Coach Buck’s Journal

One smooth seamless functional movement.

Experienced athletes have it…inexperienced athletes try to achieve it.

In June of 1994, I did the first USA Michigan Site Camp at Lakeshore High School, in Stevensville, Michigan for Hall of Fame Coach, Diana Davis.

Diana sent me the following and I think it very appropriate to share:

Phases of Learning for the Sport of Volleyball

Reviewed and revised:    Friday, July 27, 2007

Lot’s of things to share about instruction, training…

Writing just does not seem to be the ticket.

Somehow (and I will find the way) I have to find a way to record, on video some of the cultural, instructional and training progress we are making.  Then, I have to learn how to place it on our website, Facebook and Google discussion group.  Hmmm…

A picture is worth…

Back to work!

I am on one of my “I have to prove my point” soap boxes at present.  And the place I am at is all about teaching age group athletes how to (I call it) volley…you may call it face pass, over head pass, setting (uh, setting is a tactical action done by a specific player)…whatever you call it…the volleyball in your hands!

This action is how to receive a low energy volleyball coming across the net (usually during first phase attack reception) or for a player to function with an out of system action.

We are getting some great results having our age group athletes hang onto the volleyball a little longer…allowing some tempo when the volleyball enters their hands and generally, asking them to relax and get comfortable with the action of volley…

Now, I fully “get” how important hand position is and footwork is…all that stuff…

But forever (that is a long time!) I have been seeing youngsters NOT want to handle the volleyball in their hands…and something had to change.  After all the volleyball is not a hot potato!

To work on the action, we are creating four counts with their own seperate tempos:

1. Bring up your hands through your midline.
2. Let the energy of the ball allow your wrists and elbows (I know, this is not what the top setting coaches feel happens…) to absorb the energy.
3. Accellerate the volleyball on the desired pathway.
4. Let gravity allow your arms to return so you can proceed to a next action.

Some of our athletes are really “getting this”.  Others are so rigid in their neuro muscular response(s) that we have to constantly remind them to “take a step backward” before taking 2 steps forward…

Again, it’s a process.  I am sure we can put together some video on this…

It’s an exciting time for me as a teacher and the students that are willing to be comfortable while being uncomfortable are succeeding!

You can always speed the volleyball up, but it is difficult to slow it down.

Quick and fast comment…not the complete menu for teaching the skill of attacking…

One of the phases of learning is with a stationary athlete and a moving volleyball. 

We have our athletes approximately 4-5 meters from the net, and standing on a short platform.  They then self toss the volleyball above them at tempo 2 height.

In order to successfully complete this task…the athlete’s arm speed has to be as slow as necessary!

The light bulb went on yesterday during our first club practice.  I was using an abbreviated method of our Precision Skill Sequencing while advancing the skill of volley (first phase attack reception or second contact by a player during an out of system play).

The struggle that I have been having for as long as I remember (as long as I remember varies from day to day) is seeing the athletes struggle with the skill of volley.

Yesterday we stumbled onto:

Catch and push.

Catch ‘n push.

Ca-push.

We had our players not advance to ca-push.  I had them stay with catch ‘n push.  I wanted a hesitation or tempo with the volleyball in their hands…

My vision is to continue teaching this concept for sometime as they learn to be comfortable with the volleyball…I hope it works! 

I will keep you posted~

As we move toward the start of our 2010 Mizuno USA Michigan Volleyball Club my goal is to post items related to instruction, training or team development.

My thoughts are that this might be a helpful way to transfer information to our internal cadre but also be an assist to coaches who want to learn more about our system of development.

Of course, parents and athletes are always welcome to join in!

Enjoy!