. To further the absurdity of this drill, outrageous requirements are added such as passing at the same pace as the partners next to them. Never in a game have there been multiple balls in play, let alone “in-synced” passes. This drill does nothing but waste valuable practice time that could otherwise be spent teaching skills that are important at game time.
There are even more missed opportunities when conducting serving and setting drills. Many teams will just have their players serve
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On top of that, we aren’t even requir- ing them to run to their base after the serve – something that we would require them to do in the game. Frequently when conducting setting drills, coaches will just toss a ball to the setter who is already in her target position. Others will use a live passer to the setter who is already waiting and stationary in his/her target position. Instead, we should have our setters transitioning to the net every time. This teaches them to be better prepared to move to and set a live pass, which is what will happen in the game. In addition to practices, scrimmages have become a haven for missed op- portunities. A favorite drill among both players and coaches is the U-S-A drill. On the whole, this form of scrimmage is very good at reenacting the chaos that oc- curs during a game. However, the very way in which it is initiated does more for the coach’s physical fi tness than it does for improving the players’ in-game skills. Commonly, this drill commences when the coach, while standing outside the court near left-back, delivers a down ball to the opposing side. Alternatively, and in a much more game- like fashion, players can serve, initiate the down ball (while inbounds), or (a John Kessel favorite) enter an out-of-system free ball return. As coaches we need to prepare our play- ers to be both well-rounded and technically sound. The best way to do this is by creat- ing practices that favor mimicking in-game scenarios rather than practicing in a solitary skill vacuum.
As with most things, change is not always
easy. A culture change and a shift in focus is what is required to get this ball rolling. Other- wise we are just repeating the same practices we were taught.
The game is evolving, becoming more and more competitive, and gaining increasing national visibility.
If we do not evolve with it, we are doing our fellow coaches and, even more so, our players a great disservice. Youth players are growing up hoping they become the next national team star. Let’s not short change them by making practice merely the same old group of missed opportunities.
PHOTO: WALLY NELL
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