KAR CH KIRALY’S V OLLEYBL OG Make your timeouts count by Karch Kiraly | Head Coach, U.S. Women’s Volleyball Team
TV CAMERAS AT THE RIO OLYMPICS OFTEN ZOOMED IN ON OUR TIMEOUT huddles so viewers could clearly see and hear what the U.S. coaches and players were saying. Since then, I’ve been asked to explain how we structure those timeouts and what it is that we aim to ac- complish in those very short periods of time. Let’s make that our topic for this issue. First, I can tell you that my timeout philosophy is heavily infl uenced by three of my former coaches:
• Al Scates, who retired from UCLA with a record 19 national championships. • USA Volleyball CEO Doug Beal, coach of our gold-medal winning U.S. Men’s Team at the 1984 Olympics. • Marv Dunphy, coach of our gold-medal winning team at the 1988 Olympics. One big thing I learned from them is to look for-
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ward, not backward. In that spirit, U.S. Women’s Na- tional Team timeouts tend not to linger on points that have already been played, however well or poorly they went. The only thing we can control is the next play, so we concentrate on what we can do to get a side out and then to create a point-scoring opportunity when we’re serving. Our collective goal is to be forward- thinking, poised and cautiously optimistic. Part of our focus in timeouts is reinforcing one of our main themes: Being “USA Good.” The idea is that we’re not striving for perfection, or for great. What we are striving for is good plays and good touches across the board: a good pass, a good set, a good swing, a good block and good defense in good places. We’re looking to wear teams down with consistent and relentless good. One thing you won’t hear in our timeouts is a lot of
screaming and yelling. Players almost always know when they’ve missed an opportunity or messed up a play. They don’t need us to state the obvious and remind them. Instead, we hone in on a specifi c piece of information
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that’s relevant in that moment. Maybe it’s that we want to pass fi ve feet off the net. Or it could be reminding everybody to run their attack routes hard. Or maybe it’s reinforcing the importance of being really vocal while running those routes; for instance, if they’re running a “Go,” we want them to scream “GO, GO, GO” so the setter knows how ready each hitter is. As we cover these points in the group timeouts, our setters almost always huddle separately with assistant coach Tom Black, who serves as our offensive coordinator. The purpose here is for them to make good decisions about what to run next. They discuss what’s been effective up to that point, hitter/blocker matchups, opposing blocker tactics and schemes, how to get our best attacker the least blockers in front of her, best choices on different qualities of pass, and plenty more. I was reminded recently of what I said to the team in the timeout when we were down 13-12 in
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the fi fth set of our heartbreaking Olympic semifi nal loss to Serbia, after we’d just been aced. Even then, I was so proud of the way our players had responded to adversity throughout that match, especially after we lost one of our starting middles, Foluke Akinradewo, to an injury. I wanted to relay a positive message, so I smiled and said, “We have the chance to write a special story here,” alluding to the fact that coming back to win after being down 2-1 in sets, and after we’d given up an 11-8 lead in the fi fth, would be an epic result. On the next play, Serbia missed the serve and we got the tie score we were seeking. Unfortunate-
ly, Serbia went on to close out the match. As painful as it was for our players and coaches, I have to force myself to look at the big picture. Who doesn’t want to be at 13-all in the fi fth set of an Olympic semifi nal match? I would like nothing more than to be in that exact place again in four years. Maybe we’ll get there, maybe we won’t. If we do get there, maybe we’ll win, maybe we won’t — as always, we’re given no guarantees, and nothing will be easy. But the only way to win gold is to climb back on that horse and keep putting yourself in a position to succeed.
22 | VOLLEYBALLUSA • Digital Issue at
usavolleyball.org/mag
Part of our focus in timeouts is reinforcing one of our main themes: Being ‘USA good.’
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